Midterm Terms Flashcards
*powerful beings of various kinds
*take place in world outside/before present order
*analogous to modern theoretical science
*not same as religion, although linked
Divine myth
*story/roots in historical fact or relationship to history
*analogous to history (can contain elements of historical truth)
*principal actors are heroes and heroines
Legend
*Central characters are usually ordinary human beings
* can relate, often low social status, monsters wicked sorceresses; mistaken identity; moral/magical content
Folktale
I give so that you may give
Do ut des
pollution; incurred from murder - familial killing often can only be removed ritually or via a king
Miasma
*not written by homer
*poems to various authors
*same dialect as homers epics
Homeric Hymn
explains origin or cause of something
Etiological Myth
*known for being sailors
*beautiful & intricate pottery
*named after mythical king Minos (myth of minotaur)
Minoans
*perhaps the Greek culture which fought in the war of Homer’s Iliad
*warlike society
giant palace complex @ Mycenae
*ruled by wanax (king)
Myceneans
*Myceneans believed the walls were so big only the cyclops could have built them
Cyclopean Walls
*attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities
anthropomorphism
messages and stories transmitted orally from one generation to another (speech, song, dance, art, sayings, proverbs, fables)
Oral Tradition
*German businessman who believed events in Homer’s Iliad could be verified archeologically
*found tons of artifacts, did not document well, named them after characters, sold and kept a lot of them
Heinrich Schliemann
*Used dynamite - did not record properly
*destructive science, can only be done once
*took artifacts out of context and country
Heinrich Schliemann
*goat skin
*shield w/serpent border used by Athena and Zeus
Aegis
alphabetic script
Linear B
*recorded frequency of every symbol character, & those in juxtaposition appeared on tablets
*180,000 notecards
*died @ 43 on verge of discovery
Alice Kober
*decipherment in 1952
*looked for name Ko-no-so (knossos)
*acknowledged & credited Kober - went unnoticed by scholars
Michael Ventris
oral poet
aoidoi
*song stitcher
*compiled all different songs together
rhapsode
*story that explains the “origin of the gods”
*creation of present world order
theogony
*story that explains the “origin of the world”
cosmogony
*Early gods’ representations of natural forces on abstract concepts
*Birth of gods = ordering of cosmos
cosmology
*sacred marriage
*between sky god and earth mother
Hieros Gamos
*“swift-footed Achilles”
*“rosy fingered Dawn”
*“the wine dark sea”
*alternate names focuses on aspects of gods usually helped fit meter of aoidoi performing
epithets
*memorized public presentation group of 12+ male or female children dancers
Choral Song
*often involves necessary choice btw equally unpleasant options
*Aristotle - imitation of an action that’s serious and completed
*purification of the emotions
often mythological stories
Tragedy
- purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity & fear) primarily through art
Catharsis
palace of Minoans; labyrinth structure
Knossos
Hospitality, ritual/protocol of proper guest/host relationship; if violated (steal host food, kill guest, etc.) Zeus can come after you (sacred to Zeus)
Xenia
“soul-guide” Hermes is called this
psychopompos
*a Bride “virgin”
*girl thought to be wild and dangerous like the Goddess Artemis, to whose cult young girls served
Parthenos
Temple dedicated to Athena as a virgin
Parthenon
‘standing at the threshold’ or a ‘period of in-between-ness’
Liminal/Liminality
Transition from life to death
Liminal spaces
Associated with Rebirth (Demeter)
one who lives under the earth
Chthonic deity
fatal pride
was the downfall of many heroes
Hubris
*A stone pile (travelers throw stones on for good luck) was stylized into a pillar with a human head, usually bearded, and an erect phallus.
*gods’ wand, a staff intertwined with two snakes copulating, carried by human heralds (Hermes staff)
Herm/Caduceus
*The place Apollo ruled
*a Pan-Hellenic religious center to which all Greeks paid respect, regardless of their unending political differences
Delphi
At Delphi, the prophetess was called this after the dragon Python
Pythia
legend states that there was an earlier one of these that functioned under Gaea or Themis.
oracle
War with the Titans
Titanomachy
*Myth of how the next generation overtook their parents (Uranus & Gaia to Cronus & Rhea to Zeus & Hera)
*Children defeat parent (father) to take over
Succession myth
The act of tearing apart or mangling
Sparagmos
b;ank
blank
*“married to Rome” Served as priestesses to Vesta (Hestia) for at least 30 years
*afterwards could have some autonomy in city if they did not marry
*could not shed their blood
*kept the eternal flame going
Vestal Virgins
“raw-eater”. The eating of raw flesh or meat. Associated with the cult of Dionysus because of the myth of Divinity and the fate of Pentheus
Omophagia
the act of transcending to a god, to become a god (Hercules does this as well) Ariadne and Semele
Aptheosis
a journey (descent) into (and back from) the Underworld; one of the few Olympians to travel there
Katabasis
*staff with a pinecone on top
*Dionysus Staff
Thyrsus
*barley drink
*Demeter drinks it at Celeos and Metaneira’s castle
Kykeon
soul; people
Psyche, Demos
Battles @ Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis; where the Hoplites fought. Were driven into the sea by Athenian citizen-soldiers
Persian Wars
Heavily armed men; comes from hoplon = shield or armor
Hoplites
Two Rival Leagues (Sparta - a military state ruled by aristocracy and Athens - democratic) fought each other for 27 years; cant stop sending money to Athens without receiving backlash
Peloponnesian Wars
“Land between the river” occupied the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq; where many important Greek myths have their origin
Mesopotamia
Created the first known city-states; on the Persian Gulf near the Tigris and Euphrates; Hundreds of gods and goddesses in their pantheon; culture appeared suddenly
Sumerians
Get stuck here if you are not given proper funerals or burial rites (CANNOT enter the underworld without these)
Limbo
River of Woe
Acheron
river of forgetfulness, must drink
from it and forget earthly existence
Lethe
*Nida Waterfall
*Cape Matapan
*Cave of the Sybil
*Diros Cave
Entrances to the Underworld
Dis and Pluto
Hades
Rich
Dis
the place that confines
Orcus
*have to be inducted in order to learn practices
*spiritual resurrection after death
Mystery Religion (Eleusinian Mysteries, Cult of Dionysus, Orphism)
(epos = “word, song”) a long narrative poem celebrating the deeds of heroes
epic
*Group activities
*Communal sparagmos and omophagia
appealed especially to women (involved heavily in myth)
*viewed as a demon
Cult of Dionysus
Swear by this and cannot break oath
River Styx
image
eidolon
breath
psyche
an image of what one was in life, attenuated form
shades, spirits, and ghosts
*precession for dead
*have a eulogy
*preparing the body
*Parentalia festival
*Lemuria Festival (Roman)
Funerary Practices
having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck
apotropaic
