Hesiod's cosmos Book

Illuminating monograph. Offers a thorough and rich reconstruction of Hesiod's universe: the structure of the poems, the meaning of their inconsistencies, the cosmic dynamic of the male and female, the difference between the divine and the human, the mixing of things, and the eschatological vision.

The Theogeny is the story told from the view from Olympus, a story of progress and consolidation under Zeus. Works and Days is the anthropocentric view. The gods are invisible and cruel. Our world shrinks and crumbles, our cities, our households, our bodies collapse exhausted before the sheer indifference of the cosmos.

With the passing of heroes, the human race can only degenerate from the beasts we were raised from.

Humanity has no hope; the gods watch with bemused interest as we perish under Zeus' guidance. He does not destroy us from anger but to relieve the groaning of mother Earth straining under our weight. To stabilize the cosmos, humankind must perish.

An excellent cosmological take, perhaps even better than Homer.