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Hesiod's Myth of the Four Races

Author(s): Carl W. Querbach


Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 1985), pp. 1-12
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3296753
Accessed: 16-03-2015 19:39 UTC

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HESIOD'S MYTH OF THE FOUR RACES1

The structureof Hesiod's Myth of the Races (Erga 106-201) has attracteda
great deal of interestin the last generation, stimulatedin partby the structural
approachto myth developed by Claude Levi-Strauss.2It had long been held
(and still is, as M. L. West's definitive 1978 commentary illustrates)3that
Hesiod's tale was based on an earlier myth which contained only the four
races named after metals, and that the Heroic race was interpolatedto adjust
the myth to Greek tradition. This interpolation, however, broke the earlier
version's consistent patternof progressive debasementof metals correspond-
ing to progressive degeneration in human culture and resulted in the
awkwardness of the Hesiodic version. In the early 1960s two major new
theories were proposed which undercutthis easy assumption, those of Jean-
Pierre Vernantand P. Walcot.4The two agreed on the fundamentalnotion that
the structureof the myth was based on binarypolar oppositions. Each pointed
out that it was the Iron Race, not the Heroic, which caused the structural
problems, and thatthose could be resolved only by assuming that the effective
number of races was other than the apparentfive (Vernantarrivedat six by
splitting the Iron Age into two; Walcotarrivedat four by arguingthat the Iron
race was a later additionthat did not fit the underlyingmyth).
Since these studies appeared, the structuralistmovement has come into
some disrepute in linguistics and literary studies, and L6vi-Strauss'monu-
mental Mythologiques have provoked mixed reactions. Nonetheless, I am
satisfied that Hesiod's myth does have a definite and complex structureand
that that structurehas not yet been adequatelyelucidated, despite the impetus
given by the aforementionedstudies. It is my hope in this paper to contribute
to its furtherelucidation.
The fundamentalstructuralproblem has been nowhere more clearly stated
than in Walcot'sarticle of 1961.
We have then a classic example of ring-compositionand a pattern
comprisingthe good age of gold, the bad ages of silver and bronze,

'An earlier version of this paper was presented to the annual meeting of the Classical
Association of Canadaat Ottawain June, 1982.
2L6vi-Strauss' approachto myth is most clearly defined in Chapter 11 of his Anthropologie
structurale (Paris 1958) and in the introductionto his Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (Paris
1964). A detailed analysis is offered by EdmundLeach in his ClaudeLe'vi-Strauss,revised edition
(London 1974) chapter4.
3M. L. West,Hesiod: Worksand Days (Oxford 1978) 174.
4J. P. Vernant, "Le mythe h6siodique des races," in Mythe et Pens&echez les Grecs (Paris
1965) 19- 47; R Walcot, "TheCompositionof the Worksand Days, " REG 74 (1961)4- 7. Cf. also
P. Walcot,Hesiod and the Near East (Cardiff 1966) 81- 86.
I

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2 CARLW. QUERBACH

and a returnto good in the age of the heroes. What Hesiod really
needed however was a straightseries of degeneratingages, which
culminated in his own age of iron. The inadequacies of the myth
when it comes to illustratingthe principle of progressive decline
strongly suggest that Hesiod adapteda myth which alreadyexisted,
and one moreover which was not orginally intended to fulfil this
particularpurpose. The myth was adaptedby the additionof the age
of iron, so that it could serve, like the story of Prometheus, to
explain the presence of evil in the universe.5
It is that myth which may alreadyhave existed and the purpose which it was
intended to fulfill that interest me in this study.6 In order to analyze its
structureand possible purpose, I will set aside for the moment any notion of
an Iron race and returnto it only after the analysis has been completed.
Walcot saw in this four-race unit a ring composition with an ABBA
arrangement.Vernant,though pursuinga ratherdifferentinterpretationof the
myth, isolated quite a numberof valid binaryoppositions and pairings. Using
their work as a startingpoint, I have found it convenient to arrangethe four
races into a matrixof two dimensions (Figure 1). Each race is separatedfrom
each other race by a horizontaland a verticalaxis and is relateddirectly to its
horizontaland vertical neighbor,both by similarityand by contrast.

Figure 1

Golden Heroic

Silver Bronze

The most fundamentalaxial division is thatwhich cuts horizontally,making


the Golden and Heroic races the first pair and the Silver and Bronze the
second. I note four characteristicsaccording to which this division is valid
(Figure 2).

Figure 2

Golden Heroic 1. better


2. characterizedby dike
3. epichthonioi
4. semidivine

Silver Bronze 1. worse


2. characterizedby hybris
3. hypochthonioi
4. human

and I
SWalcot(1961) 5. Unfortunately,Walcot himself went no further with the problem,
disagree with his conclusions about the function of the myth in the Erga, see below, p. 7.
6The four-racemyth may have been pre-Hesiodic and Near Easterninfluence is quite possible,

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FOURRACES
HESIOD'S 3

First of all, the text clearly states that the Silver race was "worse"
(XEoLQ6Tzov) thanthe Golden(127), andthatthe Heroicracewas "better"
(&QELov) thantheBronze(158).Whiletraditional theoryhasusuallyassumed
thatthe Bronzeracewas inferiorto the Silver,no realsupportfor thiscanbe
foundin the text, whichmerelycalls the former"notat all like" (o~b v
6Rtoiov)the latter(144).
The secondand most significantdifferencebetweenthe pairsaboveand
belowthehorizontalaxisis thattheGoldenandHeroicracesarecharacterized
by dike and the Silverand Bronzeracesby hybris, whichconceptsare for
Hesiodundeniablypolaropposites(cf. 213, 217, 225/238),meaningfor him
approximately"dealingfairlyandjustly with men" over against"unfairly
taking advantagethroughviolence of one sort or another. "7 Hybris is
specificallymentionedin connectionwith the Silver Race (134) and the
Bronzerace(146).TheHeroicraceis called "morejust" (&8xaL6t.eov)than
the Bronzerace (158), and the non-violentcharacterof the Goldenrace is
abundantly clear,especiallyfrom118-19.8
A thirdhorizontaldistinctionis baseduponafter-death locationaboveor
below the earth.This is very specificfor the Goldenand Silverraces. The
Goldenmenafterdeathbecome dyvoLLbtLX06vOot(122),theSilver
' 8a(~xove•
ntoX06voot dtxa;(QEBvrloro(141). The Bronze and Heroic races fit this
patternalso, thoughin a differentfashion,aboutwhichI shallshortlyhave
moreto say.The Bronzedeadhaveclearlygone evenfartherbelowthe earth
thanthe Silver(to Hades, 153)and the BlessedHeroesto a specialreserve
whichis abovethe earththoughon its perimeter(167- 68).
A fourthdistinguishing characteristicis thatthe GoldenandHeroicraces
havegodlikequalities,whereasthe SilverandBronzedo not. Thesemidivine
qualityof the Goldenraceis clearfromline 112,bo•oe Oeoi 8' i?wov, and
fromthe fact thatafterdeaththey become8altovwg (122).The Heroesare
markedby their Oaeovytvog and are called AIl•OEOL(159-160). Both during
life andafterdeaththe SilverandBronzeracesarecompletelylackingin any
divineparentageor character. Thoughthey receivehonours,thereis no hint
thatthe Silvermen are divineor haveany ongoinginfluence.9The Bronze
men are specificallynameless(vdwvlltvoL,154)andtotallyunrelatedto the
religiousconcernsof present-daymen.

although no convincing analogy has been found whose chronologicalprioritycan be established;


see Walcot(1966) 85. For recent surveys of possible Near Easternsources see Joseph Fontenrose,
"Work,Justice, and Hesiod's Five Ages," CPh 69 (1974) 2-5, and West(1978) 172- 77.
7Fora thoroughdiscussion of these terms in Hesiod, see, among others, M. Gagarin, "Dike in
the Worksand Days, " CPh 68 (1973) 81- 94; David B. Claus, "Defining Moral Termsin Works
and Days, " TAPhA107 (1977) 73- 84; MatthewW. Dickie, "Dikeas a Moral1Trmin Homerand
Hesiod," CPh 73 (1978) 91- 101.
81am not relying on 124- 25 for this conclusion. I concur in the now almost universalrejection
of these lines.
9West(on 121-26) suggests that Hesiod identifiedthe Silver Men with the occupantsof certain
veneratedgraves, an identificationwhich did-not catch on. Peppmueller'semendation6vTrlotg,
though adoptedby Rzach and Mazon, is clearly designed to supporta particularinterpretationof
the myth, and is, as Westnotes, "syntacticallywithout parallel in epic. "

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4 CARL W. QUERBACH

The horizontalaxis shows then a clear and unmistakablepolarity between


two semidivine races which are marked by dike, regarded therefore as
superior and rewarded with a more prestigious and desirable status after
death, and two totally humanraces which are markedby hybris, regardedas
inferior and granted a less desirable status after death. This is quite neatly
arrangedand presentsa clear cause-and-effectpattern:behaviourduringlife is
rewarded(or punished)by a correspondingstatus after death.
The vertical axis of the matrix (Figure 3) suggests that despite the
similaritiesalready noted between Golden and Heroic races on the one hand
and Silver and Bronze on the other, there are also some distinct differences
between the members of each pair. What is more noteworthy is that these
differences are parallelto each other,allowing a pairingof Golden with Silver
over against a pairing of Bronze with Heroic. The case for this axis is
admittedly less powerful,10but I shall set forth three respects in which this
vertical pairing seems valid.

Figure 3

Golden Heroic
Silver Bronze
1. createdby the Olympiangods 1. createdby Zeus
2. Chthonianafter-deathpattern 2. Olympianafter-deathpattern
3. mythical and fantastic 3. legendaryand quasi-historical

First of all, it is abundantlyclear in the text that the formulae for the
creationof the severalraces show a contrastbetween Golden and Silver on the
one hand and Bronze and Heroic on the other. Of the first two races it is said
that the "(immortal)holders of Olympian dwellings made" them (110, 128).
Of the second pair it is said that "Zeus made" them (143, 158). This has
caused difficulty.Many commentatorsfeel that despite the text Zeus must be
regardedas the progenitorof the Silver race and that the Titansare clearly out
of the pictureafterthe end of the Golden race. While one must alwaysbe wary
about drawing far-reaching conclusions from the repetition of formulaic
phrases in the early poets, I see no reason here to reject the plain sense of the
text, and more will be said about its possible significance shortly."
The second parallelwhich I note between the Golden and Silver races over
against the Bronze and Heroic is their status after death. The distinction
between the pairs suggests the well-known distinction in Greek religion

1oVernantsuggests some oppositions in these pairingswhich, though interesting, are dubious


because they are contingent upon accepting his tripartitedivision of the myth. For example, he
argues that the Golden and Silver races are basileis, the Bronze and Heroic warriorsand the two
Iron races farmers(1965, 27 ff.). He also suggests a youth/maturity/agetriad(40 f.).
"The formula E3ovnEgtypically refers to Zeus and his siblings and
'OkX1a1tLa 6•t'r'
offspring (e.g., Erga 81, Theogony783, 963), but it is clear from line 111,which unambiguously
places the Golden race at the time when Kronosruledin heaven, that it can serve as a generic term
for "the gods. "

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FoURRACES
HESIOD'S 5

between Chthonianand Olympiancults. The Golden and Silver races in their


after-deathstatus come closest to an older Chthonian orientation. Each is
directly associated with the earth, the one above, the other below. Even the
epichthonioi are clearly chthonic daemons in view of their function as givers
of agriculturalbounty (trXovTo66tat, 126).12The Bronze and Heroic races
have a status after death which matches later Olympian conceptions. The
notion that the shade goes to Hades ratherthan inhabits the grave is tied to a
picture of the universe in which the gods dwell as far above the earthas dead
men below it. To the same conception belongs the notion that paradisal
communities inhabit the periphery (Hyperboreansto the northeast, Ethio-
pians to the south, the Isles of the Blessed, which are here in view, to the far
west). For the worshipperthis Olympian perspective contrasts distance and
difference with the nearness and identity associated with the Chthonian
perspective.
Thirdly, on any sort of chronological continuum, the Golden and Silver
races are so far in the past as to be purely mythical and fantastic, whereas the
Bronze and Heroic impinge upon the legendary and the quasi-historical.The
Golden and Silver races represent a stage when men were fundamentally
different biologically from men today. No legendary names or events can be
associated with them. The Bronze men are admittedlynameless, but they are
associated with the memory of the archeologically verifiable transitionfrom
bronze- to iron-working.13Withthe Heroes we are unmistakablyin the realm
of well-known legends, which many ancient Greeks, not excluding Herodotos
and Thucydides, believed to be in essence historical.
The argumentadvanced so far shows that a myth of only the first four of
Hesiod's races works out very well as a coherent, neatly patternedstory in its
own right and supports Walcot's thesis that the four-race myth existed
independentlyof and prior to the version we find in the Erga. The Iron-race
section has all the marksof a new addition. As a fifth unit, it does not conform
to the complex binary structureof the four-race myth. It lacks the formal
signals which mark the beginning and end of each previous race:14 it is the
only race whose creator is not mentioned,15and it is not connected to the
series by the phrase found in each previous instance after the first, aUtXCQ
7
Aitn 6U8 (xtc) TOJTO yEvog XQTa'r ycaactxCdlhE (121, 140, 156). Its fate
after death is not described, as it had been in each precedingcase.
From the point of view of content also the Iron race appears to be
anomalous. Its deeply pessimistic tone contrastssharply with the balance of
good and evil found in the firstfour races. The four-racemyth is clearly not a
story of progressivedegeneration.It is insteadcyclical and does not lend itself
at all to the pessimistic interpretationusually put upon the entire unit as it
stands in our texts. What the four-race myth does suggest is a contrast

12Westnotes (ad loc.) that the contrast at this point is with OEOLEJtovUQVLoL, as Proclus
remarks, and not with iJ'toXO6vtoL,which is brought in in 141 to form anotherand secondary
contrast.
13Theyare also thematicallytied to the legend of the Spartoi, as Vernanthas noted (1965, 33).
14Walcot(1961) 6 f.
"SLine173d is undoubtedlypost-Hesiodic.

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6 CARLW. QUERBACH

between communities of men who deal with each other through dike and
communitiesin which hybris is rife. I would arguethat, despite the obviously
pessimistic notes in some sections of the Erga, Hesiod's fundamentalattitude
toward life in his own day is most accuratelyreflected in this polarity. The
description of the Just and Unjust Cities (225-47), with its obvious
similarities to the four-race myth in language and content,16 suggests a
balanced, and possibly even optimistic, view of the potentialities of human
communitiesin Hesiod's own time. Past ages have illustratedthat men can be
either good or bad, just or violent, and their materialwell-being will depend
upon that choice. Even if a complete returnto the Golden age is impossible, a
good approximationof it, as described in lines 225-37, can be achieved
throughpracticingdike. Ignoring the message of the effects of hybris in the
past can only lead men to suffer the same consequences in the present
(238- 47).
If the Iron race is an additionto an earliermyth which was quite complete
in itself, how are we to understandHesiod's decision to attach it in this
context? In broachingthis issue we are confrontedimmediatelywith a major
difficulty, namely our uncertaintyregardingthe exact position of the Erga in
the transitionfrom oral to writtencompositionin Archaic Greece. If we could
feel confident in applying the canons of oral composition to the Erga, we
could safely operate from certain assumptions which would be useful in
solving our problem. We could assume at least the following:
1. Hesiod had a repertoryof tales, myths, themes and motifs, some
very traditional, some traditionalbut reworked, others unique to
him.
2. The four-raceversion of the myth was partof Hesiod's repertory
and was recited withoutthe Iron Race when the occasion warranted.
3. A certainamountof anomaly,both in structureand content, can
be attributedto the immediateneeds of a particularsituation.
These assumptions cannot be proved for Hesiod, but they are sufficiently
probable to justify developing from them a hypothesis about the questions
raised above.
It would carry us too far afield to attempthere a thoroughanalysis of the
first half of the Erga, but a brief review is essential. The two mythical tales
and the fable of the hawk and the nightingaleare told by Hesiod to influence
his brotherPerses to settle their dispute over the division of their inheritance
(34- 39). He has urged him (11- 34) to follow not the bad Eris, who fosters
disputes, but the good Eris, who encourageswholesome, competitive effort.
The three tales are told, then, to show that two elements are necessary for
success in human life: work and justice. The stories, in their very nature,
bring in other elements which are extraneousto the immediateissues, but the
first seems most naturallyto stress that the loss of an earlier paradisalstate

16Forexample, 237 repeatsthe formulaicphrasexacQtb6 8' EPqE~ cEiEd(QOg QOUCvLt of 117;


Oak(Tg (231) picks up 'v OakXCot(115); tREpLrk6Oto eya V'LovTaL (231) parallels kEy'
Evttovwo (119). In both cases men live in peace (119, 228 f.), enjoy an abundanceof good things
(116 f., 119, 236), and are free of many evils (113 f., 230 f.).

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FOUR RACES
HESIOD'S 7

means thatmen must now labourfor theirdaily bread, while the second, with
its fundamental dike/hybris polarity, emphasizes the importance of just
dealings among men.17The third, far less importantthan the other two, is
most naturallytaken as a word to the judges of the dispute, whom Hesiod
suspects of being willing to supportthe partywho offers a bribe. Each of these
motifs is elaborated in the moralizing section which follows (213- 382),
which begins with an exhortation to justice, making powerful use of the
previously introduceddike/hybris opposition, and ends with a strong state-
ment on the value of honest work.
The purpose of the Iron-race section, then, would most naturallybe to
emphasize, perhapsmore than the four-racemyth seemed to, the devastating
effects of hybris. Whereas, in a neutralcontext, the moral implicationsof the
four-racemyth might have stood on their own (or might have been adequately
elucidated by the attachmentof a unit like the section on the Just and Unjust
Cities), under the present threatof hybristic behaviouron the part of Perses
and the judges, Hesiod may well have sensed the need for placing a much
greateremphasis on that element of the story.The descriptionof the Iron race
as it appearshere involves little more than a catalog of the evils which hybris
can produce, carriedto almost unimaginableextremes.
It should be obvious, then, thata tale of progressivedegenerationwould not
really suit this context. The matter at issue is the need to choose between
justice and violence. It could hardlymake sense to arguethatman has reached
such a low state that violence is inevitable, and nothing in the moral
elaboration which follows supports such a conclusion. The addition of the
descriptionof the Iron race, with its one-sided emphasis on hybris, upsets the
structureof the four-racemyth and distorts its meaning. But such distortion
suits Hesiod's larger purpose in introducingthat myth into his presentation,
and a more balancedappraisalof man's potentiality,which is compatiblewith
the four-race myth, is restored by the moralizing argumentswhich follow.
Despite his insolence, Perses can still be restrained from his error and
redeemed, if only he will take the myth to heartand heed the clarion call:
But you, O Perses, hearkento Dike, and do not foster Hybris (213).
If we can assume then that the four-racemyth described above may very
well have existed independentlyin Hesiod's repertoryas a complete tale with
a purpose of its own quite independentof any notion of an Iron race, some
very interestingpossibilities arise. A closer look at the structureof that myth
reveals yet a third axis, which seems to divide yet another set of binary
oppositions in the myth. It is admittedlymore hypothetical, but it is by the
same token more provocative. It may be most simply illustratedby drawinga
diagonal line which transects the Silver and Heroic races (Figure 4). This
cutting of single races is defensible because in each instance a transition
seems to be in progress which contrastswith the simplicity of the Golden and
Bronze races. I have isolated four characteristics which distinguish the
societies on the one side of this line from those on the other.

17For the opposite view, that the Myth of the Races also stresses the necessity for work, see
Fontenrose(1974).

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8 CARL W. QUERBACH

Figure 4

1. men live with gods Golden He %c 1. men and gods separated


2. vegetarian 2. carnivorous
3. peace Silv Bronze 3. war
4. sphere of Kronos 4. sphereof Zeus

In the time of the Golden race, men and gods associated freely with one
another,an associationwhich was brokenduringthe Silver age, totally absent
duringthe Bronze and reestablishedin the Heroic.18
Secondly, the Golden race is unmistakably vegetarian, for it depends
completely upon the freely giving earthfor the fruit (xaCQ6v, 117)on which
it lives.19 The Bronze race is exclusively carnivorous(oiU6 TzoiTov ?ioGtov,
146-47, a comment which is hardly explicable apart from the bipolarityof
which I am speaking). The Silver age, as I will argue shortly, is the time
duringwhich occurredthe introductionof animal sacrificeand thereforeof the
consumption of meat.20 The Heroes, during their wars, are still clearly
concerned with domesticated animals, since they contend for the "flocks of
Oedipus" (163), but after their translationto the Isles of the Blessed, they
revert to the vegetarianismof the Golden race.21
Thirdly,I note a contraston either side of the diagonal axis between peace
and war. Again the Golden and Bronze races show a pure contrast. The
Golden men live peacefully (iouvXot, 119) due to the abundantplenty which
they enjoy. The Bronze race concerns itself exclusively with "the works of
Ares and violence" (145-46). The Silver race is transitional.In its juvenile
phase it enjoys a kind of peace, but it is the peace of a simpleton (ycya
vipttog, 131).Upon maturitythese men turnto strife. The Heroes also engage
in warfare, though of a sort far more noble and praiseworthythan that of the
Bronze race. But after their legendary wars are finished they are grantedthe
same peace as was enjoyed by the Golden race.
Less certainbut far more exciting is the possibility that the two sides of this
axis representthe spheres of influence of Kronos and Zeus respectively.That
Kronos rules the Golden race is undeniable(111).It is equally clear that only
Zeus is involved with the Bronze race and that his reign extends from it

s1Thereis no explicit evidence to supportthis in the text of the myth itself. This notion is
based on the events at Mecone (Theogony535 ff.) and on the mingling of divine and humanstock
mentioned at the end of the Theogony and in connection with the Heroic race. See below, pp.
10-11.
"9Theonly referenceto animal husbandryis in 120, now all but unanimouslyrejected.
20Thesacrificialand alimentarycodes of Archaic Greece are quite complex: see J.-P. Vernant,
"Sacrifice et alimentationhumaine ai propos du Promethee d'Hesiode," Annali della Scuola
Normale de Pisa 7 (1977) 905-40, and Marcel Detienne, "The Orphic Dionysos and Roasted
Boiled Meat," Dionysos Slain, translatedby Mireille Muellnerand LeonardMuellner(Baltimore
1979) 68- 94. For my present purpose, however, only the simple vegetarian/carnivorous
opposition is at issue.
21Vegetarianismis not specifically mentioned in connection with Hesiod's descriptionof the
Isles of the Blessed, but the obvious parallelswith the Golden race, particularlywith referenceto
EC/p t
diet (xatT byv6' KEE/F/•iE 6oog 117/172f.) and the absence of any mentionof
&Qouoct,
meat or sacrifice strongly suggest this hypothesis.

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HESIOD'SFOUR RACES 9

backwardinto the Silver race, which he broughtto an end (138), and forward
into the Heroic, which he created(158).It is quite possible that in the four-race
version of the myth Kronos was the titularruler of the Isles of the Blessed,
even though that notion cannot be attributedwith any certaintyto Hesiod.22
That the Silver race marksa transitionfrom Kronos to Zeus, as I am arguing,
is less obvious. It has alreadybeen noted that accordingto the text the Silver
race was created not by Zeus, as were the Bronze and Heroic, but by the
dwellers on Olympos. Zeus is first mentioned in connection with his anger
against this race, which led him to "hide" it (138).23 For this reason, and
others detailed below, I locate the transitionin heaven from Kronos to Zeus
within this race and not before its beginning.
The possible implications of what I have called the diagonal axis of the
myth are quite far-reaching.It offers an approachto this and otheraccountsof
the generationsof the gods and the early history of man which can, I believe,
alleviate some of the apparentcontradictionsfound between them.24I refer in
particularto the Theogonyand the PrometheusTrilogyof Aeschylus. Students
of the Hesiodic corpushave long been puzzled by the apparentlycontradictory
presentationsof Kronos in the Myth of the Races and in the Theogony.In the
formerhe seems a harmless, beneficentagriculturaldaemon,25whereas in the
latterhe seems a deceptive and aggressively violent monster.The Prometheus
Bound has caused much controversybecause of its tyrannicallyviolent Zeus,
who seems so differentfrom the patronof justice of the Oresteia.
A single narrativeof the events in question, drawn from all the sources
mentioned, will, I hope, bring these disparate threads into a unified and
consistent whole, in which some of the apparent contradictions may be
largely, if not entirely,resolved.
The age of Kronos begins, according to the Theogony, with what on the
surface is a violent event, the castrationof Ouranos, but there can be little
doubt that for Hesiod it was both fully justified and actually the most fitting
solution available. Ouranos'perpetualcopulationwith Gaia preventedher not
only from giving birth to the Titans, but also from initiating the whole
generative process by which all living things could come into being.26 By

22Line173a (formerly 169), tlXko0 &AJ'&0avdrtov otoatv K06vog l[3aotLXhELt, is usually


rejected on textual grounds, but, even if not Hesiodic, it representsan early tradition,found also
in Pindar(e.g., Oly. 2.70) and elsewhere, for Kronos'rule over the Isles of the Blessed. The only
argumentwhich could deny Hesiod knowledge of this notion would be the always hazardousone
from silence.
23West(on 111)arguesthatZeus is in charge of all races except the Golden, purelyon the basis
of two considerations:line 138 and line 122 codd. But on 122 he says, "A featureof the worldas it
is now is naturallyascribed to Zeus' will, not to Kronos' ," thereby undermininghis use of the
reading to supportZeus' rule of the Silver race.
24Forexample, West (1978, 172) and Fontenrose (1974, 2) consider the Myth of the Ages
incompatiblewith the Prometheus/Pandorastory which precedes it. Some inconsistencies are to
be expected in the use of mythology by ancient authors. My purpose here is not so much to
explain these away as to suggest that scholars may well have exaggeratedthem in this instance.
25TheAttic-Ionic festival of the Kroniaprovides evidence in Greek ritualfor this concept. See
M. L. West, Hesiod: Theogony (Oxford 1966) 205, for a summaryof the evidence.
26Whilethis notion is not fully explicit in the text of the Theogony, it is evident that despite
Gaia's various generations described in lines 132-56, the actual birth-process is halted by
Ouranos(156- 60) and resumes only after this constrainthas been removed.

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10 CARL W. QUERBACH

castratingOuranos, Kronos allowed Gaia to produce freely a great varietyof


beings and also the abundanceenjoyedby the men of the Golden race, who, it
would appear, came into being from the earth, without the intermediacyof
humanfemales.27 This state of equilibriumwas threatenedby the prophecyto
Kronos that his son was destined to overthrowhim (Theogony463- 65). In
what was clearly a defensive act to preserve his kingdom Kronos found a
clever (but as it turnedout not clever enough) solution, that of swallowing his
offspring whole at birth. While this was a violent act, roughly equivalent to
the act of Ouranoswhich Kronoshad halted, it was no differentin degree or in
kind from Zeus' later swallowing of Metis. All threegods acted, accordingto
Hesiod, in about the same fashion and for the same reason. Had Kronos not
failed, the Golden race might never have come to an end. The apparent
violence of Kronos, then, is a superficialelement not incompatiblewith his
kindly natureand beneficentrule of the Golden race.28
From this point on a strictly chronological correspondencebetween the
versions does not exist, but from a thematic perspective several events in
heaven and earth occur concurrently and produce the same fundamental
changes. According to the TheogonyZeus avoids being swallowed and grows
up in secret. Kronos is trickedinto disgorging his children, and is forced, in
orderto preventdisplacementby his son, to defend himself againstthe violent
challenge of Zeus and the Olympians.29This reversionto violence is matched
among men, I suggest, by the disappearanceof the Golden race and the
emergence of the Silver, a parallelbut poorerrace of men, whose weakness is
associated with women and folly in particular.The presence of mothersin the
Silver race parallels the creation of Pandora;the folly of the Silver men
parallels that of Epimetheus.Throughviolence Zeus is victorious, imprisons
Kronos and the Titans, and confrontsat Mecone a race of men left over from
Kroniantimes (the Silver race of the Myth of the Races), with which a modus
vivendi is sought (Theogony 535 ff.). Although Hesiod provides no clear
motivationfor the events at Mecone, it is apparentthatthe Kroniancustom of
divine-human communal dining will not continue,30 and a division of the
meal is to be arranged. At this point the purely vegetarian phase passes
because of the loss of the freely giving earth of the Kronian primordial
paradise, and men begin to eat meat. (The myth of the Bronze race suggests
that men's diet became exclusively carnivorousuntil the later introductionof

27Menwere clearly in existence before the creationof woman in Hesiod's Prometheusmyths.


Although the Myth of the Races does not explicitly exclude women from the Golden race, they
are not mentioned there and appear first in the Silver race directly in connection with a
deteriorationof men's state.
28The influenceof Near Easternmyths, which cannotbe elaboratedhere, also helps account for
the apparentviolence and crudity of some of these stories. See Walcot(1965) and West (1966,
19- 28) for details of that influence.
29Thereappearsto be no reason to judge the morality of either party as superior.Bad times
have come in heaven and on earth because violence is in ascendency, and, as we shall see, the
victory of Zeus by no means brings about an immediateend to hybris.
30This is a hypotheticalinterpretation;no direct mention of this idea is found in the texts. But
the antihumanbias of the freshly victoriousZeus is obvious enough in the PrometheusBound and
can hardlyhave been an inventionof Aeschylus.

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FOURRACES
HESIOD'S 11

agriculture.) Prometheusintervenes and gains the best portions for men,3'


which is paralleledin the Myth of the Races by the refusal of the Silverrace to
give due honours to the gods on their altars (136). In all versions, Zeus
responds with anger.
At this point the versions diverge, but the thematic structureis remarkably
similar. In Hesiod's and Aeschylus' versions of the Prometheusmyth man
survives with the help of Prometheus.Hesiod emphasizes the abundantevils
which as a consequence enter man's life through the creation of woman, an
act of violent retributionof Zeus against the humanrace. Aeschylus turnshis
attention to what Prometheusmust suffer under the tyranny of Zeus. In the
Myth of the Races, the rejectionof men by Zeus is indicatedby his decision to
put an end to the Silver race and create a new one, the Bronze, modeled
precisely on his own violent natureat this point and patternedafter his allies
the Hecatoncheires, whose violent capacities had gained for him his victory
over the Titans.32
In all versions the tyrannical,hybristiccharacterof the early stage of Zeus'
reign gives way in time to a movement towarddike, that is, toward fairness
and mercy for those formerly punished. Because Zeus is successful at
divertingchallenges from his own offspring throughthe swallowing of Metis
(Theogony 886-900) and the avoidance of mating with Thetis (Prometheus
Trilogy),he can relax his tyrannicalhold on power and, havinghandedover a
great deal of authority to his subordinates (Theogony 885), can himself
become the impartialjudge and overseer. Prometheusand Zeus are recon-
ciled, a reconciliation which must have occurred in the lost portions of the
Prometheus of The Bronze race dies out as its violence
Trilogy Aeschylus.
turns upon itself, and a better race is created, modeled this time on Zeus'
newly adopted dike and generated by a commingling of divine and human
stock (a theme which is explicit both in the Myth of the Races and at the end
of the Theogonyand implicit in the roles of Io and Heraclesin the Prometheus
Trilogy). While in its wars this race shares those same concerns which
occasioned the decline of the Silver race, namely meat (the flocks of Oedipus,
163) and woman (Helen, 165), through its upward movement away from
hybris and towarddike it meritsa returnto the paradiselost by the Silver men.
The story comes full circle when Kronos, like Prometheus, is released,33
given his realm at the perimeterof the Olympian cosmos and entrustedwith
the blissful guardianshipof the hemitheoi.
The account given here is not, of course, without its problems, but I can
find no fundamental objection to the thematic parallels cited and the

31The earliest version was almost certainly one according to which Prometheus actually
deceived Zeus into choosing the inferiorportion;cf. West(1966) 321.
32Thedescriptionsof the Bronze race in the Erga (145- 55) and of the Hecatoncheiresin the
Theogony (148- 57, 649, 670- 73) are remarkablysimilar verbally, a fact which has attracted
surprisingly little scholarly attention except as a justification, which I find dubious, for
questioninglines 148-49 of the Erga. Westaccepts the lines, but finds them "inapposite."
"This is based, not on the very doubtful line 173b, but on the evidence previously cited for
Kronianrule over the Isles of the Blessed.

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12 CARLW. QUERBACH

underlying consistency of the various versions. All three lords of heaven


display the same patternfound among the races of men, past and present, that
of an alternationbetween hybris and dike. For Hesiod, as for Aeschylus, the
end resultis a Zeus who has opted for dike, to the endless benefit of those men
who grasp as Zeus did, the ill effects of hybris and adopt a policy, in both
privateand public life, of justice for all.
CARL W. QUERBACH
Universityof Windsor

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