ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY EXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE TERMS LIST Pandora Pandora according to Greek poet Hesiod Pandora was the first woman ever created Works and Days Greek literature written by poet Hesiod In this story Pandora is created as a punishment to Prometheus for stealing fire The gods endow Pandora with gifts and she is named Pandora which translates to all gifts Didactic meaning moral Hesiod s Works and Days was included didactic segments that taught lessons on how to be a good person Misogynistic hateful towards women The Works and Days was a misogynistic story because Hesiod explains that before women existed men lived in paradise and there were no diseases and men never had to perform work Hephaistos Hephaestus a creator blacksmith god in Greek mythology forms Pandora from clay and water Epimetheus the brother of Prometheus Epimetheus name means afterthought Epimetheus was warned by his brother Prometheus not to accept gifts from Zeus Pyxis means box Dutch scholar Erasmus mistranslated jar for box and this is why we erroneously continue to tell the story of Pandora s box Pithos a huge storage jar After Pandora removes the lid of the jar all evils escape and only Hope is left inside the jar Hope bi natural goddess the only thing remaining in Pandora s pithos after the evils escape Hesiod does not explain if Hope is a good or a bad thing or if it is absent or present in the world kalon kakon Hesiod refers to woman as a kalon kakon or beautiful evil Myth of the Races most likely inspired by Roman poet Ovid s Myth of the Ages in Metamorphoses Explains a devolution of people in eras of Golden Race Silver Race Bronze Race Race of Heroes and Iron Race Race of Heroes the only time period added to the Myth of the Races that differs from Ovid s Myth of the Ages The Race of Heroes does not fit within the myth because in this era there is no devolution of people This idea was most likely transposed into Greek myth by the rich aristocrats of Greece who traced their roots back to an age of heroes Prometheus Titans the 12 children of Gaia and Ouranos including Ouranos Kronos Rhea and Iapetos Iapetos a Titan and the father of Prometheus Gaia Greek bi natural goddess of Earth mother of the Titans Ouranos Greek bi natural goddess of the Sky father of the Titans Atlas brother of Prometheus is punished by Zeus and must support the sky for all of eternity Menoitios brother of Prometheus is punished by Zeus and thrown into Tartaros Mecone sacrificial meal that took place in Sicyon Sicyon ancient Greek city where men and gods divide up an ox for eating at Mecone Prometheus tricks Zeus into choosing the most unappetizing pieces of meat by disguising them as the delicious pieces of meat fennel stalk the plants that Prometheus uses to steal fire and transport it from Olympus to Earth Aeschylus Greek poet who wrote Prometheus Bound Unlike Hesiod Aeschylus portrays Zeus as an unjust tyrant Prometheus Bound written by Greek poet Aeschylus In Prometheus Bound Prometheus is shown in the best light and Zeus is shown in the worst Prometheus is a culture hero Zeus is a tyrant culture hero normally a trickster who changes the world by inventing or discovering something Prometheus is a culture hero because he gives fire to men Enki Ea a trickster god has spheres of influence over cleverness wisdom and fresh water Ea is associated with the creation of humans Metis an early mate of Zeus She is the bi natural goddess of Cleverness When Metis became pregnant Zeus feared the prophecy of a son overthrowing his father Zeus swallowed Metis whole and Metis gave birth to daughter Athena from inside Zeus s body Typhoios Typhon the son of Gaia and Tartaros Typhon is a 100 headed fire breathing dragon Typhon battles Zeus for the position of king of the gods but Typhon is defeated and thrown into Tartaros by Zeus Metallurgy the crafting of tools made possible by Prometheus s gift of fire Fire brought civilization to men Allowed men to craft tools build ships create medicines and make sacrifices to the gods Prometheus Unbound written by Aeschylus the text is fragmentary but describes Prometheus being released and then reconciling with Zeus Kratos the bi natural god of Power one of Zeus s henchmen Bia the bi natural god of Force one of Zeus s henchmen Bia and Kratos order Hephaistos to chain Prometheus to a cliff Okeanids the daughters of Okeanos They sing and dance together and perform the chorus of the play Prometheus Unbound The Okeanids come to Prometheus and ask him why he s chained to a cliff Okeanos a bi natural god a fresh water river that surrounds the world He is a Zeus sympathizer and comes to Prometheus to demand that he tells Zeus the moira fate of goddess Thetis Io Zeus sleeps with nymph Io and transforms her into a cow to hide her from his wife Hera Hera discovers the truth and makes a gadfly to chase Io around the world Background Reading 7 Prometheus Bound Athens Greek city state that reached its political military and cultural height in 5th century BCE Athens fought off Persian invasion during the Persian Wars and then became a huge empire Sparta arose to check the power of the Athennian tyranny Athens lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta and the empire of Athens crumbled Agonistic competitive Ancient Greek culture was incredibly agonistic The people of Athens often held tragic competitions or competitions among 3 tragedians to create the best series of plays Tragedy an ancient Greek tradition Tragedies were held yearly to honor Greek god Dionysus and included 3 men competing to create the best mythological plays Ten men judged the tragedies The winning tragedian was crowned with ivy before the audience in the theater satyr play a comic play that tragedians wrote accompanying their 3 tragedies These 4 plays were judged as a combination and the tragedian with the best series of plays was crowned the winner trilogy Prometheus Bound was part of a connected trilogy of tragedies that also included Prometheus the Fire Bringer and Prometheus Unbound All 3 would have been performed on the same day before the audience of the theater Sophocles a tragedian from Athens who created the norms of performance for tragedies He is one of the 3 greatest Athenian tragic playwrights Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides whose plays still exist today Raven and Coyote Native American indigenous people of North America passed on stories orally Raven mythological character of the Tlingit people Raven is a shape shifting trickster the
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