
Episode 8: Before Orthodoxy (Hesiod's Theogony)
Literature and History
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Hesiod's Theogony
Hesiod, like all the poets who have written in cultures that prize tight meter and rhyme, believed in linguistic and narrative innovation. And the Theogony proves it. I'm going to read Stanley Lombardo's translation of a specific passage. This passage describes how the titans were exiled to Tartarus, and the utter despair of their banishment. There is no way out for them. Their dark Earth and misty Tartarus and the barren sea and starry sky all have their sources and limits in a row, grim and dank,. which even the gods abore.
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