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Flashcards by Sam McEwan, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Sam McEwan
over 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Bronze Age | A period which occurred between 3000-1100B.C and was dominated by 3 civilizations: the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean, also thought to be the time of the expedition of Troy |
| Iron Age | A period which occurred between 1050 - 750 B.C, was characterized by the colonisation of Asia Minor and towards the end of this period the Homeric Poems were composed |
| The Cycladic Peoples | A civilization that populated the northeastern lands of Greece whose culture centered around fertility of both the land and of women |
| The Minoan Peoples | A highly organized palace economy known for their love of nature, did not speak the Greek language and their religion was centered around "earth spirits", especially female divinities |
| The Mycenaean Peoples | A very strong military oriented people, spoke greek and brought their own god, Zeus, who was the chief and sky god; this is the setting of many greek myths |
| Archaic Age | TIme period occurring between 750-480 B.C characterized by large scale colonisation of the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the defeat of Greece over Persia and development of scientific thought and the composition of the Iliad Odyssey and Hesiod's Works and Days |
| Define what a myth is and the term mythos? | A myth is a traditional story about the divine and the heroic with an importance in the community. The term mythos as it was used in Ancient Greece meant "a strong statement" and this is first found in the Iliad Odyssey |
| Plato's Atlantis vs Greek Atlantis | Plato questioned the educational value of myths because they portrayed gods in a malevolent way; wrote his own myth called Atlantis. We see a similar "sunken city" on an island situated between Athens and Crete called Thera |
| Mythological Motifs | Fertility, Succession of Power, Creation from a Divine Being, Looking Taboo, Transformation |
| Functions of a Myth | Myths explain aspects of natural and social environment Aetiology is derived from the word aetien = to cause; The myth of the abduction of Persephone by Hades is an aetiology to explain the seasons |
| Muses and Poetry | Muses were Greek goddesses of inspiration in literature, science and the arts. They were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the personification of memory), and they were also considered water nymphs |
| Elements of Creation in Hesiod's Theogony | Chaos, Gaia, Tartaros and Eros Chaos was the chasm or opening in which the earth was created; Gaia is earth who created herself with a cover for the sky; Tartaros was 'the dark place, the roots of the earth. Eros was love, the force which created the universe and the cosmos as they knew it |
| Offspring of Earth (Without a consort) | OUranos (sky), Ore (mountains) and Pontos (sea) |
| The Descendants of Chaos (Children of the Night) | Comes from the myth in which Ouranus is castrated by his son Kronos and the blood drops are thrown behind him which caused the creation of dark beings (furies, giants and nymphs) |
| The Furies: Allecto (endless), tisiphone (punishment) and Magaera (jealous rage) | The furies are female spirits of justice and vengeance, created from the blood drops of the sky god Ouranos.They also tortured the damned in the underworld |
| Hesiod: Theogony and Works & Days | Hesiod's Theogony is an account of: the birth and descendants of gods HeWorks and Days is a very long poem dedicated to his brother as a way to educate him on the history of Greece; myths in this time were analogous to history and science |
| Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound Ovid: Metamorphoses | Story of Prometheus and his gift of the celestial fire, stolen from Zeus and hidden in a stalk of fennel as a symbol of all technological and artistic advancement. |
| Definitions (A) | Aegis: A protective goat skin representing security, protection, patronage Anthropomorphism refers to the perception of divinities as having human form and qualities Atlas is name of the Titan who was punished to hold the vault of heavens on his shoulders Autochthon meaning One sprung from the soil he inhabits, thus claiming ownership of land |
| Definitions (C) | Capricorn The constellation, related to the goat Amaltheia and her broken horn. Zeus placed her in the sky to honor her; contemporary meaning recognized as a constellation and astrological sign |
| Definitions (C) | Chthonic: Related to the underground powers of earth and spirits of the underworld. Cornucopia: translates to the abundance of the horn in Latin; horn of the goat Amaltheia which gave abundance to the ones who possess it Cosmos:The universe that is ordered and harmonious (after the earth and sky are brought together) Cosmogony: The birth of universe Cosmology: The study of the origin and structure of the universe Cosmic: the universe apart and beyond Earth, or a vast significance or consequence |
| Definitions (H) | Hieros gamos The sacred marriage between a sky god and an earth goddess; signifies fertility Hubris Originally referred to wanton violence for the mere purpose of humiliating an opponent; now refers to a mortal who exceeds mortal limits and offends the deities (pride, vanity, lack of humility) |
| Definitions: (F) | Furious From Latin Furiae for the Greek Erinyes, the spirits of vengeance (The Furies) |
| Definitions: (L) | Looking taboo: the belief that it is prohibited for humans to look upon a divine act or being. This motif can be found in the myth of Pandora and the container she opened, releasing all the evils into the world except for hope; also seen in the bible with the story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom |
| Definitions: (M) | Metamorphosis: meaning transformation, a common motif in Greek myths now known as a biological process of change in insects and amphibian Metis:The first wife of Zeus, who he swallowed; a type of intelligence or a way of knowing; it implies a complex but very coherent body of mental attitudes and intellectual behaviour (flair, wisdom, forethought, deception, various skills and experience |
| Definitions: (N) | Nike: the goddess of victory and one of the the daughters of the goddess Styx (river styx) who was honoured by Zeus (for helping him defeat the titans) a keeper of promises: if you swore to the River Styx you had to keep your word; this appears in the myth of Helios and his son Phaethon and his wish to drive his father's chariot |
| The Fates | Three white robed incarnations of destiny: Clotho (The spinner) Lachesis (The Allocator) Atropos (Irreversible) throughout mythology always appeared in threes and are depicted as weavers of a tapestry, the tapestry dictates the fates of men |
| The Story of Io, Argos and Hermes | Io is transformed into a cow by Zeus to hide his affection for her, Hera is not fooled and has Argos, an all seeing monster, to guard her. Hermes, a trickster, lulls Argos to sleep and kills him; Hera honours Argos by placing his eyes onto the feathers of her peacock |
| Ouranos vs Kronos | Father and son, Ouranos is castrated by his son Kronos and the blood drops thrown behind him to create dark beings from the earth (chthonic) and Aphrodite from the sea |
| Kronos (Saturn), Father Time and Grim Reaper | Kronos in Ancient Greek mythology was a god of agriculture and devourer of all things, in Roman adaptations he is the god Saturn, also of agriculture and Father Time (depicted as an old man with a clock and a sickle) in middle ages becomes the Grim Reaper because he douvrs all things including human life |
| The Myth of Phaethon (From Ovid's Metamorphoses) | Phaethon, the son of Apollo and CLymene had his paternity challenged by a boy named Epaphus. Phaethon goes to Apollo to ask if he was indeed his son, and Apollo says yes and that he would grant Phathon any wish- swearing to the River Styx- takes Apollo's chariot and rides too close to the earth (he wanted Epaphus to see it was him driving and not his father) when he saw he was too close he went up higher, turning the earth cold and creating ice caps, he goes back down when he realises this and causes the ice to melt and floods the earth. Zeus, seeing this, kills him instantly with his thunderbolt; the effects of his ride still remain in the form of ice caps and volcanos and his mourning sisters were transformed into weeping willows, their tears into amber |
| Zeus (The CLoud Gatherer, Lord of Lightening and Lord of Rain symbolized by a thunderbolt and an eagle | A mountain / sky god associated with storms and humidity: the vital element of life. He he represented the grand laws of unchanging and harmonious order, god of all natural phenomena and he was also the protector of the people |
| The Giants in Hesiod's Theogony | Brontes (thunderbolt), Steropes (lightning) and Arges (thunder), the offspring of Gaia and Ouranos' blood drops, were depicted by Apollodorus as having great size and strength, a frightening appearance, with long hair and beards and scaly feet. Ovid makes them "serpent-footed" with a "hundred arms" |
| Cyclopes | Cyclopes were giant, one-eyed monsters; Polyphemus was blinded by Odysseus after having fallen in love with a nymph named Galatea and killing her lover |
| Titans (1st Generation) | Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Themis, Tethys, Theia, Coeus, Cronus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Oceanus |
| Myths in Performance | Myths were performed in many ways, either as epic poetry, lyrical poetry or in dramatic plays at festivals and symposiums |
| Comparison: Kronos vs Ouranus and Kronos vs Zeus | Motif: succession of/fear of losing power Kronos defeats his father Ouranus by castrating him for imprisoning (suppressing) Gaia's children the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes in Tartarus. He becomes the new leader and Zeus overthrows Kronos by giving him a special wine made by Metis, the goddess of wisdom, that causes him to regurgitate all of his previous siblngs: Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, Demeter and Hades. Zeus bands them together and they fight a war against Kronos and the Titans |
| Zeus and Hera | Zeus married his sister Hera by wooing her with a cuckoo bird which fell onto her breast and when he transformed back into himself he was able to subdue her; cuckoo bird and peacock become her symbols |
| Myth of Tithonus | Tithonus was captured by Eos to be her lovers, asked Zeus to make him immortal but forgot to ask for eternal youth, so he lived forever but continued to age and she shut him away |
| Myth of Tithonus in the Homeric Poems to Aphrodite | but when loathsome old age pressed full upon him, and he could not move nor lift his limbs, this seemed to her in her heart the best counsel: she laid him in a room and put to the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength at all, such as once he had in his supple limbs. (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite) |
| Anthropogony | The first Thebes were said to have sprung forth after Kadmus planted dragon's teeth into the earth, signifies the fertility of earth and justifies autochthony (the first humans to inhabit the possessd land) |
| Hesiod and Aphrodite (from Aphros meaning foam) | In Hesiod's 'Theogony' he explains the meaning of her name by deriving it from the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, doves, sparrows, horses, and swans were said to be sacred to her. |
| Prometheus and Zeus | Prometheus assisted Zeus in this conflict, but later offended him by stealing fire from heaven and giving it to human beings, for whom he had a special affection. Aeschylus’ play begins after Zeus has assumed control of heaven and learned about the theft. |
| Zeus vs the Titans | After freeing his brothers and sisters from the stomach of their father, Cronus, Zeus gathers the younger gods at Mount Olympus and wages a war. In the end Zeus and his brothers defeat Cronus and his fellow Titans. They banish all Titans to Tartaros. |
| The Hundred Handers (Hecatonchires) | Born of the earth goddess Gaia and Cronus through the throwing of his genitals onto the earth, they are said to have guarded Tartarus, a deep abyss used as a dungeon to torture the damned |
| Zeus vs the Giants | Zeus and his siblings fought the giants to consolidate power and were forced to ask for the help of Heracles and they were eventually wiped from the face of the earth |
| Zeus vs Typhoeus | Typhoeus succeeded in capturing Zeus and cutting the tendons of his arms and legs, he is saved by Hermes (the trickster who helped Orestes kill his mother Clytemnetra). He then stole the severed tendons and replaced them in their proper place, whereupon Zeus freed himself and defeated Typhoeus in a second encounter |
| Zeus and Metis (meaning wisdom, skill or craft, an Oceanid born of Oceanus and Tethys | Zeus swallows Metis after turning her into a fly in order to bypass a prophecy that she would bear extremely powerful children, but she had already conceived a child and began to make her a helmet which caused Zeus great pain due to the hammeriing. From his head injury caused by Hephaestus the goddess Athena was born, fully grown and armoured |
| Zeus' Marriages to the Personifications of Justice and Order (See PG. 48) | Zeus marries his other sister Themis, with whom he has many children, including the three fates Clotho (The spinner) Lachesis (The Allocator) Atropos (Irreversible) |
| The Descendants of Iaepetos | Atlas and Prometheus are both sons of Iapetos and are both tricksters and both suffer their burden at two extremes of the world Atlas fought with the titans against Zeus and is made to hold up the sky, later mistaken for the earth |
| Prometheus and the Sacrifices | Humans and divine beings have a meeting to discuss the different honours that gods and humans would have, Prometheus kills a bull and divides the animal into two different parts but taking the edible parts of the meat and covering them in the stomach; then he took the inedible bone and hid them under the good smelling fat of the animal; Zeus chooses the second option (meaning now the humans would have the edible food and sacrifice the rest to the gods) |
| Prometheus and the Celestial Fire | Prometheus, having already tricked Zeus once, tricks him a second time by stealing and transporting fire in a stalk of fennel. He gives it to the humans |
| Prometheus' Torment on Mount Caucasus | Might (kratos) and Violence (bia) are offspring of Styx and help Zeus establish his power, who with Hephaestos take Prometheus in chains to his punishment. Hermes also visits prometheus, who comes to order him to name the woman whose child would overpower zeus |
| COmparison of Prometheus' portrayal in Hesiod's Theogony and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound | Aeschylus portrays Zeus as a ruthless tyrant, in Hesiod Zeus is always right (supreme); In Aeschylus' story Prometheus is the giver of fire and a friend of humans, a god who sacrificed himself for humans (inventor of useful arts: astronomy, architecture, mathematics, writing, navigation and medicine), in Hesiod he is a mere trickster and deserves to be punished |
| Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound Dramatic Personae | POWER: divine agent of Zeus. FORCE: divine agent of Zeus. HEPHAESTUS: divine son of Zeus, the artisan god. PROMETHEUS: a Titan. CHORUS: daughters of Oceanus.* OCEANUS: a god of the sea. IO: daughter of Inachus. HERMES: divine son of Zeus. |
| Classical Age | This time period occurred between 480-323 BC and was the time during which Athens became the dominant power after the Greek's victory over the Persians; Alexander the Great's expeditions in Persian also began around this time and dramatic plays of myths became popular |
| The Descendants of Iaepetos | Atlas and Prometheus are both sons of Iapetos and are both tricksters; both suffer their burden at two extremes of the world (Atlas in the sky and Prometheus at the gates of Tartarus Atlas fought with the titans against Zeus and is punished with the burden of holding up the sky; in later times he was portrayed as holding the earth |
| The Story of the Flood | Zeus wanted to eliminate the human race in the bronze age because mortals were vicious and corrupt; Deucalion and Pyrrha are instructed to build a boat to survive, Zeus sends the flood and the boat lands on mount Parnassus.To repopulate the earth they appeal to the oracle of Themis which derived the concept of autochthony Throw stones, humans grow from the earth "cast behind you your great mother' bones" |
| Epic POetry (Myths used to entertain) | Epic poetry was often performed in small public venues, poets were often accompanied by a lyre or flutes; the symbolic value of the words themselves were depicted in paintings as a white dove fling away from the person reciting these myths |
| Lyric POetry | Lyric poetry was usually performed at festivals and symposiums (drinking parties), such as Pindar's praise of victorious athletes (Nike = the goddess of victory) |
| Dramatic POetry | This type of performance became popular in the Classical period and took place in public theatres. THere were 3 kinds of plays that used myths as the plots: satyr drama, tragic plays and comedies. Some of the most well known playwrights whose work survives are Aeschylus, Sophocles |
| PLato's 'Logos' and 'Mythos' | Plato distinguishes between these terms because he questioned the educational value of the myths taught in school (Homeric Poems and the Iliad Odyssey) so he defined logos as a true story, connected with logic and actual events in history. Mythos to him meant an untrue story, (not based on reason) but having some connection with reality or historical events |
| Io's suffering in Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus | When she first meets Prometheus, she insists on learning his story, asking him "For what crime are you thus being murdered" (563) and "Tell me who bound you in this ravine" (618). She also seems to identify with him as someone being punished by the gods, saying "Tell me, miserable that I am, who are you,/ who are you, suffering one" (594-95). Essentially, after first having been turned into a cow by Zeus in his attempt to hide her from Hera, she is now at the mercy of both Zeus and Hera, the latter of whom causes her suffering by having her chased and guarded by an all seeing monster named Argos, as WELL as being constantly stung by a gadfly. When she goes to see Prometheus she wishes to learn of hs story and compares her state of misery to his suffering because they were both being punished unjustly by Zeus |
| Pandora (pan=many and dore=gifts) | Pandora's name is derived from her very creation by Athena, who taught her to weave and dress, Hepaestus who gave her the power to speak and move, as well as Aphrodite who gave her charm and beauty, Hermes (the trickster) who puts into her breasts lies and cunning ways and finally Grace and Persuasion who give her beautiful jewelry |
| Pandora and Epithemeus | Pandora, after her creation, was given to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother and antithesis) as the first woman. Prometheus warned his brother not to accept any gifts from Zeus but her beauty and his nature (epi= after themeus=to think) he accepts her happily. She is also given a jar with all the evils of the world and is told not to open it, for the consequences would be dire (recall: looking taboo) but she does and all the plagues, evils and hard work are set upon humanity. |
| Pandora's Box | This container, likely fashioned after a jar (pithoi) symbolizes not just the transformation of her as an all-giving earth goddess to a giver of evils, but as the one who ends the golden age of man, the age where humans and gods lived harmoniously and everything was provided for them. |
| Comparison of Pandora's Story to Prometheus' Story | There can be a comparison drawn from the gift of hope to humanity; When Pandora opens the container she was given everything escapes except hope. Hope can be seen as something which can be controlled by humanity but also can give false illusions (false hope). Prometheus, when he steals the celestial fire, supplants humans with hope rather than prophetic powers. So hope can also be seen as both good and bad for humans, and can explain why hope would be in a box full of evils, as well as being symbolic of the inseparable forces of good and evil (kalon kakon) |
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