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Dark Womb and Gender War: Rethinking Social Formation and Social Order in Hesiod’s Cosmogony
YAN Di
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2023.11.012
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
This paper offers a detailed study of the issue of social formation and social order in Hesiod’s cosmogony. I argue that, according to Hesiod’s genesis theory, order in a society cannot be established organically through social formation. The main difficulty lies in the nature of society itself where the dualistic opposition in the male-female sexual relationship leads to endless conflicts between the two sexes and, further, between generations. To deal with the sexual relationship properly is the key to maintaining a stable social order. In the poem, the mother’s ‘dark womb’ is presented as a prominent image at every crucial moment of social formation and social (dis)ordering in both the divine and the human worlds. Taking this image as a clue, we can see that the issue of sexuality has a profound impact on social order, and also serves as a key to understanding divinity and humanity in Hesiod’s cosmogony.
Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, social order, cosmogony, sexuality, gender, Womb, Pandora, Gaia
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, November 2023, Vol. 13, No. 11, 877-891
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