HESIOD (Gr., Hēsiodos; fl. c. 730–700 BCE) was one of the earliest recorded Greek poets. The earlier of his two surviving poems, Theogony, is of interest to students of Greek religion as an attempt to catalog the gods in the form of a genealogy, starting with the beginning of the world and describing the power struggles that led to Zeus's kingship among the gods. The cosmogony begins with Chaos ("yawning space"), Earth, and Eros (the principle of sexual love—a precondition of genealogical development). The first ruler of the world is Ouranos ("heaven"). His persistent intercourse with Earth hinders the birth of his children, the Titans, until Kronos, the youngest, castrates him. Kronos later tries to suppress his own children by swallowing them, but Zeus, the youngest, is saved and makes Kronos regurgitate the others. The younger gods defeat the Titans after a ten-year war and consign them...