Review Guide for Exam 2 Lecture 13 Demeter Ceres Demeter o Daughter of Cronus and Rhea o Goddess of grain and agriculture o Origin of Greek name unclear although last two syllables mean mother o Roman name from root meaning to grow her name is the origin of our word cereal o Appearance matronly often shown with daughter Persephone aka Kore and with Triptolemus After Demeter taught Triptolemus the way of agriculture he travels around the world teaching the ways of agriculture He is a figure of civilizing the world Homeric Hymn to Demeter o Themes Rape of Persephone by HadesEstablishment of temple and rituals at Eleusis The establishment of a temple and rituals in honor of Demer at Eleusis The Elusinian mysteries Mystery religion from Greek word mystes initiate o Entailed initiation into secret religious rites knowledge o You have to be initiated you can t just show up no one is suppose to know about it o Its mysterious as a result of its secrecy Demeter s grief and anger o FamineTravels to Eleusis a city near Athens All of plant life on Earth dies o Hired as nanny of Demopho n attempts to make the baby immortal With her grief she goes to Eleusis disguised as an old woman received kindly by Metaneira and is hired as a nanny After everyone goes to sleep she puts the baby on the fire and he isn t hurt by the flame and take him out later and does this every night Burn away mortal essence to make him a god Metaneira sees Demopho n in the fire and Demeter in some rocking chair Demeter gets mad and throws baby into a corner because Mateneira isn t suppose to see the process o Orders Eleusinians to build temple and institute rituals o Persephone allowed to spend 8 months in upper world Elusinian mysteries 4 months in Underworld Zeus sends Hermes to get Persephone from the underworld as admitting defeat to Persephone But since she ate something in the underworld she cant come back up fully to the other realm Allegory for the cycle of life death rebirth of crops each year Apparently also the basis of notions of resurrection in rituals performed at Eleusis o Took place in September October each year 9 day event beginning in Athens and ending in Eleusis o Some things we know Open to allProcession from Athens to Eleusis with ritual jesting along route cf Iambe in myth Ritual fasting eventually broken by drinking a sacred beverage the kykeon The Eleusinian Mysteries Some type of dramatic pageant performance Revelation of some sacred object s by Hierophant the revealer of the sacred things the identity of which is unknown This concerned the immortality of the soul and its better situation in the hereafter for those who have seen learned the secrets of the mysteries Utterance of some sacred words imparting of sacred knowledge Allegory of life death rebirth of crops metaphor for the life death rebirth of the souls of the initiates Hades Pluto o Son of Cronus and Rhea o King of Underworld o Greek name means the Unseen One Roman name from root meaning wealth o The Rape of Persephone Hades is bored alone and sad He is going to be given the hand of Persephone by the right of Zeus Persephone is in a field playing with flowers and her friends and mother are there The world splits open and Hades comes out in a chariot steals Persephone and the world closes again Lecture 14 Afterlife Myth Part I Homer s Nekuia aka Book 11 of the Odyssey o Journey home of Odysseus Nekuia o Rites by which the dead are called up o Necromancy and catabasis Necromancy various ways that you can make the dead come to you Summoning souls to come to him Catabasis A Greek word for descent descent to the underworld Going to the underworld House of Hades Hades and his queen Persephone o Going to or calling people out of Geography of the cosmos threefold division of cosmos heaven earth underworld Tiresias o Blind Theban prophet who can see the future Allows him to see the will of the gods o Interesting story as to how he became a blind prophet He sees two snakes having sex and smacks them with his walking stick and then transforms into a woman for several years then he sees two snakes having sex again and smacks them with his stick again and he turn back into a man In Mount Olympus Zeus is saying the woman enjoys sex more and Hera is saying the man enjoys sex more Zeus asks Tiresias since he s been both a man and a woman He says the woman enjoys sex 10 times more Hera disagrees and makes him blind Zeus feels bad and gives him the gift of prophecy o Psyche soul vs body body requires proper burial for the soul to find rest cf Elpenor Anticleia and the incorporeal nature of the psyche Anticlea is Odysseus mom who died of sadness of not seeing her son House of Hades Canonical Sinners o Tityus Raped Leto vultures devour his liver o Tantalus o Sisyphus Fed his son to the gods is forever hungry and thirsty but cannot reach for food or drink Forever teased with food and water Tried to cheat death so now he rolls a boulder uphill to have it fall downhill again as he is almost reaching the top Lecture 15 Afterlife Myth Part II Vergil s Aeneid Book 6 o Written in 20 s BC o Epic poem about Aeneas son of Anchises and Aphrodite Venus o Aeneas quest to flee Troy and start new life in Italy o Myth used to provide the story of Roman origins Aeneas became Roman founding father Aeneadae descendants of Aeneas o Aeneas descends into Underworld with Sibyl a prophet and priestess of Apollo to meet his dead father Anchises o Entrance to Underworld located near Lake Avernus in southern Italy Lake Avernus the lake of no birds o The golden bough a gift for Proserpina i e Persephone a ticket to hell o Charon the ferryman at the River Styx the hated river Takes souls of the dead over the River Styx o Cerberus the three headed hound of hell o The Fields of Mourning Aeneas sees Dido queen of Carthage who committed suicide after Aeneas deserted her o A fork in the road Left leads to Tartarus where wicked souls are punished River Phlegethon A huge and imposing iron fortress presised over by the Furies and surrounded by the River Phlegethon the river of fire From inside Aeneas hears lashes moans and chains dragging on the ground The Sibyl says she could not recount all the sinners or punishments if she had a hundred tongues or a hundred mouths Right leads to Elysian Fields where good souls purified souls enjoy themselves Here he finds his father Aeneas speaks with his father Anchises is shown parade of great Romans to come Lecture 16 The Theban Saga Part I The
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