Greek and Roman Mythology

Mythology definition (“Mytho(s) + “logy”)

Study of myths vs collection of myths (ambiguous)

Various definitions of myth

Inadequate popular definitions

Falsehoods

Untrue stories about the gods

Few scholarly definitions

Myth definition #1 (Classical Mythology by Morford, Lenardon and Sham)

The impossibility of establishing satisfactory definitions of myth will tend to be too limiting or so broad to be virtually useless

Myth definiton #2 (Oxford English Reference Dictionary)

A traditional narrative usually involving supernatural or imaginary persons and often embodying popular ideas on natural or social phenomena

Myth definition #3 (Classical Mythology: Images and Insights by Harris and Platzner)

Story typically involving gods and/or heroes whose adventures represent significant aspects of human experience

Myth definition #4 (Classical Myth by Powell)

A traditional story with collective importance

Story/narrative thread among scholarly defiinitions of myth

Story or narrative

Gods and heroes

Entertains an audience

Traditional common thread among scholarly definitions of myth

Anonymous

Transmitted orally

Accepted wisdom

Mythos definition

Anonymous story already accepted for a long time by society

Told, not written

Aoidos definition

Poem that is told orally (aka the reader)

Logos definition

Account which someone (philosopher/orator) is newly elaborating and defending

Written form

Problems among myths

Oral myths are capable of modification by individual storyteller (no detailed account)

Later literary adaptations influenced by earlier ones

Actual focus of studying myths

Fullest most influential literary adaptations that have survived while still paying attention to variations in other literary accounts

Clues in archaeological record to move back to pre-literary myth

Collective importance

Entertainment (culturally universal feature of stories)

Descriptive importance (past/history)

Prescriptive importance (future)

Aetiological importance (present)

What do myths do besides entertain?

Persuade the audience

Who are the characters in the Divine Myth

Gods

What is the setting in the divine myth

Divine Time and Space (Mount Olympus) (outside human time)

What is the purpose of divine myth

Aetiological (Modern science) (Present)

Example of Aetiological importance

Zeus punished men by taking “tree fire” (lighting and friction) from them

Aetiological is the problem of generating fire

Who are the characters in legends

Humans and Heroes (Noble)

Where is the setting in Legend

Remote human past and the normal world (urban)

What is the purpose of legend

Descriptive of the past, present, and future

Example of a legend

Paris (Trojan prince) stole Helen from her husband (king Menelaus of Sparta)

The Greeks waged a massive war on barbarian Trojans led by Prince Hector

Troy was destroyed by the Trojan Horse

Descriptive of the Trojan Horse Legend

Rooted in Troy circa 1200 BC

Ancient Greeks accepted account of past and saw it as a confirming belief that they were clever

Aetiological Perspective of the Trojan Horse Legend

Explains and reinforces Greek hatred for barbarians to the East wars with Persia (present day Western-Eastern conflict)

Perspective of the Trojan Horse Legend

Greeks should emulate virtues in speech and act demonstrated by heroes like Odysseus and Ajax

Should avoid self absorption and pride demonstrated by Achillies and Agamemnon

Who are the main characters in a folktale?

Human beings (peasants)

Animals standing in for human beings (in fables)

What is the setting in a folktale?

Recent human past

The normal world (often rural)

What is the purpose of a folktale?

Prescriptive (future)

Considerations about Ancient Greek Geography

Greece is fragmented by land and sea

Greek civilization first flourished in the plains where agriculture and animal husbandry were favourable

Major ancient kingdoms elaborated their own sequences of legends in honour of respective founders and other local heroes due to isolation and rivalry

Age definition (in Ancient Greek history)

Pre-historic interval (before writing was used to record events)

Period definition (in Ancient Greek history)

Historic interval (when writing was used to record events)

BC/AD reckoning

What is “circa” Latin for?

Around

What does FL mean?

Flourished

When was the Early/Midde Bronze Age

3000-1600 BC

What happened in the Early/Middle Bronze Age?

Indo-European Greeks arrived in Balkan Peninsula circa 2100 BC

Began migration from Black/Caspian Sea around millennium earlier

Encountered Minoans (naval/trading peoples) flourished 2000-1500

Who were the Minoans in the Early/Middle Bronze Age?

Politically centered in Island of Crete

Not Greek speakers but Greeks borrowed their earliest script

Syllabary definition

Minoan form of writing where each character is represented in a symbol

When was the Mycenaean Age?

1600-1150 BC

What happened during the Mycenean Age by 1600BC

Greeks began replacing Minoans as dominant power in Aegean area

Built massive fortifed palaces on Greek mainland (ruins still in Greece)

Local centralisation suggests warring communities centered around kings with courts of nobles

What happened in the Mycenean Age by 1450BC?

Greeks took over Minoans on Crete

Changed wrirting form from Minoan Linear A script to Greek Linear B

What was first written down in VIII BC? (Mycenean Age)

Homer’s Iliad

What happens in Homer’s Iliad?

Agamemnon King of Mycenae led united Greek forces against barbarian Trojans in Trojan war on basis of “Mycenean” literary account

What kind of Greek legends have their origin in the Mycenean period?

Heroic myths

Aoidoi definition

Itinerant improvisors of myth

“Bards"

When was the Dark Age?

1150-825

What happened to the Greeks in 1200BC?

Fortresses were over-run by foreign invaders

Greeks believed [population decline was caused by arrival of a new and ferocious set of Greek speaking peoples

What happened during the Greek decline in the Dark Age?

Large palace socieites were replaced with small villages to support very few specialists

Trade stopped

Technical/artistic knowledge was lost (writing ability)

What happened from 1200-1000BC? (Dark Age)

Greeks migrated east to Aegean islands (to present day Turkey)

What happened in 1050BC? (Dark Age)

Greek civilization slowly recovered and moved toward second period of flourishment

Renewal of skilled craftmanship, trade, and development of city state

Communal agora (marketplace), sanctuary, invention of Greek alphabet in 800BC

When did the Archaic Age happen?

825-480BC

What happened during the Archaic Age

Mother cities (metropoleis) sent citizens to find new colonies around Black Sea/coast of North Africa/South Italy and Sicily to promote trade and relieve over-population

Recorded epic poetry of blind aoidos Homer

Made advances in art through Archaic Age

What happened in the last century of the Archaic Age (VI)

Radical democracy emerged in Athens

Beginning of Western Philosphy in Ionian polis of Miletus

What happened when Miletus and neighbouring Ionian cities rebelled in 499-494BC

Persia went East and crushed the rebellion

Sought to punish Greeks in series of assaults (the persian wars)

When did the Persian Wars take place?

492, 490, 480-479

What was important about Greek warfare and naval skill?

Proved more important than huge Persian numeric advantage

Greeks rebuffed the Persians

Who could take credit for leading the defence of Greece

Sparta and Athens

Battle of Marathon (490), Thermopylae (480), Salamis (480), Plataea (479)

When was the Classical Age?

480-323BC

What happened between Sparta and Athens during the Classical Age?

Greek defeated Persians

Sparta and Athens began rivaling for Greek dominance

Sparta won but war became example of Greek poleis unwillingnesss to cooperate and compromise

What war was between Athens and Sparta?

Peloponnesian War (431-404)

What could Greece not hold out against on? (Classical Period)

Growing power on northern bordern called MAcedon

Phillip II conquered all Greek city states by 338

What was the Classical Age considered in terms of civilization?

Cultural apex

Time of great men

Dramatists/artists and architects

Philosophers/historians

Orators

When was the Hellenistic Age?

323-30BC

Who was Alexander the Great? (Hellenistic Age)

Young macedonian King, son of Phillip II

Conquered entire Persian empire

Founded Greek style cities eastward to India border

Greek colonists rushed to populate cities for trade

Spread Greek culture wide

What happened when Alexander the Great died in 323? (Hellenistic Age)

Land conquered was divided amongst generals

Led to establishment of Hellenistic Kingdoms in Macedon, Egypt and Syria

Characterised through mixture of Greek and local cultures

Production of literature/architecture/art/science continued

What happened Ptolemaic? (Hellenistic Period)

Fell to Octavian (aka Augustus) and Romans in 30BC

Longest surviving Hellenistic Kingdom

Definition of Myth in Classical Greece (800-323Bc) and Classical Rome (264BC-235AD)

Traditional

Improvised

Passed along orally

Not written down

Unchanging

Problems of Myths in Classical Greece/Rome

Improvised elaboration of myth began to die out form 800BC because of the invention of the Greek alphabet

Improvised elaboration leaves no direct record

How can we study the Myths of Classical Greece/Rome?

Improvisational oral myths can be clarified through indirect evidence from which we may infer the content and meanings of the myths themselves

Indirect records could be influences/reflections of Greek myths

Indirect records in Classical Greece/Rome

Vary according to Ages of Ancient Greece/Rome

Reveal something of evolution of myth

Always consider myths as indirect records in more detail

What is the problem with Indirect Records from before the Mycenean Age (before 1600BC)

Problems of scarcity of evidence

Difficulty of interpreting it

Evidence of Indirect Records

Archaeology

Neolithic (6000-3000BC)

Early/Middle Bronze Age (3000-1650BC) figurines in female form (associated with fertility)

Example of female figurines before the Mycenean Age

Goddess Giving birth (6500-5700BC)

Cycladic Mother figuritne (2700-2400BC)
Minoan Snake Goddess (1600BC)

Goddesses in Classical Greek and Roman depictions/descriptions

Associated with fertility of wild animals (Artemis)

Of women (Aphrodite/Hera)

Of farmland (Demeter, Persephone)

Feminine divinity in Greece

Marginalized, seen in Greek myths (Artemis, Hera, Aphrodite)

Stark contrast to predecessors in Turkey and Aegean

Comparitive Study of Myth before the Mycenean Age

Indo Europeans began to spread from Black/Caspian Sea area both westwards and eastwards sharing cultural/religious/mythic similarities

Zeus and Jupiter are both derived from proto Indo European shine and mean shiner (the Indo European sky God)

When was the Mycenean Age?

1600-1150BC

Archaeology in the Mycenean Age

Linear B tablets

Greek speakers occupied Cnossus for 50 years

Used a syllabary to record transactions and keep records of stored goods

What do the tablets in the Mycenean Age mention?

Zeus

Hera

Poseidon

Athena

Artemis

Hermes

Dionysus

All receivers of worship

Archaeology in the Mycenean Age

Shown major centers of civilization in Mycenean Age correspond to important settings for Greek legends

Mythic Traditionality (Orality) in the Mycenean Age

Provided circumstances for Greek myths to flourish

Courts of king welcome skillful entertainment, always made relevant to present context

Wandering bards (aoidoi) travelled from court to court retelling and embellishing stories about gods and heroes in poetic form singing and accompanying themselves

When did the Dark Age happen?

1150-825BC

What was the Dorian Invasion in the Dark Age?

Dorian (son of Heracles) created collapse of Mycenean civilizations and Ionian/Aeolian migrations

Only island of Euboea held onto Greek civilzation continued trade with Near East through Near Eastern myths had tremendous impact on subsequent Greek myths

Sumerian influence in the Dark Age

Divine Domains and characters (Inanna, Enil, etc), anthropomorphic gods (appearance and behaviour)

Myth of universal flood (oldest existing account in 3rd millenium BC)

Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 3600BC), one surviving version completed preceded and influenced Greek legends

Babylonian influence, account of creation as sequence of divine struggles

When was the Archaic Age?

825-480BC

What happened during the Archaic Age?

Restoration of Greek trade and prosperity (old aristocracy vs new economic class)

Literary culture defined by traditional aristocracy and oligarchy

Tyrants supported new class whose wealth was based on class and reflected in myth depictions of nobles

Invention of the Greek alphabet in the Archaic Age (800BC)

Beginning of decline of aoidoi and myth

Aoidoi continued to perform in archaic age (Homer, Hesiod, Homeric Hyms)

Numerous surviving vase paintings from Archaic and Classical Ages offer important supplemental material about Greek myths

What happened to aoidoi in the Classical Age

Replaced by rhapsodes (staff), memorizers of epic poetry

Numbers of myth tellers increased greatly

What did written recordings of poetry make possible?

Choral song (odes to be memorized and performed for the public, oftn including mythic references)

Tragedies (poetic plays memorized and performed by tragic actors)

Each tragedy tells one part of a legend often shaping it so as somehow to elucidate its relevance to contemporary concerns

What happened to myths during the Hellenistic Age?

No longer improvised for the elite nor memorized and performed publicly

Read aloud in intimate settings

Mythic literature became more cerebral, less popularly oriented

What is the Allegorical Method?

Reading myth as a set of symbols for a greater reality

What are mythographers?

Cataloguing of Greek myths

Prominent Roman mythic writers

Vergil (70-19BC, wrote the Aeneid)

Ovid (43BC-17 AD, wrote the Metamorphoses)