Color code Key Bold highlighted and blue beginning of new chapter section Bold and lavender important term Italic and lavender important definition event description etc Bold and purple important person Bold italics and blue Roman name of a god person Bold italics and orange Latin term definition Italics and orange the role of specific gods Classical Mythology CLT 3370 Introduction to Mythology Historical Background What is a myth o Something that is worthy of becoming a tradition o Becomes written canon truth set of rules o Can be expressed without words Mythos word story or tale Immortality of a myth o Passed down and still incorporated in society Fluidity of a myth o No exact rules or timeline o Can change depending on Author Myth and saga o Myth Story about creation of the world and humankind including gods interactions with humans o Saga legend Story with some historical connection even if it s extremely fanciful heroes Is a myth true o Isn t a fact but can have truth Is a myth history o Euhemerus 300 BCE Tried to explain the origin of a myth Euhemerism History as the basis for famous myths Myth explained why certain parts of animals were sacrificed Is a myth religion o Strongly concerned with creation and gods o Cultic connections worship Etiological Myths o Explanation of origin of a fact or custom o Very frequent in mythology Creationism evil and good feelings etc Other interpretations o Sigmund Freud Dreams and symbols Escape from reality Oedipus Complex wish fulfillment o Carl Jung Archetypal images The self Shadow Animus and Anima Collective unconscious made up from Shadow Electra complex Chapter 2 Historical Background of Greek Mythology Classical World Greece Thebes Athens and Troy o Literature Homer Hesiod Ovid etc Homeric hymns unknown authors o Oral Tradition o Archaeology 19th 20th centuries Heinrich Schliemann o 1822 1890 o Found Troy Anatolia in 1870 Not exact point only location Proved reality of Minoan Mycenaean saga o Founded modern archaeological work Sir Arthur Evans o 1900 o Unearthed palace of Minos Crete island in Mediterranean o Greece Settled in Paleolithic period before 70 000 BCE o Neolithic evidence abundant 6 000 3 000 BCE o Religion apparent Emphasis on women Bronze Age o Migration from the East o 3 major periods Early Middle and Late Crete Minoan based on king Minos Islands Cycladic Greece Helladic Minoan Civilization o Matured in the Middle Bronze Age o Cnossus Grand palace Reconstructed by Sir Evans Phaistos palace Basis of legend of the labyrinth Slaying of the Minotaur Home of the double axe labrys No walls surrounding the city meant they were confident with their security in ships and sea Increased sense of religion Mother fertility goddess o 1400 Focus shifted to Greece mainland No definite reason o Thera Island evidence of earthquakes Caused distortion of power in Crete Mother Goddess o Minoan Worship o Earth mother goddess of fertility and agriculture Nurturer and guardian o Also seen as a destroyer o Triple goddess birth death and regeneration o Moon Goddess o Aspects of statues and paintings Snakes chthonic connection with the ground Earth Bare chest fertility Headdress and skirt ritual Mycenaean Age o Mycenaeans People who lived in Mycenae o Warlords chieftains Took goods as payment for protection o Greek language Linear B which mentioned the gods o Worshipped sky god Zeus Change from mother to father god o Late Hellenic Period 1600 1100 BCE o Sky God Sky father Complement of Mother Earth Zeus lightening clouds birds Archaic Period o 800 483 BCE o Monarchies o Invention of Greek alphabet Homer Hesiod Theogony Birth of the gods Classical Period o 480 323 BCE o Destruction of Athenian Acropolis by Persians in 480 BCE o Death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE Hellenistic Period o Period of famous art playwrights etc Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides o Rome Foundation 753 BCE Romulus and Remus o Twins mother raped by Mars o Fratricide Romulus killed Remus o Romulus founder of Rome Roman Republic 509 BCE Roman Empire 27 BCE Octavian given name Augustus Caesar emperor Similar gods and myths to Greece just different names Italian Peninsula o Etruscans Tuscany Unique language 10th 9th century until 3rd century conquered by Romans o Magna Gracia Gods and goddesses Similar to Greeks Unique unknown equivalences Prophecy divination borrowed by Romans Haruspicy Augury o Examination of entrails liver o Watching birds to tell the future Chapter 3 Creation Myths Common Motifs Themes o Creation of opposites and parallels o Father son rivalry Connection to Oedipus Complex o Succession of gods Sneaky wife Young rebellious son o Varying types of creation Hesiod o 700 BCE Archaic period of Greece o Written in Dactylic Hexameter Epic meter Homer Virgil Ovid etc o Provides first literary account of creation story Primarily in Theogony works and days Didactic literature Contains etiological myths o Homeric Hymns 33 hymns to Olympian gods Composed at different times by different authors 8th 4th Works and Days centuries o Hesiod plays role of farmer and shepherd Inspired by Muses on Mt Helicon o Muses The 9 daughters of Zeus Emphasized particularly with ability to inspire inspired Hesiod Sing and danced for the gods on Olympus Revelations come from infallible knowledge o Creation story Muses told Hesiod On Mt Helicod Setting for Theogony Main place of worship for Muses Mouseion o Chaos Void of sorts absence of things First in existence not a god o Primordial gods Came from Chaos Gaia or Earth Tartarus place in depths of the earth underworld Erebus gloomy darkness of Tartarus Night brought bright air and day Eros love god Ovid s version of the Creation Myth o 700 years after Hesiod o Chaos Uranus and Gaia o Uranus sky produced by Gaia Unformed mass of elements A god unnamed formed the order of the universe from chaos Equal lover and later her subordinate o Hieros gamos Sacred or holy marriage o Had the 12 Titans 3 one eyed Cyclopes and Hecatonchires 3 one hundred handers with 50 heads 12 Titans deifications of nature o All hated by Uranus o 6 male 6 female o Oceanus and the Oceanids Oceanus and Tethis 3000 daughters Oceanids and 3000 sons Patamoi Spirits of rivers waters and springs o Hyperion and Helius Gods of the Sun Hyperion and Theia or Eurypha ssa Parents of Helius sun Selene moon and Eos dawn Helius sun god Dwells in East crosses dome of sky with horses and chariot and descends into streams of Oceanus Pha thon and Clymene tale by Ovid Pha thon son of
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