final Flashcards
Odysseus
Penelope: Wife
Avoids the War
Achilles
Son of Peleus and Thetis.
Learns from Chiron.
Death: Paris kills Achilles. Ajax helps his corpse.
Agamemnon
Boasted that he was better than Artemis.
Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia (daughter).
Iliad
Most complete source of the Trojan War.
Anger of Achiliies towards Agamemnon, Chryses, Chryseis.
Embassy to Achilles
Achilles was still pissed and about to leave when Agamemnon offers Achilles an enormous reward. Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix (Achilles’ former tutor) bring the offer, He declines.”I will not fight Hector, I am going home tomorrow)”
Patroclus (Achilles’s best friend)
Begs Achilles to return or to let him wear his armor so Patroclus can stem the bleeding of the war and save the burning ships. Achilles says yup but don’t go close to the walls of Troy… Guess what? Patroclus goes too close and kills Sarpedon (son of Zeus) but Hector Kills him… Takes Achilles armour.
Death of Hector
Achilles, with new armour made by Hephaestus, and pissed that Hector had killed Patroclus (His boyfriend), goes on a rampage and kills lots of dudes. Trojans flee inside the walls but Hector makes his stand. Achilles killes Hector, Hector curses him (you’ll soon follow), and Achillies dragged him behind his chariot for days.
The Ransom of Hector
Priam (Father of Paris & Hector), with the help of Hermes, sneaks into the Greek camp and talks to Achilles (offers ransom for Hector’s body), thinking of his own father, Achilles agrees and returns the body. “And so they buried horse-taming Hector.” (final line of Iliad, Homer)
Ajax
Ajax is able to take Achilles’ corpse and bring it back to the Greek lines amid a rain of arrows. Achilles’ armour was offered as a prize to the next-best warrior. Supposed To be Ajax but Odyssesus, using his intellect, gets it. Axajx = butt hurt.
Death of Ajax
He placed his sword in the ground and thrust himself upon it.
After slaughtering a flock of sheep thinking it was the Greeks who didn’t give him the armour, they all laugh at his mistake, he rage quit the game and kills himself
Only example of this kind of suicide in all of Greek myth.
Divine myths
Principal characters are gods and goddesses
Legends
Protagonists are human characters.
The story is about the hero
* Gods/goddesses may play a role
* Claim to narrate events from the human past
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh: was a real ruler of the Sumerian city of Uruk (“the first city”).
* Remberbed for building city walls [first monumental buildings: ziggurat, temples]
* POP = 40,000 (surounging 80,000) [Domestication of grain]
* As king he abused his powers (slept with every virgin before her wedding night)
Enkidu
Created to rival him but becomes his best friend
Motif of “true male companion”
Humbaba
Guardian of the forest and was killed by Enkidu and Gilgamesh
* Motif of the “broken taboo” and “divine retribution”
Ishtar
(Goddess): promised Gilgamesh rich rewards for impregnation. NOPE!
* Motif of “male hostility towards the treacherous sexually aggressive female”
Released the bull of heavens (father, Anu “king of heaven”)
Gilgamesh kills the bull
Enkidu dies after 12 days of illness
* Motif of the “hero mourning for a companion whose death he partly caused”
Utnapishtam
he and his wife were the only mortals who survived the flood.
* Gilgamesh fails his tests (ex. Herb and staying awake). 7 loaves of moldy bread.
* He returns home and accepts his mortality: Motif of “journey to the underworld”
Perseus “Destroyer”
Son of Zeus and Danae
When Acrisius discovered Perseus, he built a wooden box and placed them both in it.
* Thrown to the sea but saved by a fishermen (Dictys) lol dick
Polydectes
Brother of fishermen desired Danaë but was refused [both by Perseus and Danaë].
- Demands horse. Perseus doesn’t have one so said he’ll bring a Gorgons’ [Medusa] head.
- Three Gorgons: Stheno (“strength”), Eurale (“far-leaper”), and Medusa (“wide-ruling”)
- Athena: sent Persues to find nymphs: Cap of hades (invincibility), Winged Sandals (flight), Leather pouch (ability to hold head).
- Graeae sisters (“gray-haired women”) provide location of nymphs
- Hermes: provides sword and shield to Perseus
Medusa
[Mortal] Perseus found her and cut off her head.
- Pegasus popped out (son of Poseidon and Medusa)
- Used head to turn Polydectes (and friends) to stone. establishes Dictys as the king
- Perseus returns swag to nymph (cap, sandals, pouch, sword, and shield)
- Perseus give’s Medusa’s Head to hermes, who gives it to Athen [breast plate]
Constellation
Athena placed Perseus and Andromeda among the stars
* Along with Cepheus, Cassiopeä, and the sea-monster Ceto
Story of Perseus and Danae is closest to folktale [similar to Gilgamesh]
- Quest is highly emphasized, No personality (ouch!), Children’s folktale
Gorgons
separate, story of perseus connected them
* Apotropaic device: “turning away,” head seen as deflecting evil (evil eye)
Danaë
(father was Acrisus)
* Danaë’s son would kill Acrisus so he imprisoned her (underground chamber of bronze)
* Zeus fell in love with Danaë and fell onto her as a shower of gold “golden shower”
* Perseus is the son of Zeus and Danae
- Story follows a folktale pattern sometimes called the “girl’s tragedy”
* Prohibition (Danaë is forbidden to marry because of the oracle)
* Seclusion (Danaë locked in the chamber)
* Violation of the prohibition (Danaë became pregnant nonetheless)
* Threat of punishment or death (her father, Acrisius, places Danaë and her child in a box)
* Liberation (Danaë is ultimately saved by Dictys)
Andromeda
later addition to the Myth [perseus don’t instantly return home]
Perseus sees Andromeda chained to a rock about to be eaten by sea-monster Ceto.
He falls in love with her and tells her parents that he could save her if he could marry her afterwards.
Perseus defeats the sea-monster and found out that Andromeda is already engaged to Phineus
Uses medusa’s head to turn Andromeda dad to stone, maries her, and stays for a year.
Andromeda and Perseus’s son Perses = ancestor of the Persians.
Acrisius
Twins Acrisius and Proetus (father Abas) hated each other!
* Perseus, destined to kill him [oracle], hit him on the foot with a disk, and he died…
* Motif of heroes as threat to civil society without meaning harm
* Acrisius duried with full honors
Mycenae
(founded by Perseus): Built on a hill
Bronze Age: Popular center of wealth and power
Jupiter
Zeus
Juno
Hera
Ceres
Demeter
Diana
Artemis
Mercury
Hermes
Vulcan
Hephaestus
Neptune
Poseidon
Minerva
Athena
Liber
Dionysus
Faunus
Pan
Venus
Aphrodite
Mars
Ares
Hercules
Heracles
Vergil
[Poet, Author of Aeneid]
Pietas
Extraordinary devotion that one shows to the paterfamilias as the head of he household
By extension, one also shows pietas to the state itself, the emperor, and the gods
Emperors and Roman heroes given the title of pius
General Motifs
- – The hero’s birth is miraculous or unusual, but we know little of his childhood
- – The hero has great strength and is a menace to his compatriots as well as others
- – The hero’s truest companion is another male
- – The hero falls under an enemy’s power and is compelled to perform impossible labours
- – The hero breaks a taboo, and a terrible price is demanded
- – The hero resists the temptations of an enticing but dangerous woman
- – The hero is responsible for the death of a companion
- – The hero goes on a quest, even to the underworld
- – He may have help from gods, spirits, or magical objects
- – The hero returns home, atones for his crimes, and accepts his limitations
- – The hero is rewarded with something of great value
- – At his death, the hero receives a magnificent funeral and may become a god
*
Sacrificum
(Sacrifice): Sacrificum = to make (facere) holy (sacer)
Numina
(singular numen) = “nodders.”
Aeneas
Aeneas, hero of the Trojan War, Ancestor to romans.
* Carried his gradfather on his back and led his son out of burning city.
Aeneid: Most famous work
Janus
“Gate”: Numen of bridges, going forth, and returning
Two faced god of beginning and ends
Doors of his temple open during times of war and closed during peace
