Mizzou AMS - Classical Mythology - Exam 2 Learning Objectives

Cite the date that Rome was founded

753 BCE

The role of Evander in the foundation of Rome

Founded a city near Rome [by Tiber River]

The role of Aeneas in the foundation of Rome

Trojan hero who lead lots of people to Italy near Rome [also linked Rome to Greece in terms of Gods]

The role of Iulus in the foundation of Rome

Founded Alba Longa [where Romulus and Remus were born]

The role of Romulus + Remus in the foundation of Rome

Brothers started arguing about the city’s name, fought, Romulus won [killing Remus], and founded Rome

Outline the roles of Rome’s early kings in the development of the city

• Romulus: founder and expansionist

• Numa Pompilius: founded the religious practices

• Tarquinius Superbuis: last king

Explain how the Republic was founded

In order to avenge Lucretia, Brutus overthrew Superbus and founded the Republic of Rome in 509 BCE

Outline Rome’s rise to power and explain how the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire.

• Take over Latin League [509 - 338 BCE]

• Takes over Samnites + Greeks in S. Italy [338 - 272 BCE]

• Romans start to conquer other Romans [Julius Caesar]

• Augustus becomes the “princeps” - first emperor of Rome

Identify Ovid’s hometown

Sulmo

Describe Ovid’s upbringing

Equestrian Family, father sent him to Rome for his education [expensive]

Explain how Ovid’s education led him to become a poet

• Originally went to school to become a lawyer [at his father’s demand]

• Decided he wanted to become a poet

• Was very successful and popular as a poet [it worked out]

Identify the major works that Ovid produced (in chronological order). Describe the basic contents of each and characterize Ovid’s basic approach to writing his poetry.

• Amores [“loves” poems]

• Ars Amatoria [the “how to pick up a girl” poems]

• Heriodes [“letters from Heroines”]

• Remedia Amoris [“remedy for love” - how to fall out of love]

• Metamorphoses

Describe the theories and explanations behind why Ovid was exiled by the Emperor Augustus and explain how this event almost lead to the destruction of The Metamorphoses.

4 major theories - “carmen et errore” [a poem + a mistake]

• Augustus was mad about the “how to pick up a girl” poem

• Augustus believed that Ovid was friends with people who were plotting to overthrow him

• Augustus believed that Ovid was having an affair with his daughter [Julia]

• Ovid “saw something he shouldn’t have”: Augustus having an affair with HIS OWN daughter, Julia

This almost lead to the destruction of the metamorphoses because, after Ovid was exiled, he told his friends to destroy the copies that he had left of the book because it wasn’t really up to his standards/in an early version of the book. They didn’t end up destroying it because it was so good.

Identify the particular genre (or category) of poetry to which the Metamorphoses belongs, describe its contents and explain why the contents make the poem a difficult for the genre to which it belongs

• The Metamorphoses is an epic

• Epics have 2 parts [dactylic hexameter and a story about a specific hero or event]

• The Metamorphoses only has 1 of the 2 parts [dactylic hexameter]

Explain why Johnston finds Ovid’s arrangement and handling of the myths particularly effective in drawing together many separate, small stories into a unified whole.

Ovid makes the story into a “hence” and not “and then”, putting all the stories together in a sting instead of one after the other

Explain why Johnston finds Ovid’s poem be especially “dramatic”, relying on dialogue and emotional expression typical of plays to heighten the effect of his poem.

Ovid uses soliloquies for big moments where characters are talking through their struggle by and to themself.

Explain why visual detail and powerful (overpowering?) description is a hallmark of the poem.

• Pathos: emotional appeal

• Dramatic Ethos: vividly telling what happened in a story and how the characters responded to those events

Explain why scholars like Johnston raise the question of how seriously we should take The Metamorphoses and how comparisons of Ovid to earlier authors illuminates this question.

They believe that Ovid didn’t take myth as serious as other poets [Homer and Vigil]

Explain why scholars note that Ovid is very aware of the great poets who came before him and attempts to pay tribute to them – or even out-do them – in his poem.

He attempts to emulate other authors and out do them: epic battle scenes (Homer)
He will also complement other author's work: adding to Aeneas' story (Virgil)

Explain how Ovid’s account of the creation of the primordial Earth conforms to and diverges from the versions we have learned in the first part of the course

• Conforms: basics of the creation of Chaos

• Diverges: actions of a “God”, sexual and asexual differences in the divinities, and tries to make it more scientific

Explain what Pre-Socratic philosophy was and how Ovid’s account incorporates tenets of natural philosophy into his version of the Creation.

• Focused on understanding the phusis [physical namesake]

Describe Ovid’s division of the Earth into different regions (or “zones”)

• Blue: cold

• Red: hot [like Sahara Desert]

• Tan: livable

Blue - tan - red - tan - blue

Identify the Four Winds and describe their geographic placement.

• Boreas: North [cold, ill-tempered]

• Auster: South [hot, wet]

• Zephyrus: West [warm, gentle]

• Eurus: East [not really mentioned in myth]

Explain how Ovid distinguishes the creation of humans from other the animals and assigns important to this difference

humans are born facing the stars, animals aren’t

Explain how the details that Ovid gives to his description of the Ages of Man clearly accentuate the differences between them and how his description of the Iron Age offers a particularly grim view of humanity.

• Gold: no need for civilization

• Silver: seasons emerge + need for houses

• Bronze: briefly described as violent + warlike

• Iron: emergence of civilization in full [lies, deceit, sailing, mining, land ownership, iron, gold, war, plunder, and death all introduced here]

Describe Ovid’s alternate treatment of the Gigantomachy and explain how this story directly relates to the human race.

• NO TITANOMACHY, Zeus turned the giants into ash

• Some humans were born out of said ash

Summarize Ovid’s description of the council in which Jupiter decides to destroy humankind, his rationale for doing this and the reaction of the gods to this plan

• Gods were concerned that if the humans were gone, who would worship them?

• Used a flood instead of giant lightening bolt so that they wouldn’t destroy the earth

Explain how Pytho comes to exist, why Apollos slays it, how he commemorates this feat and how this sequence serves to introduce the story of Apollo and Daphne.

• Pytho: born out of fire + water

• Apollo kills with his bow and arrows

• Sets up the Pythian Games

• Cupid and Apollo get into a fight

Summarize the story of Daphne and Apollo including how Cupid instigates the action of this story, how Apollo tries to woo Daphne and how Daphne’s metamorphosis turns out to be an etiological story

• Cupid and Apollo get into a fight

• Cupid shoots Apollo with a golden arrow [love] and Daphne with an iron arrow [disgust]

• Apollo falls deeply in love with Daphne + tries to woo her [to no avail]

• Daphne turns into a Laurel tree [Apollo’s sacred tree]

• Daphne’s dad is upset because his daughter is dead

Summarize the story of Jupiter, Io and Juno including why Io is polymorphed into a cow and why Juno decides to use Argus to watch over her. Also, explain Ovid’s use of Inachus in his telling of the myth to heighten the pathos of Io’s situation

• Jupiter summons weather to cover him while he flirts with Io

• Juno comes down and tries to see what he’s doing

• Jupiter quickly turns Io into a cow to cover himself

• Juno sees right through him and knows the cow is a human

• Juno makes Argus watch over Io

• Io finds her father and scratches her name in the dirt so that her father knows its her

• Her father is very upset and Argus takes Io away [PATHOS]

Describe how Jupiter plots to free Io, summarize the story of Syrinx – the first “nested story” in the poem – and explain how this story figures into Mercury’s plan to save Io

• Jupiter sends Mercury to save Io

• Mercury goes down and lulls Argus to sleep with the story of Pan and Syrinx [nested story: story within another story]

Describe the end of Io’s story and explain how Ovid uses this ending as the launching point for the tale of Phaëthon.

• Mercury kills Argus

• Hera turns his eyes into the peacock feather eyes

• Epaphus tells Paethon that his father is not a god

Describe Phaëthon’s encounter with Phoebus, explain how he gets to drive his father’s chariot and summarize the highlights of his fateful journey.

• Phebus tells Phaëthon that he can have anything he wants [son]

• Phaëthon wants to ride his father’s chariot [he’s real bad]

• He flies too close to the ground and creates the Saharah desert, make the Ethiopian’s skin go dark, rivers and streams dry up, and forest burn

Phaëthon’s death. Explain why Jupiter is forced to destroy Phaëthon and describe how the Heliades, Cygnus and Phoebus all react to his death

• Jupiter kills Phaethon because the Earth is like, "I'm dying, stop this before it gets too bad."

• Heliades and Cygnus react in mourning and metamorphosing into trees and a swan

• Phoebus threatens to quit + is really mad

Callisto and Jupiter. Explain how Jupiter happened to see Callisto and summarize the encounter between the two.

• Jupiter sees Callisto and appears to her as Diana

• After lots of making out, Jupiter shows himself and rapes her

• she becomes pregnant

• Tries to hide her pregnancy from everyone but can’t [is found out when bathing]

• Diana punishes her by kicking her out of the group

Juno, Callisto and Arcas.  Describe how Juno punishes Callisto and how Jupiter prevents Arcas from accidentally killing his mother

• Juno punishes her by turning her into a bear [after Arcas’s birth]

• While Arcas is hunting he is about to commit miasma [murder of a family member] but is turned into a constellation with his mom before that can happen

Prelude: Raven, Crow and Minerva.  Summarize the “nested story” that Crow uses to try and persuade Raven to not meddle in Apollo’s affairs.

• The nested story is how crow went from white to black and from Minerva’s fav to not

• Snitches get stitches

• This is a warning for what could happen if Raven snitches on Apollo’s affairs

Apollo, Coronis and Raven.  Summarize the tragedy of Apollo and Coronis and identify the etiological element in this story.

• Apollo and Coronis are in a situationship

• Raven thinks that Coronis is cheating on Apollo

• ~nested story warning~

• Raven tells Apollo anyways and he tries to kill Coronis

• She actually wasn’t cheating, she was pregnant

• Apollo saves the baby

• Apollo turns Raven’s feathers black and casts her out

Chiron and Ochyroë.  Describe how Chiron is involved in the story of Apollo and Cornonis and explain why his daughter, Ochyroë, undergoes a metamorphosis.

• Chiron was like a foster dad to Apollo’s baby and tries to turn him into a hero

• Chiron’s daughter tells too much future and is turned into a horse

Mercury and Battus. Summarize the story of Mercury and the theft of Apollo’s cattle (use Berens  account), explain the role that Battus plays in this story and how he is punished by Mercury.

• Young Mercury steals Apollo’s cattle and tells Battus not to snitch on him

• When Apollo asks Battus about his cattle he says that a baby drove them off

• Apollo knows who did this and tells on Mercury

• Zeus punishes Mercury by making him give his lyre to Apollo

Mercury and Herse.  Describe how Herse comes to the attention of Mercury and how Mercury prepares to woo her.

• Mercury sees Herse at the Panathenaic Procession [festival] and falls for her

• He straightens his clothes?

Mercury and Aglauros.  Describe the encounter between Mercury and Aglauros and summarize the alternate story of Herse, Aglauros and Pandrosus NOT found in Ovid.

• Mercury tries to go into the sister's room to see Herse, Aglauros stops him and says he has to give her money to get in

• Not found in Ovid: Hephaestus wants to have sex with Athena, she says no, he ejaculates onto her leg, she wipes it off onto the ground, a baby appears. [Erechtheus is half-snake, half-human] and is given to the sisters to throw away. They open it and go mad.

Minerva, Envy and Aglauros.  Describe Minerva’s journey to Envy’s house, Envy herself, how Envy works her magic on Aglauros and what happens to Aglauros as a result.

• Minerva [with a vendetta against Aglauros] sicks Envy on her

• Envy infects Aglauros with envy

• She stops Mercury and is turned to stone

Mercury, Jupiter and Europa.  Describe how Jupiter uses Mercury to help him make off with Europa and explain how Jupiter is able to accomplish her abduction

• Jupiter tells Mercury to take cattle down to Europa

• Mercury is turned into a bull by Jupiter

• Europa gets on Mercury and they go into the ocean

• She is taken all the way to Crete + King Midas [sex]

• This ties into why the bull is sacred there

Explain how Cadmus came to found the city of Thebes and describe his battle with the Dragon near the site of the city.

• Cadmus is exiled and finds the Delphi

• Delphi tells his to follow a cow and wherever it lays, that is where his city will be

• does that and founds Thebes

• Water in cave makes dragon

• He slays the dragon with help

• He’s sad because all his followers are gone

Describe Cadmus’ encounter with Minerva and how he is able to replace the followers he lost to the Dragon.

• Minerva tells him to sew the dragon teeth into the earth

• Humans are born + fight

• 5 left remaining and those are his followers + help build Thebes

Explain the interrelationship of all the characters in Book 3 of The Metamorphoses

• Cadmus and Harmonia have children and so on and they are all cursed

Describe Actaeon’s fateful encounter with Diana and summarize Ovid’s own assessment of the goddess and her actions.

• Hunting with his friends

• Actaeon wanders into a cave searching for water

• He sees Diana naked [by accident]

• As a punishment, Diana turns him into a stag/deer

• His dogs are sicked on him [yowch]

• Then his friends show up and urge his dogs on [adding insult to injury]

Explain why Juno is angry with Semele and describe how the goddess plots to destroy the young princess.

• Jupiter is in love with Semele

• Hera disguises herself as Semele's nursemaid and makes her doubt if Jupiter is actually Jupiter

Explain how Jupiter unsuccessfully attempts to thwart Juno’s plan to destroy Semele and how young Bacchus/Dionysus is saved by the god.

• Semele wants to see Jupiter in all of his glory to prove it's him

• He does it

• She's destroyed (she's mortal)

• Bacchus is pulled from Semele's womb and sewed into Jupiter's thigh until he is old enough and given to the nymphs to be taken care of

Explain how Tiresias gains his prophetic powers and how he warns Narcissus’ mother about her son’s fate.

• Tiresias sees two snakes in the forest

• It changes him into a woman and then again into a man

• When Jupiter and Hera ask him who likes sex more, he says men and Hera gets mad.

• She makes him blind and Jupiter gives him the power of prophecy.

• Tiresias tells Narcissus' mother that he'll live a great life as long as he doesn't discover himself

Summarize the story of Echo and explain the etiological meaning behind her story

Two stories
1. Pan wants Echo but she say no, Pan causes the woodsmen panic, and they destroy all of Echo except her voice
2. Jupiter sleeps with Echo's friends and Echo is the lookout for Hera. Hera realizes and curses her that she can never say things on her own anymore. (She can only echo things other people say)

Summarize the tragic love story of Echo and Narcissus and explain why and how Narcissus undergoes his metamorphosis.

• Echo sees Narcissus and wants him

• He says no, she runs off and dies in a cave

• He discovers his reflection and turns into a flower because he loved himself too much

Describe how Tiresias tries (and fails) to warn Pentheus not to reject Bacchus and summarize Pentheus’ attitude towards his cousin Bacchus.

Another hubris (pride)> ate (misstep)> nemesis (enemy who plots downfall) situation, Bacchus appears and Pentheus still refuses to accept him.

Summarize the encounter between Acoetes’ crew and Bacchus and the results of this meeting.

• Pentheus' men capture Acoetes

• Him and his men encounter Bacchus

• Acoetes says they shouldn't take him, they do anyways

• Then refused to take him where he needed to go

• Bacchus reveals himself and all of the men jump overboard and turn into dolphins

Describe Pentheus’ fatal encounter with his mother and describe how this narrative sequence plays out.

• Acoetes is freed from prison

• Pentheus is enraged and confronts the maenads

• Agave goes mad and thinks Pentheus is a boar and kills him

Explain how the story the Daughters of Minyas is used to frame the other stories in this narrative sequence, summarize the story of Pyramus and Thisbe and identify the main characters and key narrative passages in Ovid’s telling of this story.