The Relationship Between Creator and Creation in Genesis 1-11 and Hesiod's Works and Days

The relationship and interaction between both creator and creation is present in Genesis 1-11 as well as Hesiod’s Works and Days. Genesis, directly meaning beginning or birth, depicts how heaven,earth, and man came to be. Whereas Genesis focuses on the chosen people of God in Israel, Works and Days focuses on the gods of Olympus, the five generations of man, and Pandora’s Box. In both Works and Days as well as Genesis 1-11, the writers of each piece show how the relationship between the Creator and his creations are evident but they do so in contrasting ways that represent how the Olympians were warring and violent whereas the Lord in the Hebrew Bible is meant to be forgiving, omniscient, and omnipotent.

The tales of the Gods of Olympus and man in Works and Days portray the relationship between Creator and creation. Unlike Genesis, Hesiod focuses on five different eras and ages of mankind. During the silver age, “Zeus, son of Kronos, in anger engulfed them, for they paid no due honors to the blessed gods who live on Olympos.” (Works and Days 35) Zeus scrutinized what he had created and, seeing as how his creations were failures, decided to destroy them and start the bronze age. The relationship between Creator and creation is shown in this in that Zeus had decided to destroy the silver age because they had paid no heed to any forms of worship and disrespected him. Hesiod is trying to show how awe-inspiring and fearful Zeus’s power was and it is shown again when discussing the last generation of man which became known as the Age of Iron “But Zeus will destroy this generation of mortals also…” (Works and Days 39) Through this, Hesiod is saying that if his creations had displeased him, then he would simply destroy them without a second thought.

Noah and the Flood also shows how the Creator had used his powers and had disposed of his creation because “the evil of the human creature was great on the earth”(Genesis 6, 163) God perceived that the evil of humans was unchangeable and everlasting. The Creator saw that creating humankind was a mistake and “...said, I will wipe out the human race... for I regret that I made them” (Genesis 6, 163). God truly showcased his powers during this and wiped out the majority of the creatures on the earth. However, the Christian