#eumelos

Alternative Theogonies 2: The Theogony of Eumelus' Titanomachy : r/GreekMythology

"When thinking of influence, one must first ask when we can consider the Theogony as something like a “text” that others might quote or imitate in a detailed manner. Such evaluations are, to a degree, subjective. I shall argue from a smattering of evidence scattered across the Greek world that by 600–575 bce we begin to see other authors “reworking” passages from the Theogony and Works and Days in something like their present form. Prior to this point, creation stories differ significantly from Hesiod’s.

The Titanomachy, which covered many more events than its title suggests, began with a theogonic section. This would have included both genealogies and some narrative, at least when Eumelos had to explain the events that led from the first and second generations of the immortals to the birth of Zeus. The narrative pace in this first part of the epic must have been fast. The actual clash between the Olympians and the Titans was presented in a slower pace, with considerable attention to its different phases: the preparation for war, description of the gods committing themselves to the two sides, initial phase of the battle with no obvious victor, Zeus’ stratagem of releasing the Kyklopes from Tartaros to furnish him and his brothers with new weapons that allow the Olympians to achieve final victory. The use of the motif of the ‘Helper’ was here filtered exclusively through Zeus, who liberated the Kyklopes after killing the monster Kampe on his own. Zeus’ stratagem was, as is the case with the Hesiodic Theogony, the result of Gaia’s advice about how victory will be achieved, but whereas in Hesiod the Olympians collectively bring the Hundred-Handers to light (Th. 626), in Eumelos this is carried out by Zeus alone. Since the motif of the ‘Helper’ is usually employed to introduce a dramatic reversal of the initial course of a fight, it seems that the Titanomachy organized, as Hesiod’s Theogony, the divine clash in two phases, an initial undecided stage and a final victorious one for the Olympians. Zeus’ dance after his victory over the Titans shows that the Titanomachy may have dwelt for some time on the aftermath of the war, the more so since there would be no new adversary against Zeus. Now the new order had to be established: this involved a series of rather brief scenes in which Zeus showed himself to be a harsh but just divine king: he incarcerated the Titans in Tartaros, distributed privileges to those who helped him or remained neutral (e.g. Hyperion), and drew lots with his two brothers for the division of the world in three realms. It is difficult to imagine how the non-martial second part of the epic would have been organized. If Cheiron (frr. 13–14 EGEF) featured there, it is possible that the Titanomachy would have presented the fate of the Titans’ offspring (in the manner of Apollod. Bibl. 1.2.2–5) in catalogue form, as is the case with Cheiron’s brief mention in Hes. Th. 1001–2.71 For how long would the epic continue and whether it would have involved anything but catalogues, it is impossible to tell.

The central theme of the [Titanomachia of Eumelos] was the war between the Olympian gods and the Titans. Given that the epic included at least two books (fr. 15 EGEF), the actual fight must have been placed at the second book, the first being devoted to some sort of cosmogony or an account of the first and second generations of immortals (fr. 1A+B EGEF) and what took place before the actual clash between the Olympians and the Titans. After the birth of Zeus (fr. 2 EGEF) in Mount Sipylos in Lydia, the poem must have featured the preparation for the war, which would have involved a presentation of the forces supporting the two sides (fr. 3 EGEF), with the sea monster Aigaion committing to fight against the Olympians. The preparation for the war must have included some smaller episodes or scenes: the Titan Hyperion decided not to attack the Olympians (fr. *4 GEF), while one of Iapetos’ sons, Prometheus, functioned as a herald between the two divine camps before they started fighting (fr. *5 EGEF). Prometheus may have changed sides, since his subsequent punishment is always presented as a result of helping humans and not being defeated in the clash between Olympians and Titans. The struggle between the two sides was fierce; the scales did not turn in favor of the Olympians, until Zeus killed the prison warder Kampe and released the Kyklopes from Tartaros, who furnished him with thunder, lightning, and thunderbolt, Plouton with a cap that made him invisible, and Poseidon with the trident (fr. *9 EGEF). When the Titans were defeated, they were punished by being incarcerated in Tartaros (fr. *9 EGEF), where Menoitios was also placed after being hit by Zeus with his thunderbolt (fr. *7 EGEF). Then, it was time for festivity (fr. 8 EGEF) and the distribution of privileges. The gods gathered in Mekone and drew lots: Zeus got the sky, Hades the Underworld, and Poseidon the sea (*9 EGEF). Atlas was punished by being condemned to hold the vault of the sky (fr. 10 EGEF). In acknowledgement of the help Hyperion had provided to the Olympians during the Titanomachy, he became the Sun and was awarded both with a four-horse chariot (fr. 11 EGEF) and a vessel on which he sails across the Okeanos at night (fr. 12 EGEF). From this point ahead, it is not clear how the plot would have unraveled. Fragments 13–14 (EGEF) refer to the Centaur Cheiron, who is designated as the son of Kronos and Philyra (13 EGEF), as well as the first instructor of humankind in oath-taking, offering sacrifices to the gods, and learning astronomical and meteorological lore (14 EGEF). Cheiron’s birth may have been mentioned in the context of a catalogue relating in brief the fate of the Titans’ offspring. Given that there is no evidence that the Titanomachy contained anything more about Cheiron than his birth and his status as an instructor of mankind, it seems rather unlikely that he was mentioned in the context of his self-sacrifice and surrender of his immortality to Prometheus as that would necessarily have involved some sort of reference to Herakles and his Labors (Cheiron being wounded by him in the episode with Pholos during the Labor of the Erymanthian boar). Equally puzzling is fr. 15 (EGEF) referring to ‘fish with golden scales sporting and playing in the ambrosial water’. Since ambrosial water designates only fresh water, some lake or pool or spring may have been meant. In connection to whom or what remains a matter of speculation.

Eumelos of Corinth presents Zeus as being born in the land that is now Lydia, and probably he says the truth, to the extent that this is possible in history; for even now there is a place on the peak of Mt Tmolos at the west part of the city of Sardis, which was called in the past ‘Birthplace of Rain-bringing Zeus’, but now after the word has changed its form in the course of time it is called ‘Deusion’. The Kouretes were his (Zeus’) guardians.

Eumelos