Our Co(s)mic Origins: Theogonies in Greek Comedy

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the four theogonies which are documented in some texts and testimonies of Old and Middle Greek Comedy, namely in Cratinus’ Cheirons (frs. 258 – 259 PCG), in which Pericles and Aspasia are disguised as Zeus and Hera; Aristophanes’ Birds (693 – 703), a celebrated narration of the origins of these animals, presented as older than the gods; Antiphanes’ Anthropogony, on the births of several gods and humankind; and the disagreement between Cronus and Rhea in the fragment of an anonymous play of Middle Comedy (adespota fr. 1062 PCG). In these theogonies several aspects will be analyzed: the gods or characters whose genealogy or birth is mentioned, the means of parody of the traditional literary form of theogony, and the political and social implications present in the first two fragments, in order to offer a complete picture of the theogonies in Greek comedy and their functions according to their context.