Exam 1

Question 1

What is a myth?

Answer 1

Derived from greek mythos= “word” or “story”

Question 2

How did Homer use Myths?

Answer 2

denote a forceful or extended speech

Question 3

How did Herodotus use myth?

Answer 3

implausible story

Question 4

How did Thucydides use myth?

Answer 4

distinguished the truth of history from mythical

Question 5

How did Plato use myth?

Answer 5

untrustworthy tale or lie

Question 6

What was Aristotle’s tale on history and myth?

Answer 6

Poetry is more philosophical/serious than history: myths give truth while history gives facts

Question 7

What is the provisional definition of myth?

Answer 7

myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance

Question 8

What are some characteristics of myths?

Answer 8

• No Greek myth is told the same way twice
• Myths evolved orally: Greeks didn’t have anything akin to written text
• myths preformed and constantly re-interpreted by poets

Question 9

Who were the Epic literary sources of myths?

Answer 9

Homer, Hesiod, Homeric Hymns

Question 10

What is Aoidoi and when was it largely dispersed?

Answer 10

“To sing”
early 5th century BCE

Question 11

Who were the choral lyric literary sources of myths?

Answer 11

Stesichorus and Pindar

Question 12

Who were the tragedy literary sources of myths?

Answer 12

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

Question 13

What are mythographers?

Answer 13

author who wrote with intention to explain myth fragments

Question 14

What are the different types of mythographers?

Answer 14

Genealogists and Hellenistic mythographers

Question 15

What are the different types of Hellenistic mythographers?

Answer 15

Scholiasts and Collections

Question 16

What are scholiast Hellenistic mythographers?

Answer 16

scholars who wrote notes “scholia” usually in the form of marginal commentaries to canonical literary works

Question 17

What are some material culture of myth?

Answer 17

vase paintings
statues
votive offerings
mosaics and frescoes
coins
jewlery

Question 18

Who were the Milesians?

Answer 18

Aristotle and Anaximander

Question 19

What did Aristotle do in his works?

Answer 19

first to inquire into causes/principles of natural world and phenomenon

Question 20

What did Aristotle believe was the first principle of all things?

Answer 20

Thales claimed water

Question 21

What did Anaximander do in his works?

Answer 21

held the infinite was capable of transformation into hot, cold, wet, and dry elements

Question 22

What did Anaximander believe was the first principle of nature?

Answer 22

Air

Question 23

What is an allegory?

Answer 23

saying something in a different way/saying something different from what appears to be said

Question 24

Who was the first person to use allegorical methods?

Answer 24

Theagenes of Rhegium

Question 25

What is stoicism?

Answer 25

Philosophical school founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium

Question 26

What did stoics do?

Answer 26

wielded physical allegory and etymology as tools that could be used to explain myth

Question 27

What is historical allegory?

Answer 27

maintained that myth was a distortion of real historical events- myths as a result of misunderstandings of explainable events

Question 28

What is euhemerism?

Answer 28

thesis that the gods were originally human

Question 29

What is moral allegory?

Answer 29

interprets myth as enigmatic mode of expressing ethical doctrines