Exam 1 Flashcards
What is myth?
A traditional (passed down orally) story (plot, settings, characters) of collective (shared by many people) importance (performs a function: educate, explain, inspire, or entertain).
Myth vs. Logos
Mythos: It is a story that a speaker accepts is false.
Logos: It is a story that the speaker proclaims as true.
Divine Myth
Setting: Long ago, before present day world order
Characters: Gods, Goddesses, monsters
Importance: Often explains a natural phenomenon (aka aetiology)
Legend
Setting: Long ago, but recognizable time and a specific place
Characters: Kings, heroes, nobles
Importance: explains a cultural phenomenon
ex. Orestes and drinking from different cups
Folktale
Setting: vague
Character: average people or animals
Importance: entertainment, moralizing, or educational
Bronze Age
Early/Middle Bronze age was 3000-1600 BCE, but Late Bronze Age was 1600-1150 BCE. The Early/Middle Bronze Age was primarily documented by the Minoans on Crete. Minoans were more civilized and friendlier than other Greeks. They even had a written language that still hasn’t been deciphered. The weren’t Indo Europeans. The Minoans had a completely different culture than the other Greeks. This age ended when the mainland Greeks attacked Crete, which allowed for their myths to combine. Late Bronze Age (aka the Mycenaean Age) was dominated by the Mycenae group of Indo Europeans. They also had a written language called Linear B. Its symbols were syllables instead of sounds which made it hard to use. This language was primarily used for recording records, not myths. They had a similar religion to later Greeks. No myths were recorded during this time, but a lot of myths take place during this time period.
Dark Age
The dark age was 1150-800 BCE. Cities collapsed during this time. Linear B stopped being used, people became poor, and a lot of immigration took place. This was a period of chaos and no art was produced. However at the end of the Dark Age, the alphabet was introduced, which allowed for the widespread of literacy. The alphabet caused the widespread of Divine Myth.
Archaic Age
The Archaic Age was 800-490 BCE. Greeks started to colonize a lot of areas. This spread their mythology greatly. Cities became wealthy, population grew, and they needed more resources during this time. A lot of artifacts that we have today come from this time period. Coins, or a regular form of currency, started to circulate during this time. Wealth up to this point was only due to land, but coins allowed for a different type of wealth. The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, Hesiod’s Theogony, and Sappho’s works all come from this time period.
Classical Age
The classical age was 490-323 BCE. This is also when the Persian War took place (492-449 BCE). The Greek city-states called for a truce to stop the Persian army, and they were successful. This ultimately put Greek on the map. The war made Athens wealthy and they provided protection to other city-states; Athens was also a democracy at this point in time. The Parthenon and Acropolis were constructed during this time. Theater was invented during this time (great tragedists like Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides). It was a rich period for art.
Hellenistic Age
The Hellenistic Age was 323-31 BCE. The Hellenistic Age is also considered the fall of Greece. Alexander the Great took over Southern Greece even though he lived in Macedonia. He died in 323 BCE and split up his land: Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Antigonid. The splitting up of his land caused even more spread of Greek myth. Different type of myth from this time was aoidos (improvisational oral poetry), rhapsode (recited memorized poetry), and scholar (just read poetry). This scholarly approach to myth causes the downfall of oral tradition. After this, it becomes the Roman age where the Romans adopt and continue to spread Greek myth.
Minoan and Mycenean
Minoan - Early/Middle Bronze Age, live on Crete, they were friendly and civilized, had a written language, very different culture than what we think of as Greek myth, and were attacked by mainland Greeks.
Mycenean - Late Bronze Age, Indo Europeans, start of what we think of as traditional Greek myth, mask of Agamemnon, there was a hierarchy with wealth, but no recorded myths during this time.
Similarities: Both had a written language (Minoan is undeciphered, Mycenae is Linear B), and were powerhouses at the time.
First Elements
Gaea (Foundation) - Second primordial element, the earth, gives birth to a bunch of stuff. She reproduces asexually to form Uranus (the sky), the mountains, and Pontus (Sea). She then gives birth to the Titans, Cyclopes, and Hecatonchires after sexually reproducing with Uranus.
Eros (Sexual Attraction) - The last primordial element, love, frees us all from our sorrows but ruins our heart’s good sense
Tartarus (Bottom Most) - Third primordial element, described as a cavern of broad-wayed Earth, underneath the earth.
Chaos (Gaping) - The first primordial element to appear, but we do not know much about it. It could be translated to “Chasm” in our language, and some understand it as the opening from which the other elements arose from.
Child of Hyperion
Hyperion is a titan, more specifically the sun-god titan.
Helius - Also a sun-god
Selene - the moon
Eos - the dawn
Cronus vs. Uranus
Gaea was locked in a permanent sexual embrace with Uranus, so she plotted a plan to kill him. Cronus accepts the offer to kill his terrible father, so Gaea gives him a scythe made from gray steel. Cronus cut off his father’s testicles and threw them into the sea.
Zeus vs. Cronus
Cronus had children (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus) with his wife/sister Rhea, and he was told that one of his children would kill him one day so he ate them. Cronus ate a rock instead of Zeus, so Zeus was raised on Crete by nymphs and drank goat milk. Somehow Zeus made Cronus throw up his siblings, and they named him the king of the gods. The gods went to live on Mt. Olympus (except for Hades), and the titans disliked this so the titanomachy started. Themis and Prometheus sided with the gods. The battle went on for ten years without a break until Zeus released the hecatonchires and cyclopes from Tartarus, and they fought and eventually beat the titans.
Titanomachy
The name given to the war between the titans and the gods.
Typhoeus
After the titanomachy, Gaea resented Zeus so she gave birth to Typhoeus with Tartarus. Thyphoeus (or Typhon) had muscular arms, tireless feet, and a hundred heads of a terrible serpentine dragon. Zeus and Typhon had an intense fight for a long time, but Zeus was eventually victorious.
Enuma Elish (Tiamat, Apsu, Marduk)
The Enuma Elish is a Mesopotamian creation myth.
Tiamat - female, primordial saltwater
Apsu - male, primordial freshwater, mingle with Tiamat to form an indeterminate mass.
Marduk -The hero of the poem, God of Babylon
How it relates to the theogony -Hesiod most likely took inspiration from the Enuma Elish to create his theogony. It is a poem, but it also is used to praise the gods.
Theogony and Hesiod; the muses
Hesiod was on Mt. Helicon and said he saw the muses and asked to hear myths. They insulted his intelligence, but granted him his wish. Apparently the theogony is what the muses told him. The muses: Calliope (Myth), Euturpe (Flute), Thalia (comedy), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), Erato (lyric), Polyphymnia (hymns), Urania (astronomy).
The 3 themes of the theogony: 1. Animism to Anthropomorphism 2. hieros gamos (sacred marriage) 3. gender roles
Prometheus
Prometheus was a titan, but he was helpful to man. He created man from mud, created sacrifice, and eh stole fire for man. Prometheus was responsible for sails, math, agriculture, and is seen as a cultural hero. He was a creator, martyr (was persecuted for liking humans), and trickster. Artist archetype. A lot of Roman sarcophaguses has Prometheus depicted on it. He tricked Zeus into taking a lower quality sacrifice, but Zeus took away fire; Prometheus stole fire back. His name means “forelearner”
Pandora
The first woman of the world. She let all of the perils of the world out from a joy, but she also let hope into the world.
Epimetheus
Epimetheus is Prometheus’s brother, and his name means “afterlearner” (aka dummy). Epimetheus accepted a gift from Zeus which was the first woman (Pandora). He felt lust towards Pandora.
The Flood: Deucalion, Pyrrha
The flood happened because King Lycaon fed Zeus human meat. Lycaon became a werewolf. The only two survivors of the flood are Deucalion (Son of Prometheus and a titaness) and Pyrrha (Daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora). They were chosen to survive because they were the most pious humans. They had to repopulate the Earth. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the ancestors of all Greeks.
The 5 Races/Ages (Hesiod Version)
Gold: Those who lived in the days of Cronus. People were happy and blessed and people became spirits on earth when they died. It was a good time to be alive.
Silver: This was far worse than the Golden Age. People would stay young for 100 years then suddenly grow up and die. The silver race acted with violence and did not respect the gods. When they died they became spirits underground.
Bronze: This was worse than the Silver Age. People were born from the ash trees and they were terrible strong and violent. Their weapons and houses were made of bronze. When they died they retreated into Hades realm.
Heroes: In some ways it was better than the Bronze Age. This race fought at seven-gated Thebes and in Troy to take back Helen. Some heroes did not die at all (transported to the Isle of the Blessed where Cronus rules). They still live there, never knowing sorrow.
Iron: Iron is the age that Hesiod lived in.
