cla2

What stories do Hesiod's texts have connections to?

What stories do Hesiod's texts have connections to?

Marduk & Babylonian Sucession & Hittites

IndoEuropean languages

english, spanish, greek, sanskrit, old iranian, welsh. Branching on historical sequence NOT geography

Hellas

Greek word for Greece

Where was the homeland of those who spoke indoeuropean languages?

western-central asia, in the Caucasus mountains

Steppe

an eco-region characterized by plains with short grasses and no trees

Yamna/Yama/Yamnaya

Indo-European people who originated in modern-day Russia and Ukraine and migrated throughout Eurasia, leading to the development of new languages across the continent. (Russian word meaning related to Yam, characterized by burial practices)

Who were the Yamnaya and how was their society run?

they were a single, genetically coherent group who were responsible for spreading many indo-european languages. Genetic evidence shows that Yamnaya society was an oligarchy dominated by a small number of elite males

How were languages/culture spread?

war, conquest, intermarriage, trade

BMAC=Bactria-margiana Archealogical Complex

also known as the Oxus Civilization

Crete

Center of Minoan civilization led my Minos

Minos

King of Crete, built labryrinth

Daedalus

an Athenian inventor who built the Labyrinth of Minos

Minotaur

Half man half bull

Pasiphae

wife of Minos and mother of the Minotaur

Theseus

Killed the Minotaur and escaped the labyrinth

Ariadne

Daughter of Minos. fell in love with Theseus and helped him escape from the Labyrinth after he had killed Minotaur

Knossos

an ancient Minoan city on the island of Crete

What is an important feature of minoan culture?

bulls or sport with bulls

Linear A

undeciphered pre-greek, pre-indoeuropean language (1800-1450 BCE)

Linear B

A set of syllabic symbols, derived from the writing system of Minoan Crete, used in the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age to write an early form of Greek. It was used primarily for palace records, and the surviving Linear B tablets provide substantial information about the economic organization of Mycenaean society and tantalizing clues about political, social, and religious institutions.

Michael Ventris

scholar who deciphered Linear B which is an early form of greek

Tholos tomb

treasury of athens

Mycenae

Site of a fortified palace complex in southern Greece that controlled a Late Bronze Age kingdom. In Homer's epic poems Mycenae was the base of King Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks besieging Troy. (Heinrich found Mask of Agamemnon)

What do some people think started the Trojan War?

A trojan prince kidnapped Helen

Order of the ages (ex. stone)

stone age, bronze age, iron age (opened way to more deadly warfare & weapons)

Greek Dark Ages

there wasn't a lot of writing during this period, dark spot in knowledge, war, sieges, oral performances arose

What was the eighth century for greece?

a time of growing prosperity, expanding population, and increasing mobility. Some of the maritime cities were becoming active in trade and colonization, sending their ships far to the west, to Sicily and up the western coast of Italy and to the east to Syria and maybe Egypt

Ancient Mediterranean

traded goods and ideas

Where is the greek alphabet derived from?

the Phoenician alphabet

Cyme

this is where Hesiod's father is from and it is on the ionian coast

Boetoia

this is where Hesiod's father moves

Where is Hesiod born?

Ascra (by Mt. Helicon?)

Hesiod vs Homer

Hesiod's tests are older than Homers, but they emerged at the same time

Which group of workers formed the alphabet?

Canaanite workers

Perses

Hesiod's less than responsible brother, who was foolishly given a large inheritance by the judges that he bribed. Shows the theme of the importance of justice. He's an example of someone who needs to learn that Life is hard and full of miseries, but if you follow justice and work hard then you will succeed.

Euboia/Euboea

Hesiod sang at a funeral here and got a prize in a singing competition

Athamas of Chalcis

Athamas, in Greek mythology, king of the prehistoric Minyans in the ancient Boeotian city of Orchomenus. Hesiod sang at funeral celebrations here

dactylic hexameter

poetry is in this meter (same as Homer, epic meter)

epos/epic

poem

Where did Hesiod get some of his info from?

Hittite song of emergence (Anu overthrows Alulu and Kumarbi who is a leader is scared that Anu will overthrow him so he castrates Anu)

Theogony Summary

(1) a hymn to the muses, telling of their birth and power, recounting their initiation of Hesiod into poetry, and indicating the contents of the following poem (Heliconian Muses, who represent totality of memory, literally breathe poetic power into Hesiod) (2) the origin of the world: the coming into being of the three primordial entities, Chasm, Earth and Eros (3) the descendants of Tartaros: Erebos and Night come to be from Tartaros, and Aether and Day from Night (4) the descendants of earth: earth bears Ouranos (incest), and together they give birth to 12 titans, 3 cyclopes, and 300 handers. the last of the titans, Cronus, castrates his father, Ouranos, thereby producing among others Aphrodite (5) the descendants of tartaros: Night's numerous and baneful progeny (ex. death, fate) (6) the descendants of earth 2: Earth's son Pontos begets Nereus, who in turn begets Nereids (7) the descendants of earth 3: Pontus' son Phorcys and daughter Ceto produce, directly and indirectly, a series of monsters (8) the descendants of earth 4: children of the titans, especially the rivers, including Styx (all of them children of tethys and ocean), and Hecate daughter of Phoebe and Coeus) (9) The descendants of earth 5: the further children of the titans: olympian gods, born to Rhea from Cronus, who swallows them all at birth until Rhea saves Zeus who frees the Cyclopes and is destined to dethrone Cronus (10) The descendants of earth: further children of the titans" Iapetus' four sons, Atlas, Menoitois, Epimetheus, Prometheus (including the stories of the origin of the division of sacrificial meat, fire, and of the race of women) (11) Conflict between the titans and the olympians: after 10 years of inconclusive warfare between the titans and the olympians, Zeus frees the hundred handers who help the olympians achieve final victory and send the defeated titans down into tartarus. (12) Tartaros: the geography of tartaros and its population, including the Titans, the hundred-handers, night and day, sleep and death, hades and styx (13) the descendants of earth: Earth's last child Typhoios is defeated by Zeus and send down to tartaros (14) the descendants of earth: a list of the descendants of the olympian gods, including athena, the muses, apollo and artemis, hephaestus, hermes, diontsus, heracles (15) after a concluding farewell to the olympian gods and the islands, continents, and sea, there is a transition to a list of the children born of goddesses, followed by a farewell to there and a transition to a catalogue of women (goddesses+liaisons w/mortal men)

Themis

justice

Cosmonogy

creation of the world (creation of fire, women, relations, successions)

Chasm/Tartaros

underworld

Eros

love, passion, divinity, sexual passion (cupido)

Xáos

abyss, nothingness into which Gaia (earth) comes into being

Chronos & Story

this is Earth's most terrible child who was an arch-deceiver and who hated his father ouranos, ouranos stuffs offspring back into earth so she sharpens flint and Chronos uses it to castrate his father and Ouranos' blood leads to furies and giants being born and Aphrodite is born from his genitals

Pergamum

greek city on coast

Eumenes II

King of Pergamum

Gigantomachy

battle between gods and giants

Nereus-Doris-giant-Oceanus

Doris is consort of Nereus, in the Odyssey Nereus gives telemachus prophecy concerning telemachus' father odysseus

Menelaos and Helen

Menelaos: King of Sparta. husband of Helen. offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find Odysseus and tells him where he is Helen: wife of Menelaos

Medusa

mortal, sexual partner of Poseidon, snakes on head turn people into stone when they look, Perseus beheads her by looking at a mirror in his shield rather than her

Herakles and Cerberos

Cerberos is the hound w/3 heads that gaurds gates of hades

Sphinx of Naxos in Delphi

greek depiction of sphinx which guarded temple of apollo at delphi (originally sphinxes were egyptian=giza)

Nike

Goddess of victory

Hecate

daughter of Phoebe and Coeus, 3 bodies

Cronus and Zeus Story

Cronus replicates his father's strategy of swallowing his offspring so that none of them will overtake him. Rhea who is Cronus' wife tricks him by giving him a brick which he swallows and this causes him to vomit up previously swallowed offspring and Zeus is saved

Cronus+Zeus & Hittite Song of Emergence Connections

Kumarbi bites off + ingests Anu's genitals and Kumarbi is impregnated w/3 monsters what will destroy him (one being the Tigris river). Cronus ingests his offspring and one (Zeus) destroys him.

How is teshub born? Where is the temple of the storm god?

-teshub is born from Kumarbi's skull -cyprus

genos

race, kind, family, clan (women)

Pandora

(Pan=all, dora=gifts) creation of woman, arrival represents terrible fate for men because Prometheus stole fire and gave it to humans

Prometheus

the Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind, trickster (like enki who aids humans) (liberated by Herecles)

Semonides of Amorgos

describes 10 types of women-->9 made from animals

Sappho

female poet, represents different world view of women

Titans

Children of earth and ouranos

Hesiod Theogony & Milton's Paradise Lost

connected because Hesiod describes falling to underworld and Milton describes falling to hell both take 9 days=end up there on the 10th day

Typhioios

earth's last child, many headed monster, zeus defeats him and sends him to tartaros, source of monsoons and evil winds

Jason and Medea

Medea helps Jason get golden fleece they have a son named Medeus

Metis

Zeus' first wife, they have Athena (Zeus tries to stuff kids in stomach too)

Codex (Hesiod)

replaced papyrus scroll, made of animal hides, his works continue to be copied

Hesiod texts and connection to byzantine

Byzantine empire (Constantinople) greek speaking?, christian capital but still read greek literature

didactic poem

a poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson, framed as instruction ex. works and days instruction for farming, ethics, values (Perses)

Two kinds of strife

Bad strife leads to lying, cheating, fighting, war. Good strife leads to competition, working harder, which is the path to success. Hesiod's Works and Days. According to Hesiod's view of justice and the human condition, the only way to live a just life is to work hard and gain success through competition (good strife). Fighting instead of growing and storing food means starvation, not wealth. The struggles of life have a positive side, for they are the path to success. (*gods never let on how humans should make a living bc Prometheus gave them fire)(Eris)

Epimetheus and Pandora

Epimetheus accepts a gift (pandora) from Zeus. She opens a box which puts diseases, sorrow, and horrors into the world of humans

5 generations

Golden age=men have no motivation to work, turned into spirits when they died Silver=females also here, didn't honor gods, worthless, Zeus killed them Bronze=cared only for fighting, killed each other and went to underworld, made of wood Demigods=all died fighting in the great wars, Zeus granted them a life away from other men when they died (Isles of the Blest) and Cronus is there as well Iron age=men have hard lives, they disrespect their parents, don't keep oaths...

Hesiod women vs. bible women

Hesiod women=women were made to punish men Bible=eve was made from adam's rib to offer him company, she isn't inherently evil

Prehistoric figurines of the mother goddesses

females had more power -->fertility

Demeter

child of Cronus and Rhea, brothers were Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, charter olympian, Zeus slept with her and they had daughter Persephone -goddess of agriculture -she slept with mortal men and she has Ploutos

epithet

an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned. Demeter, Persephone and Zeus have descriptors known as "epithets.""Bountiful" (πολυφόρβης) is appropriate for Demeter, as it the way she makes the land bountiful and productive of good harvests. Persephone's "white arms" suggest her youth and innocence.The word we read here as "wise" in Greek (μητίετα) is related to cunning.

what did wise refer to when describing Zeus?

he was cunning, he gave Hades permission to steal Persephone without telling Demeter. Zeus made the floral display which allowed Hades to take Persephone

Despoina

equivalent of Persephone?

Meaning of Demeter

earth-mother

Athena

associated with olive tree

Aphrodite

associated with sexual reproduction

Hecate in Persephone Story

she is close to the scene of the kidnapping and she hears persephone's scream but she doesn't know who kidnapped her. Helios, Hecate's son who sees all tells Demeter that it was Zeus who is responsible

What does the abduction of Persephone explain?

explains why there are seasons (ex. winter is when persephone is in underworld)

Hades

God of the underworld, Aïdes in greek, steals Persephone

What does persephone mean?

grain beat (beater of grain)

What does demeter do after she searched for Persephone but can't find her?

she flies to Eleusis as a crow and then disguises herself as an old lady and she tells the daughters of Eleusis that she can work as a maid in their household (she tests them) and they offer to have her take care of their brother Demephon -she tells false stories of who she is and why she's there

Odysseus connection to Demeter

Odysseus disguises himself as a beggar and tells lies and Demeter disguises herself as an old lady and tells lies

Eleusis/Eleusinian Mysteries

Town where Demeter ends up and tries to make son immortal, she gets a temple there too, mysteries are an annual fall festival to get good agriculture

Attica

Eleusis was here, this is near athens

Demephon and Demeter

Demeter looks after him and at night she places him in fire so he may be immortal and forever young but his mom, Metaneira, sees this and freaks out so demeter takes him out of the fire. However, demephon still has glory (but can't escape the Morai=fates)

Why does Zeus decide to ask hades to bring persephone up from the underworld? What does Hades do before returning Persephone?

because demeter withholds seed from the land and humans would have perished from the stress of famine, and the gods who hold mansions in olympos would have lost the share of renown of gift and sacrifice. (Zeus sends Iris-rainbow messenger to convince demeter to meet with Zeus but she refuses because she wants Persephone). Zeus sends hermes to let Persephone go but before she leaves hades convinces her to eat a pomegranate seed and if one eats food from the underworld, they can't ever live in the normal world forever). Persephone can spend 2/3 of the year with Demeter but must spend 1/3 of the year w/hades in the underworld.

What is demeter pictured holding?

cornucopia aka horn of plenty-->horn overflowing with fruit and grain. state of abundance

Augustus Ovid

Augustus is the 1st roman emperor Ovid is latin poet who wrote Metamorphoses that contain stuff about Proserpina=persephone, Ceres=demeter, Pluto=hades?

Ceres

Demeter

Venus Story

Ovid imagines that Pluto is inspecting the island of Sicily which has been shaking with earthquakes. Venus happens to see him from on high and has the mischievous idea that her son, Cupid, should shoot Pluto with one of his darts and make him fall in love. Venus is concerned that the whole world recognize her power. In Ovid's version of the story, Venus also has a beef with Prosperina herself, since Proserpina has dedicated herself to virginity and that rejection of sexual love is an affront to Venus. So Cupid puts an arrow to his bow and strikes Pluto so that he falls in love with the first girl he happens to see, who at that moment was Proserpina.

Tammuz=Dumuzi/Dumuzid

The god of vegetation and fertility, also called the Shepherd. Born a mortal, Tammuz is the husband of Ishtar. Inanna declares that he should live in the underworld for 1/2 the year-->explains seasons