Greek & Roman Mythology Final Exam (Knowt)

Fall 2023 finals for G&R

Critical Thinking

Not having the answer before asking the question

Humanism

The assertion that human beings are the same now as in the ancient world and therefore understandable

Historicism

The ideas that human beings had fundamentally different ideas of how the world worked in the past and their motives cannot always be understood

Idealism

The belief that categories exits "out there" independent of language and human beings. Sometimes these categories are referred to as "natural"

Textualism

• Story subject language

• limited change (variations allowed)

• Because categories and even mythic figures are constructed by language it is better to try to understand categories and mythic figures as subject to limited change over time rather than imperfect copies of an ideal hero or category.

Gender

• the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity.

Ethnicity

A socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on a myth of common ancestry

Theodicy

• The defense of God's (or the gods') goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil

Allegory

A narrative hat conveys hidden meanings through symbols, figures,actions, imagery, and/or events, which together create the moral,spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.

Aetiological Myth

A myth that explains the origins of an historical practice or event

Seneca

• Tutor of Nero • Stoic Philosopher • Author of Thyestes

Aeschylus

• Author of the Oresteia trilogy (including Agamemnon) • Fought in the battle of Marathon 490 BCE

Ovid

• Author of the Metamorphoses, DIFFERENT FROM APULEIUS

Euripides

• Author of over 90 tragedies including Medea and Orestes but rarely won 1st prize in the dramatic contests • Rumored to have changed the ending of Medea myth because he was bribed

Berossus

• Author of The History of Babylonia

• First (only?) author to use sources written in Akkadian for his history

Apuleius

author of the Metamorphoses ( The Golden Ass) with Cupid and Psyche, DIFFERENT FROM OVID

Pseudo-Apollodorus

• Author of the Library of Greek Mythology

Homer

• Believed to be the author of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Homeric Hymns

• Most professionals now believe that Homer is a name for a tradition than a person

Plato

• Follower of Socrates • Founder of the Academy where Aristotle was educated • wrote about Atlantis

Aristole

• Ancient Greek Philosopher • Tutor of Alexander the Great

Thyestes

• son of Pelops and brother of Atreus

• Seduces Atreus's wife Aerope

• As revenge, Atreus kills Thyestes' sons and feeds them to him

Atreus

• son of Phelops and brother of Thyestes

• father of Agamemnon and Menelaus

• rivalry with his brother for the city of Mycenae and wins

• kills Thyestes' sons and feeds them to him

Tantalus

• Son of Zeus or Tmolus • Father of Pelops • Mythical King of Lydia • Because he cut up his son Pelops and tried to get the gods to eat him, he was punished in the underworld with eternal hunger and thirst • (Origin of English Tantalize)

Pelops

• son of Tantalus

• father of Thyestes and Atreus

• served to the gods by his father

• body restored by the Fates except for his left shoulder, which Demeter had eaten, which was replaced with ivory

• defeated Oenomaus in a race by using Poseidon's chariot

Orestes

• Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra • Avenges his father by killing his mother • Suffers punishment for killing his mother from the Furies

Agamemnon

• King of Mycenae and son of Atreus

• Kills his daughter in a sacrifice to Artemis and is killed by his wife Clytemnestra and his cousin Aigisthus

• Causes the death of many soldiers at Troy by refusing to compromise with Achilles

• Commits a major act of hubris against the gods before his death

Furies/Erinyes/Eumenides

• Attributes: Snakes, Whips • Area of Concern: The punishment of murderers of family members • Born from the blood of the castrated Ouranos (Uranus)

Bellerophon

• Son of Eurynome (Eurymede) and Glaucus or Poseidon • Tamed Pegasus • Killed the Chimaera

Myrrha

• Transformed into tree after having sex with father

• gave birth to Adonis as a tree

Adonis

• Son and Brother of Myrrha and son and grandson of Cinyras • Mortal Lover of Aphrodite • Perhaps related to Akkadian Tammuz lover of Ishtar • Has a Canaanite name

Pygmalion

• Talented sculptor

• Vergils brother

• ruler of Tyre

• killed Sychaeus due to his wealth

• fell in love with a statue he carved and it comes to life after prayers to Aphrodite

Psyche

• goddess of the soul

• name means "breath of life"

• butterfly wings

• Anima

• from the novel Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass)

• wife of Eros (Cupid)

Deucalion

• Son of Promethius

• connected to flood myth

• restarted human race after the bronze age

• zeus was mad at the pride of the people getting to close to gods

Pandora

wife of Epimetheus, the first mortal woman, created by the gods as a punishment for Prometheus after he steals fire from Zeus, she is a gift

Heracles

• Attributes: Lion skin, club • Areas of Concern: Strength, Spreading Culture • Rescued Prometheus from being chained to a rock by Zeus

Theseus

• Son of Aithra and Aegeus or Poseidon • National Hero of Athens • Slayer of the Minotaur, but not the best boyfriend or father

Zeus

-Areas of Concern: The sky, kingship

• Attributes: Beard, Eagle, Thunderbolt

• Based on the same root as Roman Iu- in Iupiter (Jove) and - Sanskrit Dyaush pita (both "sky father"),

• Associated with Egyptian Amun and Persian Ahura-Mazda

Aphrodite/Venus

• Attributes: Cupids, Doves • Areas of Concern: Love, Desire, Fertility • Associated with Roman Venus

Athena

• Attributes: Helmet, Owl • Areas of Concern: Wisdom and War • Patron goddess of Athens • Virgin Goddess born from the head of Zeus

Apollo

• Son of Zeus and Leto • Areas of Concern: Music, Healing, Prophecy • Attributes: Kithara, Bow, Laurel

Hades

-chthonic deity -son of Kronos and Rhea -god of the underworld, wealth (ploutos) -associated with keys, helmet, black sheep, pomegranate seed -Spouse: Persephone-other names include Aidoneus (Unseen one) and Zeus Katachthonios ("Zeus under the ground)

• helm of darkness

Demeter

• Area of concern: Agriculture • Attributes: Grain Sheaf, Crown of Wheat • Mother of Persephone

Artemis

• Attributes: Bow and Arrow, hunting dog, stag, moon • Areas of Concern: Hunting, childbirth, virginity • Daughter of Zeus and Leto • Twin sister of Apollo

Prometheus

• fire, eagle

• son of Iapetos

• father of Deucalion

• brother of Epimetheus

• technology, mankind

• steals fire from Zeus

• deceived zeus into taking intestines as a sacrifice and giving the meat of the animal to humans

Dionysus

• (Bacchus, Mr. D) • God of Wine • Son of Zeus and Semele • Honored at the Great Dionysia festival in Athens where tragedies were performed

Poseidon

• Attributes: Trident, Beard • Areas of Concern: The sea, horses and earthquakes • Associated with Roman Neptune

Delphi

• Panhellenic sanctuary and sacred precinct of Apollo located in the region Phocis • Site of the Delphic oracle overseen by the Pythia • Setting of the first half of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo

Theatre of Dionysus

• Main theater in Athens during the fifth century • Current version dated to the 4th c BCE • Location of the altar to Dionysos Eleutherios

Areopagus

• A Hill in Athens where the council of former Archons (chief official of the Athenian state) met and set policy • Reduced to a court for high crimes in 462 BCE • Setting of the second half of the Eumenides

Eleusis

• A deme or village of Athens that was formerly independent • Home of the Eleusinian Mysteries, an initiation ceremony of which the details were secret but had something to do with the Eleusinian triad and an afterlife