Knowledge Flashcards
who was the first author of the first text in the greek world?
Hesiod - theory about creation
- says he can speak with authority’s about materials because he was given the power to do so by the musees
theories about the start of the world?
- came from chaos (void) of nothingness
- from the void came Gaia, Tartarus, Erebus, and Eros
- gaia gives birth to the sky (ouranos), mountains, pontos (sea)
first generation of gods
- gaia/ouranos
- sacred marriage between the two - gaia does not need male counterpart to give birth however
from Ouranos seeds, which creatures were created
- Twelve Titan (kronos, rhea, kapetos, oceanos, hyperian…)
- the cyclopes - Brontes, Steropes, Arges
- the 100 handers (hecatonchires) - cottos, briareos, gyges
- the furies (considered enemies of the gods)
Castration of Ouranos myth
- Gaia’s kids get shoved back into her womb, so Kronos castrates ouranos to leave him powerless
- shows matriarchal vs patriarchal religions
- this is because ouranos was depicted as a brutal figure, and gaia one of wit and power
the furies
- furies are in tartarus
- act as zeus’s henchmen, meant to drive characters insane
The graces and seasons
- aphrodite’s attendants
- charites (graces) and horae (seasons)
Aphrodite
- typically depicted naked as a god of love and attraction
oceanos
- significant titan who mated with other titan Tethys
- birthed Oceanids (streams, springs, rivers)
Hyperion
- father of Helios (sun), Selene (moon), Eos (dawn)
- Eos “rosy-fingered” “saffron robed” myth of being caught with areas who is cheating on aphrodite
- myth of tithonus, Eos abducts him and asks zeus if he will make him immortal because she wants him as a boyfriend, as well as boyfriend myth that Selene requested endymion be with her forever but zeus makes it so he sleeps forever
The three fates (Moirai)
- children of Nyx (night)
- Three old women or birth spirits
- Clotho (spinner
- Lachesis (apportioner)
- atropos (inflexible)
what does gaia represent?
- represents that the greeks could have a matriarchal religion
- she is also evidence of matriarchy in early religions (worship of divine female over male)
- she is depicted as smart and powerful
- the earth which everything is based on
First Generation born from Rheia and Cronos
- Hestia (earth)
- Demeter (fertility)
- Hera (wife of zeus, marriage)
- hades (brother of zeus)
- poseidon (brother of zeus)
- zeus
prohecy of kronos being overthrown?
- Kronos hears that he will be overthrown by his own child so he gobbles his own children before that can happen
- so rheia hides zeus on a mountain and is raised by a goat Amaltheia and protected by Corybantes/Curetes who hide Zeus’s cries by banging shields together
- Kronos pukes up his kids when he is fed the omphalos stone instead of zeus
Zeus
- some say zeus was born on mont Ida in create as shown on symbols and shields
- some say arcadia
- he’s associated with eagles
- puts omphalos stone at the center of the greek world and grows an army to battle the titans
- breaks free the hundred handers who forge his thunderbolt
- is depicted as helping the downtrodden
Battle of titans
- 1st battle of zeus’s rise to power
- kronos and his siblings are imprisoned
Battle of Gigantomachy
- battle of giants
- gaia is angry at zeus for defetaing the titans
- ## hercules appears to aid the gods and they win
third battle of gigantomachy - “battle of typhon”
- child of gaia and tartarus
- hesiod calls this monster “typhoeus”
- zeus fought typhon seeing that he was powerful
- sentences him to be chained into tartarus
- now mount sicily is a volcano because of typhonomachy
atlas and prometheus
- prometheus whose name means forthought, chose to battle with the gods and his brother atlas sided with the titans and was tasked to hold up the boulder or essentially the sky in the underworld
Zeus defeats the prophecy of male succession?
- yes he thinks he defeats the prophecy of being overthrown when he eats Metis who is pregnant with Athena
- then athena is birthed from zeus
- this means that zeus swallows the personification of intelligence and can now act with female intelligence
Second generation of olympian gods
athena, hephaistos, ares, apollo, artemis, dionysos, hermes, Aphrodite
- twelve olympian gods that dwell on mt olympus
- eventually dionysos replaces hestia and hades gets kicked to the underworld
Why is zeus different from other gods, and past leaders?
- uses diplomacy to recruit allies
- enlists allies
- delegates authority
- a shift to patriarchy (reflects a cultural shift towards civilizing actions over brutality)
- does sleep around but is married to hera which strengthens the marriage
Creation of mortal myths?
- variant narratives on the creation of mortals
- Prometheus, pandora, 5 ages of man, the flood
main motifs in the storytelling patterns of creation?
- religious sacrifices
consequences for human transgressions