Catullus -Poem 64 Flashcards
Explain the Thetis and Peleus story.
In Greek myth, Peleus’ life is marked by war and tragedy. When he murders his half-brother, his father exiles him to Pithia where he is purified for the murder and marries the daughter of a king. Peleus eventually becomes King of Pithia.
Later, during a boar hunt, he accidentally kills someone of importance and is banished again. In this new land, he rejects the advances of a married woman, Asytrdameia; she sends a letter to his wife in Pithia and tells her that Peleus is in love with another woman. Heartbroken, Peleus’ wife hangs herself.
Zeus intervenes in the life of Peleus and arranges the wedding of Peleus to Thetis, the lovely sea-goddess. Zeus loves this goddess himself, but fears the prophecy that a son born from a marriage to Thetis would be more powerful than he is (the secret of Thetis which Prometheus knows). The marriage of Thetis to a mortal man assures that the son would be mortal, and therefore of no threat to Zeus’ sovereignty.
The son of Peleus and Thetis is Achilles.
Zeus doesn’t want anything to go wrong during the marriage ceremony; therefore, he refuses to invite Eris–the personification of strife and dissonance–to the wedding. She of course shows up anyway, according to her nature, and rolls an apple, “the apple of discord,” into the wedding party. Three goddesses–Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite–see the words “for the fairest” inscribed on the apple skin. These divine women each desire this prize; Zeus throws the apple out of Olympus and Paris, wandering on the plains of Troy, picks it up. When he reads the words “for the fairest,” the three goddesses appear. Paris must choose one of the three and his judgment leads to the Trojan War–Aphrodite wins the contest and in exchange Paris gets the love of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, wife to Greek King Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon. When Paris takes Helen to the citadel of his father Priam, the Sons of Atreus–Agamemnon and Menelaus–rally the Greeks to war and launch a thousand ships on the Aegean Sea to get Helen back.
Some say that Peleus and Thetis loved each other. Yet because Thetis is immortal and Peleus mortal, the marriage ends in separation, symbolizing the ongoing dissonance between divine and mortal.
Explain the Theseus and Ariadne storyline.
Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and his wife Pasiphae, in Greek mythology. By her mother, she was the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. She is best known for her pivotal role in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.
According to the myth, Minos’ son died during some games that were organised in Athens. In retribution, the king of Crete attacked Athens and won. He then imposed a heavy burden on the city; he demanded that seven young men and seven young women be sent to Crete every year in order to be sent for sacrifice into the Labyrinth underneath Minos’ palace, where the Minotaur dwelt. The Minotaur was a half-bull, half-human creature that was born from the union of Pasiphae with a bull.
One year, when the fourteen young people of Athens were about to be sent to Crete, Theseus, son of King Aegeus of Athens, volunteered to be sent in order to kill the Minotaur and end the sacrifices for good. When they arrived in Crete, Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and decided to help him in his quest. She gave him a sword to fight the Minotaur, as well as a ball of thread; she advised him to tie one end near the entrance of the labyrinth and let the thread unroll as he delves deeper into the twisting and branching paths. When Theseus found the Minotaur, he managed to slay him, and then followed the thread back to the entrance, where Ariadne was waiting. She then eloped with him on his way back to Athens.
According to some versions of the story, when the ship of Theseus stopped at the island of Naxos on the way back home, he abandoned Ariadne there. She was then seen by the god of wine Dionysus, and married her. Other versions say that Dionysus demanded from Theseus to leave Ariadne on the island. From the union of Dionysus and Ariadne, a number of children were born; Oenopion, personification of wine; Staphylus, personification of grapes; Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus, and many more. A version of Ariadne’s myth has it that she was killed by Perseus, while a different one says that she hanged herself. Dionysus then went to Hades, and brought her and his mother Semele to Mount Olympus, where they were deified.
Explain the immortality of Achilles.
- version 1: Thetis dipped in the river styx held by the ankle
- version 2: Thetis would burn Achilles at night to remove the mortal aspect of him and them provide ambrosia in the morning.
Why did Achilles grow up on Skyros?
- Achilles was 9 when Calchas declared that Troy couldn’t be taken without him
- Thetis realizes that her son will die young so disguises him in female clothing and enstrusted him as a maiden to lycomedes, the King of Skyros
- Has affair with his daughter, Deidamia and has son called Pyrrhus, also called Neoptolemus
What were Paris’ three choices?
- rule over all men
- have victory in war
- Helen’s hand in marriage
How was Paris able to abduct Helen?
- when Menelaus went to his grandfather Catreus’ funeral in crete.
How did odysseus try to escape being recruited for the Trojan War?
- Learned that he would be successful at Troy but would return alone and in need after 20 years
- he put on a funny hat to look crazy and yoked a horse and an ox to the plow
- Palamedes put his son Telemachus in the path of the plow, endangering his life.
- Odysseus had to stop his faking to protect his son
