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Genealogia deorum gentilium, known in English as On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles, is a mythography or encyclopedic compilation of the tangled family relationships of the classical pantheons of Ancient Greece and Rome, written in Latin prose from 1360 onwards by the Italian author and poet Giovanni Boccaccio.
According to the Preface Boccaccio undertook the project at the request of Hugh IV of Cyprus. The first version was completed in 1360, and he continuously corrected and revised the work until his death in 1375, so that various redactions of the works were copied in different manuscript traditions. In his lifetime and for two centuries afterwards it was considered his most important work. [1]
The work is "humanist in spirit and medieval in structure". [2]
The full range of genealogies of the classical Gods are described in the fifteen books, drawing on the standard earlier works, especially the Liber imaginum deorum , a 12th-century treatise by the otherwise unknown Albricus (possibly Alexander Neckam), and the older so-called Vatican Mythographies. These themselves drew on the late antique Christian Fulgentius, and writers of the actual period of classical paganism, especially Ovid and Statius. [1] Some Greek material was probably supplied by his Greek teacher Leontius Pilatus.
According to Malcolm Bull: "...Boccaccio does his best to make sense of the complex genealogy of the gods. But as he also allows for several gods of the same name, the result becomes enormously confusing. No subsequent mythographer followed his method of organizing material, yet Boccaccio's Genealogia retained its prestige and was to remain the most important mythological manual until the late sixteenth century." [1] The next attempt at an equally comprehensive compilation on the subject of mythological genealogy would not come until 1548, when Giglio Gregorio Giraldi published his De deis gentium. The Genealogia was unkindly described by Edward Gibbon in his Decline and Fall as "a work, in that age, of stupendous erudition, and which he ostentatiously sprinkled with Greek characters and passages, to excite the wonder and applause of his more ignorant readers" and "a work which, though now forgotten, has run through thirteen or fourteen editions", [3] although in fact there is evidence that Coleridge and Wordsworth read it together. [4]
Boccaccio was responsible for spreading the story, which he credited to Theodontius, that Demogorgon was the ancestor of all the heathen gods — based on a misspelled scholion to Statius, which had intended to claim ancestry for Plato's Demiurge. This gave rise to a literary and iconographic tradition lasting to John Milton and Shelley. [1] From the earliest manuscripts, some believed to be Boccaccio autographs, diagrammatic family trees are included, which are thought to be the earliest non-Biblical uses of this type of graphic, which was already used in the form of the Jesse tree in art. [5]
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Demogorgon had 9 children Litigius, Pan, The Moirae,Polus, Phanes, Terra and Erebus. Terra had 5 children by herself, Fama, Antaeus, Nyx, Tages and Tartarus. With her uncle Erebus Nox had 21 children culminating in Aether (mythology) and Dies (deity). Mors (mythology), Somnus and Fraus are other notable children of Erebus and Nox.[ citation needed ]
Aether and Dies have 2 children, Jupiter I and Caelus. The second book deals with the former while the third book deals with the latter. Jupiter I has 13 children: Minerva I, Sol I, Apis, Diana I, Mercury I) Tritopatreus, Ebuleus, Dionysus I, the last three called the Ariarches were the children of this first Jupiter and his own daughter Proserpina I, his child with Ceres I. Proserpina I was married to her brother Liber Pater and had Mercury II, who had Cupid I with his aunt Diana I. He also bore Autolycus on Chione daughter of Daedalion. Autolycus fathered Sinon I a notorious thief like his father, who bore Anticleia mother of Odysseus and Aesimus who was the father of Sinon I. With Lysithoe Jupiter I sired Hercules I who fought Apollo for the Delphic Tripod. On an unknown woman he sired Scythes ancestor of the Scythians and on Io he sired Epaphus.Epaphus with his wife Memphis or Cassiopeia had two children Libya and Belus. Belus sired Danaus, Aegyptus and Agenor. Danaus sired 50 daughters called the Danaids which included Amymone, Debona who bore Electra to Atlas and Hypermnestra. Aegyptus had 50 sons who were killed by their wives the Danaids, Lynceus was spared and with Hypermnestra sired Abas King of Argos, who was the father of Acrisius, Proetus and Iasius. The former sired Danae who was the mother of Perseus. Proetus sired Merena, whilst Iasius fathered Atalanta, Amphion who bore Chloris wife of Neleus and Talaus. Talaus was the father of Adrastus, Eriphyle and Phlegeus. Adrastus was the father of Deipyle and Argia. Agenor was the father of Taygeta, Europa, Polydorus, Cilix, Phoenix, Cadmus and Labdacus. Cillix bore two insignificant sons and Pygmalion who had a son named Paphos with his wife Galatea, Paphos was the father of Cinyras who with his daughter Myrrha sired Adonis the sexiest man in the world. Phoenix sired Palestinus and Belus giving the priesthood to the former and the kingdom for the latter. Palestinus bore Sichaeus who married Dido daughter of Belus and sister to Anna and Pygmalion. Cadmus fathered Semele, Ino, Agave and Autonoe. Labdacus was the father of Laius who with Jocasta were the parents of Oedipus, who with his mother became the father of Polyneices, Eteocles, Antigone and Ismene. With Argia, Polyneices became father of Thersander.[ citation needed ]
Caelus with his sister Vesta I had 12 children. Ops, Tethys, Ceres I, Vulcan I, Mercury III, Venus the Greater and Venus II, Toxius, Titan, Jupiter II, Oceanus and Saturn. Only the first 8 will be featured in this book, Titan would have book 4, Jupiter II would have books 5 and 6, Oceanus would have book 7 whilst Saturn would have the remaining books for him and his progeny. From the tears of Ceres I, comes the river Acheron who is the father of Styx, The Furies, Ascaphalus and with Styx he was the father of Victoria who was the mother of Honor who with Veneratis was the father of Majestas. Styx was the mother of Cocytus who bore Phelegethon who bore Lethe. Vulcan I was the father of Apollo I with Minerva III, Mercury III with Venus I was the father of Hermaphroditus and Venus II was the mother of Cupid II.[ citation needed ]
Titan had many offspring with his wife Terra but only fourteen are named here.Hyperion was the eldest child of Titan and had two children with his wife Theia, Sol II and Luna. Sol II is the Sol described in Roman Mythology. He is confused with Apollo as he is the father of Miletus the father of Caunus and Byblis. With a goddess called Cronia he was the father of the Horae and a race of gigantic goddesses known as Aeons. With Naeira he was the father of Lampetia and Phaetusa and with Perse he was the father of Circe, Dirce, Pasiphae, Angitia and Aeetes. Aeetes was the father of Medea, Absyrtus and Chalciope. With Aer, Luna gave birth to the dew. Briareus despite being listed as a titan here is actually a member of the Hecatoncheires. Coeus and Phoebe were the parents of Latona and Asteria.Typhon whom despite having many monstrous progeny with Echidna, such as Cerberus and the Hydra has only two, some obscure Cypriot figure named Aeos the founder of Paphos and the Chimera.The text calls him a king of Cilicia and murderer of his brother Osiris, here identifying him with Set. Aegeaon despite being another name for Briareus is here listed as the admiral of the Titans, alongside Enceladus. Iapetus with the Oceanid Clymene or Asia was the father of Hesperus father of the Hesperides, Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus. Atlas sired the Hyades and Hyas on Aethra and the Pleiades on Pleione alongside Calypso and Cyllene mother of Mercury I.Prometheus was not only the father of Deucalion and Isis, but also the creator of Pandora who had Pyrrha with Epimetheus. With Pyrrha, Deucalion became the father of Hellen, Psytacus, Phentratus and Dionysus II a contemporary of Moses. Astraeus and Aurora who is mentioned earlier, were the parents of Astraea and the Winds. Extra detail is put into Boreas and his sons Calais and Zetes and daughter Harpalyce wife of Phineus, alongside Zephyrus. Instead of having Zephyrus being the jealous lover of Hyacinthus, Boccaccio says it was Boreas. Aloeus is considered to be one of the Titans due to his stepsons Otus and Ephialtes being giants.Pallas is here conflated with the giant of the same name and father of Minerva II who killed him by flaying when he tried to rape her. We also learn that Porphyrion was conjoined to a giant named Runcus, and they were twice as strong than Atlas. Lycaon was also listed as one of the Titans by Boccaccio and is mentioned as father of Callisto. This book ends with the Gigantes and a detailed account mentioning the Gigantomachia, Nephilim which included Nimrod and Goliath, and a giant's skeleton recently discovered in Drepani which fell to pieces when it was touched.[ citation needed ]
We now move onto the second Jupiter and his progeny starting with Diana II who is the chaste huntress we are familiar with, the same applies with her brother Apollo II. He was the father of Lapitha ancestress of the Lapiths, Eurynome wife of Talaus, Mopsus, Linus, Palestinus, Garamas, Branchus, Philammon, Orpheus,Aristaeus the father of Actaeon and Iolaus, Aristaeus has three brothers Nomius, Auctous and Argeus. Apollo was the father of Asclepius who was the father of Machaon who in turn bore another Asclepius. The final two children of Apollo were Psyche and Arabus. With Elara he was the father of Tityos and with Semele, he was the father of Bacchus. With Venus he was the father of Hymenaeus and with Ariadne the father of Thyoneus and Thoas, the latter the father of Hypsipyle. With Antiope he was the father of Amphion and Zethus and their children The Niobids, Itylus and Thyius respectively, they also had a brother named Calathus. Followed by the Charites, Lacedaemon father of Amyclas, father of Argulus, father of Oebalus father of Tyndareus and Icarius father of Penelope, Iphthime and Erigone. The remaining children of the second Jupiter are Tantalus Hercules II and his daughter Carthago, Minerva III whose child the first Apollo was mentioned earlier, she was also known as Athena and Bellona, Arcas, his son Ionius and his daughter Carmenta. The final child of the second Jupiter is Dardanus whose descendants are described in the next book.[ citation needed ]
With his sister wife Candavia, Dardanus was the father of Ericthonius, father of Tros who was the father of Ganymede Ilus and Assaracus whom we would talk about later. Ilus would be the father of Laomedon who in turn was the father of Antigone, Hesione, Lampus, Clytion and Hicataeon, Tithonus father of Memnon and Priam. The last two books of the work include a defence of poetry that is his latest and most extended discussion of the subject.[ citation needed ]
The first printed edition was in Venice at the early date of 1472, of a version with some additions to the Genealogia, and other short works by Boccaccio, shortly followed by an edition of 1473 which was the first book printed in Leuven. Four further Italian incunabulum editions were published (including in 1497), and a French translation in 1498 or 1499. All survive in healthy numbers, confirming the popularity of the work, which was reprinted in many more 16th-century editions, some illustrated. [8]
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as "the Certaldese" and one of the most important figures in the European literary panorama of the fourteenth century. Some scholars define him as the greatest European prose writer of his time, a versatile writer who amalgamated different literary trends and genres, making them converge in original works, thanks to a creative activity exercised under the banner of experimentalism.
Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Beginning in the second century BC, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. Minerva is one of the three Roman deities in the Capitoline Triad, along with Jupiter and Juno.
Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first syllable of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.
Mercury is a major god in Roman religion and mythology, being one of the 12 Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery, and thieves; he also serves as the guide of souls to the underworld and the "messenger of the gods".
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), with six male Titans—Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus—and six female Titans, called the Titanides or Titanesses—Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is a psychopomp, the ferryman of the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead. Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins known generically as Charon's obols were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing their ashes. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon's mytheme are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices, or else the coins function as a viaticum for the soul's journey. In Virgil's epic poem, Aeneid, the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river. Charon also ferried the living mortals Heracles and Aeneas to the underworld and back again.
Ascanius was a legendary king of Alba Longa and the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and Creusa, daughter of Priam. He is a significant figure in Roman mythology because of his genealogy: as the son of the Roman founding father Aeneas, himself the son of the goddess Venus and the Trojan prince Anchises, he was regarded as an ancestor of the Roman people. Under his additional name Iulus, he was claimed as the particular ancestor of the gens Iulia, the family of Julius Caesar, and therefore a progenitor of the first line of Roman emperors, the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In some Roman genealogies, he is also made to be an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. Together with his father, he is a major character in Virgil's Aeneid.
In Greek mythology, Moros /ˈmɔːrɒs/ or Morus /ˈmɔːrəs/ is the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate. It was also said that Moros gave people the ability to foresee their death. His Roman equivalent was Fatum.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto was the ruler of the Greek underworld. The earlier name for the god was Hades, which became more common as the name of the underworld itself. Pluto represents a more positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. Ploutōn was frequently conflated with Ploûtos, the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because as a chthonic god Pluto ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. The name Ploutōn came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Pluto was venerated as both a stern ruler and a loving husband to Persephone. The couple received souls in the afterlife and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, being referred to as Plouton and as Kore respectively. Hades, by contrast, had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and he is portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone.
Demogorgon is a deity or demon associated with the underworld. Although often ascribed to Greek mythology, the name probably arises from an unknown copyist's misreading of a commentary by a fourth-century scholar, Lactantius Placidus. The concept itself can be traced back to the original misread term demiurge.
Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona, Lucina and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
Euhemerism is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exaggerated in the retelling, accumulating elaborations and alterations that reflect cultural mores. It was named after the Greek mythographer Euhemerus, who lived in the late 4th century BC. In the more recent literature of myth, such as Bulfinch's Mythology, euhemerism is termed the "historical theory" of mythology.
Magas of Cyrene was a Greek King of Cyrenaica. Through his mother’s second marriage to Ptolemy I he became a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He managed to wrest independence for Cyrenaica from the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt, and became King of Cyrenaica from 276 BC to 250 BC.
In Greek mythology, Nilus is one of the three thousand Potamoi, the river gods, who represent the god of the Nile river itself. Nilus is the son of the water gods Oceanus and Tethys.
Theodontius was the author of a now lost Latin work on mythology. He was extensively quoted in Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum Gentilium, but is otherwise almost unknown. Boccaccio says that he knew Theodontius's work through the Collections of Paul of Perugia, which Paul's wife burnt after his death. In telling the legend of Bathyllus, however, Boccaccio complains that Theodontius was illegible except for Bathyllus's birth, from Phorcys and a marine monster, so he may have seen some of Theodontius's own writings; sources disagree on this. Some authorities think Boccaccio invented him.
The Dii Consentes, also known as Di or Dei Consentes, or The Harmonious Gods, is an ancient list of twelve major deities, six gods and six goddesses, in the pantheon of Ancient Rome. Their gilt statues stood in the Roman Forum, and later apparently in the Porticus Deorum Consentium.
In Greek mythology, Uranus, sometimes written Ouranos, is the personification of the sky and one of the Greek primordial deities. According to Hesiod, Uranus was the son and husband of Gaia (Earth), with whom he fathered the first generation of Titans. However, no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived into classical times, and Uranus does not appear among the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. Elemental Earth, Sky, and Styx might be joined, however, in solemn invocation in Homeric epic. Uranus is associated with the Roman god Caelus.
The Venetian painter Titian and his workshop made at least six versions of the same composition showing Danaë, painted between about 1544 and the 1560s. The scene is based on the mythological princess Danaë, as – very briefly – recounted by the Roman poet Ovid, and at greater length by Boccaccio. She was isolated in a bronze tower following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus, who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus to seduce her in the form of a shower of gold.
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