CH.1 - Intro to Myths & Creation Flashcards
the word “mythology” is derived from what ancient greek word?
“muthologia” - meaning the telling of legends/stories/tales, or simply a legend, story, tale
the word “myth” is derived from which ancient greek word?
“muthos” which means word, speech, tale or story and that is essentially what myth is: a story
what are the earliest literary sources of myths
The epic poetry of Homer and Hesiod
- date back to 750 BCE
- most myths have a oral tradition
- the Greeks often call Homer “the Poet”
Homer’s principle works
The Iliad
- the telling of the wrath of Achilles during the tenth year of the Trojan war
The Odyssey
- describing the return home to Ithaca of Odysseus at the end of the war on his dispatch of the suitors who were harassing his wife Penelope
Hesiod’s principle works
The Theogony
- telling of the creation of the universe and the battles of the gods for supremacy
The Works and Days
- a didactic (teaching of moral instructions) poem giving instruction to the peasant farmer, but interwoven with tales from mythology
Aetiology
Etiology is the study of causation or origination
- derived from the ancient greek meaning “giving a reason for”
- and aetiological myth, or origin myth, is a myth intended to explain the origin of cult practices, natural phenomena,
the big 8 Story Tellers
GREEK
- Homer
- Hesiod
- Aeschylus
- Sophocles
- Euripides
- Appollodorus
ROMAN
- Virgil
- Ovid
List the 7 elements of classical myths
- The pantheon of gods and goddesses
- each god/desse has their own attributes and characteristic
- this showed order and reasons when the gods actions weren’t - Human and Superhuman characteristics
- Tales of extraordinary events
- divine intervention, stories of monsters and giants etc. - Specific place at unspecified time
- Separation or distance from ordinary everyday human experience
- Strong hand of destiny
- future events were often fortold, usually by oracles - A reflection of the culture that gave rise to the myths
- if the gods are doing it, then society will reflect it
- we see the gods actions reflected in art, but also sociologically
Narcissus’s role in society
Narcissus was meant to teach greeks the value of humility
- the gods/myths were supposed to teach and influence
- myths weren’t questioned by the society that made them (i.e. the sky is blue because the gods made it that way)
Constellations and their significance
- comes from the word constellatio
- myths described heros/monsters that were given/cursed to have a place in the heavens
- myths provided a way to give order to the chaos of the night sky
- 12 constellations (zodiac) which means circle of little animals
who/what was there in the Beginning
the Void, also called Chaos
- means dark, gaping space, not evil like it does today
what came after Chaos
Gaea (Earth)
Tartarus
- a dark and terrifying underworld far below the Earth
Eros
- sexual love, the fundamental cosmic force behind all the acts of procreation that would follow
four primal entities are the three + Chaos as depicted in Hesiod’s Theogony
The story of Night and Day
- out of Chaos came Erebus (the darkness of the Underworld) and Nyx (Night, the darkness that covers the Earth)
- Erebus mated with Nyx (the first sexual union) to produce Aether (the clear and bright upper air far away from the Earth) and Hemera (Day)
- Nyx (night) would stay in Tartarus and would emerge to spread her darkness on the cosmos as her daughter Day returned from doing the same
Ovids view of the Cosmos
Cosmos (orderly Universe)
- Aether
- Air
- Earth
- River of Ocean
- Hades
- Tartarus
Parthenogenesis
proposed by Hesiod
- creation from one gender (i.e. Athena or Aphrodite
the story of Earth and Sky and their children
From herself, Gaea brought forth Ouranus (Sky) and Mountains and Pontus (Sea)
- Ouranus mated with Gaea and had a few sets of children
- 12 Titan gods
- 3 hundredhanders
- 3 cyclopes
- Ouranus hated his children so much that he would not allow them see the light of day and threaten his sovereignty. As soon as they were all born he shoved them back in to Gaea’s womb
- she was is so much pain and asked all of her sons to help her but they were all afraid, except for Cronos
- Cronos took a sickle and sheared off his genitals and flung them into the sea
- drops of blood and semen were scatered over Gaea and generated the Furies, Giants and Tree Nymphs
Story of the Titans after Ouranus was overthrown (Titans + their children)
- Cronos was the new ruler of the universe
- Oceanus (Ocean) mated with his sister Tethys to produce 3000 rivers on the earth
- Thelia mated with Hyperion and birthed Helius (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn)
3 fates
Clotho
- spun the thread of life
Lachesis
- Measured the thread
Atropos
- cut the thread of life
Helius, Selene, and Eos
- Helius brought day to the world by driving his four horse sun chariot across the sky
- Selene lit the darkness by driving through the night sky on her moon chariot, drawn by two milk white horses
- Eos brought the early light dawn and helped bring the light of day since she accompanied her brother Helius on his journey through the sky driving her own two horse chariot
Cronos and Rhae
- Cronos discovered that he was destined to be overthrown by his own son
- Rhea gave him 5 children, which he devoured whole since you can’t kill an immortal
- when Rhae was pregnant with #6, her parents told her to go to Crete, where Gaea hid Zeus safely after he was born
- Rhae brought back a stone, which Cronos swallowed whole
- Metis told Zeus about a vomitting potion which worked and he vomitted his 6 kids + cyclopes and 100handers
- they went to war after this
children of Cronos and Rhae
6 titan children
- Hestia
- Demeter
- Hera
- Hades
- Poseidon
- Zeus
Titanomachia
10 year Battle of the Titans
- led by Zeus
- Titans fighting from Mounth Othrys against the gods of Olympus
- olympians only won with the help of the cyclopes and 100handers
- Cyclops forged thunder and lightning, helm of Darkness and trident
- 100handers threw rocks (still there)
Zeus and Typhon
- offspring of Gaea and Tartarus, who wanted to overthrow the gods
- had 100snake heads on his shoulders all of which could relay any possible sound
- Typhon used his own sickle and sliced all the tendons in his hands and feet and hid them under a lambskin guarded by a dragon
- Hermes and Pan stole them back
- Zeus threw mount Etna on top of Typhon, trapping him, it is still an active volcano
Battle of Gods and Giants
- Gaea was mad they threw her kids, the Titans into Tartarus so she stirred up their brothers, the giants
- known as the Gigantomachia
- Olympians needed mortals help so Athena was sent to get Heracles (after herb was destroyed)
- Gaea produced an herb that would protect the giants against mortals and gods
- Zeus forbid Sun, moon and dawn from travelling and stole the herb before anyone could see it
- the giant were finished off by Zeus’s thunderbolts and Heracles arrows
