Greek Mythology - Lecture 6 Notes

Geography of the Mythological World

  • Greek myth presents a cosmology crystallised before written law codes or the polis; practices such as human sacrifice, cattle-raids, bridal theft, blood-feuds still normal.
  • Earth imagined as a flat disk; a solid heaven-dome arches overhead.
  • Even after discovery of the spherical earth ((~6^{th})–(~3^{rd}) c. BC), poets from Hesiod to Virgil keep the same flat-world topography.
  • Under the earth lies Hades; beyond both is Tartarus.
  • A circular, self-returning river-ocean (Okeanos) rims the land; it is both place and god.
  • Three great landmasses: Europe, Asia, Libya (entire African continent).
  • Natural borders: Black Sea between Europe/Asia, Nile between Asia/Libya, Mediterranean at centre.
  • Greece sits at literal and symbolic centre; Delphi called the Naval ((\textit{Omphalos})) of the earth.
  • Distance rationalisations:
    • Fall from Sky → Earth = 10\text{ days}
    • Earth → Hades = 10\text{ days}
    • Hades → Tartarus = 10\text{ days}
    • Top of Tartarus → bottom ≈ 1\text{ year} free-fall (wind-dependent).
  • Five primary realms:
    1. Sky
    2. Earth
    3. Hades
    4. Tartarus
    5. Elysion (optional, located "somewhere West" in Okeanos).

Fundamental Rules of Mythic Existence

  • Geography expandable "like a video-game mod", yet certain limits never broken:
    • Living humans cannot enter Hades (Orpheus only near-exception).
    • Gods cannot die; only one mythic exception (covered later).
    • Gods possess great but not unlimited power/knowledge; no omnipotence or omniscience.
    • Conflict requires limits—once a deity becomes all-powerful (cf. later Jewish God) mythology ends.
  • Rules bendable: storytellers freely add variants; no fixed scripture; polytheism allows continual retconning.

The Western Unknown

  • Greeks intimately know Eastern Med; western Mediterranean interior = "dark continent" of imagination.
  • Many mythic locales hand-waved as "out West": Hades (alternate), Elysion, Hesperia, Amazons, Gorgons.
  • Further from Greece ⇒ more wilderness, danger, disorder, gender inversion.

Earth: Civilisation vs Wild

  • Civilised Greece (polis ideal) contrasts with wild peripheries.
  • Artemis embodies duality of wilderness: virgin yet fertility goddess, protector & hunter.
  • Wild zones feature:
    • Nymphs (hyper-sexual freedom).
    • Satyrs/Centaurs (drunken violence, sexual assault, robbery).
    • Brigands e.g. Procrustes (violates sacred hospitality by mutilation).
    • Amazons (matriarchal warrior society).
    • Gorgons—female gaze turns men to stone (gender-order inversion).
  • Extremes loop back: Hyperboreans (far North) & Hesperides (far West) live in primeval harmony, feast with gods, enjoy perpetual fertility/youth.

Sky Realm

  • Dome supported by Titan Atlas at edge beyond Pillars of Heracles (Strait of Gibraltar).
  • Helios drives solar chariot by day; Selene, lunar chariot by night.
    • In Hellenistic period: Helios ≈ Apollo; Selene ≈ Artemis.
  • Stars = deified heroes.
  • Mount Olympus (8 earthly claimants; Thessalian peak wins modern name) in perpetual light & perfect weather.
    • Non-polis kingdom model:
    – Zeus king; Hera queen
    – Apollo court musician
    – Hermes herald
    – Poseidon admiral of seas
    – Demeter/Persephone/Dionysus agricultural overseers
    – Ares/Athena generals
  • Gods’ leisure: banquets, song, conversation, sex, spying on or puppeteering humans.

Hades (Underworld Proper)

  • Term denotes both realm & god (best pop-culture voice: James Woods in Disney’s "Hercules").
  • Entrances various: simple apparition post-death, Hermes escort, or cave descent (Orpheus).
  • Boundary river Styx ("trembling"); ferryman Charon requires obol coin (hence coins in mouth/eyes).
  • Rivers:
    • Styx – trembling
    • Acheron – grieving
    • Cocytus – screaming
    • Phlegethon – burning
    • Lethe – forgetting (souls drink to erase life memories; inconsistently applied).
  • Guard-dog Kerberos (3-headed) keeps dead IN, not living OUT (prototype for "Fluffy" in Harry Potter).
  • Realm in darkness, yet some myths require ambient light for narrative (Orpheus, Aeneas).
  • Shade-bodies usually intangible smoke; however Tartarus inmates retain corporeality for torment.

Tartarus (Cosmic Prison)

  • Both primordial deity & deepest pit.
  • Shape: narrow neck, immense bottom; bronze gate + walls by Zeus; darkness 3\times greater than Hades.
  • Inmates:
    • Titans defeated by Olympians (immortal, thus incarcerated).
    • Sisyphus – eternally rolls stone uphill ("Sisyphean labour").
    • Tantalus – fruit & water eternally out of reach (origin of "tantalise").
    • Prometheus – liver eaten daily for gifting fire, later freed by Heracles.
  • Guards: Hecatoncheires ("hundred-handers"—Briareus, Cottus, Gyes).
  • Kronos earlier used Tartarus to jail Cyclopes (Brontes, Steropes, Arges) & Hecatoncheires to block their aid to Zeus.

Elysion / Elysian Fields

  • Optional paradise; sometimes absent from myth.
  • Initially for deceased heroes (demigod offspring).
  • Later admits "exceptional" mortals—brave warriors, wise rulers (aristocratic males only).
  • Location: island inside Okeanos; Virgil makes Aeneas reach it via Hades.
  • Climate perpetually perfect; trees fruit 3 times yearly.
  • Activities: feasting, athletics, music.
  • Governor & judge: Rhadamanthys, Cretan demigod son of Zeus & Europa.
  • Gods rarely visit (only two recorded literary instances).

Personification & Anthropomorphism

  • Every concept can take human (or animal) form:
    • Kratos (Power)
    • Nikê (Victory)
    • Eris (Strife)
    • Pandora’s jar contents = embodied evils.
  • Gaia = Earth as mother/body; caves = womb, rocks = bones, rivers = veins.
  • Ouranos (Sky) impregnates Gaia via rain (mythic semen).

Gods vs Humans – Physiology & Biology

  • Appearance: similar shape, but gods larger (Homer: Ares’ body spans almost 2 \textit{stadia} ⇒ (~200\,\text{m})).
  • Beauty: idealised; radiate light so intense it incinerates mortals when unveiled.
  • Blood replaced by ichor ("undying fluid").
  • Immortality sustained by:
    • Ambrosia ("deathless" food; sometimes solid, sometimes liquid).
    • Nectar ("conqueror of death"; always liquid).
  • Mortals age & die; gods finish adolescence then cease ageing at perfect stage:
    • Youthful forever: Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite.
    • Mature bearded ruler: Zeus.
  • Cautionary tale: Eos asks Zeus to grant mortal lover Tithonos immortality, forgets eternal youth—he withers into a cicada-like husk.
  • Exception: Athena emerges fully grown from Zeus’ head—no childhood.
  • Iconography shift: Eros/Cupid de-ages over centuries (teen → boy → baby).

Cognitive Superiority & Vision of the Future

  • Gods view full earth from Olympus; big-picture perspective = wisdom.
  • Hierarchy of foresight:
    • Apollo – clearest prophetic sight (Delphi oracle).
    • Zeus – broadest overview.
    • Other gods see outlines; all lack total omniscience.
  • Intelligence ranking: Hermes (trickster genius) > Prometheus, Athena, Apollo > average deity.
  • Strength ranking: Ares, Heracles (after apotheosis) at top.

Language

  • Some sources hint at special divine tongue; gods shift to Greek when addressing mortals.
  • Occasional isolated "divine words" given, mirroring real-world Greek dialect diversity.

Ethical & Practical Implications

  • Limited divine knowledge/power enables narrative conflict.
  • Moral focus: crimes against gods punished (Prometheus, Sisyphus); human-on-human crimes rarely sanctioned.
  • Afterlife offers slim justice: Tartarus for a few monstrous offenders; Elysion for elite paragons.
  • Mythic geography mirrors Greek cultural horizon: safety/culture at centre, chaos & inversion at periphery, primeval paradise beyond.

Numerical & Formulaic References

  • Children of Okeanos: 3{,}000 rivers (sons) + 3{,}000 springs (daughters).
  • Cyclopes trio: Brontes (Thunder), Steropes (Lightning), Arges (Bright).
  • (\text{Hecatoncheires} = 100\text{-handers} = 50\text{-headed giants}).
  • Passage times (see "Geography" section) formalised in multiples of 10 or 1 year.

Connections & Real-World Resonance

  • Mythic West akin to "dark continent" trope in modern colonial fiction.
  • Tartarus parallels later Christian Hell; Elysion parallels Christian Heaven or Islamic Jannah.
  • Personification practice survives in modern icons: Grim Reaper, Lady Justice, Uncle Sam.
  • Gladiator (2000) visually cites Elysian wheat fields.
  • Harry Potter’s "Fluffy" adapts Kerberos.
  • "Sisyphean" & "tantalise" remain idioms for futility & unreachable desire.

Key Takeaways & Thematic Threads

  • Mythic world structured but malleable; rules provide narrative tension.
  • Spatial symbolism reflects cultural self-image: Greece at centre, knowledge/light within, danger/darkness without.
  • Gods mirror human society (kingship, courts) yet remain other through scale, immortality, and partial omniscience.
  • Anthropomorphism & personification allow natural and abstract forces to participate directly in story.
  • Ethical focus leans toward impiety vs gods; human moral infractions less judicially noted.
  • Immortality conditional on diet (nectar/ambrosia) + ageless stasis; narratives warn against partial boons (Tithonos).