Theogony is the account of the births of gods as in the Theogony of Hesiod (around 700 BC). It is therefore a particular form of genealogy. To generate gods, you need a really important god as a father, and preferably DIVINE MOTHERS if a satisfactorily qualified god is to be the result; just as a citizen father and a citizen mother are required to make a citizen Athenian child. Zeus begets Apollo and Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Athene, Dionysos, Hermes. In fact he begets all the Olympian gods25 that are not his brothers and sisters - they are the children of Kronos (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon). Genealogy makes the Olympian gods into a tightly knit system, a close group, a team: they are depicted as a specially close family. THese gods as a matter of historical fact all had their separate origins, mostly to us, but visible in their differing tradition mothers. Zeus's official mythological wife, Hera, is usually the mother only of Ares!!!
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