cla040 lecture week 2

  • DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

    • clarify zeus’ 2 highlighted enemies??


  • Typhonomachy - Zeus’ second enemy

    • Typhon - father of monsters

    • MP - Zeus is warrior hero who fought dragon

    • Dragon symbolizes order vs. disorder

    • Zeus uses force AND metis

      • metis - cunning intelligence


  • 7 divine wives of Zeus

    • Metis

    • Themis

    • Eurynome

    • Demeter

    • Mnemosyne

    • Leto

    • Hera


  • Zeus - father of gods and men

    • originated as indo-european sky/storm god

    • Theogeny as the story of Zeus

    • Zeus’s challenge is to claim power from Ouranos and Kronos who are trying to gain power

      • Ouranos and Kronos try to frustrate creation process

    • Hesiod paints a positive portrait of Zeus

      • god of justice

      • lacks his tyrannical side

    • Styx is first introduced being goddess of oaths & trust → basis of Zeus’ existence is maintaining social order, being fair/just

  • Olympians vs. Giants

    • order vs. disorder


  • Prometheus - Zeus’ third enemy

    • son of a Titan and Oceanid, mother is Gaia

    • “-id” meaning son or daughter of

    • ally of Zeus that becomes enemy of Zeus

    • a multi faceted and flexible figure

    • he is ALWAYS involved with humankind in some way

    • in hesiod, he’s an enemy to Zeus thus bad for humanity

    • a trickster figure (uses intelligence not force) - ambiguous

      • ex of trickster: Satan, Wylie Coyote

      • ambiguous - create yet disrupt order

    • Prometheus is bound to a rock and an Eagle eats his liver (which grows back) over and over again

    • Prometheus’ brothers are Atlas & Epimetheus

    • prof parallels Zeus and Prometheus to David and Goliath

  • The Story in Theogeny

    • 1) Feast at Mekone, trick

      • etiology of sacrifice seen in trick

      • takes ox bones and hides them to prank Zeus which angers Zeus

    • 2) punishment = no more fire

    • 3) Prometheus steals fire angering Zeus further

    • 4) punishment = "gift” of Pandora, first woman, given to humans (but she’s an evil balance to goodness

      • hesiod sees women as an infestation to mankind/leeches (misogynistic)

  • The Story in Works and Days

    • 1) the trick

      • same ox trick

    • 2) Zeus both hides fire and “how to make a living” (hides crops/agriculture so men have to plow, toil, and suffer out of the Earth)

    • 3) prometheus steals fire

    • 4) Pandora gifted to humans (again, she’s internally wretched and evil)


  • The Olympians

    • Olympians - live in Mt. Olympus

    • Pantheon - all the gods

  • Herodotus

    • Greeks get their image of gods from their poets

    • poets gave the gods their title, office, powers

      • thus, not all gods in Greek pantheon are of Indo-Eurpoean origin

  • The Pantheon (in order) **Greek name/Roman name

    • may be presented as religious/philosophical or anthropomorphic

      • anthropomorphic - humanized

        • 1st Gen Olympians (those swallowed by Kronos)

          • Aphrodite/Venus

          • Zeus/Jupiter

          • Hades/Pluto

          • Poseidon/Nature

          • Hera/Juno

          • Demeter/Ceres

          • Hestia/Vesta

        • 2nd Gen Olympians

          • Athena/Minerva

          • Ares/Mars

          • Artemis/Diana

          • Apollo

          • Hermes/Mercury

          • Dionysus/Bacchus

          • Hephaestus/Vulcan

  • homeric hymns

    • songs praising gods

    • written in style of homeric poetry - language or concept of gods

    • ex. hymn to hera, Iliad 1


Specifics of 1st Gen

  • Aphrodite - Love (sexual desire)

    • in hesiod - ouranos’ genitals

    • in homer - Zeus & Dione’s daughter

    • OLDEST of Olympians

  • Primavera/Botticelli’s Venus - notable painting

  • Zeus/Jupiter/Jove

    • as in jovial (good natured)

  • Poseidon/Neptune

    • god of the sea

    • Zeus’ brother

  • Hades/Pluto

    • lives in the underworld

    • not an olympian

    • brother of Zeus

  • Hera/Juno

    • sister of Zeus

    • sometimes viewed as jealous wife of Zeus who need to be put in place

  • Demeter/Ceres

    • sister of of Zeus

    • goddess of grain, agriculture

  • Hestia/Vesta

    • sister of Zeus

    • goddess of hearth, household

    • virgin goddess


Specifics of 2nd Gen

  • all of 2nd Gen are children of Zeus EXCEPT Hephaestus/Vulcan (from Hera)

  • Ares

    • god of war

  • Hephaestus

    • lame god

    • born form earth

    • wife is aphrodite


How do the Olympians Live?

2 sides

  • (1)

    • on a mountain connected to Earth with a hierarchical structure

    • anthropomorphism - human in form

      • live and look like humans

  • (2)

    • on a mountain but so high up it’s heaven

      • they breathe a different air called aither

      • they consume different - drink nectar, eat ambrosia (both meaning immortality in Greek)

      • biologically different - divine blood called ichor

  • Defining the human condition

    • 3 essentials of human culture - sacrifice, agriculture, marriage

    • Sturcturalist approach - Binary opposites (good v bad)


Tartarus

  • a vast dark chasm and torment dungeon

  • place and person / the embodiment and the thing

  • the titans are trapped in tartarus always


sporcle greek names game