Midterm! Flashcards
Who is Homer?
Greek poet who created the Iliad and Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works for ancient Greek literature
What is an epic?
a long story about a hero that serves as an organizing point of culture or social identity
What is in media res?
in the middle of things
Who are the Muses?
The daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory)
- Homer calls upon them in the beginning of the Odyssey to help him recount the story
- inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts
What is Telemachy?
The first 4 books of the Odyssey, it is named Telemachy because it is revolved around Telemachus. He is the son of Odysseus, he has his own Nostoi in the beginning of the Odyssey, He searched for his father with the help of Athena, years after the Trojan War (10 years after the war, 20 years since Odysseus left)
Xenia
Xenia is a very important custom for the Greeks during this time. It is the act of hospitality, dinner, and sometimes gifts. (guest-host friendship) Humans don’t know if they could be housing Gods due to their disguises so this may influence it. It is carried on thru generations.
Nostos/Nostoi
Nostos: the journey home
- often involves an epic hero returning home
Nostoi: a smaller epic within the epic cycle
examples: Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Telemachus
What is the megaron?
the great hall in Mycenean palaces
What is Myth?
- sacred, effective, usually oral narrative
sacred: held in importance by particular groups, ritual contexts, special meaning or significance
- effective: influences or promotes action, especially enforcing group consistency/solidarity
usually oral: dynamic, unfixed, context-dependent
narrative: interconnected series of events (beg-mid-end), with various psychological (emotional, intellectual, cognitive) effects and other effects
What is anthropomorphic?
assigning human traits to non-human entities
Pantheon
pan=all
temple of the Gods
the Greek Pantheon is the twelve Olympians
What is Polytheism
worship of more than one god
opposite of monotheism
what is a Monster?
A monster is often a type of grotesque creature, whose appearance frightens and whose powers of destruction threaten the human world’s social or moral order.”
grotesque , frightening, threatens the world order
A monster is “unnatural”
What is Etiology?
Etiological myths explain the reason why something is the way it is today.
These serve to explain the supernatural origin of an unexplainable natural phenomenon
Places:
Ithaca
Ithaca: where Odysseus and Telemachus is from
Odyssey tells the story of Odysseuy’s journey from Troy back home to Ithaca
Places:
Pylos
Home to king Nestor
- this is the first places Telemachus sails to
- when he arrives the Pylians are performing massive bull sacrifice for Poseidon,
- King Nestor welcomes them with a feast, then sends Telemachus off with his sons and a chariot
Places:
Sparta
- after Pylos, Telemachus arrives in Sparta
- arrives to see King Menelaus and Helen of Troy
- Menelaus tells the story of Agamemnon: as Agamemnon was off at war, his wife had an affair with Aegisthus, once Aga came home, they killed him
Places:
Ogygia
Ogygia is a utopian island that the nymph goddess Calypso inhabits
- island so enchanting even the Gods find it desirable
- Ogygia is where Calypso keeps Odysseus for seven years
Places:
Scheria
- after Odysseus leaves Ogygia, he is blown off course by Poseidon and lands on Scheria
- this is the land of the Phaeacians
- they do not like outsiders
- Odysseus gets help from princess Nausicaa, Athena sends a dream to her the night before
Odysseus
- Greek king of Ithaca, married to Penelope, father of Telemachus
- Fought against the Trojans
Odysseus tries to travel back home to Ithaca after the Trojan war but ends up being damned by Poseidon
- Cicones -> Land of the Lotus-Eaters -> Island of the Cyclopses -> Island of Aeolus (wind God) -> Land of Laestragonians -> Island of Circe -> Underworld / Tartarus -> Returns to Island of Circe -> Island of the Sun -> Island of Calypso
- throughout the adventure, Circe guides Odysseus and tells him not to anger the Gods. He obliges, but his men don’t, we see them all get killed off
Telemachus
- son of Odysseus and Penelope
- first 4 books are about him and his journey to find his father after the Trojan war
calls meeting with suitors -> sail to Pylos home of king Nestor -> go to Sparta to visit king Menelaus
Penelope
- resides in Ithaca, wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus
- uses weaving as a means of trickery and deceit against her suitors
Athena
- goddess of wisdom
- plays a protagonist role, a mentor role of Telemachus and a helpful hand for Odysseus.
- pleads to help Odysseus to the Council of Gods
- she disguises herself often to help Telemachus and Odysseus through their journey’s
Poseidon
- god of the sea
- main antagonist in the Odyssey, actively calls forth storms to knock them off of their paths
- Poseidon was angry at Odysseus for blinding his son the cyclops Polyphemus which we learn about in later books
- Poseidon also favored the Trojans, and was angry that Odysseus fought for the Greeks
The suitors
- another antagonist
- group of unruly men who are trying to court and marry Penelope
- the suitors violate Xenia
- in Book 2 - Telemachus tries to call a meeting with the suitors and basically says they need to fuck off, stop eating their food and coming into their house and spending all their wealth. The suitors laugh at Telemachus, view him as a boy with no power to stop them.
Nestor
king of Pylos
- first person Telemachus visits on his adventure
- Nestor and Menelaus were some of the only other Greek war heroes who returned home after the Trojan War
- they perform sacrifices for Poseidon
- feasts with him, lets them stay the night, sends Tele off with a chariot to Sparta
Menelaus
- married to Helen of Troy
- King of Sparta
- Menelaus tells Telemachus the story of the death of his brother Agamemnon
Helen
- daughter of zeus and a mortal; she is said to be the most beautiful woman in the world
- married to King Menelaus of Sparta
- abducted by Paris of Troy - causes Trojan War
- meets Telemachus in Sparta after the war
- we don’t know if she was really abducted or went willingly
- raped/has sex with Paris
Agamemnon
- king of Mycenae - powerful kingdom
- brother of Menelaus
- summoned all the kings of Greece and led an expedition against Troy (leader of Greek troops against Troy)
- while he was gone at war, his wife had an affair with Aegisthus, once home they killed him
Hermes
- boots with wings, carries staff of intertwining snakes, travelers cap with wings on it
- Zeus sends Hermes to Calypso to tell her she needs to let Odysseus go
- Also helps Ody survive Circe
Calypso
- Daughter of a Titan, is a sea goddess
- lives on Ogygia the utopian island
- her name comes from the greek word “to hide, to conceal”
- hides Odysseus for 7 years from Poseidon, wants to make him fall in love with her
- gives a speech regarding expectations for women and men especially with divine and mortal mixing
- Goddesses are punished for their sexual relationships with mortals while Gods can do what they please
- never appears in any other Greek or Roman mythology
Ino
- originally a mortal woman, her sister slept with Zeus and was the mother of Dionysius. Ino raised Dionysius
- This incurred anger from Hera, she hates when Zeus has affairs, since Ino’s sister was dead Hera tortured Ino
- Ino jumps into the sea, just before she dies, Zeus saves her and turns her into the “white goddess”
- when Odysseus lands of Scheria, Ino gives him a magical veil that helps him swim to shore
Nausicaa
- Princess of Scheria
- Athena comes to her in a dream and tells her to do her laundry at the river (so she will run into Odysseus)
- Athena gives Nausicaa the courage to speak with Odysseus
- Nausicaa helps Odysseus, tells him to meet her by the statue of Athena,
- Also tells Odysseus to grab the queen by the knees and appeal to her
- potential marriage option for Odysseus
The Phaeacians
- found on Scheria
-mortal but very godlike due to close relationship with God
- like isolation geographically and socially
- moved away from Giants to avoid their persecution
Aphrodite
- goddess of love and sex
- married to Hephaestos (Hephastus)
- has an affair with Ares
- made Helen fall in love with Trojan man named Paris
Ares
- god of war and courage
- has an affair with Aphrodite
- Hephaestos catches them in the act, Ares has to pay for his adultery
Hephaestus
- married to Aphrodite
- known as the lame god
- God of the Fire of the Forge
- Divine Blacksmith
- Has a limp, only god with a physical deformity
Polyphemus
- Son of Poseidon
- Odysseus lands on the Island of Cyclopses and finds an empty cave
- Polyphemus comes back and Ody asks for Xenia, Poly does not abide by the laws of Xenia
- Poly kills two of Ody’s men, and eats them
- Ody intoxicates Poly with unmixed wine and lies about his identity “Noman”
- Ody drives flaming spear into Polyphemus’ eye
Circe
- Island of Circe
- she is considered a witch
- Circe drugs Ody’s men and turns them into pigs with human brains
- Hermes helps Ody, gives him antidote so he won’t be turned into a pig
- Circe then advises Ody to go to the underworld and seek out the blind prophet Tiresias
- After the underworld Ody comes back to Circe, she warns him about the Sirens, Scylla and Charybis
Tiresias
- blind prophet in the underworld
Sirens
- men drawn to their song, end up killed
- Circe told Ody once they pass the Sirens to plug their ears and tie him to the mass of the Ship
Scylla
- between Italy and Sically
- Gods and mortals fear her alike
- huge composite monster
- she sits in her cave and eats sailors as they innocently go by
- in Metamorphoses it tells a different version of her story - she is looked at sympathetically
Charybdis
whirlpool
Circe’s background
- Daughter of Helius (sun God)
- Helius associated with universal knowledge
- she is a prophet for Odysseus - Siresn, scylla, Charybdis, cattle of Helios, she forsees disaster
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