Vitavas Kitiyanasap (Guy) 1003 5861175

Introduction
We learn the history because we want to study about the evolution of human throughout the
time. We learn about how they lived, how they communicate, or how they socialize. To study the
history or prove any facts that had actually happened, we need to find the evidence. When we have
any evidence or anything that came from old era we might be able to determine or tell the answer of
our questions about the history. For example, when we discovered the mummies in Egypt, we can
actually guess that Egyptians believed in the life after death and thought that the soul would get back
to the body so they need to keep the bodies in a complete piece as long as they could. In this research,
I am going to tell you how the birth of Greek gods referred to their administration. For Greek
mythology, it was like another culture that most of stories were the tales from generations to
generations. However, there were some literatures that were about Greek mythologies directly, such as
Homers Iliad and Odyssey which is the oldest literature in Greece. By the way, in this research, I
used the story in Hesiods Theogony as the main resource because it is mainly about the original of
world and gods in Greece.
Hesiod was an important poet in Greece. Historians estimated him to born around 700 B.C. He
claimed himself to be a farmer in Boeotia, an area in Central Greece. No one known any further
information about him, but if the historians were right, this farmer was the one who tried to explain
how this world was created even before Aristotle.

The Creation of the World

Uranus

12 Titans

Gaia

Hecatoncheires

Cyclops

Tartarus

The Mutilations of Uranus

At the first time, universe is only the darkness and chaos. However, when the time was
right, the chaos formed itself. Then Gaia, the goddess of earth, born. She also gave birth to
Uranus, the god of the sky. Gaia and Uranus were married and became the first ruler of this
world. However, when Gaia gave birth to Uranus children which were Titans, Cyclops (giants
who had one eye), and Hecatoncheires (giants who had 50 heads and 100 hands), Uranus
prisoned Titan in Gaias womb, Cyclops and Hecatoncheires were imprisoned in Tartarus
because he feared that his children would conquer and kill him, also he didnt want to lose his
place as the ruler of the world. Therefore, Gaia was very angry so she convinced all of Titans to
kill Uranus. However, there was only Cronus who was the youngest of all Titans that brave
enough to fight Uranus. He hid in the Uranus bedroom. When Uranus slept, Cronus used his
sickle to cut Uranus sexual organ. When Uranus lost his, he lost his power, and Cronus became
the new ruler of the world. However, he didnt become the fair leader instead he became the
new absolute ruler of the world.

Analysis
In this part of the story of Theogony might represent the dictator or monarchy
system. We can see that Uranus ruled the earth with only himself and never listened to
anyone even Gaia, his mother and wife. Moreover, he also eliminated anyone who he
thought that would take his throne. This kind of action directly represent the dictatorship.
Hesiod was estimated to live in Greece around 700 B.C. so we can considered him to live
in the old era. Moreover, in very old era of Greece, many states or cities were ruled by
kings except for Sparta which was ruled by tyranny. In these kinds of politics, the leader
would have the absolute power to do anything he or she wanted. Same as the old culture,
people believed that their leaders were gods or the heirs of gods. If you read the Greeks
tales, you would find out that Zeus and many other gods had many human or nymph
wives or husbands. Moreover, it appeared that the sons or daughters of them usually
became the rulers of Greek cities. Historians considered that the tales were represented
like that because the leaders wanted their people to believe in them, to respect them, and
fear them because they had gods blood in their vein. However, when people were too
much depressed by their leaders, they might protested and made the civil war with their
leader. Therefore, this kind of government nearly disappeared from Greek or be evolved
which was the same as what Cronus did to his father, Uranus.

Fall of the Titans

Cronus and Rhea

Hestia

Demeter

Hera

Hades

Poseidon

Zeus

Cronus ate his children

Before Uranus escaped, he cursed Cronus to face the same destiny as him from his own
children. At the first time, Cronus didnt care and became the next ruler of this world. Moreover,
he freed his Titan siblings from the prison and allowed them to live in this world under his
command. He also married to Rhea, his Titan sister. However, he didnt release Cyclops and
Hecatoncheires from the Tartarus and that made Gaia very angry. When the time passed, Cronus
became more and more cruel. When Rhea gave birth to their first daughter, Hestia, Cronus
swallowed his daughter because of the curse Uranus gave him. He did it to his every children
which were Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Nevertheless, when his last son, Zeus, born,
Rhea tricked him to swallow a stone instead and hid Zeus with Gaia. When Zeus had grown up
and realized who he is, He tricked Cronus to drink a potion that made him disgorged his brothers
and sisters. Zeus also freed Cyclops and Hecatoncheires from the Tartarus. Therefore, they
promised to help Zeus fighting Titans. In the battle, Hecatoncheires used their strength to fight
Titans. Cyclops crafted the deadly lightning for Zeus, the mighty trident for Poseidon, and the
magical helmet for Hades. With all of these helps, Zeus could finally defeated his father and
became the new ruler of the world.

Analysis
As I said that the monarchy and tyranny were disappeared or evolved from Greece in the
middle age. In this part of the story may referred to oligarchy because Cronus allowed only Titans
to have the right to rule the earth in the story. He didnt release Cyclops and Hecatoncheires from
the Tartarus. Either because he hated their scary look or fear that they would harm him, it seemed
like some kind of racists to me. However, although he freed his Titan siblings, but all of them had
to obey him. No one could decide to do anything without permission. Moreover, he swallowed
his own children because he didnt want anyone to take his throne which was the same to Uranus
prisoning his own children.
Hesiod lived in Greece around 700 B.C. which was the time that aristocracies were
popular, but then many rich landlords became very powerful so the oligarchy was represented to
Greek people. As I said that Hesiod was once a poor farmer, but he studied about politics and
literatures so he may presented his feeling of depression from the cruel landlords and how he lived
to his works. Other book that he wrote is Works and Days that represent the sadness of farmers
very well. However, as same as monarchy and tyranny, oligarchy was disappeared from Greece
for many reason, such as in Corinth people were bored because they didnt had any right to give
their opinions so they eventually overthrew it. During the 400s B.C.E., only Sparta was ruled by
the oligarchy.

Rise of the Olympians

12 Gods of Olympus

Athena

Ares

Hephaestus

Hermes

Aphrodite

Apollo

Artemis

Dionysus

Instead of becoming an absolute ruler, Zeus shared the power to his siblings and heirs.
They called themselves the 12 gods of Olympus:
1. Zeus- the king of the gods and god of thunder
2. Hera- Queen of the god and goddess of marriage
3. Poseidon- The god of sea
4. Hestia- The goddess of hearth (later changed into Dionysus- the god of wine)
5. Demeter- the goddess of fertility
6. Athena- the goddess of Athena
7. Ares- the god of war
8. Hephaestus- the god of fire and smith
9. Hermes- the messenger of the god
10. Aphrodite- the god of love
11. Apollo- the god of light, prophecy, music and medicine
12. Artemis- the goddess of hunt
Poseidon also became the king of the sea and ocean. Hades didnt became the one of the 12
gods of Olympus because he became the king of underworld and ruler of the dead men. In this
era, Zeus also ordered to create human as well. Moreover, he allowed human to rule their own
kind but also had to respect the gods. Sometimes, Zeus also allowed human who do great
things or kings to come to the Olympus. Therefore, the conflicts in the family came to an end
and the new era of peace had begun.

Analysis
In this part of the story, you may still think that this isnt anything that links to the
democracy, but you have to accept the truth that Zeus was far more generous than Uranus and
Cronus. He freed his siblings from Cronus stomach and also let them have the equal right and
power as him. Moreover, he freed Cyclops and Hecatoncheires even he wanted their helps, but
he still gave the freedom to them in the end of the war. He also give the power to his heirs even
there were the prophecy that some of them such as Athena would be more powerful than him.
He didnt do the mistake like Uranus or Cronus, but he do the right thing that every leader and
father should do, and still all of the gods were under his control. Other evidences that show
Zeus gave every gods their rights equally was in Homers Iliad and Odyssey. When Trojan
War started, the gods were separated to two side because some of them wanted to aid Greece,
but some of them also wanted to aid Troy. Nevertheless, Zeus never interrupted in these
conflicts and let the gods do everything they wanted under the rules. He also let human to live
and rule their own kind.
Democracy was presented to Greece around 500 B.C. The first city that used democracy
was Athens. In this system all men in the society had the right to vote, but not for women. All
men were welcomed to attend which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west
of the Acropolis called the Pnyx. However, there were a group of 500 men, 50 from each of ten
Athenian tribes, who served on the Council for one year. Unfortunately, democracy was
disappeared from Greece around 460 B.C. until it was presented to humanity again 2000 years
later.
The system of democracy was presented to human 200 years after the time of Hesiod.
However, from Hesiods Theogony, it can show us that the ideals of equality, humanity and
democracy have been with people since ancient time until now.

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