Mythology Notes
Mythology Notes
8/21/2014
Myth- Story
Legend- Heroic tales of humans, more recent past
Fairy Tales- Outside of human capabilities, improbable for adults, entertainment value, non human characters, magical, simple plot structures, outside time and place
Folklore- Cultural stories, tales specific to a culture, explanatory of things of importance, elements of fear, contain regular/common people, not focused on Gods or heroes
Fable- lessons, contain animals, clearly fiction
Urban Legend-In the recent past, heard from somewhere else, not verified, plausible, hearsay, geologically focused, plot focused
Creation
Hesiod- 800/750 B.C. From Ascra. He lived at the end of the dark ages in a crappy town as an honest, hard working farmer.
3086100-1270IMPORTANT:
Ocean does not equal sea
Mothers and Sons often become parents of the next generation
Incest is not uncommon in mythology.
IMPORTANT:
Ocean does not equal sea
Mothers and Sons often become parents of the next generation
Incest is not uncommon in mythology.
Theogony-coming to be of the Gods
Cosmogony-Coming to be of the universe
Styles of Creation
Primordial
4 Deites/Forces
Chaos (abyss, chasm)
Gaia (seed of the Gods)
Tartarus (confusion, below earth. Later becomes underworld)
Erebus/Night (abstract darkness/concrete darkness)
Eros- force of procreation, civilizing, developing force
Stage one/Bridge
Gaia produces Uranus, the sky God/Heavens
Uranus was a shield/protection, allowed for the creation of Gods
Mother and son, rulers over the Gods >> Husband and Wife
18 children together, 12 titans, 6 monsters
Titans represent divine forces
Kronos-time
Ocean-river around earth
Rheia-Fertility God
Uranus does not allow Gaia to give birth to her children- perpetually pregnant. She calls upon her unborn children to help her and the only one to answer is Cronos. When Uranus goes to have sex with Gaia, Cronos castrates him and all the children are born.
Aphrodite is made from the castrated blood and sea foam falling on the earth.
More monsters are created from the earth 9 months after castration.
Giants are children of Uranus’s blood and Gaia- Earth is fertile.
Stage 2
Kronos and Rheia become King and Queen of 2nd generation of Gods.
Hestia
Demeter
Hades
Hera
Poseidon
Zeus
Kronos eats all the babies right after they are born. When Rheia is pregnant with Zeus she goes to Gaia and seeks advice on how to protect her child. Gaia tells her to disquise the baby and give Kronos a rock in its place. Rheia follows this advice and Kronos eats the rock. Zeus grows up and seeks revenge on his father. He gets Kronos to “throw up” the other Olympians.
Zeus is oldest/youngest- First born, last conceived.
Hestia is youngest/oldest- First conceived, last born.
Olympians live in Crete. The rock that Kronos ate becomes the navel of the world.
Stage 3- Divine family rules Olympus.
Zeus is elected King of the Gods.
Bestows the Olympians with their powers.
2857500262890IMPORTANT-
Creation can’t come from nothing (separation of forces/procreation) Can involve 2 people or earth+ bodily fluids. Does not happen all at once
00IMPORTANT-
Creation can’t come from nothing (separation of forces/procreation) Can involve 2 people or earth+ bodily fluids. Does not happen all at once
Brothers throw rocks to determine what part of the world they will rule.
Poseidon- Sea
Hades- Underworld
Zeus-Sky
Earth=Common Ground
Zeus’s first act as ruler is to establish security on Olympus.
Marries Themis, Goddess of Law/Titan (Zeus is God of Justice)
Takes on her characteristics
Marries Metis, Daughter of the Ocean (Zeus’s cousin), Trickery/Wisdom
Swallows Metis to prevent a son being born after Gaia and Uranus warn him of being overthrown.
Athena is born from Zeus’s head.
Zeus maintains his power as King because he inherited Metis’s powers of procreation.
Marries Hera- Most powerful Goddess with most powerful God.
Oikos- Divine Household of Gods
Family- Women and daughters are married off to other Gods
Women’s adultery is a big deal & men’s adultery is not.
The Olympian Gods II- Younger Generation
Hephaestus/Vulcan- God of fire, blacksmith God, Craft.Was born lame/ Zeus threw him off Mt. Olympus/ Hera fucked him up
8 wive-18 children
Animal-Raven
Makes armor for Gods (Achilles)
Erichthonius- Gaia & Hephaestus child
Raised by Athena
Ares/Mars-God of War, violence, rage (Romans- God of Farming)
Red, angry, spiteful god
Brute strength, no brains
Greek people were very cautious of him
Affair with Aphrodite
Imprisoned by Giants, has to be rescued by Hermes
Biggest temple in Sparta
31 wives-53 offspring
Favorite Sacrifice is a puppy
Animal-Vulture
Temor/Deimos and Fear/Phobos are minions
Names of Mars moons
Dionysus/Bacchus- God of Drunkeness, wine, making wine (growing ), God of wilderness, (Romans- Caduceus- God of making wine)
Animal-leopard
Followers are Maenads- crazy women
Promoted up to Olympian
Thyrsus-staff with ivy, symbolic of wilderness aspect
Apollo/Phoebus Apollo- God of Sun
Phoebus- shining
Son of Zeus and Leto (daughter of 2 titans)
Apollo is twin to ArtimusPaiwon > Paian > Song in worship to Apollo
Interested in Politics, Society, Music
Reason/Rationality/Law
Apollo vs Dionysus
Passion vs Reason
Major Temple in Adelphi
Maps inscribed here
Nothing in excess, Know yourself
Depicted as Calm and Collected, everything moves around him
Constant
God of lyre, greek instrument made by Hermes
God of Poetry, leader of the muses
Muses cover types of poetry
Apollo is a source of artistic inspiration
Always depicted as a young man
Major myth includes Marsyas (half goat/half human)
Marsyas has a flute made by Athena, claims he is a better musician than Apollo. Apollo challenges him to a contest. Apollo wins and ends up skinning him alive. Mitus is the judge of the contest.
Flute vs Lyre (Dionysus vs Apollo)
Apollo is a God of medicine and healing
Adelphi- Prestigious Oracle
Ran by Pythia, an older female priestess
Apollo fixes physical ailments and Miasma (cloud of murder)
Apollo was born in Delos (a floating island)
Leto was in labor for 9 days till a messenger is sent to Olympus to fetch Eileithiya. Artimus is born first.
Hermes/Mercury
Son of Zeus and Maia
Herms-pillars that set boundaries
Hermes- patron of merchants
Trickster
Winged hat- symbolic of his speed
Sandals
Messenger- Guide of men
Psychopompos-Hermes helps your soul travel to the underworld
Born as a baby and steals cattle from Apollo
Magic God- turns himself into a gust of wind, frees Ares, etc..Curse tablets- Greeks would write a curse about someone and address it to Hermes to deliver.
Caduceus- Staff of Hermes- Puts men to sleep, shepherds the souls of the dead. (Staff with snakes on it)
Olympian Goddesses
Hestia/Vesta- Goddess of the Hearth, Family
Family, house, OikosVirgin Goddess- No children or lovers
Role is to tend the Hearth
Oldest/youngest Olympian
No badges, awards, medals, etc.
Humble, wooden, simple throne
Stays home and tends the eternal fire
Honorable, respected Goddess
Every sacrifice essentially goes to her
Replaced on Olympus by Dionysus
Trytaneum- Big dining place , temple unto Hestia
Vesta- Circular temple, like a hearth.
Rome is safe as long as fire in Vesta burns
Vestile Virgins-Aristocratic women of Rome, spend a lifetime in temple tending the fire. Take an oath of chastity
Violation of vows/being unchaste is punishable by death- the woman is shut up underground with a certain amount of food and water so no one is responsible for their deaths.
Vestiala- Day of celebration of Vesta in June. No men can go into the temple.
Hera/Juno- Goddess of Southern Greece/Argos
Most important Goddess, marries most important god, Zeus
Goddess of marriage
Animal-Cow
Depicted with a crown and staff of Zeus
Wears an older womans dress
Compared to pomegranates-fertility
Hienos Gameis- Divine couple
Renew their vows every year
East side of Zeus’s temple depicts the story of HippdomiaRelop cuts the axles of Hippodomia’s fathers chariot
Relop marries hippodomiaWest side of Zeus’s temple shows a story of a different Hippodemia and her husband
Centaurs get drunk at the wedding reception and kidnap Hippodemia. Perithous has to go kill them.
Hera is a peacock- Zeus is the fabulous one
Examples of Hera being a bitch-
Echo- a servant nymph. Hera is pissed at Echo because she knew about an affair of Zeus’s. Hera takes away her body and leaves her as only a voice that can repeat the last few words of someone else.
Semele- A woman Zeus loves. Hera tricks Semele into becoming incinerated by Zeus when she disguises herself as Semele’s old maid and instructs her to make Zeus reveal himself in his godly form. Dionysus is their baby.
Tiresias- A prophet. He starts out as a man, the Gods all love him. One day Hera and Zeus have an argument- who likes sex more, men or women. Tiresias agrees with Zeus, Hera then turns him into a woman. Later Zeus switches him back.
Cleobis and Biton- Live in Argos. Their mom needs to get to the temple, they end up pulling her in a cart to the temple themselves. She prays to Hera to reward her sons. Hera takes their lives as a reward.
Demeter- Goddess of Agriculture (De Meter, Earth Mother)
Not a virgin Goddess but never marries.
Affairs with Poseidon and Zeus
Has a child with Zeus, DespoinaArion- Horse, baby of Demeter and Poseidon.
Demeter shows men how to grow grain
Aphrodite/Venus
Daughter of Zeus and DioneOR Seafoam/Uranus semen
Revered in CyphusDepicted naked or in see through clothing
Accompanied by Eros/ Cupid
Adonis- boy that is beautiful
Cinyras- turned to merr when she was trying to escape her rapist father
Dummuzi- Shepherd boy loved by Inama-Symerian Goddes of love/war (Aphrodite’s equivalent) She takes Dummuzi down to the underworld with her sister ereshkigalStories suggest that love can overcome death
Athena- Goddess of weaving, war, strategy, wisdom
Virgin goddess- uninterested in love
Masculine
Carries a shield, has the head of Medusa on it.
Perseus- Son of Zeus and DanaeWhen Danae’s father found out she was pregnant he shut her and perseus into a trunk and set them out to sea. A farmer on a nearby island rescued them and raised perseus as his own.
Falls in love with Andromeda
Has to fight a gorgon (Medusa) to get to be with her
9/16/2014
The Heroes of Myth 1: Heracles
Heracles/Hercules- Hero
Greeks think that heroes have adventures and are the famous people. Much less of a moral word. Greek heroes are usually of divine descent.
Heracles introduces two themes
Interaction between men and underworld
Nature vs culture (nature vs nurture)
Heracles mother, Alcemene, daughter of Electryon, a king. She was married to Amphitryon. Before Heracles is conceived, electryon’s land is in turmoil. His cattle have been stole and his lands have been raided. He is less prestigious and becoming poorer. He sends his son out to stop the raiders, and he ends up dying. He goes out, and puts Amphitryon in charge. Amphitryon is to go out and get the cattle back. When they get back, the two armies end up fighting, and he kills Electryon. Amphitryon goes into exhile and his brother takes over Sthenelaus. Alcmene is pissed and holds out til her brother’s murder is avenged. Amphitryon avenges the murder and heads back. In the mean time, Zeus disquses himself as Amphitryon and sleeps with Alcmene, they conceive Heracles. When Amphitryon gets back, they conceive Iphicles. Heracles is ½ god, Iphicles is fully mortal. 9 months later, Alcmene gives birth, and Zeus boasts that his son board that day will be a king. Hera delays the birth of Alcmene and makes her wait till Sthenelaus’s older wife gives birth to Eurystheus so that he will become king. Tiresias predicts that Heracles will become a God, and that he will marry Hebe, the goddess of Youth, a daughter of Hera and Zeus. Hera tries to kill Heracles by sending snakes to kill the boys in their cradle. This is the last we hear of Iphicles, though it is not clear whether he dies or just isn’t important. Heracles always suffers from Hera his entire life. He grows up in Thebes, the king at the time is Creon, and his daughter is named Megara. They get married and have 3 kids. Hera causes Heracles to go insane, and in a fit of madness, he kills the sons and wife Megara. He’s tainted by the murders, so he goes to Delphi to be cleanesd and freed of his insanity. The oracle tells him to go serve Eurystheus for 12 years. After the 12 years, he will achieve immortality.
The 12 labors- Athloi (contests)- The prize is immortality
2 groups – first 6 take place in southern Greece, last 6 take place in far away places.
The Lion- Mythological beast that lives in the Mountains. Heracles either strangled it or clubbed it to death. The lions hide was impenetrable from arrows. He takes the lion back to show to Eurystheus, and he runs off and hides in a big jar. Heracles skins the lion and always wears its skin.
The Hydra- half sister of lion. She has 9 heads, 8 are mortal and the center one is immortal. If you cut off the mortal head before the immortal one, 2 more heads grow back in its place. Heracles uses a sword. Iolaus helps Heracles by cauterizing the stumps of the heads before they can grow back. Once they get down to one head, then Heracles kills the hydra. Heracles dips arrows in the hydras blood.
The Hind- The stag is gold, and Heracles chases it for a year, on his way back to give it to Eurystheus, he encounters Artimus, he explains the situation and artimus is cool with it.
The Boar- same as stag, when he brings it back, Eurstheys hides in a jar. Centaur Pholos is a good guy. Lets Heracles stay at his house, and some passing Centaurs smell some wine and fight Heracles. Heracles goes after them and encounters Nessus and Chiron. Heracles accidentaly wounds Chiron with an arrow, chiron doesn’t die but lives in pain forever.
The Stables- If Heracles cleans the stable in one day by getting a river to wash through it.
The Birds- They have knives for talons. Heracles gets a giant rattle, it scares the birds and he shoots them all out of the sky.
The Bull- Goes to Crete and gets the bull, shows it the Eurystheus and then lets it go.
The horses- They are mares, belong to a king in Northern Greece. They eat people. Admetus is told he will die unless he can find someone to take his place. His wife, Alcestis takes his place. When Heracles hears this, he goes down to the underworld and fights death to bring back the wife. CATABASIS
The Belt- Belongs to the Queen of the Amazons- warriors. He goes to them and fights them for it and brings it back.
The Cattle- They belong to a monster, Garion, who lives in the atlantic ocean. Heracles goes there and defeats him, the guards, and his dog (bro of the dog that guards the gates of hell)
The Apples- Apples of a tree that is guarded by the 3 daughters of night. Guarded by a snake. The tree is the tree of life, apples of immortality. Side adventure-he meets promitheus. Heracles frees promitheus by shooting the eagle of zeus. The two go to Atlas, the guy that holds the world on his shoulders. They go to him, and ask him to get the Apples for them. Atlas says sure, and makes Heracles hold the world. Atlas doesn’t wanna hold the world anymore, Heracles still tricks him.
Cerberus- The dog of hades, has 3 heads, guards the gates of Hades. Erystheus asks him to bring the dog back, Heracles goes down there and fights Hades for a while till he lets Cerberus go. Heracles takes the dog back to Erystheus who goes and hides in his jar.
He doesn’t get immortality at this point. He is left to wander. He meats Meleager. He’s worried about his sister, Deainira. He asks Hereacles to marry her. Heracles says yes, so he travels to North Western Greece. They get married and go to Tiryns. On the way, they encounter a bad centaur, Nessus, working as a ferry. Nessus recognizes Heracles, so he tries to take Deainira off and rape her. Heracles shoots Nessus with a poison tipped arrow. Nessus dips his cloak in his blood and gives it to Deainira to use if Heracles ever “falls out of love” with her. Heracles soon falls out of love and into love with a girl. He ends up killing her brother. Heracles leaves Deaniria behind and goes to Trachis in exile. He goes back to Delphi where he is turned away. Eventually the Pithia tells him he has to be a slave for Omphale. In the day he dresses up as a woman and cleans her palace. At night they share a bed. At the end of the year, he goes to Olies house. Deainira hears about it and sends the cloak to Heracles. Heracles puts it on and the poison kills him. He dies.
Greeks think of Heracles as both man and god, with two souls. The mortal soul goes to Hades, immortal soul goes up to Olympia. His name showcases both his power and Heras power. They change from enemies to friends.
Heracles and the underworld- Heracles takes a lot of trips to the underworld 3 trips. Means he OVERCOMES death when he comes back, not so much being reborn. Heracles is important to Greek culture, supposedly came up with the Olympic games. He rescues promethius, alchestus, ( implications for standing for culture/civilization) He is also primitive (nature) wears no clothes, carries a primitive weapon, fits of madness, brute strength, insatiable attitude for food, drink, and sex. Depicted as a glutton. Heracles is often the patron of Greek drinking clubs. Theres a myth that Heracles slept with 50 daughters of a king and got them ALL pregnant in ONE night. The reason he is the greatest hero of the Greeks is that he is so multidimensional.
9/18/2014
The Heroes of Myth II: Theseus
Theseus is a local hero- he’s worshipped mainly in Athens. Then Athenians think he was an actual person, and some even think he was a God. Some even consider Theseus to be propaganda. Theseus is the descendant of the early kings in Athens, great great grandson of Erechtheus. They say he reigned the generation before the Trojan war (1250-1200 BC). His father, Aegeus, is in a civil war with his brother Pallas. Aegeus and Pallas are fighting over the throne, and aegeus is losing. Pallas has 50 sons, so everyone prefers him. He’s having trouble producing a baby. He goes to the oracle at Delphi- the oracle says he will have a baby with the first woman he sees. That happens to be Aethra, a princess of Troezen. (There is a version where Poseidon also slept with Aethra , meaning he also fathered Therseus.) Aegeus doesn’t marry Aethra, but gives her the sword and sandals he’s been wearing-tells her to hide them and then give them to their son- if he can wear them then he is worthy of the throne. Theseus is born in Troezen, not Athens. Later, on the way to Athens, Theseus experiences the 6th labors on the road.
6 labors
Periphetes/Corynetes- The clubber. This dude beats travellers to death. Thesus wrestles him and kills him instead. (Epidaurus)
Sinis the Pine-bender- Travellers climb trees and sinis grabs the tops of trees after travelers climb them and flings them into the sea. Theseus does the same to him. (Isthmus)
Crommyonian Sow- She’s been terrorizing the border of southern/northern Greece. There is a version where she is the offspring of the bull that Heracles defeated. (Isthmus)
Sciron the Foot washer- This dude is a bandit that forces travellers to wash his feet. When they go to wash his feet, he kicks them into the sea where his man eating turtle pet eats them. Thesus kicks him off the cliff and the turtle eats him. (between Isthmus and Eleuis)
Cretan Bull- The bull belongs to Cercyon, and he captures people and feeds them to the bull. He makes people charge the bull until they are exhausted and the bull tramples them to death. Cercyon tries this with Theseus, but he kills him the same way.(Eleuis)
Procrustes the Stretcher- He has 2 beds, one long, one short. He kills people by either compressing them or stretching them. Thesus does this to him and eventually cuts his head and legs off. (Eleuis)
The people of Greece claimed the route of Theseus to determine their boundaries.
Back in Athens, Aegeus has defeated Pallas, gotten married to Medea. Medea came to Aegues after Jason has left her ( she killed Jason and her children). Medea is jealous of Theseus, so she tries to posion him. Aegeus stops him at the last second and banishes Medea.
Theseus has to go to Marathon and kill a bull there. One day Theseus wakes up in Ahtens, and the whole city is in mourning. The city is in mourning because years before a son had been killed. In recompense, the Athenians send 7 girls and boys to crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. The minotaur is a result of Pasiphae and one of minos’s bull. The bull was supposed to sacrifice but he doesn’t so Poseidon makes her fall in love with the bull. Pasiphae goes to Daedalus to make her a cow costume and the bull has sex with her, and she has the minotaur later. (Pasiphae and Minos have two daughters-phaedra and Ariadne). Theseus volunteers to go, and plans to kill the minotaur. Ariadne falls in love with Theseus, and she gives him a ball of thread to help him find his way out. He kills the Minotaur and finds his way out, with all of the other kids plus Ariadne. Ariadne is from crete. On the way back to Athens, they stop at Naxos, where she is left behind. Theseus was supposed to change the black sails to white, Aegeus ends up killing himself because he thought his son was dead. Theseus’s best friend is Pirithous (his wedding is inscribed on the temple of Zeus). The friends hear of this beautiful woman, Helen, in sparta. They kidnap her, her brothers come back for her. They also think they can go to the underworld- they get trapped. Heracles comes down and rescues Theseus but not pirithous. Theseus is given credit for synoecism of Athens and down to troezen. Theseus loses the kingdom to Menestheus- he is banished to Scyros- he dies there when he falls off a cliff.
The Athenians consider him to be the hero/champion of the oppressed. He founds their democracy- he also starts the celebration for Athena.
Dido- founded Carthage .The most famous foundation myth is the foundation of Rome. There were twin brothers- Romulus and Remus. They decide to build the city- they end up getting in a fight and Romulus kills Remus. (753 B.C.) but archeological evidence says it was built in 1000 B.C. Romulus and Remus were supposed to die but a she wolf adopted them.
Smaller foundation myths of Rome-
Aeneas- ends up at rome after the Trojan war. He meets Dido, and when they get to Italy, their great great whatever grandchildren are Romulus and Remus.
Evander- Lives at the site of future rome. Heracles comes on a trip to get back some cattle and evander entertains him for a night.
These are NOT historical- just myths.
9/23/2014
The Heroes of Myth III: Achilles
The generation after the Trojan war. Homer was a poet- author of Illiad and Oddessey. We don’t know if there was an actual Homer, because the themes and styles are so different. We also queston this because Homer put together so many stories- they all have their own backgrounds. We think of Homer as an editor.
Epic poetry- Poem that tells a story or adventure; a story that involves several different aspects/structures of a journey. A hero that undergoes a transformation, all epic poems have a central figure. Gods are prominent in epic poems. Achilles is the main hero in Illiad, Oddseus is main in oddessey. The heroes are seeking glory (Kleos). Kleos generally comes with safety/success for their communities. The heroes cannot escape physical death. Their legends will live on forever but they will physically die. The stories in epic poems were meant to command belief. The ancient greeks actually believed these stories. The Greeks had beliefs that these were actual fact. For a long time people thought the story of the Trojan horse was just a myth.
We know now that a war did occur then.
These myths were so important because they allowed the Greeks to share culture and history. It was a link between people.
The Trojan war is not the same as the Illiad. The illiad covered 52 days, (takes place in the last year of the war) the Trojan war lasted 10 years.
Achilles is angry at the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon. It ends with the funeral of Hector, the Trojan war leader.
Zeus fell in love with Leda, the queen of Troy. He comes to sleep with her in the form of a swan. Leda lays 4 eggs (children). She was married to Tyndareaus. Tyndareaus is the father of Clytemnestra and Castor. Zeus is the father of Pollux and Helen. The children of Zeus are more “blessed”. They are demigods. The other two are fully mortal. Helen is the most beautiful woman in the world. When they grow up, Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon and Helen marries Menelaus and they rule over troy. Helen is so beautiful that suitors from all over the world come to marry her. Tyndareaus knows its gonna be a big deal when he picks a husband for Helen. He gives Helen the choice and makes the suitors swear to not fight over her and swear if anyone kidnaps her they all have to help get her back. One day when Menelaus is away in Crete, a prince of Troy comes to visit. Helen has to practice Xenia, guest friendship, with the Prince. So she puts him up, and Paris seduces her and takes her back to Troy with him. REMEMBER THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN APPLE AND PARIS.Hera promises power, Athena promises wisdom, Aphrodite promises the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife. The greeks blame Helen regardless. This makes Hera and Athena hate Troy. When Paris takes Helen, all the other suitors band together. Menelaus brother Agamemnon is the commander of the army because his city is the biggest. The army gathers on the island of Euboea to sail off to Troy. Odysseus doesn’t want to go with the army because he just got married himself and she just had a baby. Odysseus yokes together an ox and a mule to prove he’s insane and he sows salt on the beach. Everybody is skeptical of his insanity so they [put his son in front of the plow to make him stop. Achilles is also holding out on joining the army. His mother doesn’t want him to go to war (Mom is a sea goddess Thetis and his father is a gorgon) Achilles is half mortal. His mom tries to immortalize him, she dips him in the river of sticks except for his ankles. She puts him in the fire to burn off the mortal parts. She also feeds him ambrosia. She knows that Achilles has to be at the war for the Greeks to win. Thetis disguises Achilles as a girl and sends him away. Odysseus gets Achilles to join the army by giving all the “princesses” toys and Achilles takes the sword and shield. So his disguise is wrecked and all the armies head out to troy. Agammemon has to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia. Calchas fortells that the Greeks will fight a 10 year war.
In troy, Priam is the King, Hecuba is queen, the princes are Hector and Paris. Hector is married to Andromache. In a quarrel with Achilles and Agamemnon the Illiad starts. The greeks have to kill all the men and take the women and children as slaves from the small towns in Troy. All the armies get a part of their spoils from the raids. Agamemnon wants to take a girl back with him (her dad was a priest to Apollo) and turns down the ransom for her. Apollo sends a plague as a result. Calchas interferes again and Achilles forces Agamemnon to send the girl back. Achilles acts as the leader throuhouht the plague and everything. Agamemnon takes Briseis, Achilles prisoner because he doesn’t want to lose honor. Achilles repsonds by taking back all of his troops. Every battle that Achilles is not in is lost. Achilles is a king of the Meridans. He is the greatest warrior on either side. He is a man of enormous passions. Achilles embodies everything in the code of epic hero. In Achilles absence, the Greeks almost lose the war. Patroclus, Achilles’ friend goes into battle in Achille’s place and so all the Trojans run away. Hector turns to fight and kills Patroclus and takes Achille’s armor. Achilles is devasted and so he patches up the quarrel with Agamemnon and gets new armor from asphestus (divine blacksmith). So then Achilles goes in and wins the war. Achilles celebrates Patroclus funeral by sacrificing 12 trojan captives and mutilating hectors corpse. *After the illiad, Achilles is killed by Paris and the Greeks take the city of Troy by way of the Trojan Horse. Helen goes home with Menelaus.
Epic Heroes exist to win Kleos- fame past mortality. To win Kleos you have to demonstrate Arete- being the best at something, adherence to standards of excellence. In the Illiad, Kleos and arête happen best on the battle field. You want to kill as many enemies as possible. Rage cannot be appeased, Achilles has rage not anger. Menis is generally only used by the Gods, so when its said that Achilles has Menis it shows he is godly. Achilles has a choice between a long life with no kleos and a short life with Kleos- he obviously chooses the short life. In the Odyssue though it seems like he wants a long life with no kleos though. The plagues happen because Achilles asked Thetis to get Zeus to intervene. Ajax is the second best hero, Phoenix was the tutor.
Agamemnon offered Achilles a whole bunch of shit. Achilles turns it down and says hes gonna leave. Pheonix tells Achilles a story about Meleager, a dude that was married to cleopatra (patroclus)and she begged him to fight. Ajax tells odysseus and phoenix that talking to Achilles is useless- so then Achilles says hes not going to leave after all. Achilles accepts the gifts, swears peace with Agamemnon and decides to be a hero- he becomes more uncivilized though. He changes his rage from Agamemnon to Hector because of Patroclus’ murder. Achilles is inhuman and he demolished all the Trojans in his way (even the ones that ask to be ransomed) He even attacks the river god after the river complains that hes dumped too many bodies into the water. He still refuses to eat. Later, Priam asks Achilles for Hectors body, and he accepts. They break bread, and Achilles’ spiritual cycle is over. He has accepted his fate of a short life.
Myth and Science 10/2/2014
Myth is primitive science. Science used to be myth- now its seen as the opposite. Science asks why and how physical events occur. Does mythology seek to answer why or how?
Aetiological- the reason something happens.
The Greeks had their own science- like predicting eclipses, forming experiments, the elements, etc. They believed in anthropomorphic gods- that have human qualities.
“If oxen and horses and lions had hands and so could draw and make words of art like men, horses would draw pictures of gods like horses and oxen like oxen and they would make their bodies in accordance with the form that they themselves possess”
10/9/2014- The Rule of Law being justified.The house of Atreus
Aeschylus- he’s an old school writer, he is very interested in the Gods
Sophocles and Euriides are competitors. Sophocles writes about men as they should be and Euripides writes about men as they are. Neither of them are interested in the scale of Human morality. They write plays they aren’t meant to be real. They are put on in honor of Dionysus and the plays are meant to worship him. They have a contest- 3 play writes put on a trilogy. On the day of a festival the plays are performed and everyone goes. The playwrites can win a prize- determined by the applause given. The Eumenides was a popular play. Aeschylus answered a question with his plays “Can inherited guilt compounded with each generation and its cycle of violent crime be brought to a peaceful resolution”
Pelops and Tantalus-
Tantalus is a king and he wants to serve the gods a great meal. So he kills pelops and cooks him into a pie. The gods realize that they are about to eat pelops (except Demeter eats the shoulder) and stop themselves so they put him back together (ivory/silver shoulder) and the gods banish him to hades. He is stuck in a pool of water with fruit trees that he cant eat or drink and is subject to eternal thirst and hunger.
Pelops murders his father in law. Hippodemia kills her son Chrysippus.
3rd generation- Atreus comes up with a trick to win the throne. He sends his brother a message that he gives up on the throne and invites him and his sons to dinner. Atreus catches the sons and cuts them up serves them to his brother. One child escapes (agisthus) Atreus has two sons (agammemnon and Menelaeus) Menelaeus marries Helen and is king of Sparta. Agamemnon marries Clymestra. Agamemnon offends Artimus when he shoots her deer and he has to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. While Agamemnon is gone, Chlytemenstra decides to get revenge on Agamemnon when he returns from Troy. When Agamemnon comes back with Casandra a slave girl, Chlymenstra kills them. Chlymenstra has an affair with Aigisthus.
Furies- 3 sisters. Female dieties born from Uranus’ severed genitals that fell onto the land. Half sisters of Aphrodite, as ugly as she is beautiful, they punish people for the wrongs they commit on their families, they are gods of the underworld. They chase the dude to Athens to get help from Athena. Athena takes the interest from private parties and puts it in a legal court because it is a threat to society. They change from the furies to the Eumenides- the kind ones. She gives them a role in Athenian religion and they change from being feared to being loved.
Apollo/ Athena VS Furies
The furies are violent and vengeful and barbaric. Emotional. Feminine. Customary law. The older (3rd generation) Ugly. Part of the underworld.
Athena and Apollo are symbols of justice and civilization. Masculine. Athena says that the father is the important parent because they are doing the active part of the reproduction. They are thoughtful and rational. Contemporary/formal law. Beautiful. Olympia. Pure. Younger/new.
This is a good example of myth and society. ON a specific level, it
Myth and Philosophy 10/16/2014
Myths reflect how a society reacts. Myth helps to cope. Greeks have a highly developed sense of the underworld. Myths serve as models for how to deal with death. Everyone will die.
Hades is not the God of Death. He’s not like the grim reaper, doesn’t go and gather souls or anything like that. He isn’t seen to be different from the other gods. The best speculation of what Hades means is the invisible one, the unseen one. He is seldom depicted in Greek art. He rarely plays a role in myth. His big myth is the abduction of Persephone. He is sometimes refered to as Ploutos, which means wealth. They think that because he is wealthy in souls (there are more dead than alive). Also referred to as Zeus Chthonios- as powerful in the underworld as Zeus is above. Persephone is his wife, she spends 3 months in the underworld, 9 months above. Symbolic death – changing of the seasons.
Tour of the Underworld
Hermes- escorts souls into the underworld. Hades refers to the place and the god. It does not mean hell. People were buried with coins in their mouth to be able to pay the toll to cross the river styx. You cross the river and you’re in the Asphodel Fields. This is where average people, they weren’t bad enough for Tartarus or r good enough for Elysium. Cerberus keeps people from crossing back out of Asphodel Fields. Minos judges you- left goes to tartarus and right goes to palace of Hades. Souls can communicate with each other in Hades. The underworld is thought to be past the ocean. The dead are helpless though. They have no physical substance. They have lost their power to act but they keep their emotions. There is no reward for being good on earth, death is just a continuation of life because the soul still feels all the pains of the living.
Around the 5th century, mythology begins saying that there is more to life than living and going to Hades.
Orpheus- musician. He goes to the underworld and plays so beautifully for Hades that they tell him he can take his wife back to the world. He ends up fucking that up and looks back and his wife can’t come with him. He gets ripped up into pieces and thrown in a river. By the beginning of the 5th century mythical Orpheus is seen as a religious leader. >> Orphism introduces the idea that everyone is judged in the after life- anyone can go to Tartarus or Elysium. Orphics have an origin myth
Story is, the original couple was Zeus and Persephone. They have a child, Zagreus. The titans discover that Zagreus is undefended and they rip him up, take out his heart, and eat him. Zeus comes along, grabs the heart, and swallows it. Later, he removes the heart and he puts it into semele> Dionysus. He turns the titans to ash, and the ash becomes humans. This means that humans have two parts- one from the titans, the mortal part, and the soul, immortal, from Dionysus. The early greeks believed that the soul is helpless without the body, the orphics believed the soul was trapped by the body. The orphics reenact Orpheus’ death. They believe in reincarnation. They practice purity, they are vegan, don’t wear wool, don’t drink wine. They aim to live a just life with no damage to other beings.
Entrances to the underworld- the prophecy place, the Nekuimanteion of the Acheron. It’s pitch black in there.
Tartarus- They don’t think of hades itself as a place of punishment. Tartarus is negatively viewed, its like hell, the great sinners go (tantalus, sysophis, etc)
Erebus-darkness. Personification of total darkness, description of darkness within Tartarus.
There is a positive place in Hades, Elysium, aka Elysian fields, aka Golden field. Not everyone gets to go (only heroes, relative of the Gods).
Pythagoreans
Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusis
MetaneiraCeleusDemophoonKykeionTransmigration
Hymn to Demeter
Withdrawal>Devastation>Return
10/21/2014
Myth and religion: The quest for immortality 1
Metaneira- Demaphoon’s mom.
Demaphoon- a child that Demeter takes care of, she is his nurse. Demeter tries to make him mortal by putting him in the fire (like Achilles ) and gives him nectar and ambrosia. Metaneira sees this and Demeter stops the transition.
Kykeion- a drink that is offered to Demeter. Its water, barley, and mint. She can’t eat mortal food, and refuses to eat god’s food. The barely and mint represent her role as goddess of agriculture.
Semele/ZemeloPentheusSparagmosHades gets Persephone to eat a pomegranate to symbolize her death and make it to where she ulitimately has to come back to him. Persephone and Hermes go back up to the upper world, Demeter comes out of the temple and the earth enters spring. Rhea invites Persephone and Demeter back up to mount Olympus for dinner and that finalizes their return. Before they go, Demeter tells about the mysteries of the allocenians.
Myth and ritual
All mythology has a myth about rituals. Oh shit we are about to sacrifice mArchetype
Hamartia
PeripateiaAnagnorisisProtagonist
Myths mostly follow the same pattern
Climax>climax>climax>death
Heroes have the same characteristics
Oedipus the ColonusOedipus goes on the road with his daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
Oedipus was a lot more bitter than other heroes. He is more of an intellectual hero. He isn’t a modern or epic hero. He is a tragic hero, like Aerustes. Tragic heroes are more just the main character than heroes. They have 2-3 characteristics.
1)Hamartia- fatal flaw. A mistake, an action that is a mistake (failure to see what is front of him in Oedipus).2)Peripateai-reversal of fortune. Someone who is powerful loses their power. (Oedipus’s crimes get him kicked out of Thebes even though they were unintential)
3)Anagnorisis- Recognition. Realize later they made a big mistake. Trace your misfortunes back to a single mistake you made.
Tragic heroes- what happens to them vs what they do.
11/4/2014
Myths are unpredictable. Myth seems to be random, no pattern, etc. Myths are nonsense.
Although, myths are similar across cultures-creation myths are usually the same.
Myths are still common, and that means there is some sort of universal rule that governs the topic of myth. Individual myths are instances of universal law of thought. There is “primal matter” , thought, that produce “buds” myths. The goal of structuralist is to reduce myths to order and obtain a level to which a kind of necessity is apparent underlying the allusions of liberty. Myhts are superficially different but at their heart they are all the same. Claude Levi-Strauss says mythical thought progresses from the awareness of oppositions to their resolution. All myths consist of two things, elements that oppose/contradict each other and there are elements that resolve those oppositions. Strauss liked to use raw and cooked in his work. Sometimes oppositions are in myth just to add spice, not to be resolved. Resolve doesn’t necessarily mean removal, more just removal of the conflict between the two forces.
Mortal vs Immortal
There are a lot of myths about the fear of death. The underlying message of the hymn to Aphrodite is the fear of death- all human beings want to escape death, they do not want to die, but at the same time we cannot get away from the knowledge that we will eventually die. The hymn is about mortal vs immortal- about how Aphrodite resolves this fear, she is the mediator between life and death.
The love story of Aphrodite and Anchises. He was a Trojan prince, a cousin of Creon, part of the royal family. He is a shepherd on a mountain near Troy. He is tending the sheep when Aphrodite shows up as a mortal girl. She seduces Anchises (53-200). Anchises is uncertain whether Aphrodite is mortal or not, he asks her 3 things- Fame among the Trojans (cleos), his future children to flourish (gain immortality through his descendants), and that he will reach old age and not die young (acknowledges death and mortality). Aphrodite answers him and tells him a story- Hermes brought her there and fell in love with her and said she needs to be his wife and bear his children. Now she wants to be Anchises wife and bear his children. She wants to be introduced to his family. And she asks that a message be sent to her parents to let them know all is well. Her focus is entirely on his second request. This is a peaceful plan, unlike the usual violence. It is only achievable by mortals- a peaceful progression of generations. They go back to his hut, the have sex, he falls asleep and she comes out of her mortal form. He wakes up and realizes that he hooked up with a goddess and he realizes he’s in deep shit because he had sex with a goddess. Aphrodite calms him down, and informs him that they will have a child (Aeneas). She tells him 2 stories- about mortal vs immortal ( myths of Ganymede and Tithonus)
Ganymede- young Trojan boy, son of creon, royal family. Zeus falls in love with him. He carries him of to mount Olympus where he is a waiter. As a reward, Ganymede gets eternal youth. Aphrodite tells about the grief that ganymedes real father feels. Zeus compensates him by giving him a team of immortal horses. It is a disruption in normal human relationships (a surrogate father and an eternal son) (no heir, just a couple horses). This is aphrodites way of telling anchises he’s not going to be immortal.
Tithonus is a mortal too, Eos falls in love with him. She asks Zeus to make him immortal so he will never die but forgets to make him young forever. He is condemned to eternal aging, and eos falls out of love with him (mother and child). When his hair is all white and is too old and frail to walk, she locks him up and leaves him there forever. Aphrodite gives another image of eternal old age. These stories tell Anchises that immortality can end up negatively. Her way of saying that immortality is not available to humans- that she will not make him immortal. By sleeping with him and giving him a son she gives him the only kind of immortality that is available to man. Sort of gives him what he wants- genetic immortality. The goal of the hymn is to reconcile us to mortality by making immortality undesirable and unobtainable.
Aeneas- symbolizes the peaceful succession of mortal and immortal because he is half immortal. Aphrodite dips out and has Aeneas and gives him to some nymphs to raise. They raise him for 5 years before giving him to anchises who raises him to be a warrior.
8/21/2014
Myth- Story
Legend- Heroic tales of humans, more recent past
Fairy Tales- Outside of human capabilities, improbable for adults, entertainment value, non human characters, magical, simple plot structures, outside time and place
Folklore- Cultural stories, tales specific to a culture, explanatory of things of importance, elements of fear, contain regular/common people, not focused on Gods or heroes
Fable- lessons, contain animals, clearly fiction
Urban Legend-In the recent past, heard from somewhere else, not verified, plausible, hearsay, geologically focused, plot focused
Creation
Hesiod- 800/750 B.C. From Ascra. He lived at the end of the dark ages in a crappy town as an honest, hard working farmer.
3086100-1270IMPORTANT:
Ocean does not equal sea
Mothers and Sons often become parents of the next generation
Incest is not uncommon in mythology.
IMPORTANT:
Ocean does not equal sea
Mothers and Sons often become parents of the next generation
Incest is not uncommon in mythology.
Theogony-coming to be of the Gods
Cosmogony-Coming to be of the universe
Styles of Creation
Primordial
4 Deites/Forces
Chaos (abyss, chasm)
Gaia (seed of the Gods)
Tartarus (confusion, below earth. Later becomes underworld)
Erebus/Night (abstract darkness/concrete darkness)
Eros- force of procreation, civilizing, developing force
Stage one/Bridge
Gaia produces Uranus, the sky God/Heavens
Uranus was a shield/protection, allowed for the creation of Gods
Mother and son, rulers over the Gods >> Husband and Wife
18 children together, 12 titans, 6 monsters
Titans represent divine forces
Kronos-time
Ocean-river around earth
Rheia-Fertility God
Uranus does not allow Gaia to give birth to her children- perpetually pregnant. She calls upon her unborn children to help her and the only one to answer is Cronos. When Uranus goes to have sex with Gaia, Cronos castrates him and all the children are born.
Aphrodite is made from the castrated blood and sea foam falling on the earth.
More monsters are created from the earth 9 months after castration.
Giants are children of Uranus’s blood and Gaia- Earth is fertile.
Stage 2
Kronos and Rheia become King and Queen of 2nd generation of Gods.
Hestia
Demeter
Hades
Hera
Poseidon
Zeus
Kronos eats all the babies right after they are born. When Rheia is pregnant with Zeus she goes to Gaia and seeks advice on how to protect her child. Gaia tells her to disquise the baby and give Kronos a rock in its place. Rheia follows this advice and Kronos eats the rock. Zeus grows up and seeks revenge on his father. He gets Kronos to “throw up” the other Olympians.
Zeus is oldest/youngest- First born, last conceived.
Hestia is youngest/oldest- First conceived, last born.
Olympians live in Crete. The rock that Kronos ate becomes the navel of the world.
Stage 3- Divine family rules Olympus.
Zeus is elected King of the Gods.
Bestows the Olympians with their powers.
2857500262890IMPORTANT-
Creation can’t come from nothing (separation of forces/procreation) Can involve 2 people or earth+ bodily fluids. Does not happen all at once
00IMPORTANT-
Creation can’t come from nothing (separation of forces/procreation) Can involve 2 people or earth+ bodily fluids. Does not happen all at once
Brothers throw rocks to determine what part of the world they will rule.
Poseidon- Sea
Hades- Underworld
Zeus-Sky
Earth=Common Ground
Zeus’s first act as ruler is to establish security on Olympus.
Marries Themis, Goddess of Law/Titan (Zeus is God of Justice)
Takes on her characteristics
Marries Metis, Daughter of the Ocean (Zeus’s cousin), Trickery/Wisdom
Swallows Metis to prevent a son being born after Gaia and Uranus warn him of being overthrown.
Athena is born from Zeus’s head.
Zeus maintains his power as King because he inherited Metis’s powers of procreation.
Marries Hera- Most powerful Goddess with most powerful God.
Oikos- Divine Household of Gods
Family- Women and daughters are married off to other Gods
Women’s adultery is a big deal & men’s adultery is not.
The Olympian Gods II- Younger Generation
Hephaestus/Vulcan- God of fire, blacksmith God, Craft.Was born lame/ Zeus threw him off Mt. Olympus/ Hera fucked him up
8 wive-18 children
Animal-Raven
Makes armor for Gods (Achilles)
Erichthonius- Gaia & Hephaestus child
Raised by Athena
Ares/Mars-God of War, violence, rage (Romans- God of Farming)
Red, angry, spiteful god
Brute strength, no brains
Greek people were very cautious of him
Affair with Aphrodite
Imprisoned by Giants, has to be rescued by Hermes
Biggest temple in Sparta
31 wives-53 offspring
Favorite Sacrifice is a puppy
Animal-Vulture
Temor/Deimos and Fear/Phobos are minions
Names of Mars moons
Dionysus/Bacchus- God of Drunkeness, wine, making wine (growing ), God of wilderness, (Romans- Caduceus- God of making wine)
Animal-leopard
Followers are Maenads- crazy women
Promoted up to Olympian
Thyrsus-staff with ivy, symbolic of wilderness aspect
Apollo/Phoebus Apollo- God of Sun
Phoebus- shining
Son of Zeus and Leto (daughter of 2 titans)
Apollo is twin to ArtimusPaiwon > Paian > Song in worship to Apollo
Interested in Politics, Society, Music
Reason/Rationality/Law
Apollo vs Dionysus
Passion vs Reason
Major Temple in Adelphi
Maps inscribed here
Nothing in excess, Know yourself
Depicted as Calm and Collected, everything moves around him
Constant
God of lyre, greek instrument made by Hermes
God of Poetry, leader of the muses
Muses cover types of poetry
Apollo is a source of artistic inspiration
Always depicted as a young man
Major myth includes Marsyas (half goat/half human)
Marsyas has a flute made by Athena, claims he is a better musician than Apollo. Apollo challenges him to a contest. Apollo wins and ends up skinning him alive. Mitus is the judge of the contest.
Flute vs Lyre (Dionysus vs Apollo)
Apollo is a God of medicine and healing
Adelphi- Prestigious Oracle
Ran by Pythia, an older female priestess
Apollo fixes physical ailments and Miasma (cloud of murder)
Apollo was born in Delos (a floating island)
Leto was in labor for 9 days till a messenger is sent to Olympus to fetch Eileithiya. Artimus is born first.
Hermes/Mercury
Son of Zeus and Maia
Herms-pillars that set boundaries
Hermes- patron of merchants
Trickster
Winged hat- symbolic of his speed
Sandals
Messenger- Guide of men
Psychopompos-Hermes helps your soul travel to the underworld
Born as a baby and steals cattle from Apollo
Magic God- turns himself into a gust of wind, frees Ares, etc..Curse tablets- Greeks would write a curse about someone and address it to Hermes to deliver.
Caduceus- Staff of Hermes- Puts men to sleep, shepherds the souls of the dead. (Staff with snakes on it)
Olympian Goddesses
Hestia/Vesta- Goddess of the Hearth, Family
Family, house, OikosVirgin Goddess- No children or lovers
Role is to tend the Hearth
Oldest/youngest Olympian
No badges, awards, medals, etc.
Humble, wooden, simple throne
Stays home and tends the eternal fire
Honorable, respected Goddess
Every sacrifice essentially goes to her
Replaced on Olympus by Dionysus
Trytaneum- Big dining place , temple unto Hestia
Vesta- Circular temple, like a hearth.
Rome is safe as long as fire in Vesta burns
Vestile Virgins-Aristocratic women of Rome, spend a lifetime in temple tending the fire. Take an oath of chastity
Violation of vows/being unchaste is punishable by death- the woman is shut up underground with a certain amount of food and water so no one is responsible for their deaths.
Vestiala- Day of celebration of Vesta in June. No men can go into the temple.
Hera/Juno- Goddess of Southern Greece/Argos
Most important Goddess, marries most important god, Zeus
Goddess of marriage
Animal-Cow
Depicted with a crown and staff of Zeus
Wears an older womans dress
Compared to pomegranates-fertility
Hienos Gameis- Divine couple
Renew their vows every year
East side of Zeus’s temple depicts the story of HippdomiaRelop cuts the axles of Hippodomia’s fathers chariot
Relop marries hippodomiaWest side of Zeus’s temple shows a story of a different Hippodemia and her husband
Centaurs get drunk at the wedding reception and kidnap Hippodemia. Perithous has to go kill them.
Hera is a peacock- Zeus is the fabulous one
Examples of Hera being a bitch-
Echo- a servant nymph. Hera is pissed at Echo because she knew about an affair of Zeus’s. Hera takes away her body and leaves her as only a voice that can repeat the last few words of someone else.
Semele- A woman Zeus loves. Hera tricks Semele into becoming incinerated by Zeus when she disguises herself as Semele’s old maid and instructs her to make Zeus reveal himself in his godly form. Dionysus is their baby.
Tiresias- A prophet. He starts out as a man, the Gods all love him. One day Hera and Zeus have an argument- who likes sex more, men or women. Tiresias agrees with Zeus, Hera then turns him into a woman. Later Zeus switches him back.
Cleobis and Biton- Live in Argos. Their mom needs to get to the temple, they end up pulling her in a cart to the temple themselves. She prays to Hera to reward her sons. Hera takes their lives as a reward.
Demeter- Goddess of Agriculture (De Meter, Earth Mother)
Not a virgin Goddess but never marries.
Affairs with Poseidon and Zeus
Has a child with Zeus, DespoinaArion- Horse, baby of Demeter and Poseidon.
Demeter shows men how to grow grain
Aphrodite/Venus
Daughter of Zeus and DioneOR Seafoam/Uranus semen
Revered in CyphusDepicted naked or in see through clothing
Accompanied by Eros/ Cupid
Adonis- boy that is beautiful
Cinyras- turned to merr when she was trying to escape her rapist father
Dummuzi- Shepherd boy loved by Inama-Symerian Goddes of love/war (Aphrodite’s equivalent) She takes Dummuzi down to the underworld with her sister ereshkigalStories suggest that love can overcome death
Athena- Goddess of weaving, war, strategy, wisdom
Virgin goddess- uninterested in love
Masculine
Carries a shield, has the head of Medusa on it.
Perseus- Son of Zeus and DanaeWhen Danae’s father found out she was pregnant he shut her and perseus into a trunk and set them out to sea. A farmer on a nearby island rescued them and raised perseus as his own.
Falls in love with Andromeda
Has to fight a gorgon (Medusa) to get to be with her
9/16/2014
The Heroes of Myth 1: Heracles
Heracles/Hercules- Hero
Greeks think that heroes have adventures and are the famous people. Much less of a moral word. Greek heroes are usually of divine descent.
Heracles introduces two themes
Interaction between men and underworld
Nature vs culture (nature vs nurture)
Heracles mother, Alcemene, daughter of Electryon, a king. She was married to Amphitryon. Before Heracles is conceived, electryon’s land is in turmoil. His cattle have been stole and his lands have been raided. He is less prestigious and becoming poorer. He sends his son out to stop the raiders, and he ends up dying. He goes out, and puts Amphitryon in charge. Amphitryon is to go out and get the cattle back. When they get back, the two armies end up fighting, and he kills Electryon. Amphitryon goes into exhile and his brother takes over Sthenelaus. Alcmene is pissed and holds out til her brother’s murder is avenged. Amphitryon avenges the murder and heads back. In the mean time, Zeus disquses himself as Amphitryon and sleeps with Alcmene, they conceive Heracles. When Amphitryon gets back, they conceive Iphicles. Heracles is ½ god, Iphicles is fully mortal. 9 months later, Alcmene gives birth, and Zeus boasts that his son board that day will be a king. Hera delays the birth of Alcmene and makes her wait till Sthenelaus’s older wife gives birth to Eurystheus so that he will become king. Tiresias predicts that Heracles will become a God, and that he will marry Hebe, the goddess of Youth, a daughter of Hera and Zeus. Hera tries to kill Heracles by sending snakes to kill the boys in their cradle. This is the last we hear of Iphicles, though it is not clear whether he dies or just isn’t important. Heracles always suffers from Hera his entire life. He grows up in Thebes, the king at the time is Creon, and his daughter is named Megara. They get married and have 3 kids. Hera causes Heracles to go insane, and in a fit of madness, he kills the sons and wife Megara. He’s tainted by the murders, so he goes to Delphi to be cleanesd and freed of his insanity. The oracle tells him to go serve Eurystheus for 12 years. After the 12 years, he will achieve immortality.
The 12 labors- Athloi (contests)- The prize is immortality
2 groups – first 6 take place in southern Greece, last 6 take place in far away places.
The Lion- Mythological beast that lives in the Mountains. Heracles either strangled it or clubbed it to death. The lions hide was impenetrable from arrows. He takes the lion back to show to Eurystheus, and he runs off and hides in a big jar. Heracles skins the lion and always wears its skin.
The Hydra- half sister of lion. She has 9 heads, 8 are mortal and the center one is immortal. If you cut off the mortal head before the immortal one, 2 more heads grow back in its place. Heracles uses a sword. Iolaus helps Heracles by cauterizing the stumps of the heads before they can grow back. Once they get down to one head, then Heracles kills the hydra. Heracles dips arrows in the hydras blood.
The Hind- The stag is gold, and Heracles chases it for a year, on his way back to give it to Eurystheus, he encounters Artimus, he explains the situation and artimus is cool with it.
The Boar- same as stag, when he brings it back, Eurstheys hides in a jar. Centaur Pholos is a good guy. Lets Heracles stay at his house, and some passing Centaurs smell some wine and fight Heracles. Heracles goes after them and encounters Nessus and Chiron. Heracles accidentaly wounds Chiron with an arrow, chiron doesn’t die but lives in pain forever.
The Stables- If Heracles cleans the stable in one day by getting a river to wash through it.
The Birds- They have knives for talons. Heracles gets a giant rattle, it scares the birds and he shoots them all out of the sky.
The Bull- Goes to Crete and gets the bull, shows it the Eurystheus and then lets it go.
The horses- They are mares, belong to a king in Northern Greece. They eat people. Admetus is told he will die unless he can find someone to take his place. His wife, Alcestis takes his place. When Heracles hears this, he goes down to the underworld and fights death to bring back the wife. CATABASIS
The Belt- Belongs to the Queen of the Amazons- warriors. He goes to them and fights them for it and brings it back.
The Cattle- They belong to a monster, Garion, who lives in the atlantic ocean. Heracles goes there and defeats him, the guards, and his dog (bro of the dog that guards the gates of hell)
The Apples- Apples of a tree that is guarded by the 3 daughters of night. Guarded by a snake. The tree is the tree of life, apples of immortality. Side adventure-he meets promitheus. Heracles frees promitheus by shooting the eagle of zeus. The two go to Atlas, the guy that holds the world on his shoulders. They go to him, and ask him to get the Apples for them. Atlas says sure, and makes Heracles hold the world. Atlas doesn’t wanna hold the world anymore, Heracles still tricks him.
Cerberus- The dog of hades, has 3 heads, guards the gates of Hades. Erystheus asks him to bring the dog back, Heracles goes down there and fights Hades for a while till he lets Cerberus go. Heracles takes the dog back to Erystheus who goes and hides in his jar.
He doesn’t get immortality at this point. He is left to wander. He meats Meleager. He’s worried about his sister, Deainira. He asks Hereacles to marry her. Heracles says yes, so he travels to North Western Greece. They get married and go to Tiryns. On the way, they encounter a bad centaur, Nessus, working as a ferry. Nessus recognizes Heracles, so he tries to take Deainira off and rape her. Heracles shoots Nessus with a poison tipped arrow. Nessus dips his cloak in his blood and gives it to Deainira to use if Heracles ever “falls out of love” with her. Heracles soon falls out of love and into love with a girl. He ends up killing her brother. Heracles leaves Deaniria behind and goes to Trachis in exile. He goes back to Delphi where he is turned away. Eventually the Pithia tells him he has to be a slave for Omphale. In the day he dresses up as a woman and cleans her palace. At night they share a bed. At the end of the year, he goes to Olies house. Deainira hears about it and sends the cloak to Heracles. Heracles puts it on and the poison kills him. He dies.
Greeks think of Heracles as both man and god, with two souls. The mortal soul goes to Hades, immortal soul goes up to Olympia. His name showcases both his power and Heras power. They change from enemies to friends.
Heracles and the underworld- Heracles takes a lot of trips to the underworld 3 trips. Means he OVERCOMES death when he comes back, not so much being reborn. Heracles is important to Greek culture, supposedly came up with the Olympic games. He rescues promethius, alchestus, ( implications for standing for culture/civilization) He is also primitive (nature) wears no clothes, carries a primitive weapon, fits of madness, brute strength, insatiable attitude for food, drink, and sex. Depicted as a glutton. Heracles is often the patron of Greek drinking clubs. Theres a myth that Heracles slept with 50 daughters of a king and got them ALL pregnant in ONE night. The reason he is the greatest hero of the Greeks is that he is so multidimensional.
9/18/2014
The Heroes of Myth II: Theseus
Theseus is a local hero- he’s worshipped mainly in Athens. Then Athenians think he was an actual person, and some even think he was a God. Some even consider Theseus to be propaganda. Theseus is the descendant of the early kings in Athens, great great grandson of Erechtheus. They say he reigned the generation before the Trojan war (1250-1200 BC). His father, Aegeus, is in a civil war with his brother Pallas. Aegeus and Pallas are fighting over the throne, and aegeus is losing. Pallas has 50 sons, so everyone prefers him. He’s having trouble producing a baby. He goes to the oracle at Delphi- the oracle says he will have a baby with the first woman he sees. That happens to be Aethra, a princess of Troezen. (There is a version where Poseidon also slept with Aethra , meaning he also fathered Therseus.) Aegeus doesn’t marry Aethra, but gives her the sword and sandals he’s been wearing-tells her to hide them and then give them to their son- if he can wear them then he is worthy of the throne. Theseus is born in Troezen, not Athens. Later, on the way to Athens, Theseus experiences the 6th labors on the road.
6 labors
Periphetes/Corynetes- The clubber. This dude beats travellers to death. Thesus wrestles him and kills him instead. (Epidaurus)
Sinis the Pine-bender- Travellers climb trees and sinis grabs the tops of trees after travelers climb them and flings them into the sea. Theseus does the same to him. (Isthmus)
Crommyonian Sow- She’s been terrorizing the border of southern/northern Greece. There is a version where she is the offspring of the bull that Heracles defeated. (Isthmus)
Sciron the Foot washer- This dude is a bandit that forces travellers to wash his feet. When they go to wash his feet, he kicks them into the sea where his man eating turtle pet eats them. Thesus kicks him off the cliff and the turtle eats him. (between Isthmus and Eleuis)
Cretan Bull- The bull belongs to Cercyon, and he captures people and feeds them to the bull. He makes people charge the bull until they are exhausted and the bull tramples them to death. Cercyon tries this with Theseus, but he kills him the same way.(Eleuis)
Procrustes the Stretcher- He has 2 beds, one long, one short. He kills people by either compressing them or stretching them. Thesus does this to him and eventually cuts his head and legs off. (Eleuis)
The people of Greece claimed the route of Theseus to determine their boundaries.
Back in Athens, Aegeus has defeated Pallas, gotten married to Medea. Medea came to Aegues after Jason has left her ( she killed Jason and her children). Medea is jealous of Theseus, so she tries to posion him. Aegeus stops him at the last second and banishes Medea.
Theseus has to go to Marathon and kill a bull there. One day Theseus wakes up in Ahtens, and the whole city is in mourning. The city is in mourning because years before a son had been killed. In recompense, the Athenians send 7 girls and boys to crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. The minotaur is a result of Pasiphae and one of minos’s bull. The bull was supposed to sacrifice but he doesn’t so Poseidon makes her fall in love with the bull. Pasiphae goes to Daedalus to make her a cow costume and the bull has sex with her, and she has the minotaur later. (Pasiphae and Minos have two daughters-phaedra and Ariadne). Theseus volunteers to go, and plans to kill the minotaur. Ariadne falls in love with Theseus, and she gives him a ball of thread to help him find his way out. He kills the Minotaur and finds his way out, with all of the other kids plus Ariadne. Ariadne is from crete. On the way back to Athens, they stop at Naxos, where she is left behind. Theseus was supposed to change the black sails to white, Aegeus ends up killing himself because he thought his son was dead. Theseus’s best friend is Pirithous (his wedding is inscribed on the temple of Zeus). The friends hear of this beautiful woman, Helen, in sparta. They kidnap her, her brothers come back for her. They also think they can go to the underworld- they get trapped. Heracles comes down and rescues Theseus but not pirithous. Theseus is given credit for synoecism of Athens and down to troezen. Theseus loses the kingdom to Menestheus- he is banished to Scyros- he dies there when he falls off a cliff.
The Athenians consider him to be the hero/champion of the oppressed. He founds their democracy- he also starts the celebration for Athena.
Dido- founded Carthage .The most famous foundation myth is the foundation of Rome. There were twin brothers- Romulus and Remus. They decide to build the city- they end up getting in a fight and Romulus kills Remus. (753 B.C.) but archeological evidence says it was built in 1000 B.C. Romulus and Remus were supposed to die but a she wolf adopted them.
Smaller foundation myths of Rome-
Aeneas- ends up at rome after the Trojan war. He meets Dido, and when they get to Italy, their great great whatever grandchildren are Romulus and Remus.
Evander- Lives at the site of future rome. Heracles comes on a trip to get back some cattle and evander entertains him for a night.
These are NOT historical- just myths.
9/23/2014
The Heroes of Myth III: Achilles
The generation after the Trojan war. Homer was a poet- author of Illiad and Oddessey. We don’t know if there was an actual Homer, because the themes and styles are so different. We also queston this because Homer put together so many stories- they all have their own backgrounds. We think of Homer as an editor.
Epic poetry- Poem that tells a story or adventure; a story that involves several different aspects/structures of a journey. A hero that undergoes a transformation, all epic poems have a central figure. Gods are prominent in epic poems. Achilles is the main hero in Illiad, Oddseus is main in oddessey. The heroes are seeking glory (Kleos). Kleos generally comes with safety/success for their communities. The heroes cannot escape physical death. Their legends will live on forever but they will physically die. The stories in epic poems were meant to command belief. The ancient greeks actually believed these stories. The Greeks had beliefs that these were actual fact. For a long time people thought the story of the Trojan horse was just a myth.
We know now that a war did occur then.
These myths were so important because they allowed the Greeks to share culture and history. It was a link between people.
The Trojan war is not the same as the Illiad. The illiad covered 52 days, (takes place in the last year of the war) the Trojan war lasted 10 years.
Achilles is angry at the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon. It ends with the funeral of Hector, the Trojan war leader.
Zeus fell in love with Leda, the queen of Troy. He comes to sleep with her in the form of a swan. Leda lays 4 eggs (children). She was married to Tyndareaus. Tyndareaus is the father of Clytemnestra and Castor. Zeus is the father of Pollux and Helen. The children of Zeus are more “blessed”. They are demigods. The other two are fully mortal. Helen is the most beautiful woman in the world. When they grow up, Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon and Helen marries Menelaus and they rule over troy. Helen is so beautiful that suitors from all over the world come to marry her. Tyndareaus knows its gonna be a big deal when he picks a husband for Helen. He gives Helen the choice and makes the suitors swear to not fight over her and swear if anyone kidnaps her they all have to help get her back. One day when Menelaus is away in Crete, a prince of Troy comes to visit. Helen has to practice Xenia, guest friendship, with the Prince. So she puts him up, and Paris seduces her and takes her back to Troy with him. REMEMBER THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN APPLE AND PARIS.Hera promises power, Athena promises wisdom, Aphrodite promises the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife. The greeks blame Helen regardless. This makes Hera and Athena hate Troy. When Paris takes Helen, all the other suitors band together. Menelaus brother Agamemnon is the commander of the army because his city is the biggest. The army gathers on the island of Euboea to sail off to Troy. Odysseus doesn’t want to go with the army because he just got married himself and she just had a baby. Odysseus yokes together an ox and a mule to prove he’s insane and he sows salt on the beach. Everybody is skeptical of his insanity so they [put his son in front of the plow to make him stop. Achilles is also holding out on joining the army. His mother doesn’t want him to go to war (Mom is a sea goddess Thetis and his father is a gorgon) Achilles is half mortal. His mom tries to immortalize him, she dips him in the river of sticks except for his ankles. She puts him in the fire to burn off the mortal parts. She also feeds him ambrosia. She knows that Achilles has to be at the war for the Greeks to win. Thetis disguises Achilles as a girl and sends him away. Odysseus gets Achilles to join the army by giving all the “princesses” toys and Achilles takes the sword and shield. So his disguise is wrecked and all the armies head out to troy. Agammemon has to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia. Calchas fortells that the Greeks will fight a 10 year war.
In troy, Priam is the King, Hecuba is queen, the princes are Hector and Paris. Hector is married to Andromache. In a quarrel with Achilles and Agamemnon the Illiad starts. The greeks have to kill all the men and take the women and children as slaves from the small towns in Troy. All the armies get a part of their spoils from the raids. Agamemnon wants to take a girl back with him (her dad was a priest to Apollo) and turns down the ransom for her. Apollo sends a plague as a result. Calchas interferes again and Achilles forces Agamemnon to send the girl back. Achilles acts as the leader throuhouht the plague and everything. Agamemnon takes Briseis, Achilles prisoner because he doesn’t want to lose honor. Achilles repsonds by taking back all of his troops. Every battle that Achilles is not in is lost. Achilles is a king of the Meridans. He is the greatest warrior on either side. He is a man of enormous passions. Achilles embodies everything in the code of epic hero. In Achilles absence, the Greeks almost lose the war. Patroclus, Achilles’ friend goes into battle in Achille’s place and so all the Trojans run away. Hector turns to fight and kills Patroclus and takes Achille’s armor. Achilles is devasted and so he patches up the quarrel with Agamemnon and gets new armor from asphestus (divine blacksmith). So then Achilles goes in and wins the war. Achilles celebrates Patroclus funeral by sacrificing 12 trojan captives and mutilating hectors corpse. *After the illiad, Achilles is killed by Paris and the Greeks take the city of Troy by way of the Trojan Horse. Helen goes home with Menelaus.
Epic Heroes exist to win Kleos- fame past mortality. To win Kleos you have to demonstrate Arete- being the best at something, adherence to standards of excellence. In the Illiad, Kleos and arête happen best on the battle field. You want to kill as many enemies as possible. Rage cannot be appeased, Achilles has rage not anger. Menis is generally only used by the Gods, so when its said that Achilles has Menis it shows he is godly. Achilles has a choice between a long life with no kleos and a short life with Kleos- he obviously chooses the short life. In the Odyssue though it seems like he wants a long life with no kleos though. The plagues happen because Achilles asked Thetis to get Zeus to intervene. Ajax is the second best hero, Phoenix was the tutor.
Agamemnon offered Achilles a whole bunch of shit. Achilles turns it down and says hes gonna leave. Pheonix tells Achilles a story about Meleager, a dude that was married to cleopatra (patroclus)and she begged him to fight. Ajax tells odysseus and phoenix that talking to Achilles is useless- so then Achilles says hes not going to leave after all. Achilles accepts the gifts, swears peace with Agamemnon and decides to be a hero- he becomes more uncivilized though. He changes his rage from Agamemnon to Hector because of Patroclus’ murder. Achilles is inhuman and he demolished all the Trojans in his way (even the ones that ask to be ransomed) He even attacks the river god after the river complains that hes dumped too many bodies into the water. He still refuses to eat. Later, Priam asks Achilles for Hectors body, and he accepts. They break bread, and Achilles’ spiritual cycle is over. He has accepted his fate of a short life.
Myth and Science 10/2/2014
Myth is primitive science. Science used to be myth- now its seen as the opposite. Science asks why and how physical events occur. Does mythology seek to answer why or how?
Aetiological- the reason something happens.
The Greeks had their own science- like predicting eclipses, forming experiments, the elements, etc. They believed in anthropomorphic gods- that have human qualities.
“If oxen and horses and lions had hands and so could draw and make words of art like men, horses would draw pictures of gods like horses and oxen like oxen and they would make their bodies in accordance with the form that they themselves possess”
10/9/2014- The Rule of Law being justified.The house of Atreus
Aeschylus- he’s an old school writer, he is very interested in the Gods
Sophocles and Euriides are competitors. Sophocles writes about men as they should be and Euripides writes about men as they are. Neither of them are interested in the scale of Human morality. They write plays they aren’t meant to be real. They are put on in honor of Dionysus and the plays are meant to worship him. They have a contest- 3 play writes put on a trilogy. On the day of a festival the plays are performed and everyone goes. The playwrites can win a prize- determined by the applause given. The Eumenides was a popular play. Aeschylus answered a question with his plays “Can inherited guilt compounded with each generation and its cycle of violent crime be brought to a peaceful resolution”
Pelops and Tantalus-
Tantalus is a king and he wants to serve the gods a great meal. So he kills pelops and cooks him into a pie. The gods realize that they are about to eat pelops (except Demeter eats the shoulder) and stop themselves so they put him back together (ivory/silver shoulder) and the gods banish him to hades. He is stuck in a pool of water with fruit trees that he cant eat or drink and is subject to eternal thirst and hunger.
Pelops murders his father in law. Hippodemia kills her son Chrysippus.
3rd generation- Atreus comes up with a trick to win the throne. He sends his brother a message that he gives up on the throne and invites him and his sons to dinner. Atreus catches the sons and cuts them up serves them to his brother. One child escapes (agisthus) Atreus has two sons (agammemnon and Menelaeus) Menelaeus marries Helen and is king of Sparta. Agamemnon marries Clymestra. Agamemnon offends Artimus when he shoots her deer and he has to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. While Agamemnon is gone, Chlytemenstra decides to get revenge on Agamemnon when he returns from Troy. When Agamemnon comes back with Casandra a slave girl, Chlymenstra kills them. Chlymenstra has an affair with Aigisthus.
Furies- 3 sisters. Female dieties born from Uranus’ severed genitals that fell onto the land. Half sisters of Aphrodite, as ugly as she is beautiful, they punish people for the wrongs they commit on their families, they are gods of the underworld. They chase the dude to Athens to get help from Athena. Athena takes the interest from private parties and puts it in a legal court because it is a threat to society. They change from the furies to the Eumenides- the kind ones. She gives them a role in Athenian religion and they change from being feared to being loved.
Apollo/ Athena VS Furies
The furies are violent and vengeful and barbaric. Emotional. Feminine. Customary law. The older (3rd generation) Ugly. Part of the underworld.
Athena and Apollo are symbols of justice and civilization. Masculine. Athena says that the father is the important parent because they are doing the active part of the reproduction. They are thoughtful and rational. Contemporary/formal law. Beautiful. Olympia. Pure. Younger/new.
This is a good example of myth and society. ON a specific level, it
Myth and Philosophy 10/16/2014
Myths reflect how a society reacts. Myth helps to cope. Greeks have a highly developed sense of the underworld. Myths serve as models for how to deal with death. Everyone will die.
Hades is not the God of Death. He’s not like the grim reaper, doesn’t go and gather souls or anything like that. He isn’t seen to be different from the other gods. The best speculation of what Hades means is the invisible one, the unseen one. He is seldom depicted in Greek art. He rarely plays a role in myth. His big myth is the abduction of Persephone. He is sometimes refered to as Ploutos, which means wealth. They think that because he is wealthy in souls (there are more dead than alive). Also referred to as Zeus Chthonios- as powerful in the underworld as Zeus is above. Persephone is his wife, she spends 3 months in the underworld, 9 months above. Symbolic death – changing of the seasons.
Tour of the Underworld
Hermes- escorts souls into the underworld. Hades refers to the place and the god. It does not mean hell. People were buried with coins in their mouth to be able to pay the toll to cross the river styx. You cross the river and you’re in the Asphodel Fields. This is where average people, they weren’t bad enough for Tartarus or r good enough for Elysium. Cerberus keeps people from crossing back out of Asphodel Fields. Minos judges you- left goes to tartarus and right goes to palace of Hades. Souls can communicate with each other in Hades. The underworld is thought to be past the ocean. The dead are helpless though. They have no physical substance. They have lost their power to act but they keep their emotions. There is no reward for being good on earth, death is just a continuation of life because the soul still feels all the pains of the living.
Around the 5th century, mythology begins saying that there is more to life than living and going to Hades.
Orpheus- musician. He goes to the underworld and plays so beautifully for Hades that they tell him he can take his wife back to the world. He ends up fucking that up and looks back and his wife can’t come with him. He gets ripped up into pieces and thrown in a river. By the beginning of the 5th century mythical Orpheus is seen as a religious leader. >> Orphism introduces the idea that everyone is judged in the after life- anyone can go to Tartarus or Elysium. Orphics have an origin myth
Story is, the original couple was Zeus and Persephone. They have a child, Zagreus. The titans discover that Zagreus is undefended and they rip him up, take out his heart, and eat him. Zeus comes along, grabs the heart, and swallows it. Later, he removes the heart and he puts it into semele> Dionysus. He turns the titans to ash, and the ash becomes humans. This means that humans have two parts- one from the titans, the mortal part, and the soul, immortal, from Dionysus. The early greeks believed that the soul is helpless without the body, the orphics believed the soul was trapped by the body. The orphics reenact Orpheus’ death. They believe in reincarnation. They practice purity, they are vegan, don’t wear wool, don’t drink wine. They aim to live a just life with no damage to other beings.
Entrances to the underworld- the prophecy place, the Nekuimanteion of the Acheron. It’s pitch black in there.
Tartarus- They don’t think of hades itself as a place of punishment. Tartarus is negatively viewed, its like hell, the great sinners go (tantalus, sysophis, etc)
Erebus-darkness. Personification of total darkness, description of darkness within Tartarus.
There is a positive place in Hades, Elysium, aka Elysian fields, aka Golden field. Not everyone gets to go (only heroes, relative of the Gods).
Pythagoreans
Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusis
MetaneiraCeleusDemophoonKykeionTransmigration
Hymn to Demeter
Withdrawal>Devastation>Return
10/21/2014
Myth and religion: The quest for immortality 1
Metaneira- Demaphoon’s mom.
Demaphoon- a child that Demeter takes care of, she is his nurse. Demeter tries to make him mortal by putting him in the fire (like Achilles ) and gives him nectar and ambrosia. Metaneira sees this and Demeter stops the transition.
Kykeion- a drink that is offered to Demeter. Its water, barley, and mint. She can’t eat mortal food, and refuses to eat god’s food. The barely and mint represent her role as goddess of agriculture.
Semele/ZemeloPentheusSparagmosHades gets Persephone to eat a pomegranate to symbolize her death and make it to where she ulitimately has to come back to him. Persephone and Hermes go back up to the upper world, Demeter comes out of the temple and the earth enters spring. Rhea invites Persephone and Demeter back up to mount Olympus for dinner and that finalizes their return. Before they go, Demeter tells about the mysteries of the allocenians.
Myth and ritual
All mythology has a myth about rituals. Oh shit we are about to sacrifice mArchetype
Hamartia
PeripateiaAnagnorisisProtagonist
Myths mostly follow the same pattern
Climax>climax>climax>death
Heroes have the same characteristics
Oedipus the ColonusOedipus goes on the road with his daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
Oedipus was a lot more bitter than other heroes. He is more of an intellectual hero. He isn’t a modern or epic hero. He is a tragic hero, like Aerustes. Tragic heroes are more just the main character than heroes. They have 2-3 characteristics.
1)Hamartia- fatal flaw. A mistake, an action that is a mistake (failure to see what is front of him in Oedipus).2)Peripateai-reversal of fortune. Someone who is powerful loses their power. (Oedipus’s crimes get him kicked out of Thebes even though they were unintential)
3)Anagnorisis- Recognition. Realize later they made a big mistake. Trace your misfortunes back to a single mistake you made.
Tragic heroes- what happens to them vs what they do.
11/4/2014
Myths are unpredictable. Myth seems to be random, no pattern, etc. Myths are nonsense.
Although, myths are similar across cultures-creation myths are usually the same.
Myths are still common, and that means there is some sort of universal rule that governs the topic of myth. Individual myths are instances of universal law of thought. There is “primal matter” , thought, that produce “buds” myths. The goal of structuralist is to reduce myths to order and obtain a level to which a kind of necessity is apparent underlying the allusions of liberty. Myhts are superficially different but at their heart they are all the same. Claude Levi-Strauss says mythical thought progresses from the awareness of oppositions to their resolution. All myths consist of two things, elements that oppose/contradict each other and there are elements that resolve those oppositions. Strauss liked to use raw and cooked in his work. Sometimes oppositions are in myth just to add spice, not to be resolved. Resolve doesn’t necessarily mean removal, more just removal of the conflict between the two forces.
Mortal vs Immortal
There are a lot of myths about the fear of death. The underlying message of the hymn to Aphrodite is the fear of death- all human beings want to escape death, they do not want to die, but at the same time we cannot get away from the knowledge that we will eventually die. The hymn is about mortal vs immortal- about how Aphrodite resolves this fear, she is the mediator between life and death.
The love story of Aphrodite and Anchises. He was a Trojan prince, a cousin of Creon, part of the royal family. He is a shepherd on a mountain near Troy. He is tending the sheep when Aphrodite shows up as a mortal girl. She seduces Anchises (53-200). Anchises is uncertain whether Aphrodite is mortal or not, he asks her 3 things- Fame among the Trojans (cleos), his future children to flourish (gain immortality through his descendants), and that he will reach old age and not die young (acknowledges death and mortality). Aphrodite answers him and tells him a story- Hermes brought her there and fell in love with her and said she needs to be his wife and bear his children. Now she wants to be Anchises wife and bear his children. She wants to be introduced to his family. And she asks that a message be sent to her parents to let them know all is well. Her focus is entirely on his second request. This is a peaceful plan, unlike the usual violence. It is only achievable by mortals- a peaceful progression of generations. They go back to his hut, the have sex, he falls asleep and she comes out of her mortal form. He wakes up and realizes that he hooked up with a goddess and he realizes he’s in deep shit because he had sex with a goddess. Aphrodite calms him down, and informs him that they will have a child (Aeneas). She tells him 2 stories- about mortal vs immortal ( myths of Ganymede and Tithonus)
Ganymede- young Trojan boy, son of creon, royal family. Zeus falls in love with him. He carries him of to mount Olympus where he is a waiter. As a reward, Ganymede gets eternal youth. Aphrodite tells about the grief that ganymedes real father feels. Zeus compensates him by giving him a team of immortal horses. It is a disruption in normal human relationships (a surrogate father and an eternal son) (no heir, just a couple horses). This is aphrodites way of telling anchises he’s not going to be immortal.
Tithonus is a mortal too, Eos falls in love with him. She asks Zeus to make him immortal so he will never die but forgets to make him young forever. He is condemned to eternal aging, and eos falls out of love with him (mother and child). When his hair is all white and is too old and frail to walk, she locks him up and leaves him there forever. Aphrodite gives another image of eternal old age. These stories tell Anchises that immortality can end up negatively. Her way of saying that immortality is not available to humans- that she will not make him immortal. By sleeping with him and giving him a son she gives him the only kind of immortality that is available to man. Sort of gives him what he wants- genetic immortality. The goal of the hymn is to reconcile us to mortality by making immortality undesirable and unobtainable.
Aeneas- symbolizes the peaceful succession of mortal and immortal because he is half immortal. Aphrodite dips out and has Aeneas and gives him to some nymphs to raise. They raise him for 5 years before giving him to anchises who raises him to be a warrior.
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have a lack of socialization in so many fairy tales. Thankfully a variety of the popular fairy tales…
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Although I had visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art before, I had never really taken the time to really look at the statues that they had displayed. I knew that this time around I had to take my time and I had to make sure I paid attention to art that the museum had to offer. What I was mainly looking for was some type of statue or art that alluded to what I had learned in mythology class. As I walked around I encountered at bronze statue of Eros sleeping. Cupid, Eros name, which most people call him, is a little boy and he is sleeping. I began to think about information about Eros that I already knew and what I wanted to find out.…
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Mythology is the study of myths, and throughout the ages there have been plenty of myths, from Egyptian mythology to Greek to Norse to new age religion. Mythology helps to explain our world around us. Usually from mythology comes religions, and all religions have gods. Each culture has a religion and each religion has gods that explain every aspect of life in the mortal world. One of the best known gods from all mythology is the Greek god Zeus. Zeus has a long history full of devious plots, vicious wars, scandalous adultery, and a difficult rising to power.…
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Myths are stories told from generation to generation that come from the distant past that are true or not true. Myths could be a belief in a system or a value and can serve to a direct value or social actions. Myths are stories that do not necessarily have proof, evidence or facts that back them up, like an imaginary story. Depending on our background such as religion, culture, beliefs, values and so on would dictated the meaning or moral behind the story. The academic context of the word “myth” is define as legendary or traditional story, being told about some hero, event, or being, with or without a natural explanation or proven facts. Some myths are considered human natural or phenomenon of nature. Myths are to relate and have reasons for doing things we do as a society. Today’s society feels the need of having a logical meaning for the purpose of the things we believe, want and need and because of this we rely on myths.…
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This made Hera so angry. Since Zeus was not a good husband to his wife. She tried to prevent the baby from being born.…
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The Greek civilization is considered the cradle of western civilization. The deepest expression of Greek ideology, however, lay in the Greek myths which are relevant and compelling to the present day.…
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Stories claiming Leda as Helen's mother tell how Zeus disguised himself as a swan and raped the Spartan queen. Leda then produced two eggs. From one came Helen and her brother Pollux. Clytemnestra and Castor emerged from the other. Other versions of the myth say that Zeus seduced Nemesis, and she laid the two eggs. A shepherd discovered them and gave them to Queen Leda, who tended the eggs until they hatched and raised the children as her own. In some variations of this legend, Helen and Pollux were the children of Zeus, but Clytemnestra and Castor were actually the children of Tyndareus.…
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Although Hera is the goddess of both childbirth and marriage, she never had a happy marriage herself. After she and Zeus…
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A story with fictional characters Horror Literature that’s frightfully shocking, terrifying and revolting. Tall Tale A humorous story with blatant exaggeration Legend A story of a national or fictional hero Mystery Fiction that involves solving crimes or unraveling secrets Mythology A kind of legend or fictional narrative that’s partly based on historical events Commonly related to gods and how they cause natural disasters Fiction in Verse…
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