Greek and Roman Mythology Midterm
Terms
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- Definition of Myth
- A traditional Greek or ROman usually originating in a pre-literate society, dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serve as primordial types in a view of the world.
- Theogony
- birth of the Gods
- Examples of asexual procreation
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the birth of:
Pontos (Gaia)
Aphrodite (Kronos' genitals and sea foam)
Hephaistos (Hera) - Examples of sexual procreation
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the birth of:
Titans
children of Zeus (specific eg: birth of Artemis and Apollo) - Maia
- A nymph who gives birth to Hermes after sleeping with Zeus
- Alcmene
- A mortal who gives birth to Herakles after sleeping with Zeus
- Zeus' strategies for keeping his power
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1. Punishing rebels - Prometheus
2. Fathering girls - Athena
3. Mating with lesser females - mortals and nymphs
4. Uses ancestor's enemies and makes them allies - Flood Myths and causes
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1. Sumarian=not told why
2. Acadian=too many humans, disturbing the Gods
3. Biblical=man's wickedness
4. Greco-Roman=a means of cleansing - Repopulation after flood
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1. Biblical=Noah
2. Greco-Roman=rocks/stones thrown on the ground - Golden Age
- mythic primeval era characterized by benevolent nature, peaceful creatures, and no need for trade, agriculture, war or mining
- How did evil enter the world?
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A. an agent causes evil to appear (creation of woman, Pandora)
B. world deteriorates from an original, superior state to an inferior state (the Ages of Man) - Types of Shrines
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1. Local shrines=most popular
2. Panhellenic=belongs to all greek speaking people (ex: Oracle at Delphi) - apotropaic
- designed to avert or turn away evil (ex: gargoyles)
- collective unconscious
- Carl Jung: the shared associations and memories of all human beings, reflected in the universal recognition of archetypes (eg: the flood myth)
- Ishtar/Astarte
- Babylonian goddess of love and war, whose consort, Tammuz, dies tragically young (linked to Aphrodite and Adonis)
- Peplos
- robe or gown (related to Athena's peplos)
- metopes
- square pannels on the outside of a temple, usually decorated with reliefs
- Greater Dionysia and Lenaea
- Athenian festivals in honor of the god Dionysus which were the occasion for the performances of tragedy and comedy in Athens, competition in which playwrights would enter 3 tragedies and a satyr(comedy) play
- Conventions of Ancient Greek performance
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1. chorus as a character
2. all actors were male, only 3 speaking characters on stage at a time
3. violence all off-stage and reported by a messenger
4. no monologues, use confidantes (exception=craziness) - Twins and structuralists
- Twins associated with opposition, one twin the opposite of the other, good and evil. If both twins are the same, one twin is expendable (eg: Romulus and Remus)
- 'Reason' triumphing over chaos
- Friedrich Nietzsche, opposes Apollo to Dionysus. Apollo: light, culture, and reason. Dionysus: drunkeness, chaos.
- Iris
- personification of rainbow
- Argus
- Guardian of Io, has 100 eyes, Hermes uses wand to put Argus to sleep, while he's asleep, Hermes kills him.
- Argeiphontes
- Epithet of Hermes for slaying Argus, translates as 'slayer of Argus'
- liminal deity
- A God or Goddess associated with boundaries (eg: Hermes)
- Hermes Trismegistus
- 'Hermes Thrice-Great' - a late Greco-Roman version of the Egyptian god Thoth, not connected to the classical cult of Hermes.
- Hermeneutics
- Science and methodology of interpretation, especially interpretation of sacred texts