Kat McLarn

2/19/02

The Destructive Power of Love in the Theogony

Love is one of the most fundamental forces at work in Hesiod?s Theogony.Ê Personified as Eros, Love is one of the first gods to appear.Ê Although he is parentless and fathers no children of his own, he plays catalyst to the reproductive creation of the world.Ê Just as the world is not perfect, however, so Eros is not an entirely benevolent power.Ê He affects all beings indiscriminately, which results in the proliferation of monsters and dark forces.Ê He is also persistent in his work, continuing to facilitate the production of new gods who threaten the established ones, causing tensions, rivalries, and all out war.Ê In fact, we find that Love?s creative power is the root cause of a lot of problems.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe most obvious destructive result of love is its role in the creation of both harmful powers and vicious creatures.Ê Echidna, daughter of Keto and Phorkys and great-granddaughter of Night, is one such monster.Ê Hesiod describes her as ?half fair-cheeked and bright-eyed nymph / and half huge and monstrous snake? (298-299).Ê Despite her dark nature, she is not immune to Eros? lure.Ê She ?[lies] in love / with Typhaon, that lawless and dreadful ravisher? (306-307) and ?[bears] a harsh-tempered brood? (308).Ê Evil begets evil, and the children of Echidna and Typhaon faithfully follow their parents? inclinations.Ê The best-behaved child of this union turns out to be Hades? fifty-headed watchdog Kerberos, who, despite being gainfully employed, is ?a stubborn and unspeakable creature?and shameless eater of raw flesh? (310-312).Ê The others, including the Hydra of Lerna and fire-breathing Chimaira, as well as the offspring Echidna bears to Orthos ? the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion ? are unrelenting agents of destruction.Ê Herakles and other heroes must subdue these creatures in order to restore harmony to the regions where the beasts run wild.Ê However, while Echidna and her spawn cause localized trouble, the most powerful of the monsters is Typhoeus, a giant with fifty snakeheads who threatens Olympus itself.Ê Love?s role in his origin is explicit; he is the youngest child of Gaia, who ?goaded by Aphrodite?[lies] in love with Tartaros? (822).Ê Zeus? battle with Typhoeus creates tremors deep enough to shake the underworld (851-853) and the giant?s strength is such that it takes a constant battering of thunderbolts to finally fell him.Ê When he collapses, he spews flame across the earth until it melts (861-862).Ê All this destruction comes about as a result of Love?s goading.

The monsters that spring from Love?s primal urgings are forceful and dangerous, but even Typhoeus is limited in his potential for sheer damage.Ê Dark gods, on the other hand, are unbound by material constraints and have a far greater influence.Ê Night, who had previously mated with Erebos and produced Ether and Day (124-125), also ?[gives] birth to hideous Moros and black Ker / and then to Death and Sleep and to the brood of Dreams? (211-212).Ê Sleep has a soft touch, but he brings the ?brood? of Dreams with him.Ê The word ?brood,? also used to describe Echidna?s offspring, clearly denotes something feral.Ê Some of the Dreams may be good, some may be merely mysterious and perplexing, but some Dreams are nightmares for which the sleeper is hardly grateful.Ê All are unpredictable and chaotic.Ê However, the elder three siblings form a more frightening group, since they are different faces of the same force (note on 211-32, p. 44).Ê Death, in particular, Hesiod singles out as ?a ghoul even the gods detest? (764).Ê These newly created and powerful gods destroy with inescapable finality.ÊÊ By uniting Night and Erebos, Love has created and released the complete destruction of life.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊA less blatantly destructive function of Love arises in connection to the ruling sky gods.Ê The continual replenishment of the pantheon leads to upstarts and challenges of the established order.Ê Fathers must fear their own children.Ê Gaia, after producing Ouranos and a host of geographical features ?without mating in sweet love? (132), decides to take Ouranos as a lover.Ê Among their numerous children are the Titans, including Kronos, ?the sinuous-minded? (137, 187, etc).Ê The family remains fairly functional until Gaia and Ouranos? love results in three fifty-headed, hundred-armed sons who ?[hate] their own father from the day they were born? (155).Ê Ouranos deals with the implicit challenge by stuffing the offending sons back into Gaia?s womb.Ê Displeased with this ?wicked work? (157), Gaia turns to her other children for help.Ê Kronos responds.Ê Ouranos?s reign ends after he approaches his lover, ?dragging with him the night, longing for Gaia?s love,? (176), and his son takes the opportunity to castrate him.Ê Having lost the ability to make love, Ouranos loses his kingly powers as well, and Kronos claims the throne.

Although he is now king himself, Kronos cannot rest because Eros is still busily facilitating the engendering of new gods.Ê Rheia ?succumb[s] to Kronos? love and [bears] him illustrious children? (453), but he is all too aware of the danger procreation poses.Ê Since controlling his lust for Rheia is apparently not within his power, Kronos attempts to thwart the threatening consequences of his love by swallowing his children.ÊÊÊ However, like his father before him, his efforts to subdue the creations of love cause his lover ?endless grief? (467), prompting her to ask her parents for help in saving her youngest son.Ê Zeus ?subdue[s] his father, Kronos, by might? (73), provoking a ten-year long war between the Titans and the young gods.Ê The conflict is resolved only when Zeus releases the hundred-armed sons of Gaia and Ouranos to join the fight (717).Ê Thus, Kronos is defeated not only by the product of his own love but also by the stifled children of his father?s love, whom he failed to acknowledge and liberate.Ê

The spectre of son defeating father plagues Zeus as well, but he addresses Love?s danger slightly differently.Ê His first wife, Metis, is capable of bearing a son ?destined to rule over gods and men? (898), after first giving Zeus a daughter ?who in strength and wisdom would be her father?s match? (896).Ê Instead of waiting for the dangerous son to be conceived and born, Zeus opts to prevent the creation of such a son in the first place.Ê While Metis is still pregnant with Athena, he tricks her and ?lodge[s] her in his belly? (891).Ê Kronos succumbs to Love?s pressure and continues to produce children with Rheia; Zeus sacrifices his lust for Metis and renders her inaccessible. By evading Love?s creative element, he eliminates the possibility that a new rival could destroy his power.

The focus of Eros? force is creativity ? he always brings new things into being.Ê However, he has a great deal of destructive potential through this creative tendency.Ê His uniform urgings result in the births of both wonderful gods and dreadful monsters.Ê In the Theogony, as many Greek texts, Love is a double-faced entity who is neither entirely good nor entirely evil.