Zeus as a symbol for the super-ego
When Zeus is introduced to the story, he is able to subject the Titans to their doom in Tartarus, and for this he earns the authority to be the king of the human consciousness, which is what Hesiod is using to imagine Zeus in the first place. Therefore, Zeus is a symbolic reminder of the human ability to rise above the titanic, elemental energies of chaos, into higher ranks of order and poise.
Prometheus, the good traitor
Any treatment of Theogony that doesn't talk about Prometheus is not complete. Clearly, from Greek culture, loyalty is clearly a part of honor. But for Prometheus, being a human hero meant betraying the gods. By sharing "divine fire" with the humans, he simultaneously sets the humans into a higher caste of consciousness (because they begin doing metallurgy and alchemy by the fire), and he sets himself into a lower state of existence, one of torture. In this case, he is not unlike a Christ character, yet he is a traitor. Somehow, Prometheus is like Judas and Jesus in one character.
Aphrodite and Ares as archetypes
Aphrodite is tired of being hit on, but when she complains to Zeus, she probably wasn't expecting his verdict; she has to marry Hephaistos, the universe's finest craftsman, the finest arms creator in the universe, but because he is impotent from his paralysis, she cheats on him with someone more passionate, the violent god of war. The portrait makes Aphrodite into the archetype of Femme Fatale or Anima as it is also called, and Ares into the archetype of invader and conquerer.
Pictures of Tantra
Hephaistos himself experiences the tantric reality of desiring his wife, Aphrodite, without being able to please her. This makes him a picture of competence and incompetence. Have been rendered sexually incompetent, Tantric desire, which Hesiod call Eros, is born from Aphrodite's affair (literally) so, Hephaistos is a symbol of the alternative to fulfilled desire: technical excellence. It seems sexual disappointment does yield both good news and bad news.
Portraits of opposites
Ultimately, the most consistent symbolic motif in the book is the simultaneous existence of equal and opposite entities. These portraits of opposites contain marriage and sacrilege, darkness and light, chaos and order, time and eternity, divine and human. The last picture is most pertinent to the ending of the novel when the poet concludes his Theogony by showing the final stage of divine development, the emotions of man.
