CLAS 104: Term Test 4

Founder of Argos

Phoroneus

Which God/Goddess was predominantly worshipped in Argos?

Hera

How did Hera take control of the land of Argos?

She competed with Poseidon and Phoroneus declared her winner

How did Poseidon get revenge on Argos?

Poseidon dried up the Argive rivers including:

1. Inachus, named after the father of Phoroneus

2. Io, Inachus' daughter who had an affair with Zeus

Who gives birth to Perseus

Danae

Who is the father of Danae

Acrisius, king of Argos

What did Acrisius do to Danae?

He locked her away in a room after an Oracle pronounced that her son would kill him

Who impregnates Danae? How?

Zeus visits her as a shower of gold and impregnates her

What happened to Perseus when he was born?

He was kept secret in a room for four years until Acrisius discovered him and set him and his mother afloat on the sea in a chest

Where did Perseus and Danae end up when they were set afloat and who rescued them?

The island of Seriphos where they met a fisherman named Dictys who rescued them them and give them shelter

Dictys Greek meaning

Net

Brother of Dictys

Polydectes king of Seriphos

Who did Polydectes fall in love with?

Danae, but she was not interested

What happens at Polydectes banquet?

He invited all the men of Seriphos who each presented him with a gift

- Perseus boasted that he could give him a Gorgon's head and Polydectes sent him away on a journey to go get it

The Gorgons

Three sisters with snakes for hair whose look turned men into stone

Two were immortal but one was not: Medusa

Which Gods/Goddesses help Perseus?

Hermes and Athena

Where is Perseus instructed to go first on his journey?

They tell him first to go to the three daughters of Phorcys, the sisters of the Gorgons

Graeae Sisters

Greek for Old women, they were old from birth

Shared one eye and one tooth

What did the Graeae tell Perseus?

They tell him how to find the nymphs who would be able to give him magical items he would need for his journey

How did Perseus get the Graeae to help him?

By taking their eye and their tooth (they had one of each between them to share) and not giving it back until they told him what he wanted

Which magical items does Perseus receive from the nymphs?

Cap of Invisibility

Winged Sandals

Pouch (in Greek called a 'kibisis')

Which magical items does Perseus receive from Hermes?

Scimitar

Scimitar

a short sword with a curved blade that broadens toward the point

Where were the Gorgons said to live?

Somewhere in North Africa

How was Medusa and the Gorgons represented in art?

Sometimes as human, sometimes as monstrous. Her monstrosity is connected to the monsters frequently born from Poseidon

In some Accounts, Medusa is thought to be the lover of ___________

Poseidon

What are the Gorgons doing when Perseus finds them?

Sleeping

How does Athena tell Perseus to approach them?

Athena helps him by telling him not to look at them. Instead, he approaches them by looking at the reflection in his shield.

How does Perseus kill Medusa?

With these, Hermes' sword, and Athena's mirrored shield—which enables him to avoid looking directly at the Gorgons, which would turns him to stone

The two gods point out Medusa, the only mortal one. While looking at her in the mirror, Perseus chops off her head and puts it in the magic wallet, then begins to fly home.

How does Perseus escape from Medusa's sisters after killing her?

Using the invisibility cap and flying away with his sandals

Who does Perseus encounter on his way back to Seriphos?

Andromeda

Who is Andromeda?

the beautiful daughter of king Cepheus and queen Cassiepea

Why were king Cepheus and queen Cassiepea punished?

Cassiepea had boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids (sea nymphs) and Poseidon in punishment flooded their kingdom and sent a sea monster to destroy the land

What did an oracle tell King Cepheus as the only way to appease the monster?

the monster would only be appeased if he should offer his daughter Andromeda to it, and he chains her to a rock

What does Perseus do when he finds Andromeda?

Perseus kills the beast and marries Andromeda

She had previously been betrothed to Cepheus' brother, but Perseus turns him to stone with the Gorgon's head.

Where did Perseus find Danae and Dictys when he returned home?

They had taken refuge at an altar because Polydectes was persecuting them

Who are the last people that Perseus turns to stone with Medusa's head?

Polydectes and his followers

Where and how does Perseus kill Acrisius?

Larissa in Thessaly

- He throws a discus at his head while competing in the games of Larissa

What type of story is Perseus'?

Folktale

Bellerophon's companion

Pegasus

Who is Pegasus?

Pegasus is born from the body of Medusa when she is slain (Poseidon is the father of Pegasus) and given to Bellerophon

Who is Bellerophon?

A hero of Corinth, who leaves home after having unintentionally killed his brother.

Where does Bellerophon go after he flees home?

City of Tiryns

King of Tiryns

Proteus

King Proteus' wife

Stheneboea

Who does Stheneboea fall in love with?

Bellerophon, but he rejects her

What happens when Bellerophon rejects Stheneboea?

She accuses him of having tried to seduce her

How does king Proteus punish Bellerophon when he is accused of trying to seduce his wife?

Proetus sends him to his wife's father Iobates with a sealed letter which asked Iobates to kill Bellerophon. Iobates sends him to perform a series of difficult tasks

Stheneboea

Queen of the city of Tiryns, wife of King Proetus

Daughter of king Iobates

What creature does Bellerophon kill as his first task?

Chimaera

Chimaera

fire-breathing she-monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail

Which great warriors does Bellerophon defeat?

The Solymi and the Amazons

What do Greek authors Pindar and Euripides say about Pegasus?

Poseidon gives Bellerophon Pegasus to help with his tasks. At first he was unable to handle the horse, until Athena appears to him in a dream and gives him a golden bridle

How does Bellerophon anger the gods and die?

tries to ride up to Mount Olympus on Pegasus

What motif is commonly seen in the poetry oof Pindar?

The motif of a mortal punished or harmed for trying to rise beyond his station to the level of the immortals

Theseus

Son of Poseidon or Aegeus, and Aethra

Aethra

Mother of Theseus

daughter of king Pittheus of Troezen

Aegeus

King of Athens, father of Theseus

What does Aegeus tell Aethra when they sleep together in Troezen?

He gives instructions to her when he leaves for Athens that her child must be brought up without knowing who is father was.

If the child is a boy, he should be sent to Athens when he can lift up a heavy rock, under which Aegeus leaves a sword and a pair of sandals as recognition tokens

Which myths had a direct influence on the myth of Theseus?

Myths of Heracles

- Labours

What are Theseus' six tasks?

1) Kills Periphetes at Epidaurus

2) In Corinth he kills the robber Sinis

3) Near the village of Crommyon, he kills a great sow

4) At the cliffs of Sciron (named after the villain), he kills Sciron

5) At Eleusis he kills Cercyon

6) Between Eleusis and Athens he then kills Procrustes

Periphetes

Theseus 1st Task: Son of Hephaestus, crippled but very muscular; he smashed people's skulls with his club and robbed them. Theseus wrestled his club away from him and killed him.

Sinis

Theseus 2nd Task: Corinthian robbers (also known as 'Pityocamptes', the 'bender of pine trees') who kills people by bending trees to the ground, tying his victim to both trees and then letting them go

Sciron

Theseus 4th Task: He would make all who wanted to pass wash his feet, at which point he kicked them over the cliffs to be eaten by a large man-eating turtle. Theseus instead throws him to the turtle

Cercyon at Eleusis

Theseus 5th Task: Theseus defeats him in wrestling by lifting him in the air and throwing him to the earth

Procrustes

Theseus 6th Task:

Between Eleusis and Athens - Inn keeper who made travelers lie on a bed; if they were too long he cut them to size with a saw, and if they were too short he hammered them to stretch them. Theseus kills him with the saw and hammer.

Theseus' most famous labour

Killing the Minotaur

Who is Aegeus married to by the time Theseus arrives in Athens?

Medea, whom has fled to Athens after she killed her children. She recognizes Theseus as his son but Aegeus does not.

What does Medea suggest to Aegeus when Theseus enters Athens?

Medea recognizes Theseus as Aegeus' son, but fears him as a rival to her own son Medus for the kingship of Athens. She therefore tells Aegeus to invite Theseus to a banquet and give him poisoned wine.

What happens at Aegeus' banquet?

Theseus carves the meat with the sword he had found under the rock in Troezen. Aegeus therefore recognizes him at the last minute and knocks the cup from his hand. Theseus becomes his successor

Before killing the Minotaur, what animal does Theseus bring to Athens?

he is also said to bring to Athens the Bull of Marathon, the same bull which Heracles was supposed to have brought from Crete.

Who is Hecale?

An old lady who helped Theseus get the bull of marathon

She was the focus of a poem by the Hellenistic author Callimachus

Callimachus

Hellenistic poet who's stories we see a very explicit connection between Heracles and Theseus

Minos

King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa

Wins the Panathenaic games

Minos' treaty with Athens

Athens surrendered to Minos and made a treaty that it would send 7 young men and 7 girls to be food for the Minotaur

Minotaur

a mythical monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man, born to Minos' wife Pasiphae

Minos' wife

Pasiphae

How is the Minotaur created?

Minos was said to have prayed to Poseidon to send him a special bull to indicate support for his rule in Crete. Poseidon grants his wish, but Minos does not sacrifice the bull to Poseidon as he should. Poseidon therefore makes his wife fall in love with the bull and give birth to a human-bull hybrid after she has lain with the bull. The Minotaur is kept in Crete in a labyrinth

How were the victims of the Minotaur chosen?

By casting lots every 9 years

What happens when Theseus arrives in Crete to kill the Minotaur?

Minos' daughter Ariadne falls in love with him.

What does Ariadne give Theseus?

Depending upon the version, gives Theseus either a thread to trace his way back out of the Labyrinth in which the Minotaur lived, or a wreath to light his way.

How does Theseus betray Ariadne?

Having betrayed her father, she makes Theseus promise to take her home with him. He does take her from Crete, but then abandons her on the island of Naxos before they reach Athens. She is there rescued by Dionysus, who becomes her lover

Who wrote 'Ariadne auf Naxos'?

Richard Strauss

What happens when Theseus returns to Athens after killing the Minotaur?

He becomes king in place of his father, who dies tragically.

How does Aegeus die?

Aegean Sea:

Theseus had promised his father that if he were victorious he would change the sail of his ship on the way home from black to white. He forgets, however, to do so and his father Aegeus, believing that his son is dead, throws himself off a cliff into the sea in despair

Which cities is Heracles most widely connected to?

Argos and Thebes

What is unique about Heracles from other heroes?

Heracles is a remarkable hero for many reasons, but perhaps no more so than for the fact that he is one of the few mortals in Classical Mythology to be divinized (made fully divine and one of the immortals)

Heracles' Symbols

His trademark lion-skin and club

Who are Heracles' parents and how was he conceived?

Zeus and a mortal woman Alcmena

Zeus came to Alcmena in the disguise of her husband and therefore tricked her into sleeping with him. Alcmena in fact gives birth to twins, Heracles and his brother Iphicles.

According to Homer, what does Zeus proclaim on the day of Heracles' birth?

Zeus proclaims on that day that 'Eileithyia, helper in childbirth, will [today] bring to the light a man who shall rule over all that dwell around him; he shall be of the race that is of my blood.'

Which god/goddess is angered by Zeus' boast about Heracles?

Hera

She speeds up the birth of the wife of the mortal Sthenelus (Alcmena's uncle) and delays the birth of Heracles and Iphicles. Thus, according to Zeus' statement (which in the mouth of Zeus serves as a binding prophecy) Sthenelus᾽ son, Eurystheus becomes the one who rules all that dwell around him.

Who does Heracles have to serve because of Hera?

Eurystheus

It is for him that the 12 labours are done

Other myths about Hera and Heracles

1) She sends a pair of snakes to kill Heracles just after he is born. Heracles, however, is up to this challenge, even as an infant, and strangles the snakes as they attack him

2) Hera make Heracles go mad later in life. In a rage, Heracles kills his first wife Megara and their children. Once sane, he is purified by and advised by the Oracle of Delphi to go to Tiryns and serve Eurystheus there for 12 years, completing any labours he should propose.

Heracles' labors

Nemean lion

Lernean Hydra

Styphalian birds

Cretan bull

Keryneian hind

Girdle of Hippolyta

Erymanthian boar

Mares of Diomedes

Cattle of Geryon

Apples of the Hesperides

Cerberus

Augean Stables

Nemean Lion

The lion in Nemea was a beast who ravaged the country side. Heracles kills it with his club. In some versions, he kills the beast by strangling it and flaying it with its own claws, because the skin of the lion was said to be invincible. The lion skin and the club are his chief attributes in art.

Lernaean Hydra

A serpent which lived in the swamps of Lerna, by Argos. It had 9 heads, 8 mortal and 1 immortal. Each time Heracles cut off a head, two grew in its place. Hera also sent a huge crab to assist the Hydra. Heracles first kills the crab by himself. Next, he kills the Hydra with the help of his nephew Iolaus. As Heracles cuts of the heads, Iolaus burns the stump with a brand so that they could not grow. Heracles buries the immortal head under a rock. Heracles gains poisoned arrows by dipping his arrows in the poison of the Hydra.

Cerynean Hind

The hind lived on Mt. Cerynea, had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis. It was not dangerous, but it could not be harmed without making Artemis angry. He pursues it for a year and when he catches it brings it back to Eurystheus. Artemis meets him and takes back her animal, but is appeased because Heracles blames it on Eurystheus. In another version, Heracles goes to the land of the Hyperboreans, at the ends of the earth in the far north, to fetch the beast.

Erymanthian Boar

was a vicious animal that lived on Mt. Erymanthus. Heracles chases the boar into snow and traps it with nets. He brings it back to Eurystheus, who terrified hides in a jar. On the way to kill the boar, Heracles was entertained by the centaur Pholus. When ajar of wine was opened, many centaurs came and attacked Heracles. He fought them off and wounded the immortal Chiron in the process, with one of his poisoned arrows. Chiron suffered until he was relieved of his immortality by Zeus and Prometheus. Pholus also died by dropping one of the arrows on his foot.

Augean Stables

A more mucky task. Augeus, the son of Helios, the king of Elis had large numbers of cattle. Eurystheus orders Heracles to clean out his stables. Heracles does this by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to flow through the stables. Augeus had agreed to reward Heracles with 1/10 of his cattle as a reward, but in the end did not honour this. After he finishes his 12 Labours, Heracles therefore returns to Elis with an army and kills Augeus. These rivers are close to Olympia, and Heracles is sometimes said to have established the Olympic games

Stymphalian Birds

These deadly birds which killed men, all flocked together at a lake in Arcadia called Stymphalus. Heracles shoots them with arrows. He first flushes them out by clashing together bronze castanets which had been given to him by Athena.