Hesiod
fl. c. 700 BC · Early Greek Thought · Prominent
Hesiod wrote the Theogony and Works and Days, the earliest Greek instructional poems that carry their author's name. Chaos, a gap with nothing in it, comes first, then generations of gods, then Zeus wins and the order holds: that is the Theogony's account of how the world got here. The other poem tells his brother to drop the lawsuit and go farm, and slides human history down through five races into an age of iron.
Signature
The position Hesiod is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Meaning
- leans Inherent
- Beginning of Things
- Theogonic Origin / Primordial Chaos
Positions on the 1 axes the sources answer
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
19 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Hesiod refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Polytheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - End of Things
- Age of Decline
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Beginning of Things
- Theogonic Origin / Primordial Chaos
What is the origin of reality? - Law
- Divine Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law?