3: Myths of Creation Flashcards
Descendants of Chaos
What poems did Hesiod write, their meanings, and themes
Two poems: Theogony and Works and Days
* Theogony: Theo = God; Gon– = Birth → creation of the Gods
* Cosmogony: Cosmos = Order, Arrangement
* Themes: Origins of All Things and Hymn to Zeus
Invocation to the Muses meaning
Poets such as Hesiod and Ovid asking Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, for help in composing the origin of Greek tales
Meaning of Mnemosyne and who is she
She was a wife of Zeus and her name means memory
Who are the parents of the muses
Zeus and Mnemosyne
Origin of Greek Mythology according to which two poets and their books?
- Hesiod’s Theogony
- Ovid’s Metamorphoses poem
Origin based on Theogony
- Hesiod’s
- Chaos = Chasm, Gap, “Yawning Void”
- No diety at the beginning, just emptiness that gets filled
- from Chaos you get Gaia, Tartarus, Eros, Erebus, and Night
- Gaia/Gaea/Ge = Earth
- Tartarus = deep within Gaia (does not equal Hades)
- Eros = sexual desire, procreative principle
- Erebus = gloomy darkness of Tartarus, later equated with Tartarus
Origin based on Metamorphoses
- Ovid’s: Romen poet
- defines chaos as disrder
- Metamorphoses = transformations
who is depicted as the earth and the sky
Gaia/Ge: earth
Uranus: sky
What and who are the Children of Gaia
- Gaia can self reproduce, these are her children from that
- Uranus: sky
- Pontus: Sea
- Mountains
What does Hieros Gamos mean
Means sacred marriage
* recurring motif of Earth and Sky –> seen in
* Zeus and Hera
* Cronus and Rhea
* Gaia and Uranus
Motif seen in Uranus coupling with Gaia
Hieros Gamos : Sacred Marriage
* Earth and Sky
Who are the Generation Next
Offpsring of Gaia and Uranus
* 12 titans: 6 males and 6 females
-Oceanus: doublet of Pontus
-Rhea: doublet of Gaia
-Cronus: doublet of Uranus, the youngest
* 3 Cyclopes: orb-eyed
-Thunder, Lightning, Shining
* Hecatonchires 3 hundred handers –> 50 heads and 100 hands each that will become the secret wewapon of Zeus
Who were the titans
- Sea-gods
* Oceanus/Okeanos and sister Thethys make 3000 Oceanids –> -ids = children of __
-Oceanus not fully metamorph, half human half seal - Sun-gods
* Hyperion (he who goes over, first of Sun-gods) marries Theia (Divine) and have three kids
-Helius (L. Sol) = Sun and later becomes Apollo aka Phoebus
-Selene (L. Luna) = Moon and later becomes Artemis aka Diana (Romans) or Phoebe
-Eos (L. Aurora) = Dawn
Who wrote about Phaëthon and what is his story?
- From Ovid’s Metamorphoses
- Son of Helius and Clymene
- Phaethon doubteed that Helius was his real dad so to prove it Helius granted him any wish
- Phaethon asked to drive the chariot of the sun
- He came so close to the Earth in Africa and caused it to burn, which is the reason why Ethiopians have dark skin and Libya turned into a dessert
- Jupiter intervenes - Phaethon hurled to his death and Heliades (Daughteres of Helius) bury him
-they transform him into poplars and his sister’s tears turn into sap then amber
Sleeping Beauty with Selene story
- Selene (goddess of the Moon) & Endymion (handsome mortal shepherd who had 50 daughters)
-Wants him to last forever so asked Zeus to make him immortal → granted Eternal Sleep - Eternal Sleep & Eternal Youth
-Reward? Punishment? → eternal sleep so he stays eternally young
-Cautionary tale - Popular Artistic Motif
-Sleep of Death = Eternal Life
-Endymion Sarcophagus (artifact) of him sleeping and her looking over
Sleeping beauty with Eos story
- Eos (L. Aurora) falls in love with Tithonus
- Eos = Goddess of Dawn. ‘Rosy-Fingered’, ‘Saffron-Robed’
- Tithonus: Trojan prince who is a part of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
- Zeus grants Eos’ wish for Tithonus’ eternal life but did not ask for eternal youth
- Tithonus becomes so old that he shrivels up and shrinks. Variant version is that he shriveled up and transformed into a cicada, that is why he has a high buzzing voice
-Cautionary tale
Story of Cronus vs Uranus
- Wily Cronus = Saturn and son of Gaia and Uranus
- Uranus will not get off Gaia so she swells with children
- Gaia and Cronus plot Uranus’ downfall
- Wily castrates Uranus: Freudian theme and threw the genital behind him and into the earth
- Famous painting depicted by Spanish painter Francis Goya
Who is borne from Uranus and what part of him
From blood of Uranus and Gaia
* Erinyes (Furies): avenging spirits that have wings. Always female
* Giants (Gegeneis = Earth-born)
* Ash-tree Nymphs: born out of blood from violence. Preferred wood for javelins n warfare
From semen/genitals of Uranis mixed with sea-foam - Aphrodite (L. Venus)
* Aphros = Foam
* God of Passion
* Epiphets (nicknames);
-Cytherea: born on island of Cythera in the west
-Cyprogenes: born on island of Cyprus in the east
-Philomme(i)des: “genital loving”, “laughter loving”
Children and story of Cronus and Rhea
- 2nd Hieros Gamos of Earth and Sky
- They make 6 Children (1st generation of Olympians): Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, Zeus
- Prophecy of Uranus to Cronus that Cronus will be overthrown by own child
- Cronus’ Solution is to swallow all his kids whole. Rhea substitutes Zeus for a stone in swaddled clothes instead and offers him to Cronus
How and where was Zeus raised
- Raised in secret on Mt. Dicte on Crete (Cretan Zeus)
- Fed by bees with honey and nursed by nymph (Amalthea) or goat
- Fed by Cornucopia: “Horn of Plenty”
- Zeus’ guardians were Kouretes/Curetes = Young Men and devotees of mother goddesses: Gaia/Rhea/Cybele. Bang drums to drown out sound of crying
- Fusion of Minoan and Mycenaean Cultures
- Zeus was the Indo-European (Mycenaean) god
- Rhea is the Minoan mother goddess
