week 2 Flashcards
Spherical Earth
- plato was first to mention it briefly
Delphi
centre of the earth is
mount olympus
highest mountain in Greece and they believed that’s where the Gods lived.
(someone found that Olympus summit idnt have any gods so they moved mount olympus outside atmosphere where you could never go
Hades world
basically hell (everyone goes there?? after death???)
muddy people
(heracles exeption he is alone of mortal humans who makes it up to olympus)
Tartarus
Punishments happen / sin / tormented there
Sun
drives chariot accros the sky (east to west)
takes ride on golden cup that goes around the world to get back to east in the morning
North / boreas
boreas is the god of north wind
gods visit far south or far norht when on vacation
elements
the 4 make up everything that exists in different combonations
omg 5th element (ether) only exists in the outer realm
described as being some kind of combo of air and fire (kinda like plasma?) fatal to us, only the gods can cope with
they thrive in it.
3 kinds of beings
Gods:
- idealized human like bodies
- immortal
- resemble us both physically and morally
- they are only superior in physical power
Us:
- most important, the myths concern us most. the gods are only interesting because of what they tell us about ourselves
- all destined to die
Animals:
- motivated by strong sense of self interest
- difference is man is political and able to form communities
- we have modesty (capacity to feel shame) and justice (means giving ppl what you owe, proper morality)
- greeks were very upset by bees (monarchy and society)
Hybrids:
- Centaurs mostly
- share most stories with Heracles
- typically portrayed as male
hercules / heracles only man to become god ever.
examples of female people who gave message about supernatural world to humnas:
Muses (inspire poets)
- are daughters of memory
Sybils:
- live in southern italy
- wrote prophecies on reeves??
- Romans took them to rome and consult them in times of great crisis
- kind of like the oracle???
- were burned so none survived :(
STORY:
- truscany older than romans
- guy Tigaze / tarkiayze??? baby who looked like old man and found in plowing filed
- would tell veryone about the art of predicitng the future
- mirrors would be made of bronze, so they would decorate the back (very pretty)
- Tigaze is holding a liver of sacrificial animals on the back of one mirror
- the old baby gave it to them?
Heroes
no angels or saints but heroes who were slightly saints?
dead people that have died for some good and gained some supernatural power? if you sacrifice and pray to their grave they might help you out?
mind body brain spirit - thinking body parts
- soul isn’t used, soul was like a never ready battery SOOO nah
- life Force: more like soul basically (Anima)
- animac being / animated = alive
- romans believed that the thinking body part was the heart (cor)
(record, discord, etc.) - Romans pretty violent and cut of peoples heads, looked inside of them and figured out thats what thought pretty quick I think (ansiphilitus???)
encapylos??? called it whats in the head thing
greeks thought with their diaphragm aparantly (breathing and thinking was connected)
cave painters
Desert people from research:
belive that the surface of the rock is a veil / membrane that separated real world with spiritual so they painted on it to connect to it.
(maybe people back in cave days also believed this)
very often illustrations are animals (hunted animals typical)
connection between food and spirit
the gods in myth seem to take interest in our food. Ufo’s also steal cows and peoples food.
Archilous’ Cow STORY
his mother sent him to buy cow on fair, the muses took cow and gave him a guitar
when he got home, mom was mad
what do the muses want the cow for???
Baby Hermes Cow STORY
when he was born, went out of cradle
- stole herd of cows from big brother Apollo, creatively,
- killed some, about to cook them and then remembers oh wait i don’t eat this
Why does Apollo have cows????
cows
do they represent days of the year?
Some gods give us food as opposed to taking it from us
- Dionysus, Demeter, and Persephone
mind influence from gods
gods can influence our minds (aka to pour somthin ginto our minds to alter them)
menos
- (power and excitement)
ate
- (compulsion to self destructive madness)
Polytheism
- many gods (pretty upbeat and happy)
- some malevolent (chthonic) lived beneath the earth
sculptures of them doing different things to differentiate them
Pindar says that essentially gods and humans are the same kind and come from same “mother”
Monotheism
not always that simple
Incarnationalism
idea that there is only one god BUT they can never talk to us, too big and could prob blow us up
- small gods that can talk to us? or something
Encosmic: gods manifesting
Henotheism
- you pick which god you like most and worship them
BUT you must not put down another god to boost your own god.
theistic monotheism
- god has created the world and he did that cuz he loves it (its his baby) hes emotionally invested
- nothing bad can happen to gods baby aka the world
diesm
OR some say gods created universe and then abandoned it
many different worlds cuz many gods, when theyre done with it they drop it from mount olympus
Dualism
- good and bad gods chilling together for fate of universe
Agnostisicim
is there a god is there not?
- not too interested to find out because too complex of a topic (or something like that)
Atheism
universe is unloved, alone, no gods
- Diagoras of Melos 5th century BCE chopped off statue of heracles and threw into fire told to cook his lentils)
Speaking to Gods
- watching flight of birds to communicate to gods (cuz bird in sky = closer to olympus)
- sacrifice (cut out liver, look at it find abnormal marks on liver for predictions of the future from the gods.)
- or pray (you invoke the god by name, say something nice about them, hen what you want, then explanation why they should give it to you)
indication, request, explanation
AND that the animal is volunteering to be sacrificed - you restore the animal, put head on stick.
- gods could spontaniously give info to you (aka if cow is born with 2 heads, a monster is something that is giving you a message – that is the core of the name!)
Older Gods - Olympus
- important gods are those who live in Olympus
number 12 is more important the names on that list
morally and physically similar to humans
Xoana : wooden things not made from humans (fell from sky apparantly) most important was kept to represent Athena
Apollo has “of the streets” title
maybe means entrance gate
- represented as pillar with cone on top
praying to cone statue (Apollo) inside of Athena theatre?
Ta Dokana : represents Zues’ sons
Castor and Pollux (twins & half brothers one’s dad is zeus and other’s is a mortal man)
Zeus
- Zeus (Bright)
- Tinia (= Veltha) seasonal change
- Juppiter / Jovis (Sky-father)
- air / sky king / heaven
- thunderbolt powers
- eagle / oak tree
- Olympia & Dodona
zeus is guilty of what he did to his dad and knows it can be done to him (paranoid that ppl could come after him)
- began to be paranoid tyrant
ppl thought lighting bolt looked like two flames with a handle in between.
- might be fulgurite or lily flowers
also god of:
- supplients
- oaths
- guests / companions
- purifier
- hearth
Hera
- sister wife of Zeus
- queen of earth
- family and marriage
latin name: Juno (aka June wedding)
animals:
cow, peacock (gave dead spies’ eyes to the boring peacok)
cult cities:
aragos, samos, selinus
romans vs greek names
why 2?
- equated their gods with greeks and thats how they god the same gods
SYNCRETISM (saves bloodshed)
Posiedon
- God of water / sea
- neptune
- “of horses”
- worshipped near the sea
Demeter
- “grain mother”
- Ceres (cereal)
- “growth”
- agriculutre
Atribute: ear or sheaf of grain
animal:
piglet
younger generation
Hephaistos
- of fire
- Volcanus
- anvil/ hammer / tongs
(overworked upper body??) - blacksmith
Athena
- from city of athens
- grey eyes
- “owl face”
owl coin - Minerva
Womens tasks
strategy / battle strategy
loom
greek clothes comparable to bedsheets
Ares
- virture
Mavors / Mars (martial arts)
war
shield and spear
boar
cite : areoplagus
Aphrodite
- foam?
Venus
love beauty
cites: cyprus
Apollo
- god of young men
- and guitar
- raven
- bay (laurel) tree
bow
Artemis
- bear / palm tree
- looks after animals so they could be hunted
bow also
- her mom was leaning against palm trea as she birthed her
Hermes:
(cairn / inukshuk)
Mercurius (aka merchant)
boundries in rome trade
worlds greatest theif
attribute: cadeuceus / herald’s staff
totemic animal: tortoise
Messenger of the gods
Dionysus
god of wine
represented by leggings??
portfolio: wine / self forgetting
attributes: cantharus (dung beatle) / thyrsus
NON olympians
Hades
- “unseen” cuz in underworld
Pluto “wealthy?”
god of the dead
helmet of invisibility (the story that moms made up for children)
animal: Cerberus
plant: pomegranate
Hestia
- “hearth”
vesta (being?)
the household
male and female gods almost equal
no sexism on olympus??
Posiedon and Athena
arrow connects posiedon and athena:
- posiedon wanted to be ahtens leader
athena gave atheniasn the olive tree, posieden made a tiny salt sea?
they chose her cuz olives more useful than salt water.
symbolicaly, he was gonna give them rulership over the sea but they had literal interpretation
hephaestus / ares / aphhrodite
Aphro is married to Hephae but sleeps with Ares
Appollo / dionysus
appollo works from a far (mirror image of Dion)
but wine doesnt work from afar?
age frozen
some gods stuck in time : appollo and artemis (stuck in teenage years)
Look at slide show for age status for efeyone else
