Chap 11 Flashcards
what is the most famous labors of Heracles?
-defeat of the Nemean lion, whose skin could not be pierced by arrow or sword.
-defeats the lion by wrestling it and thereafter wears its skin to make himself invulnerable
what is the common illustration of Heracles?
This common depiction of Heracles recalls Nietzsche’s aphorism—those who fight with monsters become monster-like. This paradox makes heroes ambiguous figures. Heracles, like many Greek heroes, is both an ideal and an outlaw.
what is the function of a hero in society?
-Heroes frequently confront and defeat monsters
-Monsters identify the political, economic, sexual, and cultural boundaries around which a community is organized because they violate them. A hero restores and reaffirms these boundaries when he defeats a monster.
what are the significance of Odysseus victory against Cyclops?
His victory also demonstrates several important hierarchies in Greek thought:
- cleverness over brute strength and Greek over non-Greek.
- A heroic encounter with a monster may affirm any number of values cherished by the Greeks
-human over animal
- civilization over savagery
-male over female
what is the commonality among Heracles, Theseus, and Perseus?
- all are closely linked to a monster. Heracles with the Nemean lion, Theseus with the Minotaur, and Perseus with Medusa.
what is the result of Heracles victory in general?
establishment of many Greek culture and religious practices. superiority of Greeks in region.
how Perseus and Theseus are linked to Heracles?
- Perseus is a distant ancestor of Heracles, primarily known for his defeat of the monstrous Medusa, he and Heracles are considered early Greeks heroes because their exploits are the first recognizable pictorial representations on Greek vases and temples
-Theseus’s adventures are directly modeled on Heracles, yet they are fewer and more limited: almost all are linked to Athens.
Who’s and which institution are build by Theseus?
He rids the Athenian countryside of villains and establishes many Athenian institutions, including, for example, coinage and military tactics.
who was Heracles’s mother?
Alcmene wife of Theban general Amphitryon.
who fulfill the prophecy of Zeus and became the king of Tiryns?
twine of Heracles, Eurystheus—who is also distantly descended from Zeus.
what is canonical labor?
Some stories claim Heracles must serve Eurystheus for other crimes.) Twelve such deeds were sculpted on the temple of Zeus in Olympia, and these have become the canonical labors (athloi, or athlos [singular]; the Greek root of the English word “athletes”) for which Heracles is best known
what is parerga/parergon?
all other trials and journeys of Heracles were called side labors.
how Heracles got to enter Olympus?
After surviving the trials Hera has imposed, the gods recognize the valor, strength, and endurance of the hero. Heracles is allowed to enter Olympus, where he marries Hebe, a goddess whose name means “youth.”
what distinct Heracles from other heros?
His ascension to Olympus makes him unique among Greek heroes.
where Heracles was worshipped?
throughout the Mediterranean world, from Egypt to Spain and Italy, where the Etruscans and the Romans called him Hercules.
what Heracles means?
the glory of Hera. his identity’s tiness with Hera.
what is the Heracles’s first heroic act?
although only an infant, he wrestles and defeats snakes that Hera places in his crib
What was his title?
Scholars have identified his origins in a divine or semidivine figure who has dominion over wild and domestic beasts called a “master of animals.”
who’s called mistress of animal?
Artemis
what is Walter Burkert’s opinion about Hercules?
Walter Burkert (1931–2015), a classical scholar, connects Heracles to Mesopotamian cylinder seals from the third millennium bce that show a lone hero fighting bulls, lions, and a multiheaded snaky figure.
according to Burkert how the to understand the link between the master of animals and heroic tales?
by examining story patterns. The master of animals becomes a less vital figure for a society that has developed widespread agriculture and domesticated animals for consumption; it no longer needs to appeal to the master of animals for success in a hunt for food upon which its existence depends. Over time, stories about the master of animals become less important. Because these tales are familiar, however, they are not easily forgotten or revised. Thus tales about the hunt for food become the architecture on which the heroic quest for a scared object develops.
what is the argument of Burkert regarding the Vladimir Propp’s observation?
He argues that Propp’s list of events in a hero’s tale detailing his quest for a sacred object or a villain also describes a hunter’s chase for an animal.
1.Both hero and hunter depart and go to an uninhabited realm,
2. receive help or face difficulties
3. find a desired object, obtain it, and return home.
-This story pattern explains how tales about the master of animals could readily evolve into tales of heroic quests. Each of Heracles’s labors, most which concern animals, fits this pattern and, along with the pictures on Mesopotamian cylinder seals, suggests a distant connection between the master of animals in the Near East and the distinctly Greek hero, Heracles.
what is the main objective of the Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale?
-Propp studied a small number of Russian fairy tales in order to understand why so many fairy and folk tales were similar to one another.
Name the component parts of tales according to Propp?
-Propp determined that there are seven broad types of characters: the hero, the false hero, the princess (or the prize), the villain, the dispatcher, the donor, and the helper.
-Propp then organized the actions of these seven types into thirty-one broad categories, which he called functions.
what was Hercules’s first labor?
In his first labor, he defeats the Nemean lion and thereafter is depicted wearing its skin (discussed earlier). Heracles maintains an intimate connection with the lion: its impenetrable skin protects him and its jaws enclose his head.
what is the takeaway from Hercules’s labor?
These labors suggest Heracles’s commonalities with these beasts because his strength and endurance match theirs—he chases the hind for a full year and wrestles the boar into submission.
by removing these animals to protect the human communities they harass, he establishes the spatial boundaries between cities and their surrounding uninhabited lands, thus separating human from animal, civilized from uncivilized.
what is the connection between Hercules and cultural institutions?
Heracles’s victories over animals lead to important cultural institutions, like athletic games.
-Bacchylides praises Pytheas of Aegina for winning the pancratium, a wrestling and boxing competition, known for its brutality. He provides a history of the contest: Heracles’s wrestling match with the Nemean lion provides its model and a foundation story for its establishment. By recalling Heracles’s achievement, Bacchylides elevates Pytheas and implicitly reminds him to harness his success to the advantage of his community.
how did Pinder describes athletic events?
Pindar describes Heracles’s inauguration of the most important athletic event in Greece: the Olympian games honoring Zeus. When praising an athlete, named Hagisdamus, Pindar recalls a labor that only loosely concerns animals—cleaning king Augeus’s stables.
what did Heracles do to Augeus’s city in Greece and why?
Despite Heracles’s success at this grim task (Athena advises him to reroute a river through them), Augeus’s two nephews prevent him from receiving his just rewards. In response, Heracles kills them and destroys Augeus’s city. He then establishes an altar to Zeus in Olympia and demarcates its surrounding land as sacred. Thus Pindar presents Heracles as the founder of Zeus’s sanctuary and the quadrennial games in Olympia.
how Heracles’s labor sets social norms?
Heracles’s twelve labors affirm social norms that animals have violated or challenged. His defeat of the “malicious and grisly” Lernaean hydra reinforces the boundary between human and beast as well as male and female.
