HESIOD, FROM THEOGONY AND WORKS AND DAYS (through the literary criticism: Queer Theory)

Hesiod, From Theogony and Works and Days are two short poems composed into one big story. These two poems were written in the same manner and they come from the same time period as the Homeric epics – which was from the late eighth century B.C.E. The poem of Theogony (this means “birth of the gods”) basically tells of how this poem itself came into being by the Muses inspiring the poet Hesiod on Mount Helicon. This specific text tells of how the Olympic Gods came about, or in simpler words; how the Olympic Gods were created, “The Olympic Gods emerged out of the earlier generations: Earth and Sky (Gaia and Ouranos) gave birth to the Titans”. In this poem, Hesiod also includes many stories that tell the prehistory of humanity, which in turn addresses how technology, sin, and suffering also came about with humanity’s presence. In the second poem created by Hesiod, Works and Days, it basically tells of how to live, work, farm, and sail in a mythical story type of way. This poem also tells of how evil was “accidentally” brought into the world, and of how suffering came into the world without invoking gender at all for the reason behind it. Hesiod writes this poem in a way that shows how humans just gradually degenerated over time and they basically went from having it all and living the good life, to having nothing but a life of suffering and pain.

Looking at these two poems through the Queer Theory literary criticism point of view is very relevant and fits perfectly to the way these poems were written. These two poems were basically written to describe the creation of the Olympic Gods and of humanity, however, these poems also tell the readers of the author’s view point on what GODS are and what HUMANS are. Basically what is meant by this is that the author of these two poems wrote them in a way that it shows how he perceives the Olympic Gods to be the high rulers of the universe and of the whole world, and how they should be praised/worshiped/and honored forever and always; while the author’s perception on humans is a bit different. The author perceives humans and writes about them in the poems as creations of the Gods and how they are responsible for bringing evil and sin into the world. Humans are nothing more than “fuel” for the Olympic Gods to keep being in power. The Gods need their human creations in order to feed off of their praise and worship to keep them powerful. So basically these two stories are portraying the Olympic Gods as these high beings of power who rule everything while humans are being portrayed as weak individuals who cannot possible go on existing without the Gods to guide/bless them. There is also a part in the story where it tells of the creation of the woman and what a woman actually IS. The text states, “Zeus punished humanity by creating woman as a tempting snare from which men cannot escape”. This text from the story just proves how the author perceives what women ARE. In this story written by Hesiod woman are basically perceived as sexual beings for men and only that. A woman’s body is apparently a tempting snare that men cannot deny and it is so wrong and bad of women to be perceived in that way, it is almost as saying that women are good for nothing more than sexual relations and nothing more. To conclude, looking at this story of two poems through the Queer Theory literary criticism point of view does in fact help to understand the author’s thoughts and viewpoints on what Gods are and what humans are and why they are important to each other. Both the Olympic gods and the humans of earth have very important roles to play towards each other and it is nice to see that through this literary criticism.

Athanassakis, N. Apostolos. “Hesiod, From Theogony And Works And Days.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3^rd ed. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 39-48. Print.

THE BABYLONIAN CREATION EPIC (ENUMA ELISH) *through the literary crticism: Psychoanalytical*

The Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma Elish) is an Akkadian poem that originated as early as the eighteenth century B.C.E. This accent story telling poem has combined several other earlier cosmogonies from Sumerian, Old Akkadin, and West Semitic cultures that told of a warrior god’s struggle against a primeval female sea monster named Tiamat. This text obviously demonstrates a very clear meaning as to why it was written and why so many people back then believed in this myth/story. It gave the people who created this poem meaning to life and information of how the world and earth came about (even though we see this as just a myth or story, the people of this time period actually believed this poem to have true meaning behind it). Therefore, The Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma Elish) is not only a mythical poem coming from the early eighteenth century but it is also a way to help us understand the people of that time period and have a better view on their beliefs.

Looking at this poem through the Psychoanalytical literary criticism point of view is not hard at all, and in fact it is even more fascinating than just reading this poem through our simple minded point of view. It is awesome to read this point and try to understand how and why the author’s created this poem. To us it seems as though the many people who all contributed to creating this poem did so for the simple fact that they wanted to express their beliefs. The authors of this poem seemed to create this story to tell how they believed the world and earth came about. “The author gives pride of place to the Babylon god, Marduk, whose temple in Babylon becomes the religious and political center of the world. The story traces the world’s creation: from the two primary personifications of ocean (fresh and salt, Apsu and Tiamat) out of which emerge the earliest gods – who fight against the fresh ocean, the father-figure Apsu, when he wants to destroy them and restore primeval silence. Then Marduk, the creator God, kills Tiamat and from her body fashions the world; he establishes the first city, Babylon, where he has his cosmic home in the Esagila temple. Marduk’s father, Ea, creates the first humans out of the blood of Qingu, Tiamat’s consort and general, and these are to serve the God’s many needs”. From this quote that pretty much summarizes what the whole poem is about, we can tell that the authors wanted to make their beliefs known as to how and why the gods they believed in created the world, earth, and the humans. The humans were created by the Babylonian God for the simple fact that they were there to serve God’s needs. The authors also included in the poem how and why the heavens were created. The heavens that the Babylon god, Marduk, created were referred to as “the netherworld…a mythic space for human existence after death”. To conclude, looking at this poem through the Psychoanalytical literary criticism point of view does in fact help to understand how and why the author wrote this fine piece of work, and it is obvious that this poem was created with a lot of detailed description and history of the author’s beliefs.

Foster, R. Benjamin. “The Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma Elish).” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3^rd ed. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 34-39. Print.