Hesioďs Theogony

Abstract

This thesis offers a textual interpretation of the Theogony, which is a text often ascribed by classical scholars to the author Hesiod. The thesis then turns its attention to discuss the narrative findings in relation to historical determined interpretations of early Greek literary texts. The thesis will examine how a culture determined interpretation of ancient literary sources can either negate or support a narrative approach. Chapter One of this thesis focuses on determining a methodological approach for text analysis, and does so by providing a critique of the traditional methods of Chapter Two offers a textual analysis of the Theogony, examining its fabula, focalizations and characterizations as presented by the text. Then Chapter Three explores how useful a textual analysis can be in historical discussion. This chapter will also investigate how our findings of Chapter Two have possibly re-shaped our appreciation of former historical research for ancient Greek literature. In particular, this chapter will offer a brief discussion on ancient religion and early Greek philosophy. The Conclusion will be brief and simply outline possible next steps in research drawn from the discussions of the previous chapters.