Midterm 1 Study Guide - Summary Greek Mythology PDF

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Summary of the first 12 gods introduced in class. First exam essay questions and answers also....

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12 Gods 1. Zeus a. Info: God of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, justice, King of the Gods and the “Father of Gods and men”. He was depicted as a regal, mature man with a sturdy figure and dark beard. b. Attributes: His usual attributes were a lightning bolt, a royal sceptre and an eagle. 2. Hera a. Info: Hera is the sister and wife of Zeus. She is one of the canonical ‘Olympian’ gods and broadly conceived as a divinity connected to the home, to brides, wives and to childbirth. She is often iconographically depicted opening her veil – a traditional bridal gesture. b. Attributes: Peacock, cow, crow and pomegranate for fertility. She is described as cow-eyed. 3. Aphrodite a. Attributes: Her attributes included the winged godling Eros, a mirror, cockle shell, dove, apple and myrtle wreath. 4. Poseidon a. Attributes: Most distinctive attribute was the trident, a three-pronged fishing spear. He sometimes also wielded a boulder encrusted with sea creatures (crayfish, octopi, fish, etc.). 5. Hephaestus a. Info: Ugly face, scraggly beard, massive powerful hands. Usually wears a mechanic’s uniform with his name embroidered on the pocket so he doesn’t forget who he is. his parents chucked him down the side of Mount Olympus, making him a cripple forever after. He’s not much to look at, but he’s clever with his hands. The Olympians made Aphrodite marry him, thinking that it would settle her down, but that didn’t work out too well. Hephaestus is a jealous husband, always on the lookout for that scoundrel Ares and anyone else who might want to flirt with his wife b. Attributes: The anvil and hammer 6. Ares a. Info: This son of Zeus and Hera used to be inseparable from his shield and helmet. Fought on the side of the Trojans during the war of Troy, but, frankly, has been involved in every minor skirmish b. Attributes: A bloody spear, a wild boar 7. Apollo a. Attributes: Music, divination of prophecy, purification, healing (later- Sun) 8. Artemis a. Attributes: Hunting, wild animals, Aid of Women in Childbirth 9. Athena a. Attributes: The owl, signifying watchfulness and wisdom; the aegis (small shield) showing the snaky head of Medusa

10. Demeter a. Attributes: Corn, Fertility of the Land, 11. Persephone a. Info: She was the Greek goddess of vegetation, especially grain, and the wife of Hades, with whom she rules the Underworld. Daughter of Demeter b. Attributes: Pomegranate, Seeds of Grain, Torch, Flowers and Deer 12. Hades a. Info: Hades was the god of the underworld and the name eventually came to also describe the home of the dead as well. He was the oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea. Hades and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated their father and the Titans to end their reign b. Attributes: The scepter and horn of plenty. He's also often depicted with the three-headed dog, Cerberu

Essay Prompts and Answers 1. What are the major origins myths of Greek Mythology? Why are there so many apparent examples of such etiological narratives? What is your evidence for how you respond to the second portion of this question? (Nyx, gigantomometry) ○ They are found in every human culture/ metaphors to explain existence ○ Origin myths= (light vs. darkness) and (earth vs sky) First associated or original condition is chaos then out of chaos comes nyx (night). Nyx lays an egg with Erebus (shadow) and it is split in half. One half of the egg develops into Aether and Hemera (air and daylight). The other half Gaia (female earth) and uranus (the cosmos) and they give birth to the titans. ○ Etiological narratives = narratives designed to explain the origin of various types of phenomenons. There are so many examples because they have no relation to true events, science or history. (Noah's ark, genesis or the bible, deucalion, babylonian creation myth) ○ evidence = due to the fact that history and myth are so closely intertwined there is no tell tale of when fiction ends and history begins. This is also affected by the fact that there is no true interpretation of language therefore narratives can be interpreted in different ways based on culture. Ex) Noah's ark and deucalion have very similar meanings but are different 2. What are the examples of narratives of Zeus that reflect the different narrative threads that inform the character as it survives to us today? How do you think these narratives become intertwined? ○ Europa (mortal) - zeus turns into a bull and has sex with her and the horns of the bull key to sex ○ Lito (titan)- has an affair behind Hera’s back and artemis and Apollo are created ○ Kronos- zeus forces him to vomit up the kids he swallowed and also other

Cyclopes where they give him his lightning bolts as thanks. ○ So many different threads because gods are never one dimensional and have a lot of roles to fill. 3. Which three divinities represent different aspects of female sexual development? How do the various representations and narratives associated with these divinities reflect the common, singular origin to all of them? ○ artemis -> aphrodite -> hera ○ Artemis- represents virginal state, optimal female youth. Acteon was out hunting and she was seen bathing in a spring, he saw her naked and she turns him into a deer and then he gets eaten by his dogs ○ Aphrodite- is the goddess of sex, kronos penis was cut off and falls in the ocean creating her ■ Adonis and Myrha ○ Hera- goddess of marriage and married to zeus. Ixion tries to seduce hera so zeus makes a fake hera out of a cloud. When he has sex with the cloud it creates centaurus (horses). ○ Singular origin= they are connected because it is a cycle from virginity to fertility to marriage. They can also be used to make sense of the things that happen in people's lives back when there were no explanations. Also, they are all represented surrounded by animals because it relates them back to the origin of the singular fertility goddess (potnia theron) 4. What are some of the stories that link Dionysus to the idea of transformation? Why is this divinity conceived of in this manner and what do you think is the underlying reason why such a god is represented by these narratives? ○ God of wine and theater ○ 1) The god falls asleep on the beach and is taken by pirates. He turns the mast into a grape arbor, the pirates have realised that they have wrongly captured a God and leap out of the ship where they are comically transformed into dolphins ○ 2) The next story is about how silenus was asleep drunk and then captured by midas. When midas let him go and threw a banquet in silenus honor dionysus was grateful and granted him one wish. His wish was that everything he touched turned to gold. There was a big fault to this when his food turned to gold. He later begged dionysus to take his gift away (boon with a catch)= unforeseen consequences ○ Transformative sense of conscious/ the divinity is conceived in this manner because it was a way to explain the aspect of drunkenness. A god is represented in this manner in order to describe how being drunk alters one's mental state via the introduction of the god through one's body. Theater relates to transforming into other characters using masks and story lines

5. Hades is primarily conceived of as a god of death and the underworld. But the narrative of Hades and Persephone suggest that same character of Hades is also related to fertility. In what way is this the case? How does the iconography of Hades reflect this multifaceted aspect of his character? ○ Persephone is the daughter of demeter and the goddess of grain and harvest ○ Demeter and persephone were going on a walk and Hades kidnaps her and drags her into the underworld via chariot. Because of this the earth begins to die. Zeus proposes that six month out of the year she will return to the underworld to be with her husband. This means that the months on earth where persephone is with her mother are demonstrated as spring and summer and the months where he is with Hades are winter due to demeter's suffering from the lack of his daughter. Without death there can't be life ○ Furthermore, Hades is tied to fertility because this narrative gives context to the cycle of the seasons and also Hades as a character of not only death but also life. ○ Hades is multi faced because he is also referred to as Hades Ploutos due to his positive connotation to the afterlife. This story is a reecon of the two sides of hades due to the fact that his love for prosephont gives life to seeds underground responsible for a bountiful harvest (why he is depicted with a cornucopia)....