(1) a hymn to the muses, telling of their birth and power, recounting their initiation of Hesiod into poetry, and indicating the contents of the following poem (Heliconian Muses, who represent totality of memory, literally breathe poetic power into Hesiod)
(2) the origin of the world: the coming into being of the three primordial entities, Chasm, Earth and Eros
(3) the descendants of Tartaros: Erebos and Night come to be from Tartaros, and Aether and Day from Night
(4) the descendants of earth: earth bears Ouranos (incest), and together they give birth to 12 titans, 3 cyclopes, and 300 handers. the last of the titans, Cronus, castrates his father, Ouranos, thereby producing among others Aphrodite
(5) the descendants of tartaros: Night's numerous and baneful progeny (ex. death, fate)
(6) the descendants of earth 2: Earth's son Pontos begets Nereus, who in turn begets Nereids
(7) the descendants of earth 3: Pontus' son Phorcys and daughter Ceto produce, directly and indirectly, a series of monsters
(8) the descendants of earth 4: children of the titans, especially the rivers, including Styx (all of them children of tethys and ocean), and Hecate daughter of Phoebe and Coeus)
(9) The descendants of earth 5: the further children of the titans: olympian gods, born to Rhea from Cronus, who swallows them all at birth until Rhea saves Zeus who frees the Cyclopes and is destined to dethrone Cronus
(10) The descendants of earth: further children of the titans" Iapetus' four sons, Atlas, Menoitois, Epimetheus, Prometheus (including the stories of the origin of the division of sacrificial meat, fire, and of the race of women)
(11) Conflict between the titans and the olympians: after 10 years of inconclusive warfare between the titans and the olympians, Zeus frees the hundred handers who help the olympians achieve final victory and send the defeated titans down into tartarus.
(12) Tartaros: the geography of tartaros and its population, including the Titans, the hundred-handers, night and day, sleep and death, hades and styx
(13) the descendants of earth: Earth's last child Typhoios is defeated by Zeus and send down to tartaros
(14) the descendants of earth: a list of the descendants of the olympian gods, including athena, the muses, apollo and artemis, hephaestus, hermes, diontsus, heracles
(15) after a concluding farewell to the olympian gods and the islands, continents, and sea, there is a transition to a list of the children born of goddesses, followed by a farewell to there and a transition to a catalogue of women (goddesses+liaisons w/mortal men)