#72: Where Did the Greek Gods Come From? The World Before Zeus | Jenny Strauss Clay

Where did the Greek gods come from? What existed before Zeus—and how did the cosmos itself come into being?

In this episode of The Prometheans, we sit down with distinguished classicist Professor Jenny Strauss Clay, author of Hesiod’s Cosmos, to explore one of the earliest surviving Greek attempts to explain the origins of the gods and the structure of reality.

Beginning with Hesiod’s Theogony, we trace the emergence of Chaos, Gaia, Ouranos, the Titans, Kronos, and ultimately Zeus, examining how a divine order develops through generation, conflict, succession, and the establishment of Zeus’s rule.

We also explore Clay’s influential argument that Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days should be understood together: one presenting the cosmos from the perspective of the gods, the other from the perspective of human beings. What does this reveal about the Greek understanding of gods, humanity, justice, labor, fate, and cosmic order?

A deep conversation about Greek mythology, ancient Greek theology, Hesiod, and the world before Zeus.