poet goes on to detail the offspring of each member of that
generation. Exceptions are only made in special cases, as the
Sons of Iapetus (ll. 507-616) whose place is accounted for by
their treatment by Zeus. The chief landmarks in the poem are as
follows: after the first 103 lines, which contain at least three
distinct preludes, three primeval beings are introduced, Chaos,
Earth, and Eros -- here an indefinite reproductive influence. Of
these three, Earth produces Heaven to whom she bears the Titans,
the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants. The Titans,
oppressed by their father, revolt at the instigation of Earth,
under the leadership of Cronos, and as a result Heaven and Earth
are separated, and Cronos reigns over the universe. Cronos
knowing that he is destined to be overcome by one of his
children, swallows each one of them as they are born, until Zeus,
saved by Rhea, grows up and overcomes Cronos in some struggle
which is not described. Cronos is forced to vomit up the
children he had swallowed, and these with Zeus divide the
universe between them, like a human estate. Two events mark the
early reign of Zeus, the war with the Titans and the overthrow of
Typhoeus, and as Zeus is still reigning the poet can only go on
to give a list of gods born to Zeus by various goddesses. After
this he formally bids farewell to the cosmic and Olympian deities
and enumerates the sons born of goddess to mortals. The poem
closes with an invocation of the Muses to sing of the `tribe of
women'.

This conclusion served to link the "Theogony" to what must have
been a distinct poem, the "Catalogues of Women". This work was
divided into four (Suidas says five) books, the last one (or two)
of which was known as the "Eoiae" and may have been again a