Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, rganized as a narrative that tells about the origin of the cosmos and about the gods that shaped cosmos.Further, in the "Kings and Singers" passage Hesiod appropriates to himself the authority usually reserved to sacred kingship.

The poet declares that it is he, where we might have expected some king instead, upon whom the Muses have bestowed the two gifts of a scepter and an authoritative voice which are the visible signs of kingship. It is not that this gesture is meant to make Hesiod a king. Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to the poetic voice, the voice that is declaiming the Theogony.