Review Guide Classical Mythology Exam 2 Lecture 14 Afterlife Myth Part I Homer s Nekuia Book 11 of the Odyssey Nekuia rites by which the dead are called up Necromancy A s ance where one summons the dead up Catabasis Actual descent into Underworld In Book 11 of the Odyssey Nekuia Odysseus is set on a quest to sacrifice a ewe and gives blood to dead bodies reviving them to interact with them Describes how ghosts come up to drink blood but also how he sees meadow of ghosts Two separate conflicting accounts of the Underworld House of Hades Hades and his queen Persephone The Underworld Tartarus ruled over by Hades and Persephone Geography of the Cosmos Threefold division of cosmos heaven earth underworld Tiresias Blind Theban prophet who can see the future Interesting story as to how he became a blind prophet Often not listened to even though he is usually always right How he became blind turned into woman than back to man Zeus and Hera wanted to know which gender enjoys sex more he says women making Hera wrong She blinds him Zeus feels bad and gives him power of oracle House of Hades Psyche soul vs body body requires proper burial for the soul to find rest cf Elpenor Anticleia and the incorporeal nature of the psyche Soul breath of life Pronounced see yuke eye Canonical Sinners Tityus Tantalus Sisyphus Famous sinners Tityus One of the canonical sinners He raped Leto and for this in the Underworld vultures are constantly devouring his liver Tantalus Canonical sinner Tried to feed his son to the gods as a sacrifice but human sacrifice is a big no no In death he is forever hungry and thirsty but can t reach food or drink He s always in a spring surrounded by fruit trees but when he reaches for food and sinks down to drink the food or water moves away To tantalize means to torment through temptation and stems from his name Sisyphus Canonical sinner Cheated death by having his wife not bury him properly when he died so his soul would be free Somehow this allows him to wander around for many years and he eventually dies of old age Punishment is to roll a bolder up a hill only to have it fall down when he gets it to the top Lecture 15 Afterlife Myth Part II Vergil Roman poet First Century B C wrote Aeneid which celebrated the founding of Rome Vergil s Aeneid Written in 20 s BC epic poem about Aeneas son of Anchises and Aphrodite Aeneas quest to flee Troy and start new life in Italy Myth used to provide the story of Roman origins Aeneas became Roman founding father Aeneas Hero of the Aeneid the epic poem telling the founding of Italy Aeneas because the founding father of Rome Aeneasdae What some Romans called themselves meaning the descendants of Aeneas Anchises Father of Aeneas in the Underworld Aeneas ventures to the Underworld to speak with him Book 6 Aeneas descends into Underworld with Sibyl a prophet and priestess of Apollo Entrance to Underworld located near Lake Avernus in southern Italy Lake Avernus the lake of no birds The golden bough a gift for Proserpina i e Persephone a ticket to hell Charon The ferryman of the River Styx He needs proof of a gift in order to allow someone into Hell that isn t dead And to get across while dead you need to be buried properly Otherwise he makes you wait at the dock Cerberus the three headed hound of the Underworld The Fields of Mourning Aeneas sees Dido queen of Carthage A place for souls that died sadly and are therefore in mourning It is here that Aeneas sees Dido after she kills herself due to his desertion Dido was the queen of Carthage a city on the way to Italy Aeneas was there for a year and during that time the two fell in love However Aeneas knew that this was not his destiny and that he had to continue on to found his new city Leaving Dido heartbroken he sailed off She then kills herself When Aeneas sees her in the Underworld she is still so upset that he left her that she refuses to speak to him A fork in the road Left leads to Tartarus where wicked souls are punished River Phlegethon River of fire that surrounded the punishment fortress of Tartarus Right leads to Elysian Fields where good souls purified souls enjoy themselves Aeneas speaks with his father Anchises is shown parade of great Romans to come Lecture 16 The Theban Saga Part I The Founding of Thebes Caused by the abduction of Europa by Zeus Zeus turned into a bull convinced Europa to ride him and then runs off with her Cadmus her brother tries to find her but an oracle tells him not to look for her but instead for a cow with a moon shaped mark on its side He needs to follow it until it takes a rest and where the cow lies down is where he should found a city Cadmus founds Cadmeia later known as Thebes Cadmus sacrificed the cow Europa Girl who was abducted by Zeus in form of bull in Phoenicia and taken to Crete Causes the eventual founding of Thebes Europa is the origin of the world Europe Cadmus Brother of Europa of Phoenicia and eventual founder of Thebes Went looking for his sister after Zeus abducted her and was told to instead follow a cow with a moon like mark on its side He was told to found a city where this cow comes to rest Cow stops at site in region known as Boeotia cow lands Cadmus there founds the city named after him Cadmeia later changed to Thebes An acropolis in Thebes retained the name Cadmeia Serpent of Ares When Cadmus tried to sacrifice the cow he sent men to a river to get water and they never come back He goes to check and sees a dragon It s Ares dragon So Athena shows up in a dream and tells him that he needs to take half of the teeth of the dragon and sow them into the earth and she will take the other half Immediately up from the earth come armed warriors Cadmus gets scared and starts throwing rocks at them Confused they also begin to fight amongst themselves The last five to survive Cadmus takes and are named the Spartoi Spartoi the sown men From the 5 survivors come the 5 most noble families inThebes Cadmus and Harmonia Cadmus marries Harmonia daughter of Ares and Aphrodite They have four daughters two of whom are Semele mother of Dionysus and Agave mother of Pentheus who succeeds Cadmus as king of Thebes cf Euripides Bacchae Cadmus was also a culture hero being credited with bringing alphabetic writing from Phoenicia to Greece Eventually turn into harmless serpents are worshipped as gods in Thebes Herodotus calls the alphabet phoenikeia grammata the Phoenician writing Pentheus grandson and king after Cadmus son of Agave and later killed by her
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