Myth Vocab Flashcards
Elysian Fields
Part of the under world - you could end up in heaven or the other bad side. In Hadye’s.
Herculean
With strength and effort relates back to Hercules.
Achilles heel
An area of weakness. Something you put off till later like homework.
Labyrinth
Like a maze
Nemesis
Your enemy like Wellesley vs Needham
Psych
The mind, consciousness, spirit, and mental process. The study of mind and behavior.
Gorgon
Turns people to stone, has snakes for hair, killed many.
Harp
To talk in a negative way non stop. A half human, half bird
Narcissistic
Extremely self - centered with an exaggerated sense of self importance.
Titanic
Having a great magnitude, force, or power. (Huge) Refers to Titans
Midas Touch
The ability to make money out of anything one undertakes. Connects to King Midas turning everything into gold that he touched.
Tantalize
To tease someone with something out of reach of them. Tantulas was punished and was given the curse of not able to grasp onto things he was trying to reach.
Sisyphean
A never ending event or action. What you’r doing is that.
Apollo and Daphne
He falls in love with her, but she wants to remain a maiden. Eventully she runs away and turns into a tree.
Prometheus
He steals fire from the Gods for mankind. Zeus is angry with him so he chains him up, but eventually Hercules frees him.
Persephone, Demeter, and Hades
Persephone gets kidnapped by Hades to the underworld. While she’s gone her mother turns the world cold each time she’s in the underworld.
Cupid and Psyche
They fall in love with each other and marry, but he only visits her at night, and she’s not allowed to see him. They separate for some time, then are reunited.
Theseus slays the Minotaur
He convinces his father to let him fight the Minotaur a creature. He kills it with the help of Ariadne. He forgets to put the white sale up for victory on his journey home, so his father kills him self.
Daedalus and the flight of Icarus
They try to escape King Minos’s labyrinth on the island of Crete by constructing wings made of feathers and wax. Icarus flies too close to the sun not listening to his father’s warnings causing his wax to melt. He falls to his death in Icarian Sea.
Echo and Narcissus
Echo is a nymph who angered Hera, can only repeat last words someone otters. She falls in love with Narcissus a beautiful man who falls in love with himself.
King Midas
He requests the golden touch for doing a good deed. But soon regrets it and can’t sleep or hug his daughter. He begs to be returned to normal.
Pyramus and Thisbe
Young neighbors that are deeply in love and plan to run away together. When Pyramus escapes he see’s Thisbe’s scarf on the ground and thinks a lion ate her. He kills him self, but Thisbe discovers this and kills her self to join him in death. The berries turn red in their memory.
Medusa and Perseus
She has snakes for hair, but is killed by Perseus who is aided by winged sandals from Hermes.
Death of Achilles
Achilles mother dips him in the water of immortality, holding him by his heel. No arrow or weapon could harm him until Paris shoots him in the heel during the Trojan War.
Orpheus and Eurydice
Hades agrees to free Eurydice, but only if Orpheus doesn’t look back at his wife. On the way back to earth Orpheus looks back at Eurydice and then looses her forever.
Sisyphus
A trickster. He chained up life so he wouldn’t have to leave the underworld. He is punished and forced to push a rock up a hill for eternity.
Athena and Arachne
She is the goddess of war and handicrafts. She gets jealous and turns him into a spider.
Labors and Hercules
He is illegitimate. Hera kills his whole family.
Why is Zeus associated with lightning
A way for the Greeks to explain the unexplainable.
Who were Zues’s parents
His father is named Cronus the King of the Titans and his mothers name is Rhea who is Cronus’s sister also a Titan.
Why did the Greek myths contain incest, cannibalism, and sacrifice
Greek Myths have incest because there’s no one else for them to marry besides their siblings. Cannibalism happened because the father didn’t want their children to take over their power so they ate their children.
What did Cronus do to his children and why
He ate them because he didn’t want his children to take over his powers.
How did Rhea trick Cronus
She wraps a blanket around a rock pretending it’s another one of her babies and Cronus eats it.
How is Zeus similar to his father
They both want to be the most powerful.
What does being given the ability to harness lightning mean for Zeus
It is very powerful and no one will be able to defeat him.
Example of Hercules Labors
Nemean, Lion, Boar, Clean the stabbles in one day, kill a headed hydra.
