The toys of Zeus : Part Two 4

Question 1

What’s the story of Pyramus and Thisbe?

Answer 1

Children of feuding families, could communicate through hole in wall between houses.

Arranged assignation, Thisbe arrives first and is frightened away by a lion who is savaging an ox. She drops her veil and escapes.

Pyramus arrives, sees bloodied veil, assumes Thisbe is dead, stabs himself.

Thisbe returns, sees dead Pyramus, kills herself.

Question 2

What were Pyramus and Thisbe transformed into?

Answer 2

The Pyramus river in Turkey (now the Ceyhan) and the Thisbe spring that runs into it.

Question 3

Who is this fruit associated with?

Answer 3

Pyramus and Thisbe –turned deep crimson purple, the colour of their passion and blood.

Question 4

Who was Galatea?

Answer 4

Nereid

Daughter of Oceanid Doris and sea god Nereus

Famed for milk-white skin

Question 5

Who adored Galatea?

Answer 5

Polyphemus, a cyclops, ugly offspring of Poseidon and Oceanid Thoosa.

Question 6

Whom did Galatea love, and what was his fate?

Answer 6

Acis, a Sicilian shepherd boy, son of river nymph Symaethis and god Pan

Polyphemus hurled boulder on Acis, crushing him.

Acis was turned into immortal river spirit with whom she consorts for eternity.

Question 7

Who is depicted here?

Answer 7

Triumph of Galatea, Raphael, 1520

Question 8

Who was Leucippos and what was his story?

Answer 8

Daughter of Lampros of Phaestos (Crete) and Galatea (not nymph)

Raised as boy because Lampros wanted to kill all girls.

At puberty taken to temple of Leto where gods transform into male.

Question 9

What is the story of Leucippos and Daphne?

Answer 9

Leucippos was in love with naiad Daphne, disguises himself as girl to join her company of nymphs, but when they bathe in river he is stripped and revealed, and they spear him to death

Question 10

What is story of Apollo and Daphne?

Answer 10

Daphne, a bathing naiad, is pursued by Apollo but prays to gods and transformed into a laurel tree.

Laurel becomes sacred to Apollo, who then crowns winners of Pythian games with laurel wreath.

Question 11

Who is depicted here?

Answer 11

Apollo and Daphne, Bernini, 1622

Question 12

Who were the Propoetides and what was their fate?

Answer 12

Group of women from Amathus who were so indignant at sexual license pervading Cyprus they suggested that Aphrodite should no longer be their patroness.

Aphrodite punishes by making them lusty and shameless, indiscriminately prostituting their bodies about the island.

Question 13

What is story of Pygmalion?

Answer 13

Sculptor, swears off love in favour of art, having seen licentiousness of Propoetides.

Aphrodite punishes him by making him sculpt ideal woman, with whom he falls in love and pampers as though real.

Prays to Aphrodite to make her real. Prayers are answered. Happy ending.

Question 14

What is the story of Hero and Leander?

Answer 14

Hero, priestess of Aphrodite, living on European side of Hellespont.

Leander, her lover living on Asian side.

She lights a lamp for him to fix on when swimming across to her at night.

Winds blow out her lamp one night, he is drowned and washed up on the rocks beneath her tower. She leaps and dashes herself on same rocks.

Question 15

Names of the four winds?

Answer 15

Boreas –north wind
Zephyrus –west wind
Notus – south wind
Eurus – east wind

Question 16

Who is depicted here?

Answer 16

Pygmalion adoring his statue, Jean Raoux, 1717

Question 17

Who is depicted here?

Answer 17

Parting of Hero and Leander, Turner, 1837

Question 18

Who is depicted here?

Answer 18

Death of Leander, Rubens, 1604

Question 19

Who is depicted here?

Answer 19

Death of Hero and Leander, William Etty, 1829

Question 20

Who was Arion?

Answer 20

Musician from island of Lesbos

Son of Poseidon and nymph Oncaea

Question 21

Who was Arion’s patron?

Answer 21

Periander, tyrant of Corinth

Question 22

What poetic form did Arion invent?

Answer 22

The dithyramb –wild choral hymn, usually dedicated to Dionysus

Question 23

What is the story of Arion?

Answer 23

Sponsored by Periander to attend music festival in Tarentum (Taranto), where he wins much treasure, to be split with Periander.

Sailors returning him to Corinth attempt to kill him, take loot, but he asks to sing a final song to gods, summons Poseidon, leaps overboard and is saved by dolphin.

Dolphin takes him to Corinth, but dies after being taken onto shore to be fed. Monument to dolphin is erected.

Sailors are blown into Corinth, Arion questions them and dolphin statue reveals their crime. Periander kills them.

Question 24

What is Arion’s ultimate end?

Answer 24

Apollo (to whom dolphins and music are sacred) sets Arion and dolphin between Sagittarius and Aquarius as constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin.

Question 25

Who are Philemon and Baucis?

Answer 25

Poor, old couple from Phyrgia in Asia Minor

Question 26

What happens to Philemon and Baucis?

Answer 26

Visited by Zeus and Hermes in disguise, they are only in town to offer hospitality.

Zeus tells them to climb hill outside town but not look back. Sends flood on town.

Philemon and Baucis look back and are transformed into oak and linden tree.

Question 27

Who was Gordias, initially?

Answer 27

Poor peasant from Macedonia

Question 28

What sign did Gordias receive that he might be destined for greatness? And what does he do next?

Answer 28

Eagle lands on the pole of his oxcart.

Drives cart to oracle of Zeus Sabazios in Telmissus.

Question 29

Who is Zeus Sabazios?

Answer 29

Horse-riding incarnation of Zeus worshipped by the Thracians and Phrygians

Question 30

Who does Gordias meet on his way to the oracle of Zeus Sabazios?

Answer 30

Young Telmissian prophetess, who agrees to be his wife.

Question 31

How does Gordias become King of Phrygia?

Answer 31

King of Phrygia just died without an heir.

Oracle tells them to crown first man to enter Telmissus in a cart.

Question 32

What is the Gordian knot and what happened to it?

Answer 32

Knot tying Gordias’s cart to a post in the agora of Gordium.

Legend that whoever unties it will rule Asia.

Alexander the Great cuts it with sword.

Question 33

Who is depicted here?

Answer 33

Arion and dolphin, Gustav Moreau, 1891

Question 34

Who is depicted here?

Answer 34

Zeus and Hermes in the house of Philemon and Baucis, 1652, Jacob van Oost

Question 35

Who is depicted here?

Answer 35

Philemon and Baucis, Rembrandt, 1658

Question 36

Who was Midas?

Answer 36

Son of King Gordias of Phrygia

Question 37

How was Midas given the ability to turn everything to gold?

Answer 37

Dionysus did it, to repay him for his xenia in hosting Silenus

Question 38

How was Midas’s gold curse removed?

Answer 38

Dionysus intervenes saying that anything washed in the river Pactolus will be restored (including Midas himself).

Question 39

How did King Midas anger the gods and what was his punishment?

Answer 39

In musical contest between Apollo and Pan, said that Pan’s pipes were better.

Apollo gave him ass’s ears.

Question 40

How did King Midas conceal his ears, and how were they finally revealed?

Answer 40

Wore turbans, paid servant who cut his hair extra to keep his secret.

Servant could not keep secret and dug trench and shouted secret inside. A seed floated into the trench, and the reeds whispered the secret all the way to the city.

Question 41

How does Midas respond to the lifting of the gold curse?

Answer 41

Spurns riches and becomes a worshipper of Pan.

Question 42

Who is depicted here?

Answer 42

King Midas, Andrea Vaccaro, 1670

Question 43

Who is depicted here?

Answer 43

Midas and Bacchus, Poussin, 1624