Greek and Roman Mythology mid-term

Bronze Age

• (circa 3300 - 1150 BCE)

• widespread use of bronze

• rise of Mesopotamian civilization

Dark Ages

• (circa 1100 - 800 BCE)

• social collapse, economic decline → trojan war (though it may be late bronze ages)

Archaic

• (circa 800 - 480 BCE)

• developments in Greek politics, economics, and warfare → athens become prominent 

Classical

• (480 - 323 BCE)

• persian war, death of Alexander the Great (spreaded Athean culture) → key development of Athean culture

Hellenistic

• (323 - 30 BCE)

• greek culture reached its peak → progress in arts, theatre, agriculture

• conquest of rome

• greek becomes a lingua franca

Prometheus

• “fore-thinker” → concerned with gods having too much power, so he steals fire and delivers them to mortals → fire can be used as a tool

• zeus ordered Hephaestus to create pandora (first woman created by him) → punish humanity after Prometheus stole fire

• chained to the caucasus mountains by Zeus

Pandora

• “all-gifted” 

• pandora’s jar → when you open it all evil (suffering, disease) comes out except hope stays

Creation Myths 

• greeks acceped and exchanged stories

Divine myths

• stories of gods, goddesses, often explains world origin, origins of the universe, to explain the unexplained

  • theogony

Legends myths

• stories of heroic mortals

  • achilles (iliad)

  • herkales 

Folktale myths

• very old allegorical story

  • Sirens, Odyssey, Pandora, Daedalus and Icarus

Golden Age

• godlike, blessed life, death like sleep, holy spirits, life of abundance 

Silver Age

• long lives, people were violent, witless, relied on mothers

Bronze Age (hesiod)

• Ash trees, warriors, strong with bronze, weapons, people fought each other

Heroes Age

• just and noble, demi-gods who die fighting in legendary wars, afterlife at the Isle of the Blessed

Iron Age

• miserable, troubled lifes, argumentative, no one got along, selfish → leads to gods abandoning humanity 

Odyssey 1-6 Summary

Odyssey 6-12 Summary

Odyssey 19-23 Summary

Iliad 16-18 Summary

• (16) Patroclus begs for Achilles’ armor if Achilles doesn’t want to fight → Achilles doesn’t want to fight, so gives armor → Achilles sends out Myrmidon soldiers to help Patroclus → prays to Zeus that Patroclus will return and the ships will return unharmed → Zeus will only grant one of these wishes

• (16) Because he is wearing Achilles’ armor, the Trojans retreat → Patroclus fights → Zeus wants to save son Sarpedon, but Hera stops him because the gods would look down on him, so he doesn’t → Sarpedon dies and they fight over his armor → Hector tries to retrieve it

• (16) Zeus kills Patroclus and gives Hector temporary cowardice and Hector leads → Patroclus pursues Trojans to gates of Troy → Poet explains that the city might have fallen if Apollo had not driven Patroclus back to the gates → Apollo persuades Hector to charge Patroclus but Patroclus kills Cebriones → fight over his armor → Apollo wounds Patroclus and Hector kills Patroclus → Hector taunts Patroclus, but Patrocleus foretells his death

• (17) Fight breaks out over Patroclus’ body, Euphorbus (Trojan who speared him first), tries to get the armor, but is killed by Menelaus → Menelaus enlists Great Ajax who forces Hector to back down and prevents the body from being removed or desecrated → Zeus gives Hector great power because of his impending death → Ajax and Menelaus summons more Achaeans to help them, force Trojans to run for city’s walls → Aeneas, invigorated by Apollo rallies men but unable to take corpse 

• (17) Automedon kills Trojan and strips him of armor to ease the grief of Patroclus’ spirit after Hector tries to kill him → Athena, disguised as a phoenix, gives strength to Menelaus, while Apollo, disguised as Trojan, gives encouragement to Hector → Zeus moves the battle in the Trojans’ favor but allows Menelaus and Meriones to carry away Patroclus’ body

• (18) Achilles loses control after hearing about death of Patroclus → he cries and Thetis hears him → he tells her what happened and shall avenge himself on Hector, even though he knows he is fated to die young if he chooses to be a warrior → Thetis gets Hephaestus to make him new armor → Iris sent by Hera tells him he  must make appearance on battlefield to scare the Trojans → cries and scares Trojans → each army holds an assembly to plan its next move → Polydamas urges comrades to retreat to the city, gains support from other Trojans because Athena robbed them of wit → Achaeans mourn for Patroclus → Achilles prepare for burial, won’t bury him until he kills Hector → Hephaestus makes armor

Iliad 22-24 Summary

• (22) Apollo reveals himself to Achilles, he has been deceived, wants to hurt Apollo but can’t → Hector is afraid to face Achilles → Athena tells Zeus to not save Hector → Athena disguises herself as Hector’s brother, Deiphobus, and tells him to face Achilles → Hector asks Achilles to an oath that the winner won’t desecrate the body → Achilles declines → Achilles throws spear and Athena gives it back, but when Hector throws spear he doesn’t see his brother → realizes that Athena duped him → Hector dies and Achilles doesn’t treat him with respect after he asks to treat his body nicely → Hector has moment of foresight and tells of how Paris and Apollo will kill Achilles → Achilles strips of his armor → mourning of Hector’s death 

• (23) Mourning of Patroclus’ death → Achilles sets out a funeral feast → Achilles will not bathe until he buries Patroclus → Patroclus’ ghost asks Achilles to bury him and reminds him that he will soon die → Achilles cuts his hair for Patroclus → Aphrodite and Apollo keeps animaks away from Hector’s body → Achilles prays to Boreas and Zephyrus → Achilles hosts funeral games in memory of his friend 

• (24) Achilles heaps abuse on Hector’s body → treatment of the body stresses the gods out, except Hera and Athena who hate Troy because Paris chose Aphrodite over them in a beauty contest → Zeus uses Iris to send message to Thetis to give Achilles a message → accept Priam’s ransom to return Hector’s body → Achilles meets Priam, Priam asks for pity → Achilles weeps → Achilles has Hector’s body prepared and wrapped, they eat together → Priam asks for 11 days of mourning, Achilles promises that he won’t attack → Hermes warns Priam of the dangers if others find him → Priam returns to Troy with the body → 9 days they mourn, 10th day cremation, and 11th day they bury, they honor Hector

Theogony

• Details the origin of Gods

• Muses taught Hesiod the art of singing

• Abyss borned Erebos and dark Night and Erebos and Night made Aether and Day

• Earth’s first child was Ouranos, starry heaven 

• Ouranos birthed Kronos who hated his father, believed that Gaia + Ouranos birthed monsters, so Ouranus stuffed children into Earth, so Kronos and Earth came up with a plan and Ouranos castrated Ouranos

• Ouranos’s genitalia created Aphrodite, love figure

• Kronos + Rhea created many Olympians, Kronos kept swallowing them because of a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his sons, so Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes to make it look like a baby and Kronos swallowed the rocks and vomited the offspring → children led rebellion and Zeus defeated him in a war between Titans and Olympians 

Works and Day

• Two kinds of strike, competitive strike and wasteful strife

  • Good Eris = stirs people to work hard and it motivates craftsmen to compete with others 

  • Wasteful Strife = creates malicious conflict, battle, and war, stirred by jealously and greed

• Hesiod tells of his brother Perses, who took more of the inheritance due to corrupt judges, he tells his brother to work harder rather than bribing judges

• Tells the story of Pandora → evil for mankind built by the Gods and Epimetheus (Prometheus’s brother) accepts → she released all curses except hope stays in the jar

• Tells about the 5 ages → Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, and Iron Age 

Agamemnon Summary