Mythology played a crucial role in the early development of the culture in Ancient Greece. Through the eyes of the Gods who were the key players in the myths and legends passed on from generation to generation, we find the ideas and beliefs that the early Greeks had of the concept of life and death through Hesiod; a wise but mortal man living a troublesome life, who was called upon by the Goddesses of artistic insight, the Muses, to begin writing. Subsequently, he began writing “Theogony” and recounts some of the most exciting history and lore of the Greek God’s and Goddesses. The story of Zeus and his daughters in “Invocation of the Muses” is what I find most interesting, leading me to analyze further and discover new ways to look deeper into the text.
Hesiod recounted Zeus and his daughters in “Invocation to the Muses,” a chapter in which Hesiod detailed Zeus as the “Almighty King,” who could never be beaten in battle, and his daughters The Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, also known as Memory. It is said that all of Zeus and Mnemosyne’s daughters are free-spirited and dedicated to the art of sound, songs, and music. On page 134 of Theogony, lines 80-95, Zeus’s daughter Calliope is first described as the highest ranking daughter who “keeps the company of reverend kings.” Alliteration is a key component in a lot of Hesiod’s passages; first introduced in this passage by using “keep”, “company”, and “kings” in between prepositional words like “of” to describe Calliope, creating a rhythm to this passage as early as the second line, by repeating the same sound at the beginning of every other word to give the reader a closer insight on the effect Calliope had on the people she was surrounded by.
In the passage right before this one on page 133, Zeus is discussed in further detail as the “King in the sky” who holds thunder and lightning a...