Classical Mythology Exam 2 Review Key Words Hamartia Mistake Oikos Basic unit of Greek society head family slaves Polis A city state Aristeia A moment of excellence Kleos Glory after death o What is said about you after you die Arete Excellence Geras Prize Why Achilles was angry Meinan Wrath Rage of a god like nature Achilles Libation Honey wine water and barley associated with life and the body Hubris Extreme Pride or self confidence Apotheosis The glorification of a subject of divine level The idea that an individual has been raised to a god like stature Oedipus Tyrannus Men cannot ignore the demands of the gods Deinos Wonderful strange frightening Aplastos Other name for The Furies Hesiod Pindar Human flesh served to gods Heroon Hero Cult Miasma Moral Pollution Matricide The act of killing one s mother Katabasis The actual physical journey to the underworld undertaken by several heroes in Greek and Roman myth where they meet and talk with ghosts in the underworld Nekuia Rite by which ghosts were called up and questioned about the future o When one can converse with a ghost with no actual trip to the underworld Aethiopis The story that tells of the Trojan Allies and the death of Achilles Little Iliad What happens after the death of Achilles and the Trojan horse Ilioupersis Sack of Troy Nostoi Returns Telegony Death of Odysseus In medias res Into the middle of things o Starting the Iliad during the tenth year of war Heirloom Symbol of Status Nestor Agamemnons right arm for the war Advisor Important Characters Circe sorceress o a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph witch enchantress or o Circe worked at a huge loom 4 She invited Odysseus crew to a feast of familiar food a pottage of cheese and meal sweetened with honey and laced with wine but also laced with one of her magical potions and drunk from an enchanted cup 5 Thus so she turned them all into swine with a wand after they gorged themselves on it Only Eurylochus suspecting treachery from the outset escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships Odysseus set out to rescue his men but was intercepted by the messenger god Hermes who had been sent by Athena Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb moly to protect himself from Circe s potion and having resisted it to draw his sword and act as if he Tiresias seer were to attack Circe From there Circe would ask him to bed but Hermes advised caution for even there the goddess would be treacherous She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not Odysseus followed Hermes s advice freeing his men and then remained on the island for one year feasting and drinking wine According to Homer Circe suggested two alternative routes to Odysseus to return to Ithaca toward Planctae the Wandering Rocks or passing between the dangerous Scylla and the whirlpool like Charybdis conventionally identified with the Strait of Messina She also advised Odysseus to go to the Underworld and gave him directions 6 o Blind Prophet of Thebes o Represents the past present and future o Voice of the past recalls all of the actions that led up to this point o Odysseus goes to the underworld and follows Circe s instructions on libations and performs a sacrifice to attract dead souls o After meeting with Elpenor who tells Odysseus to go back and bary his body Odysseus then meets Tiresias o Tiresias soul spirit drinks must drink the blood that Odysseus poured in o Present Tiresias tells Odysseus that Poseiden is punishing him for order to speak with him blinding his son Polyphemus o Future Tiresias foretells Odysseus fate he will return home reclaim his wife and palace then make another trip to a distant land to appease Poseiden Tiresias warns Odysseus not to touch the flocks of Helios or else his men will die and he will return home alone Tiresias also foreshadows Odysseus inevitable death o Associated with the past and the here and the now o Was unburied and unlamented o Body was unburned not dead o Kleos renown glory what others hear about you after you die however Odysseus is special because he has this glory when he is still alive Elpenor Anticlea o Odysseus mom o Seen after Tiresias o Died of grief o Odysseus didn t know she was dead until this point Other Greek Heros Odysseus meets with o Agamemnon Murdered by Aegisthus the lover of his wife Clytemnestra Orestes Agamemnon s son kills Clytemnestra and her lover Agisthos for revenge He is bitter toward women except Penelope because she is loyal o Achilles his death o Ajax Odysseus praises Achilles for having earned so much honor after But Achilles hates being dead Claims he would rather be a slave of men than king of the dead Competed with Odysseus for Achilles armor and lost Was angry and committed suicide bitter that he was second best Odysseus gave him praise Ajax is bitter and turns away from Odysseus o Judge of the dead o Was a lawgiver among the Minoans o Odysseus sees him hunting in the underworld with a bronze club o Tried to love an immortal o Eternal chase o Hubris o Rape of Leto o Eternal death stretched out in Tartarus and tortured by 2 vultures who feed on his liver which grows back every night Minos Orion Tityos o Hubris Tantalus Sisyphus o Theft of ambrosia ambrosia is supposed to give immortality o Has eternal thirst and hunger o Standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree where the fruit is always just out of his grasp and the water always recedes just out of his reach o Known for his deceit and trickery o Revealed forbidden knowledge told Zues secret by telling the river god Asopus of the whereabouts of his daughter Aegina o Eternal work He has to roll a huge boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down making him constantly repeat his actions NOTE reduplication of names reduplication of torments punishments Herakles o The saved one o Also suffered like Odysseus and was also a well known Hero o Apotheosis the glorification of a subject of divine level the idea that an individual has been raised to a godlike stature Other important Odessey Info An Epic Theme o One Adventure is the greatest focus Examples include Herakles Thesues Aeneas Vergil Book 6 Dante Divine Comedy o Myth of Apacolypse motif Find future state man must know the beyond returning hero o Great man Mediator for his people Returns with news Access to power Experienced totality of existence o Glance into immortality Death the greatest monster of all Journey into the Underworld according to Homer
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