Greek Mythology -- First Midterm

What are the key features of a myth, according to one definition

Historical, explanatory, or religious

What does the greek word Muthos mean?

A command

What is something all myths have in common?

A narrative

What type of myth is exemplified by Hesiod’s Theogony

Divine Myth

Who are the principle actors in Divine Myths

the gods

What does the term Etiological mean?

explanatory

What is a good example of a Legend myth?

The Odyssey

What is an alternate definition for a myth?

a traditional story with collective importance

The story of Perseus exemplifies what type of myth?

Folktale

Divine Myth

stories in which supernatural beings are the main actors

Legend

stories of the great deeds of human heroes or heroines

Folktale

stories whose actors are ordinary people or animals

Etiological Tale

an explanatory myth

Folktale types

certain story themes found across the world and across cultures

Folktale motifs

Small repeated details across folktale types

Main crops that could be grown in Greece

Grapes, Wheat, Olives

Alloy of tin and copper (tin was obtained via trade), very important for Greek culture

Bronze

Bronze age dates

3000-1600 BCE

Cycladic Culture

Early civilization found in mediteranian islands. Known for sculptures found. Not much is known

Knossos

Early city where the Minoans were based

Fresco

A durable way of painting walls where one applies paint to plaster before it dries

Minoans

Pre-greek civilization based in Crete and surrounding isles. Existed during the late bronze age pre-indo-european

Labrys

symbol of Minoan culture - shaped like a double headed axe which may be used to sever bull heads

Main symbol of Minoan culture

Bull

Dates of Late Bronze Age/Mycenaean Period

1600-1150 BC

Mycenaean tablets

First written records of Greek culture/society. Could be broken and disposed of. Some were preserved in a fire

Achaean

Name used by Homer for Greeks who fought Troy

Dark age years

1150-800 BCE

Archaic Period years

800-480 BCE

What is a Polis?

Greek City-State. Emerged during Archaic period

What was a hoplite?

Greek militia footsoldier. Backbone of Greek armies and given a political voice (emergence of democracy)

Boeotia

Plains in southern Greece. Home to the city of Thebes

Attica

Land where Athens was located

Peloponnese

Peninsula connected to the mainland by The Isthmus

Laconia

Territory around sparta

Euboea

Island where best limestone was found

Aegan Sea

Sea between the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor

Cyclades

Islands circling Delos

Indo-Europeans

a cultural and linguistic group whose original homeland apparently was in central Asia

Linear B

Greek in a nonalphabetic script

Ionia

an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements

Key features of the archaic period

• Emergence of the Polis

• Rebirth of commerce

• Aristocracy

Classical Period

The “golden age of Greece” where many of the most influential thinkers, artists, and politicians who ever lived

Peloponnesian War

A devastating war between Athens and Sparta

Hellenistic Period

Started 323 BC after the death of Alexander the Great

Features of the Hellenistic Period

Breaking up of kingdoms but spread of Greek influence

Pederasty

love for boys (usually explicit)

Parthenos

Large statue of Athena in Athens

Miasma

contagious power that has an independent life of its own. Until purged by the sacrificial death of the wrongdoer, society would be chronically infected by catastrophe.

Roman Period

30 BC - when the Hellenistic culture fell into Roman hands

Etruscans

Influential people who lived in city-states north of Rome

Mesopotamia

the “land between the rivers,” which occupies the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq

Sumerians

A people who lived near the Persian gulf and used a language unrelated to any known language

An

The Sumerian sky god who had supreme authority

Inanna

Sumerian queen of the heavens, sexual love, and war; An’s daughter

Enlil

Sumerian lord of the storm

Enki

Sumerian lord of the Earth

Semites

seminomadic peoples who inhabited the steppe at the fringes of the Arabian Desert

Akkadians

Group of people who took over southern Sumerian cities and adopted Sumerian culture

Hebrews

Best known group of Semetic people

Hittites

Powerful group of the Late Bronze Age who control central Anatolia

Homer

Author of The Iliad and The Oddessey

Epic

a long narrative poem celebrating the deeds of heroes

Homeric Hymns

A collection of poems from the Archaic period

Humanism

A philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.

Choral song

Composition of writing memorized for public presentation

Tragedy

Genre of play which explores death and the human condition. Name comes from a word meaning “goat sacrifice”

Aeschylus

the earliest tragedian whose works survive

Sophocles

Greek poet credited with writing plays such as Antigone and the Oedipus trilogy

Euripides

Poet who criticized traditional myths, having the most plays which survived. Wrote about “deflated heroes”

Apollonius of Rhodes

A student of Callimachus who wrote a Homeric poem about Jason

Library of Apollodorus

An account of mythical events from the creation of the world to the death of Odysseus

Vergil

Legendary Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid

Ovid

a Roman poet noted especially for his Ars amatoria and Metamorphoses.

Metamorphoses

The most substantial and influential repertory of Greek myth

Cosmogony

A story that explains the origin of the world

Theogony

A story that explains the origin of the gods

Chaos

meaning Chasm, one of the primordial gods

Gaea

Mother Earth

Uranus

Brother and husband of Gaea who trapped her in eternal sexual embrace until he was severed by Cronus

Tartarus

The underside of the world, darkness and evil, included the abode of Hades

Eros

god of sexual love

Titans

Generation after Gaea and Uranus, freed when Cronus seperated Uranus from Gaea

Cyclopes

Offspring of Gaea and Uranus, often depicted with one eye

Hecatonchires

“Hundred-handed-ones”, offspring of Gaea and Uranus

Cronus

Last born titan who contended with Uranus for power and ultimately severed him from Gaea, freeing his siblings

Oceanus

Male titan of water; the rivers which encircle the world

Rhea

Wife and sister of Cronus, mother of the Olympians

Helius

Titan of the sun

Eos

The dawn;

Phaethon

Son of Helius who attempted to drive the sun chariot. Unsuccessful :(

Tithonus

A Trojan prince who won the heart of Selene, immortalized but trapped in old age

Erinyes

The furies; ferocious female spirits who punish broken oaths and anyone who shed kindred blood

Giants

“Earthborn ones”; beings of enormus strength and violence who will one day fight against Zeus and the Olympians

Sphinx

Offspring of Gaea and Pontus, a deadly spirit of plague

Cerberus

A multi-headed dog who guarded Hades’s realm

Chimera

A lion with a snake’s tale and goat head growing from it’s back- killed by Heracles

Thetis

Nereid, mother of Achilles

Titanomachy

“Battle of the Titans”

Atlas

Either a titan or a giant who was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky