Term Test 1 Flashcards
What is a hero?
- larger than life, someone people want to be OR someone who horrifies others
(their power comes from this horrifying part)
What is a myth? What are its characteristics?
- traditional shared narratives that were orally transmitted
- original authors are unknown
- fluid (they changed in emphasis and format as they were transmitted)
- a dramatic representation of ideology
- expresses societal structure (tensions, balance, connections)
- way to make sense of things
–> Myths express, reinforce, justify and challenge cultural values, practices, desires and fears
What is a Divine Myth?
- explains/reflects on the natural universe/phenomena
- reflects Ancient Greek societal structure
- major characters = anthropomorphic (human shaped) gods –> immortal and ageless but not eternal
What is a Legend?
- explains historical phenomena
- major characters = exemplary humans who are superior to others in some ways (gods also often involved)
What is a Folktale?
- reflects a fantasy of power structures being inverted (underdog wins)
- often comic or happy ending
- major characters = ordinary mortals and tricksters
What is a Fable?
- about everyday moral behaviour
- didactic (teaches a lesson)
- major characters = animals with human characteristics
Evidence for Classical Myths
- Texts
- Vase Paintings
- Archaeological sites
- Paintings
- Mosaics
- Sculptures
- Funerary Objects
- Coins
Characteristics of Greek Religion
- no texts
- ordinary individuals performed the rites and sacrifices
- integral part of state and public institutions
- learned through witnessing and participating: myths, public festivals, sculptures
- polytheism
- gods were immortal but not eternal (anthropomorphic), tension between male/female gods (male-dominated religion)
Examples Social/Political Functions of Myth
i.e. 2 myths about how the city of Athens got its name:
- Fight between Athene vs. Poseidon, they gave gifts (olive branch vs. salt water lake)
- Poseidon’s rage after Athene won, and Athene’s blessing over the city led to the women being both thanked and punished (taking away vote) - Hephaestus’ failed rape led to Erichthonius being born through Gaia, Athene takes him to Athens to be born –> therefore Athena is divine ancestor of Athenian people
i. e. Athene contributed to legal system in Athens
- announced that she would always take a man’s side in a fight because she was motherless
- reinforced the social hierarchy
Why is oral tradition important in the creation/changing of myth?
- ancient worlds were oral even after writing had been invented
- ongoing interplay between oral and written stories (on purpose!)
- individual settlements had locally significant variations of myth
–> greek myths are due to long evolutionary process
What is the Panathenaea?
- annual festival in Athens celebrating Athena’s birth
- singers sing Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey
- every fourth year = Great Panathenaea
- climax = procession to Parthenon; group of women carry peplos
What is the City Dionysia?
= annual festival in Athens dedicated to Dionysus
- had ritual dramas that showed suffering of a mythic figure
What are Homeric Hymns?
- hymns written in honour of the 12 olympians in the style of Homer
What are the 2 main sources of Greek myth?
- Archaic narrative poetry (i.e. Homer’s Iliad, Hesiod’s Theogany)
- Classical dramas by Athenian playwrights
What are the 3 main literary categories of Greek myth?
- Epic narratives
- Lyric poetry
- Tragic drama
What are distinct qualities of Greek literary myth?
- Humanism: focus is on mortal hero’s own struggles, gods are behind the scenes (but can’t fight against what they decree)
- Individualism: recognizes no equals, don’t work with colleagues, stand alone
- Competitiveness: competitive ambition and jealousy drives both gods and mortals
–> winner of Olympic Games and mythic hero all possess similar qualities: perpetuated heroic ideal of a single competitor triumphing over all
Define the epic hero?
Define the tragic hero?
epic hero = man of physical action, proves worth by courage and fighting
tragic hero = explores meaning of pain/defeat, greater depth of thought and feeling
Major differences between Greek and Roman myth?
- tales drawn from Ancient Greece but altered to please Romans (ties ancient myths to specific events in Rome’s history)
- adapted stories to celebrate Roman values
Who is Hesiod?
farmer and poet from Boetia (on Greek peninsula)
What is the theogony?
= oral epic about the the divine dynastic succession (political poem) and birth of the gods
- cosmogony: birth of world order
- hymn to Zeus
- Near Eastern influence
What is the Greek perspective of Earth?
- flat, round surface (dinner surface)
- inverted dome on top that contains heaven
- above heaven, realm of the gods
- below Earth = Hades
- below Hades = Tartarus
what are features of oral greek epic?
- sung by single performer/bard, self-accompanied with lyre, third person
- based off known story but improvised lines as they went
- invocation of muses and other gods to give them inspiration and add authority to the story
- sung in meter (dactylic hexameter)
- repetition
- formulae (certain lines that are repeated)
- epithets
- ring-composition in the narrative
- catalogues, lists
(LIKE RAP)
What is a dactylic hexameter?
metrical unit with specific patterns of syllables
- dactyls = one long and two shorts
- 6 dactyls or equivalents in each line