Greek and Roman Mythology Exam 1

Hesiod

Hesiod's Theogony is a cosmogony, but focuses on providing a genealogy of the deities, and in celebrating the triumph and rule of Zeus. Genealogy of divinities; marriage of sky and heaven; the divine succession/battle in heaven; the different "ages of humanity" scheme.

Hesiod uses a sexual model to create the world but doesn't explain how the first elements came into being: Chaos ("Gap"), Gaia (mother earth), Tartaros (underworld), and Eros (sexual desire).

Cronos

Titan born of uranus and gaia; scythe

Ouranos (Uranus)

"sky" was in perpetual intercourse with Gaia until cronos castrated him

Zeus

means "light/shining/clear-day sky; sky god, Zeus also is associated with weather (rain, thunder, lightning). He is a mountain-top god (Mt Olympus). The eagle is his bird. Zeus is the youngest son of Rhea and Cronus. He comes to power after successful struggles with other divine forces (the Titans, Typhoeus, the Giants). With his rise to power, the generational strife and civil wars among the gods end. His rule is secure (once he finds out about Thetis (who is destined to have a son greater than the father) from Prometheus)power is manifest in "inexhaustible sexual potency;He often takes on an animal form to abduct a mortal woman.Zeus provides a model for male promiscuity in Greek society; embodiment of patriarchal power; the children of Zeus and mortal women are extraordinary (explaining how heroes and heroines are larger than life); families and tribes trace their ancestry back to Zeus.]

Titanomachy

Titans vs olympians for 10 years; olympians, younger, won

Typhoeus

Youngest son of gaia and tartarus hundred headed monster cast into underworld by zeus

Prometheus

Prometheus is remarkable in his love for humans (most of the gods express indifference or contempt for humanity). It is he who will give great gifts (fire, knowledge, etc) to humans. A former ally of Zeus in the Titanomachy, he later challenges Zeus.

Prometheus (whose name means "forethought") is a classic example of the "trickster" figure often found in folktales. He tricks Zeus at the feast of Mecone.

Pandora

Pandora, the first woman, is created as punishment for mankind after Prometheus' theft of fire. She is created out of earth and water and called Pandora ("all gifts") because different deities give her different gifts to make her a "beautiful evil" as Hesiod calls her. She is given to Epimetheus ("afterthought") as a wife, and their child is Pyrrha who marries Deucalion, the son of Prometheus. These two are the only survivors of the Universal Flood. They repopulate the world by throwing stones onto the ground. Their son, Hellen, is the eponymous hero (that is, he give his name to the Greeks, the Hellenes).

Chaos

Meaning "gap"

Gaia

Earth

Tartaros

Underworld

Eros

Sexual Desire

Erebos

Darkness

Nyx

NIght

Pontos

Sea

Titans

12; children of chaos and ouranos and gaia

Thetis

Wife of zeus; law

Moerae

Fates Children of the night; children of zeus and themis

Dike

Justice

Metis

Wife of zeus; cunning

Eurynome

Wife of zeus; deity associated with water; rivers; "nymph". mermaid

Demeter

Wife of zeus; daughter was persephone; cornucopia

Mnemosyne

Wife of zeus; daughter of gaia and uranus; mother of zeus and 9 muses; memory

Leto

Wife of zeus; bears apollo and artemis

Hera

Final wife of Zeus who is often undermined and not taken seriously but is the goddess of marriage and had the first temple located in samos

Atlas

titan condemned to hold up the sky for eternity after titanomachy

The feast at Mecone

The feast at Mecone is a seminal moment in human history: up until this point, humans and gods associate with one another. When Prometheus sides with humans and tricks Zeus out of the best portion of the sacrificial ox, the human world is forever separated from the divine.Mecone is a classical example of an etiological myth: it explains the origin of the custom of burnt sacrifices. Prometheus is the fire-giver: this is Prometheus' second act against Zeus (and in humanity's favor). The gift of fire amounts to the gift of civilization (see Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound). He is humanity's greatest benefactor. In the later tradition Prometheus suffers for humanity's sake: chained to a remote mountain with an eagle eating at his liver. In some versions of the story, he is never freed; in others, like Aeschylus', he is eventually freed by Heracles.

Pyrrha

Child of pandora and epimethius (afterthought) who marries delusion, son of prometheus

Only survivors of Universal flood

Deucalion

Son of Prometheus; fathers Hellen after throwing stones at ground after universal flood to repopulate

Dionysus

olympian; winemaking; unrestrained consumption

Lycaon

king who challenged zeus by feeding him his own son to test zeus' omniscience ; zeus caused universal flood

Hellen

Son of deucalian and pyrrha; progenitor of hellenes greeks

Aphrodite

The first female made from sea foam and uranus' genitals

Rhea

wife of cronus; bears zeus and hera

Ares

son of hera and zeus; gd of war

Hebe

child of hera and zeus; wine pourer god

Eileithyia

child of hera and zeus; childbirth god

Cyclopes

Children of uranus and gaia

Hecatonchires

hundred handed ones; helped olympians overthrow titans

Poseidon

olympian; god of sea, earthquakes, horses,

Hades

god of underworld; abducts epimetheus' daughter persephone and makes queen; son of rhea ad cronus

Orpheus

Husband of eurydice; music skill charms; gets wife eurydice back from underworld

Eurydice

daughter of apollo; oak nymph; wife of orpheus; killed by snake bite;

What is the role of gaia?

Serve as a vessel of creation; womb and tomb

What is the significance of gender in mythology?

Pollution of birth and death associated with women

The purification of Delos by Pisistratus

Gaea as both the womb and tomb

women and greek funerals

Matter and spirit= female and male

Women and Nature (the monsters who are Gaea's offspring)

The defining roles of daughters, wives, mothers

Powell 120-121 Women as Carriers

What is the purpose of the intermediaries between the divine and mortal spheres?

Quid pro quo relationships in return for honors sacrifices, the gods give favors to mortals

Prometheus

Demeter

Dionysus

Heroes (Heracles)

What are some qualities of Gods and Goddesses that differ from mortals?

Food and drink: Nectar and ambrosia; ichor instead of blood

Immortality (though deities, like mortals, are born)

Power and elemental forces

Nature and animism

Honor and Sacrifice

Anthropomorphic images of the divine

The king and father/mother metaphors

Explanation of human behavior; gods making mortals act in certain ways.

Moera (fate)

Cerberus

hound of hades; three headed dog guards gates of underworld; child of echidna and typhon

Hermes

messenger god; divine trickster

Ixion

king tried to seduce hera; means fiery;tied to an ever-spinning wheel of fire in Hades.

Tantalus

He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink.

Sisyphus

is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the topkillings because they allowed him to maintain his iron-fisted rule.

Danaids

50 daughter of danus; all but one of them killed their husbands on their wedding night, and are condemned to spend eternity carrying water in a sieve or perforated device; they came to represent the futility of a repetitive task that can never be completed

Themes in Theogony

Generational conflict - The son works to overthrow and replace his father.

Old vs. New. This conflict is finally controlled by Zeus by avoiding sex with Thetis

Law vs. brute force - the rule of the Olympians defeats the violence of the Titans, the Giants, and monsters produced by Gaia.

The theme of order and government in the universe under the rule of Zeus:

Moerae (the Fates) -at line 217 Hesiod says they are the children of Night; at line 904 they are called the children of Zeus and Themis.

Nemesis (Retribution)

Dike (Justice)

Hesiod says "kings are from Zeus" (Theogony 96)

The wives of Zeus: Metis, Themis, Eurynome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto, Hera.

Zeus appropriates the power of goddesses (e.g., he swallows Metis).

Other stories and characters: Phaëthon, Eos and Tithonus, Atlas.