CLCV 115 Midterm 2 Terms & Definitions for Philosophy

Aphrodite

(goddess of love)

Apollo

(god of disease, healing, poetry, music)

Ares

(god of war)

Artemis

(goddess of hunting, death of women)

Athena

(goddess of cities, crafts, wisdom, war)

Bull of Heaven

(monster sent by Inanna to kill humans, killed by Gilgamesh & Enkidu)

Centaurs

(half man/half horse divinities)

Charon

(ferryman across river Styx in the Underworld)

Cybele

(Phrygian fertility goddess, her priest is Attis)

Demeter

(fertility goddess of crops, mother of Persephone)

Dionysus

(fertility god of wine, son of Zeus and Semele)

Eros

(Love, primordial force/son of Aphrodite)

Gilgamesh

(king and legendary hero of Mesopotamia)

Gorgons

(monsters with large eyes, apotropaic in art)

Hades

(god of the dead)

Helen

(daughter of Zeus, marries Menelaus, then Paris)

Hephaestus

(god of metalworking, crafts)

Hera

(goddess of marriage)

Hermes

(god of travelers, thieves, messengers, oratory)

Hestia

(goddess of the hearth)

Humbaba

(monster guarding a cedar forest, killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu)

Inanna/Ishtar

(Mesopotamian goddess of love/war)

Io

(daughter of river Inachus, loved by Zeus, turned into a cow)

Isis

(Egyptian goddess, wife of Osiris, mother of Horus)

Medusa

(woman turned into a snake-haired monster, her stare turns to stone)

Minotaur

(half man/half bull child of Minos and Pasiphae)

Nymphs

(minor goddesses of nature)

Osiris

(Egyptian god, husband of Isis, killed by Seth and dismembered)

Pasiphae

(daughter of Helios, (Sun), wife to Minos, mother to minotaur)

Persephone

(daughter of Persephone, stolen by Hades)

Perseus

(son of Zeus and Danae, kills Medusa and sea monster)

Poseidon

(god of the oceans)

Satyrs

(goat/men divinities who follow Dionysus)

Semele

(daughter of Cadmus, mother of Dionysus by Zeus)

Sphinx

(woman/lion hybrid monster who kills travelers to Thebes)

Thetis

(Nereid, mother of Achilles)

Titans

(children of Gaea and Uranus, fought the Olympian gods)

Zeus

(storm god, king of the Olympians, enforces justice, hospitality)

Aegeus

(mortal father of Theseus, king of Athens)

Aeneus

(Trojan hero, visits the underworld in Aeneid book 6)

Aethra

(daughter of Pittheus, mother of Theseus)

Agamemnon

(commander in chief at Troy, killed on return home by his wife)

Agave

(mother of Pentheus)

Andromeda

(daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, rescued by Perseus from a sea monster)

Ariadne

(daughter of Minos, saves Theseus in labyrinth)

Attis

(mortal companion of Cybele, castrates himself)

Bacchae

(= maenads), mortal women who follow Dionysus

Bellerophon

(hero who rides Pegasus to kill the chimera)

Cadmus

(Phoenician, founder of Thebes)

Daedalus

(craftsman who builds the labyrinth, then wings to escape)

Danae

(mother of Perseus by Zeus)

Danaids

(daughter of Danaus, 49 kill their husbands, 1 spares hers)

Daughters of Oedipus

(protect him in exile, esp. Antigone)

Dumuzi

(Tammuz), (mortal lover of Inanna who dies, brought back one day a year)

Elpenor

(Odysseus' companion, dies from a fall)

Enkidu

(wild man created as Gilgamesh's companion)

Erichthonius

(child of Athena and Hephaestus, king of Athens)

Europa

(Phoenician princess stolen by Zeus as a bull, eponymous ancestor of Europe)

Eurydice

(wife of Orpheus, dies on her wedding day)

Hippolytus

(son of Theseus, falsely accused by Phaedra, killed)

Icarus

(son of Daedalus, falls from the sky when his wings melt)

Jocasta

(mother of Oedipus, he marries her)

Laius

(father of Oedipus, murdered)

Maenads

(= Bacchae), mortal women who follow Dionysus)

Minos

(king of Crete, hides the Minotaur, judge in the Underworld)

Minyads

(princesses who resist Dionysus, become bats)

Oedipus

(king of Thebes, solves the riddle of the sphinx, kills his father and marries his mother)

Orpheus

(son of a muse, famous singer, goes to the Underworld)

Paris

(Trojan prince, marries Helen)

Peleus

(mortal, marries Thetis, father of Achilles)

Pentheus

(grandson of Cadmus, denies Dionysus, dismembered by his mother)

Phaedra

(daughter of Minos, marries Theseus, loves her stepson)

Philomela

(daughter of Athenian king Pandion, raped by Thracian king Tereus)

Pirithous

(king of the Lapiths, at his wedding the centauromachy breaks out)

Procne

(sister to Philomela, married to Thracian king Tereus)

Procrustes

(evil innkeeper who beheads/stretches guests, killed by Theseus)

Prostitute/priestess

(shamhat), (woman who sleeps with Enkidu, civilizing him)

Sisyphus

(evil king who tried to cheat death, condemned to roll a boulder uphill in Underworld)

Sons of Oedipus

(they wage civil war after his exile, kill each other)

Tantalus

(evil king who fed his son Pelops to the gods, condemned to hunger/thirst in Underworld)

Tereus

(evil king who raped his sister in law, Philomela

Theseus

(son of Poseidon/Aegeus, kills the Minotaur)

Erichthonius

(son of Athena/Hephaestus, early king of Athens)

Tiresias

(Theban seer, instructs Oedipus, later Odysseus)

Apple of Discord

(at wedding of Peleus and Thetis)

Autochthony

(means being indigenous), (Athenians' belief that they were born from the soil of Athens)

"Escorter of souls"

(psychopompos, epithet of Hermes)

A Girl's Tragedy

(story type of rape by god, illegitimate child, punishment, etc.)

Anthropomorphism

(giving human traits to gods/other nonhumans)

Apotropaic

('warding off evil,' the function e.g., of a herm)

Centauromachy

(fight at the wedding of Pirithous, against the Lapiths, a group of mortals from Thessaly)

"Descent to the underworld" story

(katabasis)

Divine visit

(theoxeny) story, (Dionysus & pirates, Demeter and royal family at Eleusis)

"Doomed wedding"

(e.g., Peleus and Thetis, Cadmus and Harmonia)

"Dying god" story

(Osiris, Dumuzi, Adonis, Attis, Persephone)

Eleusinian Mysteries

(special ritual of Demeter and Persephone that brought benefits in the afterlife)

Elysium

(good part of the Underworld, to reward the virtuous)

Eponymous ancestor

(the origin of a name, e.g., Europa and Europe)

Etiological story

(explains how something came to be, e.g., why Apollo has a shrine on Delos)

Folk tale

(stories about ordinary people, talking animals)