Table Of ContentChaos, Cosmos and Creation
in Early Greek Th eogonies
i
Classical Literature and Society
Series Editor: David Taylor
Classics and the Bible: Hospitality and Recognition, John Taylor
Culture and Philosophy in the Age of Plotinus, Mark Edwards
Homer: Th e Resonance of Epic, Barbara Graziosi and Johannes Haubold
Juvenal and the Satiric Genre, Frederick Jones
Ovid and His Love Poetry, Rebecca Armstrong
Pastoral Inscriptions: Reading and Writing Virgil’s Eclogues, Brian Breed
Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece , Maria Pretzler
Propertius: Poet of Love and Leisure, Alison Keith
Silent Eloquence: Lucian and Pantomime Dancing, Ismene Lada-Richards
Statius, Poet Between Rome and Naples , Carole E. Newlands
Th e Myth of Paganism, Robert Shorrock
Th e Roman Book, Rex Winsbury
Th ucydides and the Shaping of History, Emily Greenwood
ii
Chaos, Cosmos and Creation
in Early Greek Th eogonies
An Ontological Exploration
Olaf Almqvist
iii
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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Names: Almqvist, Olaf, author.
Title: Chaos, cosmos and creation in early Greek theogonies :
an ontological exploration / Olaf Almqvist.
Other titles: Classical literature and society.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. | Series: Classical literature and
society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021033198 (print) | LCCN 2021033199 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781350221840 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350221864 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781350221888 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Cosmology, Ancient. | Creation–Mythology. | Greece–Religion.
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iv
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction: Myth, Philosophy and Ontological Pluralism 1
Between myth and philosophy 7
Ontologies and theogonies 12
Summary overview 16
1 Cosmos and Chaos in Hesiod’s Th eogony 21
Etymologizing Chaos and the search for order 22
Cosmos and chaos in ancient cosmologies 27
Th e ontology of chaos 30
Rethinking the opening of Hesiod’s Th eogony 34
Ouranos and Kronos or how n ot to rule the cosmos 37
Zeus, Oedipus and the King of Fiji 41
Making a cosmos out of chaos 43
Conclusion 44
2 Beyond the Golden Age: Sacrifi ce, Sharing and Affi nity in Hesiod’s
Mekone 47
Hesiod and human origins 47
Hesiod and ὁμόθεν 54
Affi nity, consanguinity and the shared table of gods and men 55
Sacrifi ce between sharing and separation 62
Th e shared feast at Mekone 66
Conclusion: Sacrifi ce and cosmology 69
3 Orpheus and the Reinvention of the Cosmos 73
Orpheus amid the poets and philosophers 74
Reconstructing the beginning of the D erveni Th eogony 78
Protogonos and the early gods in the D erveni Th eogony 85
Zeus fi rst, middle and last 90
Recreating the cosmos 94
Conclusion 96
v
vi Contents
4 Dionysus Dismembered 99
Early Orphism and circumstantial evidence 100
Making sense of murder 108
Body and soul in early Orphism 112
From soul to sacrifi ce 120
Appropriate off erings to the gods 127
Conclusion: Sacrifi ce as the pivot of the world 131
Conclusion: Protagoras and Greek Naturalism 133
Naturalism and sophistic thought 134
Protagoras’ legacy 139
Living in Protagoras’ world 142
Appendix: Some Key Orphic Texts 145
Notes 153
Bibliography 205
Index Locorum 233
General Index 235
Acknowledgements
From the beginning of my PhD to the completion of this book, I have benefi ted
from the help of countless friends, family members and colleagues. It is unlikely
that this book would have seen the light of day without the eternal patience and
support of my PhD supervisor, Dr Ashley Clements. I fi rst met Ashley during
my studies as an MPhil student in Trinity and was immediately impressed by his
combination of classical and anthropological acumen. During my time as an
MPhil and PhD student, I have had the pleasure of attending multiple classes
under his guidance and have learned a great deal from his wide-ranging
theoretical and linguistic knowledge. Alongside Ashley, I must thank the Irish
Research Council for funding my doctoral research and the Trinity College
Classics department and in particular Dr Shane Wallace and Dr Martine Cuypers
for allowing me to sit in on their reading modules. Th is certainly made learning
Greek a great deal more fun. Further, thanks are also due to Dr Christine Morris
and Dr Shaul Tor for their astute and constructive criticism during my viva and
countless referral letters thereaft er.
During the course of my research, I have also benefi ted immensely from
presenting and discussing my ideas at conferences. In particular, I would like to
thank the organizers and participants of the Prometheus Trust conference on
‘Immortality’ for providing an opportunity to discuss my ideas on Hesiod and
Empedocles, and Dr William Matthews for his organization of an interdisciplinary
conference on divination hosted by the London School of Economics. I have
also benefi ted from the weekly reading groups at the Trinity Plato Centre and
off er thanks to Professor John Dillon, Dr Vasilis Politis and everyone else
involved. I doubt that I would have discovered the riches of Plato’s Cratylus
without this group. I must also extend my warmest thanks to the staff and
researchers at the Long Room Hub and especially Professor Jane Ohlmeyer and
Dr Caitriona Curtis. Th e reading groups and weekly coff ee mornings provided a
welcome chance to discuss ideas in an interdisciplinary environment.
During the writing of this book, I have been fortunate enough to teach in
University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University. In
particular, I would like to thank Dr Alexander Th ein, Dr Christopher Farrell,
Professor Michael Lloyd, Dr Martin Brady, Dr Helen Dixon, Dr William
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Desmond, Dr Gordon Campbell, and everyone else for their encouragement
and support in my development as a lecturer.
Th anks are also due to everyone at Bloomsbury, including Lily Mac Mahon,
Georgina Leighton, Alice Wright and Moira Eagling. I would like to thank the
anonymous reviewers for their careful and sometimes critical advice, comments
and observations.
Finally, none of this would have been possible without my friends and family.
I regret that I can only mention a small fraction of them here. I would like to
thank my brother Ragnar, his wife Ailbhe, my wonderful nieces Freja and
Sadhbh, and my sister Marja and her family. Special thanks are due to my
mother, É ilí s, for her help, support, and reading of an early draft of this book. I
also thank my Bulgarian family, my s hurey Ivan, tust Nikolai and t ushta Irina,
who supported and cared for me and my family during this period. I cannot
begin to say how grateful I am to my wife Nadezhda and our son Nikolai. Nikolai
is not only one of my most attentive readers, he is a constant reminder of what is
important in life. As for my wife Nadezhda, gratitude is too weak a term. Th is
book would have been impossible without her.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations of ancient authors and works follow those of the O xford Classical
Dictionary 4th edition. Oxford. 1999.
DK Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker , 7th edition. Diels, H. ed. with
additions and Nachtr ä ge by Kranz, W. Berlin. 1954.
FGrH Die Fragmente der Griecischen Historiker. Jacoby, F. et al. eds.
Berlin and Leiden. 1923.
GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies.
IG Inscriptiones Graecae . Kirchhoff , A. et al. eds. Berlin, 1873–.
KRS Th e Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of
Texts. Kirk, G. S., Raven, J. E. and Schofi eld, M. Cambridge. 1983.
LSJ Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , 9th edition revised
Stuart Jones, H. and McKenzie, R. Oxford. 1940.
MW Fragmenta Hesiodea . Merkelbach, R. and West, M. eds. Oxford.
1967.
OF Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia et fragmenta. Poetae
Epici Graeci. Pars II. Fasc. 1. Bibliotheca Teubneriana . Bernab é , A.
ed. M ü nchen/Leipzig. 2004.
OF K Orphicorum Fragmenta . Kern, O. ed. Berlin. 1922.
PCG Poetae Comici Graeci . Kassel, R. and Austin, C. Berlin. 1983–.
OH Th e Orphic Hymns. Athanassakis, A. and Wolkow, B. Johns
Hopkins. 2013.
SVF Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta . von Arnim, H. ed. Leipzig.
1903–5.
ZPE Z eitschrift f ü r Papyrologie und Epigraphik.
ix
