Greek myth notes PDF

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Professor Erickson's Classics 40 greek mythology class notes...

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Lecture 1 1/17/18 Rites of passage- myths- tooth fairy ---> real life = marriage or jobs Greek myths ingrained in their culture even if into adulthood they didn’t believe it 100% detail gReek landscape= sea and sailing, mountains, grain, grapes, olives Greek myth talk about food a lot A lot of malnutrition and poor people in ancient greece Timeline for ancient greece 3,000bc -1,000 bc “bronze age” 1,000 B.C. -- 700 B.C. “early iron age” *700 B.c> -- 480 B.C. “archaic period” *480 B.C. -- 323 B.C. “classical period” What is a myth? 1) 2) 3) 4)

Traditional tale Mythos vs logos Relationship between myth and literature Essential storyline repeated

1st concept- Anthropo morphism (in the shape of men) Gods look and act like humans, only more powerful Second concept= reciprocity Helping friends and harming enemies Third concept- animal sacrifice Sacrifice on alter Humans get edible portions

*myth and history

Lecture 2 1/19/18 Celebrate god’s bday and have sacrifice → animals at altar of gods. Quid pro quo Enthusiasmos- possession by the god *maenads Did have priests and priestesses. Male gods get priests, female gods get priestesses - For priests and priestesses they don't have a lot to do, they just do sacrifices, they aren't especially wise or anything. Anyone could be one -they have large temples but they don't go inside of them, they hold statues -temples are religiously unimportant its just to hold the statues. People dont do religious stuff inside ● ● ● ●

Gods think and act like us They obey the rules of reciprocity Sacrifice establishes a communication channel between humans and gods Altar is the essential component of greek religion

Physical allegory: the story represents some value or idea other than the character. Kinda like symbolism. *each character represents a distinct something else. PHYSICAL allegory is it represents something in the physical world Demeter and persephone *persephone hermes hekate demeter Moral allegory: represents morals not physical things Judgement of paris *paris chooses aphrodite over hera and athena. She promises the most beautiful woman. It causes trojan war. It is a moral lesson to not choose lust over good things Moral allegory II:

Odyssey and the sirens --represents self restraint and temptation as odysseus tied himself to not go to sirens call

Historical allegory (euhemerus, 300 BC) ← on midterm. He was first teacher of myths and allegory --Aktaion He is in forest 18 yrs old. He wants to hunt all day long and not get married. Stumbled upon a goddess taking bath nude. Goddess gets mad and punishes him, turns him into deer. Guy’s dogs are trained to hunt deer so they kill and eat him **maybe the dogs represent debts and his debts are eating him up (doesn't really make sense tho lol story is garbled) Historical allegory II Herakles (hercules) and the hydra of lerna Chopping off regenerating heads- burning heads after we cut them so that they don't grow back **heads are actually openings in the wall where we have people defending the city of Lerna against the outsiders. The fire is using fire arrows (doesn't make sense tho lol) People desperate to find meaning in things. Historical allegory is that these myths are garbled and we must get to the original story of this that makes sense (prof erickson thinks its dumb)

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Freud and his psychoanalytic approach to mythology First major work: the interpretation of dreams --for him dreams are important and like myths ---we all have problematic upbringings--dreams are ways to communicate with things we’ve repressed in the past--the subconscious is getting back at repressed things---we might say the opposite of what we truly mean--transferrence--myths are equivalent to dreams for freud. He looked at myths like a subconscious...it gets at the subsconscius and desires of the people that lived a long time ago Monsters and suppressed sexual desires Supressed childhood wishes surface in dreams

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Oedipus complex

ID and EGO Id is supressing you, ego is desires

Child development 1) Oral stage (0-2 years) birth of identity ● Eventually parents are gonna stop this, anger towards father for repressing original desire ● Young infants don't have a concept self, fear develops in child during individuality ● This fear/trauma gets repressed → myths and dreams can bring this out, feeling of oneness 2) Anal stage (2-4) ● Child delights in taking shits ● Repressed by being told to hide it, not take shits in public, repressing it too much 3) Phallic stage Oedipus, his dad laius, his mom Jocasta -oracles=dreams, unconscious wishes, repression -oedipal stage (phallic stage) and male competition -----repression of sexual thoughts about mother through guilt, in competition to father-- comes out through dreams and subconscious and dreams

Myths allow repressed things come out in socially accepted forms

Oedipal complex Triangular pattern in which *younger smaller male struggles w/ an older larger man or monster, over a virginal female FEMALE= MOTHER FIGURE ● ● ●

Often a split between friendly and dangerous women Virginal female/snaky sex monster Both represent the mother dangerous women=forbidden sexual aspect

**good witch of the east and wicked witch of the west Its called decomposition: take a figure and split them into smaller parts. Ex mother → good mother and bad (off limits) mother Perseus and medusa Phallus as source of power and anxiety Primate behavior: \among some primates the male delimits his territory by facing outward and displaying this erect phallus. Rump presentation as an invitation to mate is a gesture of submission inhibiting an aggressive response from the stronger partner In ancient greece, statues called herms. Marked territory Phallus power: sword, gun car source of power phallis marking etc

Movies in it, Grease, phallic dancing 1/22/18 *anthropomorphism/reciprocity *animal sacrifice and altar **euhemerus *physical/moral/historical allegory Putting flesh and blood on the ancient greeks About monsters and suppressed desires mycenaean/ late bronze age (1400-1200)BC > the myths all happened in this age Every major site and palace is burned to the ground around 1000BC No more palaces and kings. There's no writing .Greek Dark age after this time (1100-800)BC Around 700BC things pick up again, greece comes alive again, writing again. 70 BC to 480 BC is “archaic period”. The writings and myths are set in the bronze age in this time. They leave out the age in between (early iron) theogony= earliest text of greek literature

Theogony composed 700 BC (early iron age) this version we have written by hesiod theo= god gony= birth (birth of god) Birth of the gods is also a cosmology, the gods are born when the world is born What is a cosmology? -origin story of the universe The theogony enumerates the births of the gods, from oldest generation down to youngest (a family history) >>thus, Theogony is a genealogical narrative. Genealogy speaks truth The way greeks tell stories shows a major difference… The theme is the rise of zeus GENERATIONS: Gaia/ouranos Rhea/Kronos Zeus/Metis and Hera Hesiod comes from beiosha, above athens The muses are from here Muses are worshipped at their birthplace at mt helikon Hesiod says he ran into the muses, they give him a staff, he's in a trance like state Muses say “we can speak through you and we can lie or be honest lol” Muses give hesiod a present>> the staff

Chaos

Gaia (first devine thing)

Spontaneous reproduction: Chaos Darkness spons night Radiance

Tartarus

Eros (sexual desire and reproduction)

Day Strife war Like begets like in the theogony, things become more and more particular Night and day embedded in the same principle, how do you know its night if there is no day

Gaia creates ouranos, ouranos is first king Gaia, female, creates ouranos, a masculine god. Because he exists, ouranos become fully female. Before it was blurry since the concept of male and female wasn't existent **each generation is more complex over time From the two (khaos and gaia) to the many Inarticulate to anthropomorphic forms Asexual to sexual

Gaia and ouranos create the titans headed by Kronos

Ouranos means sky, gaia is earth> intelligence now inside zeus, it becomes more of a man’s world. Male political order. He assimilated feminine qualities such as cunning deceit trickery Theogony is a charter myth for civilization Role of feminine: Dangerous women are mothers Safe women are virgin daughters Devolution of power from feminine to masculine Today's topics 1) Prometheus, sacrifice, and mankind 2) Near east and indo european: succession myths

● What is the origin of sacrifice, what is the origin of fire?, what is the origin of women? It is an aition myth but it does have something more Makes a statement about the human condition male/female polarities Aition myth explains the origin of something : where does fire come from *women make human conditiion worse than what it was before PROMETHEUS: His punishment (hubris) Son of lapetus Brothers: *epimetheus, Menoiteus, *Atlas Atlas offended the gods, and has to carry the weight of the world forever Prometheus tied to a column and eagle pecks out his liver everyday. Both punished ^^hubris violations. When you get too big for your britches and dont know your place ex) my daughter is prettier than the goddess aphrodite “Know thyself” (be in your place, know you're insignificant compared to the gods, and that you are fated to die) Prometheus in later myth: he gives humanity a lot of stuff and gets punished for us and sacrifices for humanity (Christ like), he’s playing on our side not on gods’ side *trickster figure, has his foot in both worlds *channel of communication Prometheus, epimetheus, forethought and afterthought ● ● ● ● ●

THeogony says the first animal sacrifice for the gods took place in Mekone Prometheus takes animal and takes skin, and places good meat inside gross skins He takes bones and wraps them in good fatty meat Zeus realizes what's inside and takes the fatty one and opens it and its bones Prometheus says lol yay humans get the skin with the meat from the sacrifice

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Lol how convenient that in sacrifices we get the best part. Dont people feel guilty that they are honoring gods by tricking them?

---bc of this trick, mankind burns bones for gods and gets the good stuff --you didn't eat meat if not for a sacrifice, in which you could

Moral of prometheus sacrifice aition: You are what you eat! --nectar and ambrosia Zeus gets mad of the trick and takes fire away from humans >>> and now humans can't cook meat and have to eat it raw >>>humans now forced to eat raw meat>>>youve just been reduced to the level of animals by eating raw meat>>>mankind could be higher than animals, but they're not Gods are above humans and they eat nectar and ambrosia not meat

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Prometheus steals fire from mount olympus This new fire is different and only comes about by burning things like wood Now part of our human condition is that to get fire it requires tons of work

Gods Humans Animals

ambrosia (deathless food since gods don't die) cooked food raw food

zeus=angry. New trick >> i will give you women, that is a beautiful evil (pandora)

Zeus wants to accept pandora on our own as a part of a trick and insist that we have a “choice”. He made her so pretty outside but bad on inside/. “Kalon kakon” ●

Zeus sends pandora to epimetheus and he accepts her (mankind accepts first woman of our own free will)

ALL are forms of mediation between man animals and gods First deception bones wrapped in fat, meat wrapped in skin w/o fire reduced to animal existence, the fire we get is human Last deception bad thing in pretty package, belly to feed, need to procreate

HUMANS NOW NEED WOMAN TO PROCREATE BC BEFORE IT WAS ASEXUAL ● ● ●

Now the oedipal complex comes in and family issues Fear of succession and taking of property, etc, Woman being disloyal, misogyny

Woman as drone bee Succession crisis Poem of semonides about women (but lol worker bees are female)

----Pandora’s jar has abstract concepts in it Out flies famine,  plague, disease, last thing left in the jar is hope Ages of Man 1. Golden race → asexual, people are happy, we live long, dont work a lot, no sickness or war 2. Silver race → sometimes war and disagreements we don't live as long 3. Bronze race → greed, regular shorter, lifetime, some good stuff still 4. Race of heros → heros live in this era 5. Iron → people betray, cruel, disease, famine, horrible, don't live as long (we live here now)

spontaneous/ sexual reproduction Erechtheus, first athenian Hephaestus with sexual assault contact of athena, seed falls in earth and this baby comes out of the ground, and theres baby erechtheus, gaia gives baby to mother (athena) *humans not created by human sex

Garden of hesperides *Time when Get free food, don't need to work This is a dream of a golden age

*freud says that we have this myth of unity and togetherness where before our human identities took shape

***Greeks got ideas of some myths by influences of egyptians and other ancient cultures Similar myths in eastern europe bc it used to be one culture, the parent language of all those places was LATIN (slovak, german, romance, celtic, greek, albanian) Father, pater, vater English latin german, they all came from same language *indo european* ^similarities in diff countries’ myths bc they were once one myth *the theogony may not be entirely original *in bronze age, in the near east (modern day turkey), there are palaces just like in greece. ---cuneiform tablets, Hittite kingdom ***Hittite succession and creation myth is very similar to the one in the theogony 1/26/18 “Homeric” hymns- narrative structure Bards and Epic --they had oral presentations and songs of iliad and stuff before people wrote them down --occasion for hymns--funeral games, weddings ‘

Oral poetry in epic meter Hymn structure 1. Invocation 2. Story illustrating attributes 3. farewell

Olympus: home of the gods Epithets: apollo pythios, apollo delphios, apollo helper

12 gods live on mount olympus; but there are hundreds of minor gods Why gods interact with people… --vengeful gods: artemis, apollo, and Niobids

--half god half human = heroes

Zeus: indo european root di Dyaus Pitar, Jupiter (Dios)- original name for zeus. The work dios means god Jupiter- Dupiter → in india its Dyaus Pitar This means Zeus is the original concept of god, he is THE god before the other one's were fleshed out Mt lykaion zeus altar Temple touched by zeus (lightning bolt) Linear B tablets---- bronze age palace in greece Bronze age crete: seal ring Zeus, Olympia XENIA AND Mythical violations (trojan War) xenia = guest friendship, passed down genetically** If anyone violates xenia rules, zeus comes after you Xenia is culture Zeus is also in charge of culture itself***, xenia keeps the greek world operating** Fate (moira): sarpedon, son of zeus and victim of Trojan War --the Moira (fates) keep everything in order, they aren't horrible witches like they are seen to be really ---zeus’ child Themis, represents order and culture. (culture is FROM zeus)

--Themis’ children is moira >>Hera → her temples are often one of the earliest one's ● Hera and zeus: sacred marriage. Known mostly as being a wife, power is ultimate wife, queen of gods. BUT Hera doesn't represent Mother, she represents wife ● Hera makes hephaestus, and he's ugly and lame. w/o zeus ● Hera makes ares w/o zeus. People dont like ares bc hes bloodthirsty and not eitquettly warlike ● HEra decides to incapacitate zeus for a while. She has sex w/ him, zeus falls asleep. Hera goes and messes up trojan war as her and zeus are on opposite sides POSEIDON w/ Trident ● Three realms: ● heaven=zeus ● sea=poseidon ● underworld=hades POSEIDON means power, he is raw elemental power ---he’s in charge of sea, earthquakes, and horses Poseidon + amphitrite (wife) Triton

athena=civilization, she makes boats and bridels, she is cultural way to take raw elemental power and make it useful, CIVILIZED vs RAW

1/28/18 Zeus and “rape” Childhood initiation Hermes argos lo (cow) Io myth, daughter of inachos ● ●

Turns Io into cow so hera doesn't find out Hera finds out and guards the cow and puts up guardsman, “argos”

● He has eyes all over his body so he’s always watching over her ● Zeus sends hermes to slay argos ● Io gets turned back into a girl >>Aition myth *eyes were taken from argos and put into peacock *rites of passage Three stages: 1. Seperation 2. Liminality-taken out to a far place 3. Reintegration Europa and her dad Agenor Zeus changes himself into a cow to disguise himself, europa gets on back of a cow, cow flies through water and takes her to Crete. ---she gets impregnated by zeus and has kids

**wizard of oz-rite of passage-have to grow up-(brains, courage, heart) Apollo I: Birth Apollo II: Delphi and Oracular Cult Source: homeric hymn ----apollo was not in B tablets --he is the acne of male beauty and youth (represents phase in life, point when men reach their full potential before they reach their downward spiral, 18 years old) Apollo of uncut hair Apollo uses his bow to send plagues and famines(to kill people) Artemis uses archery to hunt Childhood initiation: hyacinthos ---the wind jealous of hyacinthos?, hyacinthos dies as hit in head with discus, apollo turns him into hyacinthos flower

-he is in permanent form of youth, doesn't grow old

--birth of apollo of delos, and he creates a sanctuary after, lyre and bow --music is part of rites of passage to men. Drinking club play the lyre(masculine) -he will be giving prophecies as the intermediary of his father, be a voice for his father Succession crisis avoided? Birth story: Mom Leto and island of Delos --zeus slept with Leto (another goddess), she is carrying twins --hera makes sure she doesn't give birth, leto is in labor for 9 days --people dont wanna offend hera so they wont take leto in --she goes to island of delos and the island says “i dont want you to stop here, they say apollo is gonna be overbearing” people afraid of apollo >>comes from succession crisis --leto says plz, good things will happen. Island says ok. She gives birth at a palm tree. --Eileithyia is goddess of giving birth --she helps give birth to the twins, and lets her give birth despite hera ---the hymn of apollo: part II The question of unity Delos and Delphi Delphi is apollos sanctuary site --telfusa springs tells apollo to go to delphi and not take telfusa --it was a trick as the place is taken by a dragon snake thing (pytho) Apollo vs pytho ● ● ●

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He shoots it with a bow (first heroic act) Delphi is his Its hard to access this place so he wants to have priests there permanently, apollo changes himself into a dolphin, he finds pirates and brings them to delphi and teaches them priest stuff. He gives his first prophecy, “if u are good and dont engage in hubris, people will bring wealth to you and delphi will be great”

That stone cronos ate instead of zeus was launched at delphi----its called omphalos----which means bellybutton -----mmeans “the middle” “center” which is delphi *treasury of the athenians Soils of marathon (athenians vs persians) 490BC

1/31/18 Oracles are particular to apollo and zeus Kios gave alter, priests gave kios a cut in line for the oracle ORACLE- apollo takes possession of the pythian priestess at the oracle and speaks through it in a diff garbled language and the priests write and translate it for the person Why does apollo have priests but one exceptional priestess? *she is the female deity of pytho, reflection of the cult of pytho. When you bribe th...