Greek & Roman Mythology Midterm 1

Critical Thinking

Not having the answer before asking a question

Thesis

A statement based upon facts that a reasonable person could disagree with

Observation

A statement about more than one fact that every reasonable person will agree with

Idealism

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

Textualism

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.

Historicism

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

Humanism

The assumption that human beings were essentially the same in the ancient world as in the present

Epic of Gilgamesh

• Begins with Wall of Uruk

• Temple of Ishtar

• Enkidu meditates on the great doors of the palace

Theogony

• A poem by Hesiod that recounts the genesis of the gods and organizes disparate ancient Greek myths.
  

• It is important because it collects various accounts of the gods together while simultaneously attempting to explain the cosmos.

Homeric Hymn to Apollo

The hymn is divided into two parts, each focusing on a different aspect of Apollo and telling distinct myths about his birth and the establishment of his sanctuary at Delphi.

• The Delian Apollo (Lines 1-181)
  Focus: The birth of Apollo on the island of Delos.
  Narrative:
  The hymn opens by praising Apollo, known for his skill with the lyre and the bow. Leto, Apollo's mother, wanders in search of a place to give birth to her son. She is rejected by various lands, fearing the wrath of Hera, Zeus' wife. Finally, she finds the island of Delos, which agrees to be the birthplace of Apollo after Leto promises that Apollo will build his temple there. Leto endures a long and difficult labor due to Hera's interference, and no other goddess comes to assist except for Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth), who is eventually summoned. After Apollo's birth, the island of Delos is blessed and becomes a sacred center for his worship.

• The Pythian Apollo (Lines 182-546)
  Focus: The founding of Apollo's sanctuary at Delphi, known as the Pythian Oracle.
  Narrative:
  Apollo sets off to find a place for his temple, eventually choosing the region of Crisa, near Mount Parnassus. At Crisa, he defeats the great serpent or dragon, Python, that guards the area, thus purifying the land for his temple. This victory over Python gives him the epithet "Pythian." Apollo establishes the oracle, where priests (originally Cretans) serve under his guidance and deliver his prophecies. The hymn describes how Apollo guides a ship of Cretan sailors to Delphi, where they become the first priests of his temple.

Homeric Hymn to Dionysus

Metamorphoses

The work is a collection of 15 mythological and legendary stories written in Latin by Ovid,

• Many taken from Greek sources in chronological order, the ending being Julius Ceaser’s death

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

• disgusted by women who live “their lives in wickedness”

Myrrha

• Wanted to have sex with her father

• worried about her relationship with her son

• mother to adonis

Enkidu

• Formed from clay and saliva

• Becomes friends with Gilgamesh

• Kills Humbaba along with Gilgamesh

• dies for killing Humbaba

Shamhat

• Sacred Prostitute

• brings Enkidu into contact with civilization

• feminine

Kronos

• From Berossus History of Babylonia

• Cronus appeared to Xisuthrus in a dream and revealed that on the 15th of the month Daisios, mankind would be destroyed by a great flood. He then ordered him to bury together all the tablets. The first, the middle, and the last, and hide them in Sippar, the city of the sun

• Fears children, swallows them whole

• Eats them bc of a prophecy

Metis

In Greek mythology, Metis was the Titaness goddess of wisdom, planning, and cunning. She was also the first wife of Zeus

Heracles

• Attributes: Lion skin, club

• Areas of Concern: Strength, Spreading Culture

• Associated with Phoenician Melqart and borrowed by Romans as Hercules

• Assigned 12 labors for killing wife and children (2 don’t count on technicalities)

Perseus

• son of Zeus and Danae

• killed medusa

• rescuer and husband of Andromeda

  
  

Ishtar

Concerns: Love, sex, fertility, and war

Attributes: Staff w snakes, headdress (shugurra crown)

“Akkadian name” for Sumerian Innana

Prometheus

• Son of Iapetos, brother of Epimetheus, father of Deucalion

• Attributes: Fire, eagle, caring for man

• Concerns: Technology and Man

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

• Eats first wife, Metis and her child, Athena

Hera

• sister and wife of Zeus

• Attributes: Crown, Peacock

• Areas of Concern: Marriage, family

Apollo

God of music, archery, truth, prophecy, healing, light, and the sun. He was also known as the national divinity of the Greeks. 

Hephaestus

• Son of Hera

• Attributes: Hammer, tongs, donkey

• Areas of Concern: Metal working, fire

• Associated w/ Roman Vulcan

Aphrodite

Attributes: Cupids, Doves

Concerns: Love, Desire, Fertility

• Known as Venus in Roman Mythology

Theseus

• Son of Aethra and Aegeus

• killed Sinis

• killed the minotaur in the labyrinth

• succeeded to the sovereignty of Athens

Deucalion

• Son of Prometheus

• Husband of Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus

• Survived the flood in Greek Mythology

Humbaba

• Guardian of the Cedar Forest of Labininu (Lebanon)

• Put there by the god Enlil

• Killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu

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

Tiryns

• Small archaeological site in Greece abandoned by the 2nd c BCE

• Once center of power in Greece before 1200 BCE

• Mythical home of Perseus and Eurytheus, who assigned the 12 labors of Heracles

Cyprus

• Island located near Turkey

• Home to Greeks & Phoenicians and a later territory of Egypt

• Now an Independent Republic w/ northern territory occupied by the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Cyprus

Uruk

• One of the first Cities in Sumer (modern-day southern Iraq) (possibly the first city in history

• Home of the temples of Innana and Anu

• Mythical Home of Gilgamesh

Magna Graecia

Mt Parnassus

Mount Parnassus was the home of the Muses and Apollo, and was associated with poetry, music, and learning

Ovid

• Born March 23rd 43 BCE Sulmo Italy

• Died ca 17 CE in exile

• Roman Poet. Author of The Metamorphoses, The Heroides, etc.

• Exiled for a “poem and a mistake” at the end of his life

Hesiod

• Believed to be the poet of the Theogony and Works and Days

• Supposedly lived in Boeotia

• Supposedly defeated Homer in a poetic contest