Point of View

The point of view in "Theogony" is first-person. Hesiod introduces himself in the beginning of the poem and begins the tale by stating that he has been told the history of the Grecian gods by the nine Muses. The rest of the poem is told as a story that Hesiod is passing along. It is preoccupied with the familial relationships between the gods. The fact that Hesiod is conveying what he has been told by the Muses makes his tale both reliable and unreliable. It should be seen as reliable because it has been told to him by the Muses, but can be viewed as unreliable because it is told second-hand as he did not experience the events of the story himself. At the time it was written, however, it would be seen as reliable because to falsify information about the gods meant punishment from the...