Mythology I
Terms
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- traditional Greek/Roman story, preliterate society, supernatural beings, ancestors, heroes, that serve as primordial types in a view of the world
- myth
- story involving historical figures, divine forces
- legend
- connected series of legendary tales
- saga
- shorter story, mainly oral, designed to entertain, fantasy/magic rather than divinities
- folktale
- oral/internet story, specifics, told as true, several variants, anxieties of society
- urban legend
- adjective or descriptive noun phrase attatched to hero or god, expressing quality or relation appropriate to that figure
- epithet
- conventional symbol of office, character, or identity assosciated w/a figure
- attribute
- cult site or institution considered common property of all Greek-speaking peoples
- Panhellenic
- made of gold and ivory
- chryselephantine
- ritual reenactment of a divine union between male and female principles OR mythic representation of such a union
- sacred marriage
- designed to avert or turn away evil
- apotropaic
- explanation of the cause or origin of something
- aetiology
- vindication of the justice of God in allowing evil to exist
- theodicy
- indigenous, arising from earth itself
- autochthonous
- mythic primeval era characterized by benevolent nature, peaceful creatures, no need for trade, acgriculture, war, mining
- Golden Age
- statue of OR made by Athena, in Troy, loss of statue = loss of city
- Palladium
- tasseled shield of Zeus, strongly associated w/ Athena
- aegis
- Babylonian goddess of love and war, consort Tammuz dies tragically early
- Ishtar/Astarte
- robe or gown
- Pelops
- Swiss psychologist who proposed collective unconscious and archetypes
- Carl Jung
- shared associations and memories of all human beings
- collective unconscious
- archetype
- (original + pattern) primordial character, image, narrative motif which recurs throughout human culture
- attempt or tendency to reconcile two different sets of religious/philosophical beliefs; blending of forms of worship through incorporation of ritual, dogma from distinct cults
- syncretism
- 19th-century German philosopher who formulated a view of Greek myth opposing Appollo to Dionysus
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
- marketplace
- agora
- escorter of souls of dead to the underworld
- psychopompus
- associated w/boundaries
- liminal
- stylized statue of Hermes; border marker, phallic
- herm
- manifestation of a god in the sight of mortals
- epiphany
- interpreting bird/weather/animal signs
- divination
- taking omens by consulting entrails of birds (Etr. and Rom)
- haruspicy
- Roman offical who interpreted divine responses to proposals or events based on weather signs, bird flights
- auger
- Roman term for omens falling under the jurisdiction of the augurs
- auspices
- science and methodology of interpretation, esp. sacred texts
- Hermeneutics
- staff decorated w/ivy, vines, ribbons, topped w/ pine cone
- thyrsus
- old drunken man
- silenus
- half-animal phallic creatures
- satyrs, silens
- women maddened in service of Dionysus
- maenads/bacchants
- ripping apart wild animals
- sparagmos
- eating raw flesh
- omophagy
- legendary poet of Thrace with magical ability to charm plants and animals, advice on afterlife
- Orpheus
- religious devotion in which a person is worshipped as a demi-god after death, using rituals associated w/ earth powers
- hero-cult
- based on work of Levi-Strauss, emphasizes pairs of opposites as a guide to the cultural system
- structuralism
- Castor and Polydeuces
- Dioscuri
- friend of Orsestes and husband of Electra
- Pylades
- daughters of earth or night, pursue those who have violated certain taboos, such as shedding kindred blood
- Furies (Eumenides, Erinyes)
- hill NW of Acropolis, site of early Athenian council/court which tried homicides, also site of famous speech by St. Paul
- Areopagus ("hill of Aries")
- honor/glory among Homeric warriors
- kleos
- boasts or insults spoken by opposing warriors before or after combat
- vaunts
- battle-scene featuring one warrior, whose strength is usually augmented by divine aid, making him irresistible for a time
- aristeia
- "outrage" "insult" Arrogant or excessive behavior, usually punished by the gods
- hubris
- mythical people of the far north, devotees of Apollo, live in a golden age setting
- Hyperboreans
- mythical people of the south who feast with the gods
- Ethiopians
- mythical tribe of warrior women, usually located in the far north
- Amazons
- mythical island at the western edge of the world; site of tree with golden apples sought by Heracles.
- Island of the Hesperides
- "daughters of evening"
- Hesperides
- side of a coin bearing the principal image or inscription
- obverse
- back of coin
- reverse
- piece of metal prepared to be made into a coin
- blank
- standard coin, made of gold, silver, or electrum, varies widely in value depending on metal and weight
- stater
- silver coin; in classical Athens, daily wage for a skilled worker
- drachma
- literary device which focuses attention by presenting a list of items to compare culminating with the item of interest
- priamel
- verse structure for choral song consisting of matched stanzas (strophe-antistrophe) followed by a concluding stanza (epode)
- triadic structure
- truism expressed in third person
- gnome, nomic statement
- cult title of Aeneas after death
- Jupiter Indiges
- Sabine war god identified w/ Mars and Romulus
- Quirinus