Chapter 1

Question 1

Where was Ancient Greece?

Answer 1

Not a specific place, but basically wherever Greek speaking people lived

Question 2

What was the importance of the gods in Greek society?

Answer 2

Helped to make sense of stories and society

Question 3

What was William R. Boscoms idea of a myth?

Answer 3

Myths have a high emotional content, and discuss the sacred. They also happened in the remote past and only deals with prose.

Question 4

What was Don Cupitts idea of a myth?

Answer 4

Myths discuss the sacred (essence of God, place of man etc). They represent traditional beliefs that are passed down by oral tradition

Question 5

What is the difference between a myth and a legend?

Answer 5

Myths are typically nonhuman, legends include human entities

Question 6

What were some of the things that Cupitt and Boscom excluded from their definition of myths?

Answer 6

• Myths in the form of visual arts, drama, poetry
• Works with a known author
• Stories that do not include supernatural beings
• Stories that do not include the sacred

Question 7

What was William G. Doty’s definition of a myth?

Answer 7

Myths can be told in many forms and are rich in metaphors and symbols. Art condenses myths, but provides new elemental clues. Myth serves a purpose for individuals, groups, and societies, grounding behaviours in a general framework of the order of society. Myths are defined by the values and meanings they promote

Question 8

What is etic?

Answer 8

Approach using modern categories of analysis, derived or devised by the investigators on the basis of their own cultural or scientific assumptions

Question 9

What is emic?

Answer 9

Approach which aims at analyzing and understanding a cultural phenomenon from a culturally internal perspective. Doesn’t impose modern preconceptions. Inclusive of cultural variations. How myths work in relation to how society works

Question 10

What is mythology?

Answer 10

Spoken utterance or a tale + logos = the study of myths.

Question 11

What is a saga?

Answer 11

Myths with a basis in history. Taken from old Icelandic clan tales (emic use of Saga to become Etic)

Question 12

What is a legend?

Answer 12

Any myth with only a kernel of truth or historicity.

Question 13

What is legenda?

Answer 13

Things to be read or worth reading-example is the compilations of Christian Saints lives

Question 14

What is a folk-tale?

Answer 14

Term invented in the 1800s to describe traditional and oral tales of ordinary people (ETIC)

Question 15

What is a fairy story?

Answer 15

Variant of a folk-tale used to describe a variety of folk talks with the supernatural as the dominant feature. Etically applied

Question 16

What is Greek Mythology?

Answer 16

A shared fund of motifs and ideas ordered into a shared repertoire of stories. These stories link with, compare and contrast with, and are understood in light of other stories in the system.

Question 17

What is intertext?

Answer 17

Constituted by all representations of myths every experienced by its audience-every new repetition gains its sense in how it is positioned relative to society

Question 18

What can art help us do?

Answer 18

Bridge the gap and redefine the story in modern times

Question 19

What is classical mythology?

Answer 19

Refers to myths of ancient Greece and Rome

Question 20

What does classical mean?

Answer 20

A renaissance term for a standard of excellence and progress

Question 21

Which poems (myths) occured in the Archaic period?

Answer 21

Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey, Hesiods Theogony and Works and Days.

Question 22

During which period did Greek civilization peak?

Answer 22

The Classical Period (490-323 BCE)

Question 23

What happened during the Hellenistic period?

Answer 23

Was three centuries before the fall of the last Greek speaking kingdoms under Rome (323- 30 BCE)

Question 24

When was the Imperial Roman period?

Answer 24

30BCE- 476 CE

Question 25

What did Homer and Hesoids works contribute to?

Answer 25

Peoples ideas about the Gods and Goddesses

Question 26

What happened when people began to examine myths in the classical period?

Answer 26

They noticed discrepancies between the real world and their stories. Started to question myths using rationalism.

Question 27

When did scholars begin to collect myths?

Answer 27

The Hellenistic period. Romans continued this practice and attempted to save stories

Question 28

What happened in the 5th Century CE?

Answer 28

The Romans became Christianized and mythological system became not significant

Question 29

When did the Hittite Empire rule in the Ancient Near East (Anatolia)

Answer 29

18th-14th century BCE

Question 30

How were the ideas of the Levent spread through the Mediterranean?

Answer 30

Through Phoenicians.

Question 31

What were some of the similarities between Greek ideas and Hebrew Ideas?

Answer 31

Both had similar ideas on the moral universe and between stories like the flood

Question 32

How many Gods did the Levent people believe in?

Answer 32

One

Question 33

What was the Epic of Gilgamesh?

Answer 33

Sumerian myth written during the Babylonian empire. Provided influence on Greek epics like the Iliad

Question 34

How does Greece have an Indo-European Heritage?

Answer 34

Human history and pre-history is a history of movements, contacts, migrations, and settling. They entered and spread throughout Greece, mingling or ruling over existing pops.

Question 35

How are stories preserved over time?

Answer 35

Orally preserved and told. Preserve what is perceived to be fundamental traits, and any aspects that are no longer relevant can be altered or dropped.

Question 36

What is comparative research?

Answer 36

Research about mythological complexes of Indo-European cultures. Investigates how stories evolved in search of common themes

Question 37

How do Roman myths differ from Greek myths?

Answer 37

They don’t have a lot of their own stories. Many of them are transformed through contact with the Greeks by the time they were known. Roman myths are not sacred narratives (but still have symbolic and traditional relevance)

Question 38

What is the one Roman story that predates Greek contact?

Answer 38

Romulus and Remus

Question 39

Why should we study classical myths?

Answer 39

Mythic forms of thinking still inform how we view and understand the world in the 21st century. We are still drawn to heroic tales and making sense of the world. Myths provide narrative strategies, communication, politics. Understanding them helps us to not be controlled by them.