week 1 Flashcards
rite
a traditional act
greeks vs romans
romans not as good at myth making but were more pragmatic than the greeks
myth
a traditional tale (applied) to provide an etiology of why something is the way it is
not made up on the spot
myth of Atlantis is not traditional (more of a story) cuz plato made it up.
like metamorphoses, stories that Ovid tells are not myths either cuz the are purely for entertainment
Myth can be applied to an issue as an example to something thats happening now (a paradigm)
you can adapt and change it
mythology
a set of myths
saga / legend
More with humans than with gods
religion
set of rites
tradition
handing down of customs by generations
sacrifice
the killing of an animal in honour of a god (to make it holy, of course)
guy who blames helen of troy for trojan war
remebers homer?
homer
ancient greek poet
Helen of troy the recantation poem( alteration of the myth but meaning stays basically the same)
- zeus was father of Helen
helen was a phantom (adalon)
Poet Pindar
friends with the syrocues King?? greek city inhabited by greeks (now Sicily)
this king was sick (no cure)
pindar writes poem
talks about centaur Cheiron (wise kind centaur lead a school of heroes)
one of his student asklepious invented medicine
(both dead in this poem, and pindar said if these guys were alive id have them find a cure for you)
its wrong to come back from the dead cuz ppl are supposed to be mortal to distinguish us from the gods
Niobe
had 6 daughters and 6 sons
(very proud of having many offsprings)
- bragged at Leto for having 2 kids until Leto’s kids killed all of hers.
then Niobe turned into a rock.
Persuasion (lliad?)
- Achilles gives back body of hector (he killed him in battle and Hector’s old father the king of troy, pays Achiles for his dead son’s body)
- Achilles took a bow after killing guy (hector killed Achilles’ best friend)
- Achilles is starving (cuz he wont eat till he gets revenge or something)
- tells kings that even both they are greiving even Niobe ate and so they must eat together.
Warning (Horace Odes)
Horace warns that hes better than any poet exept Pindar cuz he’s too good
“Whoever strives, lulus, to rival pindar, relies on wings fastened with wax by daedalean craft and is doomed to give his name to some crystal sea.”
(there’s lore here but I missed what was said)
Something about Daedaleaus making wings (his son cant use them tho because gods will get jelous is people can fly (flies and drowns, ecarion sea?)