The creation of the universe and the gods is the subject of one of our earliest works of Western literature, Hesiod's short epic poem, the Theogony. This pre-scientific account of how the cosmos came into being describes creation as a series of births, as both natural features and successive generations of gods are born from one another. This lecture explores the gory tale of the gods' succession myth, and how it eventually leads to the permanent rule of the familiar Greek pantheon: Zeus and the Olympians.

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