Classics 2200 Notes PDF

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Lecture 1: Storytelling, Evidence and Contexts What is myth?  A spoken word, an utterance, a thing that is said  Traditional shared narrative; handed down over time  Greek myths were orally transmitted, they didn't alphabets to write it down. o Because of this there are no known original authors  Greek myths are flexible and change as they are transmitted over space and time  Myths: express, reinforce, justify and also at times challenge cultural values, practices, desires and fears Some scholarly definitions of myth   

Walter Burkert 1979: “a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance.” Lowell Edmunds 1997: “for Homer and his audience, … ‘myth’ is the oral performance of a story with intent to sway an audience.” Andrew von Hendy 2002: “traditional narrative with a high degree of ideological saturation”

What is an ideology?  A system of ideas that explains and gives legitimacy to the actions and beliefs of a social, religious, political or corporate entity -So, myths express, reinforce, justify and also at times challenge cultural values, practices, desires and fears. -Mythical narratives are also a way to make sense of the unknown, the inexplicable, and the mysterious.

Types of Myths 

Divine Myth: a. Tends to explain or reflect experiences of the natural universe and phenomena i. Eg. Stars. Earthquakes, rainbows, tidal waves, vegetation, etc. b. It also reflects ancient Greek social structure or ideology i. Eg. The family of the Greek gods exemplifies patriarchy and aristocracy Major characters of Greek divine myth are anthropomorphic (human shaped) gods. They are immortal and ageless (but not eternal) 

Legend o Tends to explain or reflect historical phenomena  Eg. Foundings of cities, archeological ruins, hereditary kingships, wars, political and institutional structures. o Gods are often involved, but the major characters are exemplary humans who are superior in some way than the rest of us  Eg. Achilles, thesus, heracles

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Folktale

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Tends to reflect a fantasy of the inversion of power structures Eg. A small weak person slaying a monster, a change in status from poverty to wealth, a servant overthrowing an evil tyrant Major characters are usually ordinary mortals. Trickster figures are common Often comical or with a happy ending.

Fable o o o

Tends to be simple and didactic (teaches a lesson) Usually about everyday moral behavior Major characters are often animals with human characteristics

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Types of Evidence for Greek and Roman Myths 

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Texts o

Papyrus fragments  Hippocratic oath  #58 cologne papyrus; poem found by Sappho Vase Paintings Archeological Sites o Lions' Gate, Mycenae; dates back to 13th BCE Sculptures Paintings o Villa of Venus; Pompeii Mosaics Funerary Objects o Objects that were placed near the funeral to provide them something on their journey to Hades Coins o Importance of particular gods to certain places that worship them

Major Periods of Greek History 3000BCE -146 BCE 1.) Minoan Civilization (3000-1400 BCE)  Based on the island of Crete  Not Indo-European (therefore not Greek)  Open palace complexes without fortification o (eg. Knossos)  Naval domination of Eastern Mediterranean region  Sophisticated arts and engineering  Female figurines, bull imagery, double-axe (labrys) o Snake goddess o Lots of bull horns 2.) Mycenaean Period (ca 1650-1150 BCE)  Indo-European, spoke an early form of Greek

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Fortressed palaces on hill-tops (e.g. Mycenae) o Lion's Gate is a create example, big rocks; very much concerned about attacks from their enemies Many epic heroes were associated with Mycenaean cities (e.g. Menelaus, Nestor, etc.) Aristocratic of many elements of Minoan culture Linear B: A syllabic writing system o Clay tablets, uses symbols, not actual alphabetic Reason for decline obscure (war? Natural disaster)

3.) Dark ages (1180-800 BCE)  Not a lot of information about this period o Scarcity of evidence  Decline in population on Greek Mainland  Absence of literacy  Economic decline  Poor quality of artifacts  Waves of emigration to Asia Minor 4.) Archaic Period (800-480 BCE)  Rise in trade and travel  Adoption of Phoenician alphabet, which led to literacy! o This is a huge development for Greek culture  Homer, Hesiod and lyric poetry were written down  Growing interest in science  Growth of city-states  Olympic games established 776 BDE (Panhellenic) o All of the groups and cities in Greece shared common languages and values; sense of unification in the Greek world  Democracy established in Athen-510 BCE o Before it was aristocratic  Persian Wards 490-479 BCE  Sculptures influenced by Egypt; evidence of trade and travel and learning from different cultures  Introduction of coinage allowing people to amass wealth 5.) Classical Period (480-323 BCE)  Athenian dominance in Greek confederacy (Delian league)  Athenian empire based on naval strength  Pericles a major statesman  Flowering of art, drama, architecture, education  Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Thucydides, etc.  Evolving democracy  Peloponnesian Wards (against Sparta and allies) 431-404 BCE  Alexander the Great 356-323 BCE and his successors expanded Greek empire across the Mediterranean and Near East 6.) Hellenistic Period (323-146 BCE)

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Successors of Alexander the Great rule vast areas around the Mediterranean, Near East, and Egypt Cosmopolitan culture, important centers of learning, e.g. Athens, Alexandria Ends with Rome conquers Greece 146 BCE

Lecture 2: Hesiod’s Theogony  

Theogony: ancient Greek poet Hesiod. An instructional poem describing the origins of the cosmos and the complicated and interconnected genealogies of the gods od the ancient Greeks Composed around 700 BCE o Earliest works on Greek Mythology

Reading  In the very beginning, Chaos, nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared, arose spontaneously  The children of Chaos were Gaia (Earth), Eros (Desire or sexual love), Tartarus (the underworld), Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night)  Erebus and Nyx reproduced to make Aither (brightness) and Hemera (Day)  Gaia has Ouranos (sky), the Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea) o Gaia and Ouranos mated to create three sets of offspring's  Twelve titans: Oceanos, Coeus, Crisu, Hyperion, Iaptos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Kronos; powereful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age  Three Cyclops: Brontes, Steropes and Arges  Three Hecatonchires: Kottos, Briareos and Gyges; hundred hanfed giants of event greater power and ferocity than the Titans o Ouranos was disgusted with the Hecatonchires and pushed them back to Gaia's womb, so Gaia begged the Titans to punish their father o Only Kronos, the youngest was willing to do so and he castrated his father o Ouranos' blood splattered onto the earth, producing Erinyes (the vengeful Furies), the Gigantes (Giants) and the Meliai (a race of tree nymphs) o Kronos threw Ouranos' testicles into the sea, and Aphrodite (the goddess of love) formed out of the seas-foam  Nyx (one of the twelve titans, Night) had many children too  After Ouranos's castration, Gaia married Pontus and they went on to produce a line of sea deities, nymphs and monsters  The titan's married between themselves and has titan offspring of their own  Kronos, who has established himself as leader of the Titans, married his sister Rhea, but mindful of the prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed: o Hestia (goddess of the hearth and domesticity) o Demeter (goddess of the earth and fertility) o Hera (goddess of women and marriage) o Hades( god of the underworld)

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o Poseidon (god of the sea) o Zeus (god of the sky and thunder) With the help of Gaia and Ouranos, Rhea managed to trick Kronos into saving Zeus from this fate, and then to further trick him into vomiting up on his other five children Joining Zeus, the other offspring's, known as the Olympian gods, their chosen home Mount Olympus They waged a ten-year war on the Titans and Giants for control of the cosmos Zeus released the Hecatonchires from their imprisonment in Tartarus to shake the earth, to gain the upper hand and in the struggle casting the fury of his thunderbolts at the titans, throw them down into Tartarus Gaia was angered and had a final son, fathered by Tartarus, known as Typhon o Deadly monsters of all time, was also defeated by Zeus, who trapped him under Mount Etna Prometheus had helped Zeus in the battle against the Titans, he was not sent to Tartarus like the other, but his attempts to trick Zeus and then his theft of forbidden fire from the Olympian gods, led Zeus to punish him by chaining him to a cliff where an eagle would feed on his liver which would magically regenerate each day As a result of Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire for man, Zeus called Athena and Hephaistos, the lame blacksmith of gods to create a beautiful woman, Pandora, who opened a har releasing all the evils of mankind, leaving only hope inside once she had closed it o Hesiod suggested at this point that women in general were henceforth to be considered a curse on men Zeus was now the king of the Olympian gods, first married Oceanid Metis o In order to avoid a prophecy that any offspring of his union with Metis would be greater than he is, Zeus swallowed Metis to prevent her from giving birth o Metis was already pregnant with Athena, she burt forth from Zeus' forehead, fully armed Zeus's second wife was the Titan Themis Third wife: Oceanid Eurynome Fourth wife: his own sister Demeter o Gave birth to Persephone o Persephone married Hades and gave birth to a few kids Fifth wife: Titan Mnemosyne Sixth wife: second generate Titan Leto o She gave birth to Apollo (god of music, poetry and oracles) and his twin sister Artemis (goddess of the hunt, childbirth and fertility) Seventh wife: his sister Hera o Gave birth to Hebe (cupbearer of the gods) o Ares (god of war) o Enyo (goddess of war) o Hephaistos (the lame blacksmith and craftsman of the gods) o Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth and midwifery) Zeus's brother Poseidon married Amphitrite and produced Triton, messenger of the deep Aphrodite was given in marriage by Zeus to his son, the lame and ugly Hephaistos, in attempt to prevent any jealously and rivalry which might arise over her great beauty o She had an affair with Area and gave birth to four kids

Lecture

Theogony  Theo + goné = "origin of gods"  The poem is a genealogy  It is a cosmogony: "birth of the world-order" or universe (cosmos)  A political history. Specifically, a divine dynastic succession with an evolving social order  An elaborate hymn to Zeus  A text that reflects an oral epic tradition o Read like a poem Early Greek Oral Epic  Originally sung by a single specialist performer (bard or aoidos), self-accompanied with a lyre  Was improvised on the spot  Sung in meter: dactylic hexameter o 6 metrical units with a specific pattern of syllables  Invocation of Muses or other god (inspiration, authority)  Repetition o Formulae: Repeated phrases: e.g. "and thus he replied with winged words"  This appeared a lot in the theogony o Epithets: e.g. "grey-eyes Athena, "Zeus the cloud gatherer"  Ring composition o Where the bard stops, tells us a story and then goes back to telling the poem  Catalogues and lists o The bard can stop and tell you a list of names that you don't need to worry about o But the names the bard doesn’t mention, you need to know o He could do this to show off just how much he remembers The Muses  They were goddesses  9 daughters of Zeus + Mnemosyne (Memory), she is one of the titans  Nine daughters = muses  When the bard calls upon a muse, she brings with her authority from zeus and memory from her mom  The muses like in Mount Helikon (Helicon) Triple invocation of Muses, Theogony pages 3-11  Hesoid invokes the Muses three times  He tells of their birth from Zeus and Mnemosyne, of their gifts to gods and mortals, all their names  The songs they sing are about the gods especially Zeus  Muses also gives the gift of sweet speech to kings, so that everyone listens to them  Hesiod says that he himself met the Muses on Mount Helikon One time, they taught Hesiod beautiful song while he was pasturing lambs under holy Helicon. And this speech the goddesses spoke first of all to me, the Olympian Muses, the daughters of aegis-holding Zeus: “Field-dwelling shepherds, ignoble disgraces, mere bellies: we know how to say many false things similar to genuine ones, but we know, when we wish, how to proclaim true things.”

So spoke great Zeus’ ready-speaking daughters, and they plucked a staff, a branch of luxuriant laurel, a marvel, and gave it to me; and they breathed a divine voice into me, so that I might glorify what will be and what was before, and they commanded me to sing of the race of the blessed ones who always are, but always to sing of themselves first and last.

In the beginning (page 13)  First only Chasm  Then Earth (Gaia) , Tartarus, and Eros (Desire) o Appeared spontaneously  From Chasm comes Night; from Night comes Day  Earth produces Sky (Ouranos), Mountains and Sea by asexual reproduction o Earth first of all bore starry sky, equal to herself, to cover her on every side"

The Second Generation: Titans (pg 15)  Mating with Sky, Earth then conceives the 12 titans, including Cronus  Also the 3 cyclopes and the 3 hundred-handed ones o Monstrous in appearance Sky and his children  Sky does not allow his children to be born from Earth's body  Earth makes a cunning plan. She creates a sickle and tells her youngest (Kronos) what to do  Cronus ambushes, castrates and overthrows his father, opening a space between Earth and Sky, and liberating the children inside her Birth of Erinyes, Giants, Nymphs and Aphrodite  Cronus throws his severed genitals into the sea  Erinyes (Furies), Giants and Nymphs are born from the drops of blood that fall onto the Earth's body  Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is born from the genitals themselves o She is not Earth's daughter; grew spontaneously from the severed genitals of sky Digression on the Offspring of Earth  Earth's children and their offspring  Many evil things are born (Strife, Pain, Harship, etc.)  Many monsters are born, with references to the heroes who will slay/ tame them (Heracles) o Echindna, Cerbrus, Medusa, Pegasus  Rivers  Hecate, an important goddess, and the honours she holds from Zeus Third Generation: First Generation of Olympians  Cronus mates with his siter Rhea, they produce 6 olympians o Hestia, demetre, hera, hades, Poseidon, zeus  Kronos swallows them  Rhea is angry, and on the advice of Earth and Sky, tricks Cronus and hides baby Zeus in a cave on Crete. Earth receives him

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Rhea gives Cronus a stone is a swaddling blanket

Kronus is tricked  “He seized this with his hands and put it down into his belly—cruel one, nor did he know in his spirit that in place of the stone his son remained hereafter, unconquered and untroubled, who would overpower him with force and his own hands, and would soon drive him out from his honor and be king among the immortals.”   Zeus grows up fast and overthrows his father, tricking him into vomiting up his siblings  The stone (omphalos) is placed at Pytho (Delphi) Zeus establishes his rule  Zeus frees the Cyclopes and the Hundred- handed ones, who were improsined by sky  The cyclopes forge Zeus' lighting-bolts  Punishment of Prometheus and eventual glorification of Heracles Two cosmic battles test and prove Zeus's might: 1.) Titanomachy  The battle with the Titans and their imprisonment in Tartarus is aided by the Hundred-Handed ones 2.) Typhonomachy  Zeus battles with Typhoeus, a terrible and monstrous dragon, born of Earth and Tartarus  Typhoeus is also imprisioned in Tartaros, a source of stormy winds (or under mount etna)  Established as king of immortals, Zeus distributes roles and privileges Greek Divine myth reflects Greek culture by:  Its patriarchal structure  Its anthropomorphic goods  Its admiration of displays of strength  Its respect for intelligence

Dynastic Succession  1st generation: Earth and Sky  2nd generation: Cronus and Rhea other titans, 100-handed ones, Cyclopes, Aphrodite  3rd generation: Olympians Zeus and Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon  4th generation: 2nd generation Olympians Children of Zeus o Athena, Persephone, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus o Hephaestus is not a child of Zeus; Hera gives birth to him without sexual reproduction

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The Divine and Children of Zeus o First wife is Metis (Wisdom): swallowed by Zeus, who, as a result, produces Athena from his head. o “Metis (Wisdom), she who of the gods and mortal human beings knows the most. But when she was about to give birth to the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, he [Zeus] deceived her mind by craft and with guileful words he put her into his belly, by the

counsels of Earth and of starry Sky: for this was how they had prophesied to him, lest some other one of the eternally living gods hold the kingly honor instead of Zeus. For it was destined that exceedingly wise children would come to be from her: first she would give birth to a maiden, bright-eyed Tritogeneia [Athena], possessing strength equal to her father’s and wise counsel, and then to a son, a king of gods and of men, possessing a very violent heart. But before that could happen Zeus put her into his belly, so that the goddess would advise him about good and evil.” p. 75. More wives of Zeus  Themis (Seasons, Justice, Peace, Fates)  Eurynome (Graces)  Demeter (Persephone)  Mnemosyne (Muses)  Leto (Apollo and Artemis)  Hera (Ares, Hebe, Eileithyia)  Hera produces Hephaestus asexually  Maia (Hermes)  Semele* (Dionysus) Birth of Athena “He himself gave birth from his head to bright-eyed Athena, terrible, battle-rouser, army-leader, indefatigable, queenly, who delights in din and wars and battles; but Hera was furious and contended with her husband, and without mingling in love gave birth to famous Hephaestus, expert with his skilled hands beyond all of Sky’s descendants.” The Fourth Generation (Second-Generation Olympians)  Athena  Persephone  Apollo  Artemis  Ares  Hephaestus  Hermes  Dionysus

Lecture 3: Hesiod’s Works and Days    

First portion of the poem is an ethical enforcement of honest labor and dissuasion from strife and idleness Second section consists of hints and rules on agricultural husbandry Third part is a religious calendar of the months, with remarks on the days 9 The author's advice to his brother, Perses, who appears to have bribed the corrupt judges to deprive Hesiod of his already scanty inheritance, and is content to while away from his time in idle pursuits and accept Hesiod's additional charity

Analysis  The poem revolves around two general truths:  Labour is the universal lot of man, but that who is willing to work will always get by

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Hesiod prescribes a life of honest labour (which he regards as the source of all good) and attacks idleness, suggesting that both the gods and men hate the idle Within the poem's advice and wisdom, Hesiod also pursues his own agenda, attacking unjust judges (such as those who decided in favor of Perses, Hesiod's less-than-responsible brother, who granted an inheritance by the ruling of these unjust judges) and the practice of usury.  Usury: act of lending money at an interest rate that is considered unreasonably high or that is higher than the rate permitted by law

Prometheus and Pandora  Hesiod tells this story t...