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Theogony
Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast
variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a
narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established
permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first Greek mythical
cosmogony.
The initial state of the universe is chaos - a dark,
indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which
everything else appeared. Theogonies are a part of Greek mythology which
embodies the desire to articulate reality as a whole; this
universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first later projects of
speculative theorizing.
In many cultures, narratives about the
origin of the cosmos and about the gods that shaped it are a way for
society to reaffirm its native cultural traditions. Specifically,
theogonies tend to affirm kingship as the natural embodiment of society.
What makes the Theogony of Hesiod unique is that it affirms no
historical royal line. Such a gesture would have sited the Theogony in
one time and place. Rather, the Theogony affirms the kingship of the god
Zeus over all the other gods and over the whole Cosmos.
Further,
in the "Kings and Singers" passage (80-103), Hesiod appropriates to
himself the authority usually reserved to sacred kingship. The poet
declares that it is he, where we might have expected some king instead,
upon whom the muses have bestowed the two gifts of a scepter and an
authoritative voice (Hesiod, Theogony 30-3), which are the visible signs
of kingship. It is not that this gesture is meant to make Hesiod a
king. Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to
the poetic voice - the voice that is declaiming the Theogony.

Works and Days
The Works and Days is a didactic poem of some
800 lines composed by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. The poem deals with
daily life and work, interwoven with allegory, fable, and personal
history. It also serves as a farmer's almanac, through which Hesiod
instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts, and as a
compendium of advice for life as a farmer. As such it opens a window on
archaic Greek society, ethics, and superstition. The Works and Days
contains two mythological etiologies for the pain and trouble of the
human condition, the earliest versions of the tale of Prometheus and
Pandora, and of the Ages of Man.
Public Domain (P)2020 Yashiki Audio

1. Theogony (43.7Mb)
2. Works and Days (34.1Mb)

MP3 files hosted by archive.org.