The Muses encounter Hesiod while he pastures sheep on Mount Helikon and breathe a divine singing voice into him.

The first entity in the cosmos is Chaos, an empty abyss from which all other beings will emerge.

Gaia (Earth) comes into being and asexually produces Ouranos (Sky) as her equal partner and mate.

Ouranos forces his monstrous children back inside Gaia as soon as they are born, preventing them from seeing the light.

Gaia recruits her youngest son Kronos to castrate Ouranos with a flint sickle from within her womb.

Aphrodite is born when Ouranos's severed genitals fall into the ocean and mix with sea foam.

Kronos, fearing a prophecy that his children will overthrow him, swallows each child Rheia bears immediately after birth.

Rheia hides her youngest child Zeus on the island of Crete and tricks Kronos by feeding him a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Zeus grows to adulthood and forces Kronos to vomit up all of his swallowed siblings.

Prometheus steals the fire that Zeus withheld from humanity and gives it to mortals as a gift.

Zeus chains Prometheus to a rocky crag, where an eagle devours Prometheus's liver every single day.

Zeus releases the three Hundred-Handers from their prison in Tartaros and asks them to fight as his allies against the Titans.

Zeus and the Olympians defeat the Titans in the Titanomachy and chain them deep underground in Tartaros.

Gaia's last son, the monster Typhoeus, rises to challenge Zeus for control of the entire universe.

Zeus swallows his pregnant first wife Metis to prevent a prophecy that his second child will overthrow him.

The Theogony opens with the Muses inspiring Hesiod on Mount Helikon before tracing the universe's origins from the first being, Chaos, through the births of Gaia and Ouranos. Ouranos's cruel suppression of his children triggers a chain of violent successions: Kronos castrates his father, Aphrodite is born from the sea, and Kronos swallows his own Olympian children before his son Zeus overpowers him. Zeus then confronts Prometheus's defiance, chaining him as punishment for stealing fire, and recruits the monstrous Hundred-Handers to help defeat the Titans in the great battle called the Titanomachy. The Titans are imprisoned in Tartaros, and the monster Typhoeus rises as Zeus's final external challenge before Zeus secures his reign by swallowing his first wife Metis. This last act breaks the cycle of violent generational succession that defined the early cosmos, establishing Zeus as eternal king.

The rise of Zeus and the making of the cosmos.

The Muses give Hesiod a staff cut from a sappy laurel branch as a symbol of his new poetic gift.

The goddess Night produces Eris (Strife) and the three Fates as negative forces that govern mortal lives.

Nereus, the gentle Old Man of the Sea, fathers a catalogue of fifty beautiful oceanic nymphs called Nereids.

The monster Echidna produces three terrifying offspring: the three-headed dog Cerberus, the Hydra, and the fire-breathing Chimaira.

The sun god Helios and the moon goddess Selene are born as children of the Titans Hyperion and Theia.

Hesiod praises the minor goddess Hekate as a generous protector who answers mortal prayers across all domains of life.

Zeus's freed siblings reward him with kingship over all the gods and gift him his signature lightning bolts.

Zeus blasts the Titan Menoitios into the underworld as punishment for his excessive violence and arrogance.

Zeus sends Pandora, the first woman fashioned from clay by Hephaestus, as punishment for humanity's receipt of stolen fire.

The Hundred-Hander Kottos swears total fealty to Zeus, pledging to preserve Zeus's power through the coming war.

Hesiod describes Tartaros as a dark bronze compound deep beneath the earth, where Night's dread children Death and Sleep reside.

Cerberus guards the entrance to the underworld, cheerfully greeting all who enter but devouring anyone who attempts to leave.

Zeus defeats the monster Typhoeus in a world-shaking battle and casts him into Tartaros alongside the imprisoned Titans.

Zeus's marriage to the Titan Themis produces the Seasons and a new generation of the three Fates.

Hera, furious at Zeus's many infidelities, spontaneously generates the smith god Hephaistos without any male involvement.

Pool 2 follows the Theogony's secondary cast and settings from the prologue through the end of the poem, beginning with Hesiod's receipt of the laurel branch and moving through Night's dark offspring and the terrifying monsters born of the sea. The early sections catalogue the genealogies of minor gods, from Nereus's fifty Nereids to Echidna's monstrous brood, and celebrate the generous minor goddess Hekate as a friend of humankind. After Zeus defeats Kronos, his freed siblings reward him with lightning bolts, and Zeus punishes the Titans Atlas and Menoitios before Pandora is created as the first woman and ultimate punishment for humanity. The Titanomachy's aftermath is rendered through Hesiod's vivid portrait of Tartaros, Cerberus's grim guardianship, and Zeus's final defeat of Typhoeus. Zeus's subsequent marriages to Themis and Hera and Hera's defiant virgin birth of Hephaistos round out the establishment of the full Olympian order.

The gods, monsters, and structures of the cosmos.

The Muses tell Hesiod they know how to speak both believable lies and the plain truth with equal ease.

Gaia and Ouranos's youngest son Kronos is singled out from birth as a most terrible child and arch-deceiver.

The Furies, goddesses of vengeance, are born from drops of Ouranos's blood that fall to earth during his castration.

Ouranos curses his Titan sons after his castration, warning that vengeance will surely be exacted for their monstrous deed.

Hesiod reveals that the hero Perseus will one day sever Medusa's head, from which the winged horse Pegasus will spring.

The Chimaira gives birth to the Sphinx, who will later riddle with Oedipus, and the Nemean Lion, destined for Hercules.

Styx becomes the first immortal to swear loyalty to Zeus in the coming war, earning a permanent place of special honor among the gods.

Rheia appeals to her parents Gaia and Ouranos for a way to save her youngest child from being swallowed by Kronos.

Prometheus disguises the choice cuts of sacrificial meat to trick Zeus into accepting the inferior bones wrapped in delicious fat.

The Titanomachy grinds to a stalemate because neither the Olympians nor the Titans can overcome the other side.

Any god who breaks an oath sworn by the river Styx is condemned to a death-like coma and then nine years of exile from Olympus.

The Olympians formally crown Zeus king of all gods after the defeat of every challenger to his power.

Gaia and Ouranos warn Zeus that his second child by the goddess Metis is fated to overthrow him, just as he overthrew Kronos.

The war goddess Athena bursts fully formed from Zeus's skull after Zeus swallows her pregnant mother Metis.

The great hero Hercules is born from the union of Zeus and the mortal woman Alkmene, bridging the divine and human worlds.

Pool 3 highlights the Theogony's pivotal turning points and foreshadowed revelations, beginning with the Muses' programmatic declaration that they can speak lies and truths with equal skill. The early narrative turns on Kronos's designation as an arch-deceiver, the birth of the Furies from Ouranos's blood, and Ouranos's prophetic curse on the Titans who overthrew him. The poem foreshadows future heroic encounters — Perseus slaying Medusa, Oedipus facing the Sphinx — before pivoting to Zeus's rise, Rheia's scheming to protect him, and Prometheus's audacious feast-time deception. The Titanomachy's prolonged deadlock is broken by Zeus's act of hospitality, and the oath-law of the river Styx reveals the grave consequences awaiting gods who break their word. Zeus ultimately ends the cycle of succession by receiving a dire prophecy about Metis and acting on it, causing Athena to burst from his skull and securing his eternal reign.