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82 Cards in this Set

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Athena Epithets
Polias
Pallas
Tritogeneia
Parthenos
Ergane
Nike
gray-eye
owl-eye
Polias
Athena epithet: "of the city"
Pallas
Athena epithet, very common, but meaning unknown
Tritogeneia
Athena epithet, meaning unknown
Parthenos
Athena epithet: "virgin"
Ergane
Athena epithet: "worker" (meaning artisan)
Nike
Athena epithet: "victory" (tends to have wings)
Metis
Athena's mother. Zeus raped this goddess of wisdom and swallowed her to avoid prophesy of child this woman overcoming its father.
Attributes of Athena
olive tree
snake
scops owl
aegis
armor and weapons
Aeschylus
wrote Oresteia, the trilogy of plays where Athena and Hephaestus protect civilization
Oresteia
Aeschylus's trilogy of plays about Athena and Hephaestus protecting civilization
Arachne
a girl in Asia Minor who challenged Athena to a weaving contest and made scenes from Athena's love life. Athena took revenge and raged for a while, then Arachne tried to kill herself and Athena took pity on her and made her into a spider
revenge, shape-change, etiological
Tiresias
from Thebes, saw Athena naked so she blinded him but let him see the future
Marsyas
a satyr that got the flute Athena invented (she didn't like it since it made her cheeks puffy), and he challenged Apollo to a contest
Aphrodite epithets
Urania
Pandemos
Cytherea
Cypris
Urania
Aphrodite epithet: celestial, love (not physical)
Pandemos
Aphrodite epithet: of the people, physical love
Cytherea
Aphrodite epithet: refers to coast of Cythera where she was born from foam of sea
Cypris
Aphrodite epithet: refers to Paphos coast where she was born from foam of sea
Attributes of Aphrodite
hand mirror, dove, myrtle tree, red poppy, rose, apple, swans, swallows, tortoise, her son Eros (Cupid)
Story of Pygmalion
Women of Cyprus denied Aphrodite's divinity, she forces them to prostitute themselves and then turn them to stone. Pygmalion sculpts Galatea and wishes for Aphrodite to make her come alive.
Motifs in the story of Pygmalion
denial of divinity motif
revenge motif
shape-change motif
Story of Myrrha
Myrrha tricks her father Cinyras into sleeping with her, she prays and cries over his anger, and is turned into a myrrh tree (incense represents her tears)
Story of Adonis (anemone version)
Adonis is a vegetation god, Aphrodite falls in love with him and turns his blood into anemones when he dies in a hunting accident
Story of Adonis (Persephone version)
Aphrodite gives baby Adonis in a box to Persephone who opens the box and falls in love. Aphrodite wants Adonis too, so Zeus gives them each 6 months with him.
Motifs in Myrrha and Adonis stories
trickery
shape-change
tell woman not to open box
woman opens box
dying vegetation
etiological
Anchises story and motifs
Zeus made Aphrodite want Anchises, so she pretended to be mortal (“for no man retains his full strength who sleeps with an immortal goddess”). Their son is Aeneas.
Trickery motif
Eros specialized by 5th century BC
god of male homosexuality
Hermaphroditus
son of Aphrodite and Hermes, a minor god of bisexuality and effeminacy
Story of Leto/Latona
Zeus raped her, Hera takes revenge by declaring that nobody should let Leto stay, and then when Leto finds an island, Hera continues by not letting Eileithyia help her give birth. Eileithyia was bribed by other goddesses with a necklace and finally helped her give birth holding a palm tree after 9 days of labor
Motifs in story of Leto/Latona
lusty deity
rape
woman gets pregnant
revenge
3 motif
Ortygia
the floating island that Leto made a deal with to anchor it in exchange for letting her rest there and give birth, now it's called Delos
Lycia
In Anatolia, Turkey, a part of Turkey that Leto is mother goddess for.
Artemis Attributes
bow and arrow, fawn, doe, baby animals, wild animals
Lada
Leto's name in Slavic myth
Selene
an early goddess of the moon that Artemis is linked to because she is also a moon goddess
Hecate
goddess of witches, fertility goddess of the Underworld. Linked to Artemis on earth and Selene in heaven.
Artemis Epithets
Potnia Theron
mistress of animals
Lydia
arrow-showering
Potnia Theron
Artemis epithet: "mistress of beasts"
Iphigenia
eldest daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed on the way to Troy because seer told them they had to in exchange for making the winds blow again; may have been saved by Artemis at the last second to guard a temple
Actaeon
the hunter who saw Artemis naked and got turned into a stag and torn apart by his hunting dogs
shape-change
revenge
Story of Callisto and Arcas
Callisto was a follower of Artemis and daughter of King Lycaon; she was raped by Zeus and expelled by Artemis when she failed to hide her pregnancy. Hera turned Callisto into a bear and her son Arcas nearly killed her but Zeus stopped him and made them both into constellations, Ursa Major and Minor
Motifs in story of Callisto and Arcas
lusty deity
rape
woman gets pregnant
revenge
shape-change
Motifs in story of Niobe
hubris
revenge
shape-change
Apollo Epithets
Phoebus
Musagetes
Loxias
striking from afar
Phoebus
Apollo epithet: "bright, shining"
Musagetes
Apollo epithet: overseer of music
Loxias
Apollo epithet: "ambiguous, oblique" refers to oracle
Apollo Attributes
youth, no beard, bow and arrow, lyre, kithara (string instrument), flute, raven, laurel tree (bay tree), laurel wreath, omphalos (belly button, big stone, center of the world=Delphi), tripod when oracle
Story of Pan
Pan challenged Apollo to music contest. Apollo won but Midas thought Pan was better, and Apollo turned Midas' ears into ass' ears. His barber whispers secret into hole in ground and reeds start whispering.
talkative barber motif
challenge god motif
revenge motif
stupid critic motif
Marsyas
satyr who challenged Apollo with Athena's flute and lost, so he was skinned alive.
Story of how Apollo got Delphi
Apollo killed the python (Themis) and was banished to Tempe in Thessaly for 9 years then was purified (as god now represents purification, especially for murder)
Motifs in story of how Apollo got Delphi
Dragon-slaying motif
3 motif
purification
Story of Coronis
Apollo loved her and killed her in anger when his raven reported she was unfaithful, but Apollo regretted his anger and saved the son Asklepios (mortal but still a healing god)
significance of Asklepios as a god
healing god who has lots of temples that all date to the late 5th century BC, the time when a plague struck Greece. All pagan temples were closed in 400 AD by a Christian Roman emperor.
Cassandra
willing to be with Apollo, so he gave her fortunetelling powers. She changed her mind, so he cursed her so nobody would ever believe the fortunes she told
lusty deity and revenge, but no rape for once
Daphne
daughter of river god. Apollo pursues her; she asks her dad for help and he turns her into a laurel tree
lusty deity
shape-change
Apollo represents
music, civilization, and beauty
healing (but tends to fail, his son Asklepios is better)
Hyacinthus
Apollo's gay love, a Spartan young man, accidentally killed by Apollo with a discus. Apollo honors him with song on the lyre and with making the flower grow from his blood. AI on flowers is written by Apollo in grief.
Hermes' birth and parentage
Zeus slept with Maia (nymph), and Hermes was born in Arcadia on Mt. Cyllene (lusty deity, rape, pregnant)
Hermes' first day
invented lyre
stole Apollo's cattle (trickery cause they walked backwards)
Zeus makes Hermes protector of cattle
Zeus' epithet from being an arbiter
Dikaios
Epithets of Hermes
Cyllenian - mountain where he was born
Argeiphontes - killer of Argos
prince of thieves
deceiver
Psychopompos - guide of souls
god of gamblers
Attributes of Hermes
wings on heels
Caduceus - the staff with snakes
petasos - traveler's hat
winged helmet
Hermes' functions
messenger, guide of souls, cattle protector, thief god, patron of heralds, associated with boundaries
herms
stone piles at crossroads, also kept outside front door with a male head and an erect penis
Story of broken herms
Alcibiades was effeminate, partying, a troublemaker, and a general. When the town agreed it was him, they chased him at sea and he went to Sparta, then later to Persia after queen of Sparta got pregnant
Story of Hermaphroditus
Hermes and Aphrodite, raised by nymphs, went traveling as a teen. Nymph named Salmacis falls in lust, but he says no. So she prays they never be separated.
Eugenides
author of modern novel named Middle Sex about hermaphrodites
Dionysus' birth
Zeus rapes Semele, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes in Boeotia. Hera tricks Semele into making Zeus swear an oath to do whatever she asks. Semele wants to see Zeus as he really is, she is burned to a cinder, but Zeus saves the fetus and sews him up in his thigh. Dionysus was raised by nymphs or his aunt Ino.
Dionysus' alternative birth
Zeus slept with Persephone and produced Zagreus. Hera got titans to kill and eat Zagreus, then Athena brought the heart to Zeus who swallowed it, and Zagreus was born from Semele. Zeus in his anger destroyed the titans, and from their ashes mortals were born.
Epithets of Dionysus
Omestes "flesh-eating"
bull-roarer, bull-horn
roaring god, loud-roaring
ivy-crowned
the twice-born
Attributes of Dionysus
long dress
tambourine
ivy
grape-vine
snakes
wine cup
leopard
Euripides
wrote the Bacchae
Dionysus areas of expertise
wine, mysteries, theater
Attributes of maenads
thyrsus (fennel stalk with pine cone on top and ivy wrapped around)
flutes
tambourines
Attributes of satyrs
perpetually horny
pug nose
pointy ears
beard
stocky build
sometimes goat legs, tiny horns, horse tail
Dionysus was married to....
Ariadne, princess of Crete
Mysteries of Dionysus
secret initiation rites, but give followers the promise of a better life after death
Dionysus' festivals
one with tragic plays, one with comic plays
Motifs in the Bacchae
denial of divinity
shape-change (D looks mortal, Tiresias wears a dress)
revenge (makes women maenads, Pentheus torn to shreds by Agave)
trickster motif (to get Pentheus into forest)
Dismemberment motif
Opposites in the Bacchae
civilization and irrational
appearance and reality
young and old (Pentheus versus Tiresias or Cadmus)
sight and blindness (Tiresias and Cadmus try to warn Pentheus against denouncing Dionysus)
deities and secular govt
moderation and excess
male and female (Dionysus is effeminate)