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210 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Studying Mythology:

Context
Understand how the history, religious beliefs, cultural developments, politics, and intellectual currents affected the myth's portrayal
Studying Mythology:

Literary Artistry
Myth conformed to the certain literary conventions in which it was told
Studying Mythology:

Theoretical Analysis
Myth represents the attempt to understand the human condition

How they saw it and why it matters

Same issues now as then
Meaning of "Myth"
Mythos=something spoken, not inherently false

A pre-scientific and imaginative attempt to explain

Appeals to emotion over reason

a story that, through its
classical form, has attained a kind of immortality

has its source in reason
Types of Myths:

Myth
(narrow sense)
mistaken explanations of phenomena, either human or of nature

pre-scientific science
Types of myths:

Legends
oral/written traditions related to real people/places/events

pre-literate history
Types of myths:

Folk-tales
Purely imaginary, for entertainment purposes

pre-literate fiction
Nature Myth
Explains a phenomenon of nature
Aetiological Myths
a cause or explanation of something in the real world
Charter myth
explanation of social beliefs, institutions, customs
Religious Ritual myth
explanation or source of religious rituals
Creative Era myths
explanation of creation

reclaim a lost paradise or gain a better state
Heroic myths
folk-tale undercurrent, aetiological and historical elements

benefit of mankind
Psychological myths
Observations about human nature and behavior

Mythological figures illustrate personalities
Literary uses of myth
used as the prototype for subsequent art and literature
Structuralism
1) Human nature and behavior is constant

2) Society has a constant nature because of the binary nature of the mind

*binary opposites: life/death, male/female, hunter/hunted
Feminism
Psychological and social situation of females

frequently fails to emphasize the complimentary nature of the male/female relationship, not just strict opposition
Strengths of periodization
summarization of the period/style's major characteristics
Weaknesses of periodization
artificial, blurred boundaries are permeable
Minoan Civilization
Palace culture: no gate blocking entrance, redistributive economy

Presumably literate: Linear A (undecipherable)

Society: King Minos was more powerful than Athens. Human sacrifices made to the minotaur on Crete. Theseus defeated Minotaur. SOn of King Aegeus. Aegean Sea.
Mycenaean Civilization
Palace culture: heavily fortified, buried with weapons

Linear B: Greek gods listed but no complete myths

Heroic Age: setting for many myths, Trojan War, Homer's writings, worshipped Zeus

Cyclopean masonry

Megaron- main gathering place
Aetiology
From Greek aition: cause

explanation of localized/isolated phenomena
Aidoneus
Hades' epithet meaning "unseen one"
aischrologia
shameful talk

off-colored jests
anthropomorphism
in the form of humans

possessing the characteristics, personalities, even faults of humans
Catharsis
the arousal of pity or fear as a means of purging those emotions
Chthonic
pertaining to the underworld

cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth
Polytheism
Many gods for many functions
Syncretism
associating one culture’s god with that of another (e.g., Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter)
Henotheism
only worshiping one god but not denying the existence or
power of others
Homeric
Same diction, style, and meter (dactylic hexameter) as Homer
Hymn
The term hymnos “hymn” denotes a type of devotional song
sung in honor of a god or goddess
Hera
pre-Hellenic mother goddess

wife of Zeus, daughter of Kronos and Rhea

function: earth goddess, queen of gods, marriage
Hephaestus
god from Asia Minor

son of Hera, often parthenogenically

volcanoes, metallurgy

given Aphrodite
Hestia
early mother goddess

daughter of Kronos and Rhea

virgin goddess

hearth fire

worshiped at home more than publicly
Poseidon
a native Greek god who predated Zeus, later partially displaced/replaced

son of Kronos and Rhea

Function: fresh water, sea, horses, earthquakes

Attributes: trident

Animal: hippocamp

Epithet: Earth-shaker

Spouse: Amphitrite
Didactic poetry
a teaching poem (like Hesiod's)
Compendium
A handbook, a general summary (like Apollodorus' Bibliotheca)
Linear A
undeciphered text from the Minoan Civilization
Linear B
deciphered text from the Mycenaean civilization, early Greek
Dorians
invaded Greece, bringing the Dark Age

used iron which was stronger than bronze

literary and palace culture were lost

oral poetry preserved myths for later ages
Hesiod
late 8th century BC

settled in Askra near Mt Helicon, mount of the Muses

won a poetry competition for Theogony
Theogony

(the work)
a genealogical table in verse

structure:
Background of Hesiod’s Call
Description of Patronesses
“How the Gods Came to Be”

Zeus-centric
Chaos
Hesiod: gap, void

Ovid: disorder, unformed mass

The first of the early generation of the gods, spontaneous creation

generator of Nyx (night)
Gaia
one of the first 4 gods

earth

produces primarily parthenogenically

mother of Ouranos (sky) and Pontos (sea)
Tartaros
deep underworld

one of the first 4 gods

prison for the Titans
Eros (primal power)
desire

begins creation by reproduction
Succession myth
adopted from near Eastern mythology

son overthrows father as ruler of the gods
Titanomachy
Zeus grows to maturity and overthrows most of the Titans, imprisoned them in Tartarus
Ovid's Creation myth
four elements: fire, earth, water, and air

formed from the unformed, disorganized mass of Chaos
Prometheus
In Hesiod: Patron of the human race

In Ovid and Apollodorus: Creator of human race

Aeschylus: Classic account
Plot
Tragedy is the representation, not of men, but of ACTION and life, of happiness and unhappiness—and happiness and unhappiness are bound up with action
Hamartia
a simple mistake in judgments that brings about tragic consequences
Tragic Character
good but not too good, one with whom the audience can
identify
Iambic Trimeter
three measures of short-long short-long
Prometheus Bound:

Background
rule is harsh whose rule is new

Prometheus as a culture hero
Mt. Helicon
Mountain of the Muses
Perses
Brother of Hesiod

Cheated Hesiod out of inheritance land

Addressed in Works and Days
Pandora
given to the idiot Epimetheus (afterthought) by Zeus

created by all the gods

opened the pithos that contained all the evils of the world
Elpis
hope

the last thing left in Pandora's pithos
Typhoeus
Chthonic monster, associated with snakes. Defeated by Zeus. Debated genesis, either by Gaia and Tartaros or parthenogenically by Hera.
GIgantomachy
battle between the gods and the giants, the offspring of Gaia and Ouranos

Zeus needed the help of the mortal Herakles to win
Zeus
Indo-European sky god

Son of Kronos and Rhea, married to Hera

Sanctuary: Olympia

Functions: storm god, king of gods, guardian of state and justice
Athena
Pre-Hellenic Mycenaean goddess,
perhaps a mother goddess stripped of her fertility

Sprung from Zeus’ head after he
swallowed Metis

patroness of heroes, wisdom, crafts, just warfare

aegis (cape thing)

Sanctuary in Athens

virgin goddess
Ares
son of Zeus and Hera

all war, but often violent that is not just or defensive

On-going affair with Aphrodite, an odd collusion of love and war
Styx
Part of the Tartaros Proper

Punishment for breaking an oath
Hades the deity
chthonic deity whose fertility role is later downplayed by his role as lord of the dance. I mean the dead.

son of Kronos and Rhea

god of the underworld, wealth

keys, black sheep, pomegranate seed

Aidoneus “Unseen one,” and Zeus Katachthonios
Hades the place
Tartarus, Elysian FIelds, Styx

a place of reward and punishment
Cerberus
three-headed guard dog of the underworld
Phlegethon
River of fire in Hades
Furies
avengers of crime, especially
murder and blood guilt
Eumenides
“kindly ones” – a euphemism stressing the positive aspect of the Furies, after they have been
appeased
Hecate
associated with female power, magic
Soma
Body
Pneuma
breath
Psychē
life-force while alive
shade
the pale reflection of one’s soma and the echo of nous after death
Admetus
king of Thessaly, allows his wife to die in his place to avoid an early death
Alcestis (the character)
Queen that dies for her husband Admetus and is saved by Herakles
Herakles
saves Alcestis from the Underworld
Pheres
Father of Admetus, disappointed in him for bein a wuss
Demeter
Pre-Hellenic mother goddess whose sphere is later reduced to vegetative fertility, successor to Gaia

Daughter of Kronos and Rhea

agriculture, earth mother

mother of Persephone

Sanctuary in Eleusis
Kore
epithet for Persephone meaning young maiden
rapio
snatch
kykeon
drink of barley and water used in the Eleusinian mysteria
Apollo
son of Zeus and Leto

music, poetry, archery, and aristocratic endeavors; medicine, prophecy

represented the traditional pattern of Hellenic law, custom,
and religious observance

Epithets: Delphinius, Pythian

Sanctuaries: Delphi, Delos
Hymn to Apollo
1) Delian Apollo
2) Poet's digression
3) Delphic (Pythian) Apollo
Ouranos
the sky, a male because from it comes rain, which makes the world fertile

primal power born of Gaia
Nyx
night

a Primal Power born of Chaos
Pontos
Sea

Born of Gaia, primal power
Okeanos
ocean stream around Gaia

a Titan
Kronos
A Titan

Time
Rhea
A Titaness

The bomb.com
Epimetheus
"Afterthought"

Brother of Prometheus. An idiot. Gives Pandora the pithos to open. Duh!
Memnosyne
"Memory"

A Titan. mother of the Muses by Zeus
Metis
Mother of Athena

Swallowed by Zeus

A Titan
Dionysus
liminal abandon

a late arrival

married to Ariadne

early Greek fertility god

Son of Semele (who burned in Zeus' glory) and Zeus' leg

Twice-born

Maenads and stayrs

Thebes, Athens
Zagreus
son of Zeus and Persephone

Torn apart and devoured by the Titans by command of Hera

Heart incubated in Zeus' leg-->Dionysus! Iacchus
Iacchus
Dionysus

god born of Zagreus' heart from Zeus' leg after torn apart and devoured by Titans
Muses
born of Zeus and Memnosyne

home on Mt Helicon
Artemis
fertility, hunt and animals

twin of Apollo, daughter of Zeus and Leto

Sanctuary in Ephesus

Polymastos, Potnia Theron
Hermes
perhaps an early chthonic fertility deity merged with a later Greek god

son of Zeus of Maia

messenger of the gods, merchants/thieves,
herdsmen, fertility (herms), dead souls, boundary crossing,
magic (trickster)

Argeiphontes (slayer of Argos? “flash?”), Psychopompus (guider of souls)
Argeipontes
epithet of Hermes

slayer or Argos?

flash?
Psychopompus
guider of souls

Hermes' epithet
caduceus
Hermes' staff thingy with the snakes
Persephone
daughter of Demeter

Kore: maiden

snatched by Hades

wife of Hades
Charon
Sails the dead across the river Styx

requires a fee
Styx
river of hate!

Charon sails across

River of Broken Oaths
Aphrodite
Eastern fertility goddess

Daughter of Zeus and Dione or Ouranos's genitals

Married to Hephaestus but affair with Ares. Cuz he's hawt!

Goddes of physical and spiritual love

Mother of Eros

Sanctuary in Cyprus

Epithets: Kypris, Cypris
Urania
Aphrodite epithet, Celestial

Sprung from Ouranos alone

For religion and philosophy, becomes the celestial goddess of pure and spiritual love
Pandemos
Epithet of Aphrodite, of all the people

Sprung from Zeus and Dione

more base, devoted primarily to physical satisfaction

Goddess of physical attraction and procreation
Eros (deity)
Son of Aphrodite and Ares. Yowza!
Theodicy in Hades
Judges

a place of reward and punishment
Hundred-handers
Allies of Zeus

Sprung of Gaia and Ouranos
Kyclopes
Born of Gaia and Ouranos

Zeus' allies
Giants
Born of Gaia and Ouranos to eliminate the Olympians
Echidna
in the Hymn to Apollo

She-dragon

monster described by Hesiod as half nymph, half
snake
Bibliotheca
“Library”, written by Apollodorus. A basic history of the gods and their myths.
Metamorphoses
Written by Ovid, a Roman

An epic compendium
Ovid
Roman

Wrote Metamorphoses

prOVIDes a less religious view of the myths, far removed in years
bull
Minoan symbol of male fertility and masculinity
mystery religion
A religion with rites or rituals that are not spoken of to the uninitiated
Demophoön
Prince of the palace of Celeos, fed ambrosia and burned in the hearth (as part of the process of becoming a god) when under the care of Demeter in the Persephone myth.
parthenogenesis
“Asexual” reproduction, Greek-style. Procreation without a partner of the opposite sex.
Alcestis (the play)
Written by Euripides

General synopsis:
Admetus is threatened with an early death but evades it by allowing his sickly wife Alcestis to die for him. Weak sauce. Herakles saves her from the underworld and brings her back.

Why we studied it:
Greek views on death, the guest-friend customs
Bacchae (the play, not the other name for maenads)
Euripides

Synopsis: Dionysiac worship gone awry. Pentheus is led by a disguised Dionysus to spy on the ladies as they worship by way of punishment for not acknowledging Dionysus as a god. They go crazy, rip him to shreds and eat him! I think they eat him...yeah yeah. They do. Cuz Dionysus was eaten and reborn and all.

Why we studied it:
Opposition to Apolline cult and such
Pentheus
character in Bacchae

torn apart for not worshipping Dionysus

rationalism and Apolline opposition to the new cult
Semele (the mortal)
Mother of Dionysus

A mortal!!!!

Burnt in the glory of Zeus while pregnant with Dionysus
viticulture
the cultivation and culture of grapes,
especially leading towards the production of wine

Dionysus
liminality
The loosening of inhibitions allowed
worshipers to “cross boundaries” (limina), acting
differently than usual
omophagy
the eating of raw flesh

noted in the Dionysus slides. Sacramental feasts, Zagreus eaten by Titans.
entheos
the possession by the god of his followers (cf. English “enthusiasm,” meaning “god within”)
thyrsus
wand wreathed with ivy and topped with pine cone
satyrs
half man, half goat/horse; they dance, sing, drink wine, often ithyphallic
Hymn to Dionysus
Grape and wine motifs, descriptive of Dionysus

Men-to-dolphins aetiological explaining why dolphins like
people!
theatron
“watching area,” the semi-circular area of tiered seating
orchestra
round “dancing” floor for the chorus, the
descendant of rural “goat men” who had danced and sung
around poles representing Dionysus in the rural festivals
skene
“tent” but later a wooden scene building or stage behind
Proscenium
the raised area or stage between the orchestra and the skēnē
Cadmus and Tiresias
In Bacchae

submitted willingly to Dionysus
and as a result had experienced only moderate “frenzy"
Agave
Mother of Pentheus

tears apart her own son in Bacchic frenzy
Maenads
female worshipers of Dionysus
Hippolytus (the work)
Euripides

Synopsis:
Phaedra ahem wanted her stepson Hippolytus somethin fierce. Not her fault! Aphrodite made it so as a punishment for Hippolytus not chasin the ladies. Nurse helped Phaedra get Hippolytus buuuuut she committed suicide and accused Hippolytus of attacking her. Theseus then curses Hippolytus and he dies. Hippolytus dies, that is.

Why?:
Pathological love: Incest or devout virginity. Euripides does his iconoclastic thing and makes Artemis seem callous and arbitrary.
Theseus
culture hero

Father of Hippolytus

cursed his son! curses.
brief overview of historical periods
Bronze
Dark
Archaic
Classical
Holla!
Hippolytus (the character)
protagonist of Hippolytus, the Euripides play. Lit Phaedra's fire

hamartia: devout virginity, offended Aphrodite

worshipped Artemis, a virgin hunter. I mean a virgin AND a hunter
Phaedra
stepmother in Hippolytus to Hippolytus

Totally lusted after Hippolytus, had him, and killed herself, blaming Hippolytus in the end. And Aphrodite
Euripides
third great tragedian

wrote Alcestis, Bacchae, and Hippolytus

iconoclast, focused on realism

always loved the awkward stuff
Apollodorus
author of Bibliotheca
Primal powers
spontaneously generated

Chaos, Gaia, Tartarus, Eros, Nyx, Ouranos

not anthropomorphized
titans
born of the primal powers

overthrown by Zeus

Kronos, Rhea, Okeanos, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Memnosyne, Metis
Pytho
a monster defeated by Apollo

pytho: rot
pomegranate
symbol of male and female fertility

associated with Persephone and Hades, chthonic symbol

symbolized the consummation of Hades and Persephone's marriage
Anchises
a mortal, loved by Aphrodite by design of Zeus so she could stop making fun of the gods for loving rampantly when she made it happen
Aeneas
descendent of Anchises

leader of Trojans

ainos: grief. Anchises couldn't be with another woman after Aphrodite. That's grievous. So the boy born of the union was a Trojan leader!
Adonis
a mortal but a hottie Aphrodite actually wanted to get with

the most beautiful male

aetiological myth for the anemone flower
Deucalion
the Noah character in the flood after the Iron Age

builds a boat by recommendation of Prometheus

married to Pyrrha

repopulated the earth by chuckin rocks
Pyrrha
the Noah's wife character in the flood after the Iron Age

Went on the boat with Deucalion
Hymn to Aphrodite (both)
the tales of Anchises and Adonis
Metaneira
Queen of the palace of Celeos

In the Hymn to Demeter

Demophoon and all...the nurse was named Iambe!
Hymn to Demeter
Myth of Demeter and Persephone

Hades took Persephone, Demeter went to the palace of Celeos, cared for Demophoon, tried to deify him

Lalala
Iambe
nurse in the palace of Celeos

aischrologia

Hymn to Demeter
Eleusis
Independent city before absorbed by Athens

Sanctuary to Demeter

Eleusinian mysteria
Celeus/Celeos
King of the palace in the Hymn to Demeter
aegis
Athena's cape-y shawl thing
Tantalus
Crime: stole nectar and ambrosia from the gods and served his son Pelops the gods for dinner

Punishment: forced to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree, forever “tantalized”
Sisyphus
Crime: cheated death by tricking Persephone into temporarily letting him leave the
underworld, then refused to return

Punishment: continually rolls a rock up a hill
Kosmos
Ouranos
Gaia
Okeanos
Hades
Tartaros
Ephesus
Sanctuary to Artemis

Polymastos statue
Works and Days
written by Hesiod

a didactic poem on agriculture and moral conduct

Perses, Pandora
Aeschylus
First of the three tragedians

author of the Prometheus trilogy (Firebearer, Bound, Unbound)

invented spectacle

wrote in iambic trimeter

used myths and legends to explore questions of human suffering and
psychology as well as the nature of the gods
Chorus
part of Greek theatre

danced, sang, interjected lines...etc.
Cosmology
study of the origins and nature of the universe
Cosmogony
Theories on the origin if the universe

None prior to Hesiod
Cyprus
Sanctuary of Aphrodite

The epithet Cypris means of Cyprus. Holla.
deus ex machina
god is machine

in Greek theatre gods would literally be craned onto stage at weirdly opportune times
theophany
appearance of a god to mortal, revealing themselves as a god

note Apollo''s theophany from the dolphin shape
theogony (the meaning)
genealogy of the gods
oral poetry
the first form of relaying myths from generation to generation

poetry was easier to remember than prose

could easily be passed down
palace culture
palace a tthe center of the community

redistributive economy

see Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations
near Eastern mythology
influenced Greek mythology

throughout Bronze Age and again
with early Archaic

Primal couple motifs and succession myths
Culture hero
benefit mankind

Prometheus!
omphalos
navel stone, the center of the universe

in Delphi, the center of the Greek world and Apollo's sanctuary
Delphi
center of the Greek world

omphalos, navel stone

sanctuary of Apollo
invocation
a prayer the the Muses at the beginning of any poem or section of poetry in ancient Greek writings

Muses are the goddesses of art! They are helpful when invoked.
pathological love
crazy, illogical, sick and wrong

element of Euripidean tragedy

examples in Hippolytus:
stepmother/stepson thing
devout virginity
xenia
extreme hospitaliy

guest-friend association

generational
Homer
author of epics the Iliad and the Odyssey

may or may not be real?
Delos
birthplace of Apollo and Artemis

Sanctuary to Apollo
Thebes
birthplace and sanctuary of Dionysus

setting for the Bacchae
Athens
sanctuary for Dionysus

sanctuary for Athena. duh
Io
in Prometheus Bound

a foil for Prometheus

turned into a cow by Hera, bugged by a fly. Ha. Bugged.

Io’s
sufferings and eventual redemption to illustrate the
ultimate wisdom, justice, and mercy of an all-powerful
Zeus

Io's descendants bear Herakles. Yeah!
Pandora's jar
pithos

All evils for mankind escape, except Elpis (“hope”)
armor
attributed to Athena, goddess of just warfare
owl
attributed to Athena, "owl-eyed"
cornucopia
attribute of Demeter

horn of plenty, goddess of agriculture. Fitting!
crown
attributed to Zeus or Poseidon as kings
dolphin
attributed to Apollo and Dionysus but mostly Apollo

pirates!
trident
Poseidon symbol!
thunderbolts
Zeus!
scepter
attributed to Zeus and Hera
snake goddess
Minoan statue, unknown diety
torch
attributed to Ares, god of warfare, along with armor
eagle
attributed to Zeus, his animal
helmet
Hermes, Athena
keys
Hades, keeper of the underworld
Mt. Olympus
home of the gods
Olympia
sanctuary of Zeus
Olympia
sanctuary of Zeus
crescent
bow and arrow

Apollo and Artemis