Overview
Hesiod was among the people who lived in Ascra village, and he was a great peasant poet. According to his bibliography, he had a hard life and for this reason, he did not have an optimistic perception towards the world. Works and Days is one of his most known poems, which he believes he wrote after he was commanded by Muses to write great poems. The poem is about human beings and some of the forms of suffering they experience. Additionally, the poet has offered a crucial perspective of one of the reasons human beings suffer. On the other hand, Hesiod poem Theology is about the creation, existence and the rise of the gods, where the author has used the fantasy and wonder to demonstrate the story of the creation of earth just like other poets. The last text which will be used in comparing and contrasting the attitude of the gods or god toward the mortals is the flood by the Mistaya which is based on a Hindu myth relating to a fish saving a man from floods.
Do the Gods Wish to Help or Harm the Beings Who Live on The Earth?
Hesiod: Works and Days
The poem is centered on the idea that the world is dominated by discord. In the poem, different stages have been used with the attitude of the gods towards the mortals different from stage to stage. The first stage of the Work and Days poem is the Gold stage. In this stage, Cronus who was the father of the Lord of time and Zeus, who is among the famous mortals in the poem lived among the mortals and they lived with each other peacefully. During this time, beings living on earth did not grow old, because of the help of the immortals, and whenever the time to die came, they would die peacefully without any sufferings (Hesiod, 1966) . When Zeus, turned the immortals into protective creatures, their attitude towards the beings changed. They stopped protecting the people against aging and dying in peace, and stopped protecting them from other disasters. As demonstrated in the poem, the immortal's attitude towards the beings was positive, hence children used to grow up happy together with their mothers, and they could live for hundreds of years, because of the assistance of the immortals (Hesiod, 1966) . However, when they became adults and started disobeying the immortal, Zeus decided to turn the immortals against beings, making them harm the same beings they have coexisted happily due to change immortals attitude towards the mortals.
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Additionally, during the Age of Heroes, the mortals living came from the trees and they were so strong and mainly ready to engage in war. Their character resulted in immortals perceiving their actions and pride in bad attitude; hence, they ended up destroying them. Unlike the other stages demonstrated in the poem, the Age of Heroes saw the immortals have a bad attitude towards the beings from the beginning. According to Hesiod the last stage, Iron Age was the worst of all. During this age, the immortals were ready to reconcile with the beings that lived in the earth, but they made a mistake where they became victims of their own injustices and violence, changing the gods’ attitude towards a human being and ending up destroying them without mercy (Hesiod, 1966) . From the poem, Hesiod wanted to demonstrate to his brother that not him or any man who can be stronger than the gods, but the gods like living peacefully and happily with the people, so that they can help them, and not harm them.
Hesiod Theogony
There is a major relationship between the immortals and the mortals in Hesiod poem Theogony and Work and Days . However, just like in the previous poem, the immortals in Theogony, are starting with a good attitude towards the beings who are living on earth where the gods intend to help them, but their attitude is later changed by the actions of these mortals. Hesiod used one of the most common styles in Greek Mythology, where the stories of creation are narrated using in wonders and fantasy. According to the poet, the story was set during a time when there was severe chaos. During this time, chaos existed without any specific purpose, and after the chaos came a supernatural being by the name Gaia who is believed to be the creator of the earth and everything that existed in it (Hesiod, 1966) . The poet describes the goddess as primordial being of the earth meaning she had the power to give birth to mortals or other beings. Due to his positive attitude towards the beings, she decided to partner with the Uranus who was the creator of heaven heavens. Both had supernatural powers hence they became the sky and the earth, and they decided to marry, getting so many children’s. When looking at the beginning of the poem, it is clear that the gods had a positive attitude towards the beings, and they wanted to help them, instead of harming them.
However, the Gaia who was a supernatural being gave birth to the Titans with extra strength and they were immortals. Hesiod says, “She lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire” (Hesiod, 1966) . However, the immortal's attitude towards his parents changed where after looking at the two generations of the creatures, Uranus decided to imprison them away beneath the earth. However, the decision to imprison the children saddened Gaia hence she decided to create plans that will help her seek vengeance. This was the beginning of the conflict between the supernatural beings and the immortals. As the story end, the immortal's attitude towards the supernatural beings mainly Cronus changed to the worst, with Gaia and her children helping each other to destroy Uranus, with Cronus who was the most difficult and terrible immortal cutting his father’s genitals (Hesiod, 1966) . From the poem, it is clear that the immortals did not have a problem with their father Uranus, but his decision to imprison them change their attitude towards him, hence destroying him.
The Brahmana avatars of Vishnu
The Flood
From the narrative, it is clear that the immortals in the story had a positive attitude towards the being living on earth had for this reason; it is trying to help the beings. The immortal in the poem is the fish believed to be one of the ancient incarnations. The relationship between the immortal and the beings started when the king was using Manu water to prepare for players. From the beginning of the meeting between the immortal and the mortals, it is clear that the immortal was wishing to help the beings, where it had the power to hurt the king but it did not. From the poem, we can treat the floods as immortal, but with a different attitude from that of the fish to beings living on earth. The floods were supposed to destroy the beings, but fish told the king that if the flood destroys every creature, he will save him. The interaction between the fish and the mortals is positive where the fish trusts the king to ask for assistance, where he asks the king to take care of him ( Carus, 1988 ). The author has demonstrated the immortal element of the fish where the fish says, “As long as we are tiny, our destruction is great, for fish swallows fish” ( Carus, 1988 ). As the story ends, it is clear that Vishnu decided to become a fish, so that he can save Manu from the destruction of the flood , which was meant to kill every creature.
In conclusion, it is clear that the attitude of the god/gods toward mortals in Hesiod and in the Hindu myths (Vishnu) contained in the flood differed from stage to stage, and from individual god/gods. There were gods which were willing to help the people, while others wanted to harm the people.
References
Carus, P. (1988). The Fish in Brahmanism and Buddhism (Illustrated). The Open Court , 1911 (6), 2.
Hesiod, T. A. S. (1966). Theogony: edited with prolegomena and commentary by ML West . Clarendon Press.
Hesiod, T. A. S. (1966). Works and days . Georg Olms Verlag.
