Greek and Rome Mythology Vocab

Paleolithic

Old Stone Age **40,000 - 12,500 B.C.**

Mesolithic

Middle Stone Age **12,500 - 8,500 B.C.**

Neolithic

New Stone Age **8,500 - 3,000 B.C.**

Venus of Willendorf

20,000 BC, fertility Goddess, Great Goddess, main God

Anthropomorphic

In the form of a human

Hacilar Pottery

New way of worshipping goddesses, pottery

Bronze Age

3000 - 1200 BC

Early Bronze Age

3000 - 2000 BC

Middle Bronze Age

2000 - 1600 BC

Late Bronze Age

1600 - 1200 BC

Iron Age = Dark Age = Proto-Geometric

1200 - 900 BC

* Assyrians

Geometric Period

900 - 700 BC

* Hesiod
* Homer

Domestication of Goats

c. 8500 BC

Walls of Jericho

c. 7800 BC

Invention of Ceramic Pottery

c. 6500 BC

Invention of the Wheel

c. 4500 BC

Invention of Writing

c. 3000 BC

House of the Tiles destroyed

c. 2250 BC

Battle of Kadesh

c. 1285 BC

Trojan War

c. 1265 BC

Collapse of Bronze Age

c. 1200 BC

Alphabet appears in Greece

c. 735 BC

Hesiod Theogony

c. 700 BC

Semitic

* Babylonians


* Phoenicians
* Ugaritians
* Hebrews
* Assyrians

Indo-European

* Greeks


* Romans
* Hittites
* Teutonic (Germanic) groups

Paleolithic Characteristics

* human burials, control of fire, developed use of language and hand tools, abstract thought
* belief in the Great Goddess emerges
* cave paintings and Venus figurines

Mesolithic Characteristics

improved hating and fishing, smaller tools, bone and antler jewelry, (last glacial period)

Neolithic Characteristics

* agriculture, domestication of animals, towns, pottery, wheeled transportation
* Jericho (Israel) 8500 BC, stone fortifications, ancestor worship\[
* Catalhoyuk (Turkey) 6500 BC, bull shrine (bucrania)

Early Bronze Age people

* Sumerians
* Egyptians
* Cycladic Islanders
* Early Helladic Greeks (Lerna)

Middle Bronze Age people

* Babylonians
* Minoans
* Middle Helladic Greeks

Late Bronze Age people

* Indo-Europeans: Hittites, Mycenaeans
* Semites: Ugaritians, Phoenicians, Hebrews

animism

the attribution of a soul to plants, __inanimate__ objects, and natural __phenomena__

gynomorphic

An organism with female physical characteristics

theriomorphic

having an animal form

etiological myth

myths that explain origins and causes

polytheism

belief in multiple gods

monotheism

belief in one god

parthenogenetic

asexual reproduction, female produces offspring without male

syncretism

the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of though

eponym

a person, after whom a people, place, or institution is named, or believed to be named

patronymic

a name derived from the name of a father or __ancestor__

cuneiform

ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Ugarit

Linear A

a writing system that was used by the Minoans

Linear B

an adapted form of Linear A, which was borrowed by the Mycenaean Greeks

mythopoeic

causing, producing, or giving rise to myths

Theogony

written by Hesiod, describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, ‘Birth of the Gods’

Muses

born from Zeus and Memory, represent the arts, 9

Graces

3, often seen portrayed through history in similar fashion

Chaos

start of the universe, nothingness, void, produces Erebos and Night

Gaia (Earth)

* Produces Uranus (sky), mountains, and Pontus (sea)


* Mates with Uranus to make 12 titans, 100-hands, and cyclopes

Tartarus

underworld

Eros

love, holding Gaia and Tartarus together, baby with wings (cupid)

Aether

brightness, produced by Night

Uranus (sky)

produced by Earth, mates with Earth

Oceanus

titan, a mythical, swift flowing, freshwater river that circles the earth

Tethys

Titan goddess of the primal font of fresh water which nourishes the earth

Mnemosyne

memory, mate with Zeus to make the 9 Muses

Kronos

overthrew his dad Uranus, overthrown by his son Zeus and trapped in Tartarus

Rhea

* Greek earth goddess
* daughter of Uranus and Gaia, mother to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus with Kronos

Themis

personification of justice, goddess of wisdom and good counsel, and the interpreter of the gods' will

Cyclopes

one eye

100-Handeds

fought alongside the Olympians against the Titans and were instrumental in the Titans' defeat, threw rocks

Aphrodite

* goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation
* born from castration of Uranus, made from foam

Erinyes

* furies
* born from bloody drops

Pontus

Sea

Moirai

fates

Clotho

fate, spins out thread of life

Lachesis

fate, determines length of life

Atropos

fate, cuts the string

Hesperides

3, live in a special garden with a tree that grows apple, guarded by serpent

Ate

* folly
* blindness

Nemesis

goddess of revenge

Nereids

sea nymphs, daughter of Nereus

Oceanids

nymphs who were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys

Ceto

sea monster

Iris

**goddess** of the rainbow and the messenger of the Olympian gods

Ladon

dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides

Thyphoeus (Typhon)

monster defeated by Zeus

Helios

sun

Selene

moon

Eos

aurora, dawn

Boreas

north wind

Zephyr

west wind

Zeus

god of sky and thunder

Styx

goddess and river of the Underworld

Power

* used by Zeus to fight the titans
* child of Styx

Force

* used by Zeus to fight the titans
* child of Styx

Nike

victory, represented with wings

Mt. Dikte

where Zeus grew up while hidden

Titanomachy

battle between Titans and Olympians

thunderbolts/lightning bolts

Brontes and Steropes (cyclops)

Omphalos

rock Gaia gave Kronos to eat instead of Zeus

Delphi

middle of earth, ‘womb’, Mt. Parnassus

Parnassus

mountain in central Greece where the muses live

Castalian Spring

spring near Delphi where Apollo killed dragon

Ishtar

Sumerian goddess of love and war

Shamash

Sumerian sun god

Ba’al

Canaanite-Phoenician god of fertility and weather

Tiamat

Mesopotamian personification of the salt sea and the mother of the gods

Anu

**Sumerian, Babylon, and Hittite God**