Titanomachy And Its Philosophy
Reflection of wisdom and power in mythology
Hesiod, in his work Theogony, lists the lineages of gods that have come one after another since the creation of the universe: In the beginning, there are khaos, and from it comes Gaia (earth) and eros (love). Then Gaia creates a being that can match herself and cover her completely, and that is Uranus (the sky). Giants will emerge from the union of Gaia and Uranus, and this type is divided into three types: titans, cyclopses, and hecatoncheires (giants with one hundred arms and fifty heads).
After a while, Uranus began to disgust the children born to Gaia and began to put each of them back into their mother’s womb as soon as they were born. Gaia, overwhelmed by the endless birth pains, thinks of a solution and finds the solution; She finds herself making a scythe from white steel.
She wants to give the scythe she made to one of his children so that any of her children can avenge both themselves and their mother against their father. But none of the Titans dare to undertake this task until Kronos appears. Kronos, Gaia’s youngest child, accepts his mother’s request takes the scythe, and begins to wait for the right time. One night, when Uranus (The Sky) came to “cover” Gaia, he came out of hiding and cut off his father’s penis with his scythe. What we need to pay attention to at this point is that Kronos’ rebellion against his father was a revolution in the history of the lineages of gods.
After Kronos seizes power, he begins to act just like his father. However, unlike Uranus, he swallows his children as soon as they are born, instead of putting them back into his mother’s womb. The reason why Kronos resorted to this method was that he was afraid that any of his sons would become stronger than him and take away his power. Kronos’ wife, Rheia, is very upset about this situation, just like Gaia, and finds the solution by joining forces with Uranus and Gaia. In line with the plan of the new alliance, Rheia’s newborn child will be kidnapped to the island of Crete immediately after birth, and a piece of stone covered with cloth will be given to Kronos to swallow instead.
The plan is risky, but it works, and when the day comes, this child, who was hidden with great difficulty and raised by the Cyclops, vomits all his siblings from his father’s stomach and overthrows Kronos with his mind and muscle power and ascends to the throne of the gods. With this second revolution, the rule of the Titans ended and the era of the Olympians began in their place under the leadership of Zeus.
The Philosophy Of Titanomachy
These two revolutions, expressed with the same mythological motifs, actually have different meanings. Only brute force was effective in overthrowing Uranus: cutting off the male limb is a purely physical act. Although the order established through reason has a share in this incident, its effect is secondary.
The second revolution is a matter of reason and calculation. The guiding role played by Uranus and Gaia in the prepared plan is important. The first generation, which seems to have understood that they were harmed by brute force and learned a lesson from the incident that happened to them, appears before us as representatives of reason to defeat the second generation that overthrew them. Developments such as foretelling to Kronos that he would be dethroned one day, hiding Zeus when he was born, feeding him, raising him, and teaching him how to overthrow his father are all the work of the first generation.
In short, while the first revolution means the defeat of brute force by itself, the second revolution means the defeat of brute force with wisdom. In this development on the path of reason, Zeus goes one step further and uses physical power as a tool for his interests. As a matter of fact, in the end, mutual violence destroys brute force and world domination is established only through the power of wisdom.
Hesiod describes this process in the section called Titanomachia of his work Theogony.
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