Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/83

 THEOGONY. CATALOGUES OF WOMEN 59 cannibalism of Cronos, only ceases to be repulsive when it is studied as a genuine bit of savage religion. To those of the later Greeks who took it more seriously, it was of course intolerable. There is real grandeur in the account of the Titan War, which doubtless would be intelligible if we had the Homeric Titan War* before us. And there is a great sea-feeling in the list of Nereids (347 ff.)- The Theogony ends (967-1020) with a list of the goddesses who lay in the arms of mortals and bore children like the gods. In the very last lines the poet turns from these — ''Now, sweet Muses, sing the race of mortal women!' Of course, the Muses did sing of them, but the song is lost. It is referred to in antiquity by various names — ' TJie Catalogue of Wojnen,' * The Poems about Women,' * The Lists of Heroic Women ' ; particular parts of it are quoted as * The Eoiai,' ' The Lists of the Daughters of Leukippos,' ' of the Daughters of ProitoSy and so on. Why were lists of women written ? For two reasons. The Locrians are said to have counted their genealogies by the woman's side ; and if this, as it stands, is an exag- geration, there is good evidence, apart from Nossis and her fellow-poetesses, for the importance of women in Locris. Secondly, most royal houses in Greece were descended from a god. In the days of local quasi- monotheistic religion this was simply managed : the local king came from the local god. But when geographical boundaries were broken down, and the number of known gods consequently increased, these genealogies had to be systematised, and sometimes amended. For instance, certain Thessalian kings were descended from Tyro and the river Enipeus. This was well enough in their own