Classical Mythology

PowerPoint Outlines
 Part One

The Myths of Creation

The Gods
 Chapter 1: Interpretation and Definition of Classical Mythology
Interpretation and Definition of Classical Mythology
The Problem of Defining Myth

The Meaning of “myth”

Mythos: “tale” or “story”
True myth or myth proper
Saga or legend
Folktale

Myth, Saga or Legend, and Folktale

Myth: primarily concerned with the gods and the relations with mortals
Saga or legend: containing a kernel of historical truth and focusing upon the adventures of a hero
Folktale: including elements of elements of the fantastic and magical

Myth and Truth

Myth and Religion

Mircea Eliade

Myth and Etiology

Aitia: cause or reason for a fact, ritual practice, institution

Rationalism, Metaphor, and Allegory

Euhemerism: rationalization of myth attributed to Euhemerus (ca. 300 B. C.)
Allegory: a sustained metaphor
Allegorical nature myths: explanations of meteorological and cosmological phenomena; Max
Müller
Interpretation and Definition of Classical Mythology

Myth and Psychology

Freud
Oedipus complex
Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos
Electra complex
Dreams and “dream-work”

Jung
Collective unconscious
Archetypes

Myth and Society

Myth an d Ritual
J. G. Frazer
The Golden Bough

Jane Harrison

Robert Graves

Myths as Social Charters

Bronislav Malinowski
Anthropologist
Trobriand islanders
Myths as “charters” of social customs and beliefs
Interpretation and Definition of Classical Mythology

The Structuralists
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Binary structure
Negotiation and resolution of opposites

Vladimir Propp
Russian folklorist
Analysis of recurrent pattern
31 motifemes : functions or units of action

Walter Burkert
Patterns of motifemes broken down to five:
1. The girl leaves home.
2. The girl is secluded.
3. She becomes pregnant by a god.
4. She suffers.
5. She is rescued and gives birth to a son.
Synthesis of structuralist and historical viewpoints
“Historical dimension” of myth
Four theses
1. Myth belongs to the more general class of tradition tales.
2. The identity of a traditional tale is to be found in a structure of sense within the
tale itself.
3. Tale structures, as a sequence of motifemes, are founded on basic biological or
cultural programs of actions.
4. Myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of
collective importance.

Comparative Study and Classical Mythology

Oral and Literary Myth

Joseph Campbell
Interpretation and Definition of Classical Mythology

Feminism, Homosexuality, and Mythology

Feminism
Women in Greek society
1.Women were citizens of their communities, unlike non-citizens and slaves—a very
meaningful distinction. They did not have the right to vote. No woman anywhere
won this democratic right until 1920.
2. The role of women in religious rituals was fundamental; and they participated in
many festivals of their own, from which men were excluded.
3. A woman’s education was dependent on her future role in society, her status or
class, and her individual needs (as was that of a man).
4. The cloistered, illiterate, and oppressed creatures often adduced as representative of the
status of women in antiquity are at variance with the testimony of all the sources,
literary, artistic, and archaeological.

The theme of rape

Homosexuality

Some Conclusions and a Definition of Classical Myth

A classic myth is a story that, through its classical form, has attained a kind of immortality because its
inherent archetypal beauty, profundity, and power have inspired rewarding renewal and transformation
by successive generations.
 Chapter 2: Historical Background of Greek Mythology

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), founder of modern archaeology

Excavations at Troy, Tiryns, and Mycenae

Sir Arthur Evans

Cnossus in Crete (1899)
Minoan

Sketch of Early Greece and the Aegean

Stone Age
Paleolithic Period (before 70,000 B. C.)
Neolithic Period (ca. 6000-3000 B. C.)
Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 B. C.)
Early Minoan Early Cycladic Early Helladic
Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 B. C.)
Middle Minoan Middle Cycladic Middle Helladic
Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 B. C.)
Late Minoan Late Cycladic Late Helladic (Mycenaean)

Paleolithic Age: inhabited, but knowledge is scanty

Neolithic Age
Migration from east and north of Greece
Agricultural communities
Female “fetishes”
Historical Background of Greek Mythology

Minoan Civilization
King Minos
Zenith during Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 B. C.)
Palace complexes
Cnossus and Phaestus
Historical/mythological traditions
Minos
Theseus
Minotaur
Labyrinth (Labrys)
Bull motif
End of Cretan dominance (1400 B. C.)
Eruption of Thera (modern Santorini)
Myth of Atlantis (Plato’s Critias and Timaeus)

The Mycenaean Age

Invasion from north and possibly east
First Greek speakers
Mycenae, “rich in gold”
Cyclopean walls
Lion Gate
Shaft graves
Tholos tombs
Carl Blegen (1887-1971)
Nestor’s Pylos
Megaron
Sky-god (Zeus)

Linear B
Rich horde of tablets at Pylos
Michael Ventris and John Chadwick (1952)
Linear A
Paean
Potnia
Historical Background of Greek Mythology

Troy and the Trojan War

Frank Calvert responsible for primary investigation of Hisarlik (1863-1868)
Schliemann and Wilhelm Dörpfeld: campaigns at Troy (1871-1894)
Blegen’s work at Troy (1932-1938)
Since 1988: under direction of Manfred Korfmann
Nine settlements on hill of Hisarlik
Troy I (ca. 2920-2450 B. C.)
Troy II (ca. 2600-2450 B. C.)
Schliemann’s “Treasure of Priam”
Troy VII (ca. 1250-1040 B. C.)
Troy VIII (ca. 700-85 B. C.)
Troy IX (85-ca. A. D. 500)
Troy VI and Troy VIIa
Continuity of culture
Evidence of human settlements linked to the Trojan War
Different stages of conflict
Recent excavations confirm preeminence of Troy in Anatolia
Signs of devastation
Hasty burials
Long-weapons, piles of stones
Date of destruction of Troy VIIa (1250-1150 B. C.)
Tradition date for Trojan War (1184 B. C.)
Upper citadel and lower area of habitation
Commercial ties between Mycenaean Greece and Troy
Troy’s position on the Hellespont
Economic causes of conflict plausible
Hittite texts
“Wilusa” and Ilios
Appaliunas and Apollo
Confirmation of Homeric geography
Mycenaean cemetery on site of original coastline
Historical Background of Greek Mythology

End of Mycenaean Age and Homer

Unsettled Conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean

Destruction of Mycenaean Centers

The Dorians

The “Sea Peoples”

The Dark Age

Decline in population
Loss of literacy
Impoverished material culture

The Emergence of the Iliad and the Odyssey (eighth century B. C.)
Oral tradition
“Homer”
Asia Minor (or one of the coastal islands)
Epic dialect
Traces of every period from Bronze Age to eighth century B. C.

Invention of a True Alphabet

Phoenician script
Writing and its relationship to the production of Homer’s epics
 Chapter 3: Myths of Creation
Parallels between Greco-Roman and Near Eastern Myths
Homer
Incomplete account of genesis

Hesiod (ca. 700)

Boeotian poet working ca. 700 B. C.
Theogony and Works and Days
Bitter perspective on life
Importance to him of the Muses of Mt. Helicon
First literary account of genesis among the Greeks (Theogony and Works and Days)
Invocation to the Muses
Chaos (yawning void)
Gaia/Gaea/Ge or Earth
Tartarus (place beneath the earth)
Eros (the procreative urge; love)
Erebus (gloom of Tartarus)
Night
Aether (the upper atmosphere)
Day

The Primacy and Mystery of Eros

Eros (for the Romans’ Cupid or Amor)
Aristophanes’ Birds (5th century B. C.)
Parody of Orphic tradition
Phanes (“the one who first shone forth” or “gave light to creation”
Protogonus (“first-born”)

Creation Account in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Chaos as crude, unformed mass of elements
Empedocles
Four elements (earth, air, fire, and water)
Myths of Creation

Hieros Gamos (“sacred marriage”)

Gaia and Uranus
Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne,
Phoebe, Tethys, and Cronus
Cyclopes
Hecatonchires

Oceanus and the Oceanids

Hyperion and Helius, Gods of the Sun

Phaëthon, son of Helius
Clymene

Selene, Goddess of the Moon

Endymion
Mt. Latomus in Caria
The Endymion sarcophagus

Apollo, Sun-God and Artemis, Moon-Goddess

Eos (Aurora), Goddess of the Dawn

Tithonus
Myths of Creation

Castration of Uranus

Birth of Aphrodite (foam or “aphros”)

Cytherea
Cyprogenes
Cyprian
Philommedes

A Second Hieros Gamos: Cronus and Rhea

Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus

The Birth of Zeus

Mt. Dicte
Hymn to Dictaean Zeus
Zeus Dictaeus
Zeus as kouros (‘young man”)
“The Palaikastro Kouros”
Cybele
Rhea-Cybele
Curetes
Amalthea
Amalgamation of Mycenaean and Minoan Elements
Mythological Interpretations
Max Müller
Feminist criticism
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Freudian interpretations
Jungian archetypes
 Chapter 4: Zeus’ Rise to Power: The Creation of Mortals

The Titanomachy: Zeus Defeats His Father, Cronus

Zeus grows to maturity
Cronus disgorges Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon
Zeus’ allies: his brothers and sisters, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes
Zeus’ opponents: the Titans (especially Atlas) with the exception of Themis and her son Prometheus
Zeus on Mt. Olympus against Cronus on Mt. Othrys
Titans imprisoned in Tartarus and Atlas condemned to hold up the sky

The Gigantomachy
Gaia produces the Gegeneis (“earthborn”)
Giants imprisoned in volcanic regions (e.g., Enceladus under Mt. Aetna in Sicily)

Typhoeus (or Typhaon or Typhon)

Otus and Ephialtes Pile Up Oympus, Ossa, and Pelion

Confusion of Traditions about the Titanomachy and Gigantomachy

Historical Underpinnings of Myths

Process of conquest and amalgamation, when Greek-speaking people invade the Grecian peninsula
(2000 B. C.)

Creation of Mortals
Traditions involving Zeus
Prometheus, creator of man
Ovid’s account

The Four or Five Ages

Gold, silver, bronze, iron
Hesiod’s inclusion of an Age of Heroes between bronze and iron
The characteristics of the ages
Aidos and Nemesis
Zeus’s Rise to Power

Prometheus against Zeus

Iapetus and Clymene
Epimetheus
The trick of the sacrifice
The theft of fire in a hollow fennel stalk
The punishment of Prometheus
Heracles ends Prometheus’ suffering

Creation of Pandora
Hephaestus’ creation
Athena’s role
Pandora (“all gifts”)
Pandora’s jar
Hermes’ role
Epimetheus
“Hope alone remained within.”

Interpretation of the Myths of Prometheus and Pandora

Ritual of sacrifice
Origin of fire
“Culture god” or “culture hero”
“Divine trickster”
The nature of gods and men
The nature of evil
The position of woman
The role of hope
Zeus’ Rise to Power

Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound

Strength (Kratos) and Force (Bia)
Characterization of Hephaestus
Zeus as tyrant
Prometheus’ gifts to mankind
Chorus of Oceanids
The story of Io
Hera’s jealousy
Argus Panoptes (“all-seeing”)
Hermes Argeiphontes (“slayer of Argus”)
Peacock
Egypt and the birth of Epaphus
The role of Io in Prometheus Bound
Promise of Heracles’ release
Prometheus’ secret about Thetis

Zeus and Lycaon and the Wickedness of Mortals

The tyrant Lycaon
Transformation into a wolf

The Flood
Deucalion, son of Prometheus
Pyrrha, daughter or Epimetheus
The “bones” of the mother
Hellen, eponymous ancestor of the Greeks
Zeus’s Rise to Power

Succession Myths and Other Motifs

Near Eastern Parallels to Hesiod’s Account

The Succession Myth as Archetype

Enuma Elish (When on High); Babylonian
Marduk
Tiamat
Kingship in Heaven
Kumarbi
Anu

Persistence and Diffusion of the Flood Motif

Character and Career of Zeus

Circumstances of birth
Infancy in seclusion
“Divine Child”
Close to nature and world of animals
Obstacles and adversaries
Ultimately victorious

Parallels in Myths of Greece and the Ancient Near East

Five basic myths
Creation
Succession
Flood
Descent to Underworld
Hero-king Gilgamesh
Two periods of contact with Greece: 13th and 14th centuries; 8th and 7th centuries B. C.
Sumer and Akkad
Ur
Cuneiform
Ziggurats
Zeus’ Rise to Power

Babylon and King Hammurabi (1800 B. C.)

Establishment of the Assyrian Empire
Capital at Nineveh
Hurrians
Hittites in Anatolia
Capital at Hattusas (Boghaz-Köy)

Babylonian Enuma Elish

Apsu and Tiamat
Anu and Ea or Enki (earth-god)
Birth of Marduk
Enlil
Comparison of Typhoeus with Tiamat

Babylonian Atrahasis
Atrahasis (extrawise)
Tyranny of Enlil
Atrahasis survives Flood

Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh, ruler of Sumerian city of Uruk (ca. 2700 B. C.)
Ut-napishtim
Similarities with Odysseus, Heracles, and the Iliad
Enkidu
Ishtar
The Bull of Heaven

Akkadian Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld

Inanna/Ishtar
Dumuzi (Tammuz)
 Chapter 5: The Twelve Olympians: Zeus, Hera, and Their
Children
Zeus’ Establishment as Supreme God
Zeus—sky
Poseidon — sea
Hades — underworld

Pantheon of Gods
Zeus (Jupiter)
Hera (Juno)
Poseidon (Neptune)
Hades (Pluto)
Hestia (Vesta)
Hephaestus (Vulcan)
Ares (Mars)
Apollo
Artemis (Diana)
Demeter (Ceres)
Aphrodite (Venus)
Athena (Minerva)
Hermes (Mercury)
Dionysus (Bacchus)
Canonical twelve (with removal of Hades and Hestia)

Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Its Fire

A goddess of chastity
Hearth/sacred fire
Hestia (“hearth”)
Familytribe city state
Transmission of fire
First-born of Cronus and Rhea
The Twelve Olympians

Zeus
Amorous nature
Image of father, husband, and lover
Justice and virtue
Moral order of the universe
The cloud-gatherer
“Bright”
Thunder/lightening
Aegis/eagle/oak
Tales of Zeus’ subordination

Zeus and Hera

Hieros Gamos
Hera: consort and queen
Stern, vengeful
Women/marriage/childbirth
Peacock

Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia

Elis
Olympic Games, 776 B. C.
Connection with Heracles
Pelops and Hippodamia
Temple of Zeus
West pediment: Lapiths and Centaurs
Ixion impregnates the nephele (“cloud”) that Zeus had fashioned to resemble his wife, Hera
Ixion’s punishment on the wheel
Nephele gives birth to Centaurus, the father of the race of centaurs
Chiron: wise, gentle tutor to heroes
Violent and lustful nature typical of centaurs
Lapiths, a Thessalian tribe
Pirithoüs, Lapith chieftain and a son of Ixion
Wedding of Pirithoüs and Hippodamia
The Twelve Olympians

East pediment: race of Pelops and Oenomaüs

Metopes: Twelve Labors of Heracles
Cult image of Zeus carved by Pheidias
Oracles at Olympia and Dodona
Whispering oaks of Dodona
Priestess and tripod
Oracles and prophets
Trophonius
Melampus
Amphiaraüs
Tiresias
Children of Zeus and Hera
Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth
Hebe: cupbearer to gods
Ganymede
Hephaestus, divine artisan
God of fire and forge
Lame
Return of Hephaestus
Consort of Aphrodite
Her adultery with Ares
Ares, god of war
Cult partner: Aphrodite
Thrace
Eros
Brutality of war
The Twelve Olympians

Other Children of Zeus

The Nine Muses
Mnemosyne (“memory”)
Patrons of literature and the arts
Pieria/Mt. Helicon
“Reminders”
Calliope (epic)
Clio (history or lyre playing)
Euterpe (lyric or tragedy and flute playing)
Melpomene (tragedy or lyre playing)
Terpsichore (choral dancing or flute playing)
Erato (love poetry or hymns to gods and lyre playing)
Polyhymnia (sacred music or dancing)
Urania (astronomy)
Thalia (comedy)
The Three Fates
Children of Zeus and Themis
Moirai (Greek) or Parcae (Latin)
Clotho (“spinner”)
Lachesis (“apportioner”)
Atropos (“inflexible”)
Luck or Fortune (Tyche)
Necessity (Ananke)
 Chapter 6: The Nature of the Gods

Anthropomorphism
Human form and character
Idealization
Mt. Olympus
Olympian/chthonian
Ambrosia/nectar/ichor

Divine Hierarchy
Zeus
Olympian gods (and important chthonian gods)
Wondrous, terrifying beings
Nymphs
Demigods
Heroes

Zeus and Monotheism

Sovereignty of Zeus
Moral order of universe
Suppliants, hospitality, oaths
Monotheistic cast
View of Zeus in religious poets and philosophers
Stern Zeus of Hesiod
Xenophanes
Aeschylus’ Agamemnon
Polytheistic cast in Judeo-Christian religion
The Nature of the Gods

Greek Humanism
Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.”
Sophocles’ Antigone
Achilles in the Underworld (Homer’s Odyssey)
Idealistic optimism/realistic pessimism

Myth Religion and Philosophy

Greeks were not a people of a religious “book.”
Place of Homer
Priests and priestesses

Legendary History of Herodotus

History of the Persian Wars
Story of Solon, Croesus, and Cyrus

Herodotus as Myth Historian

Influence of Homer and Tragedy
Atys (Ate [“ruin” or “destruction”]); links with Attis and Adonis
Adrastus (“the one who cannot escape”); links with Nemesis or Adrasteia (Necessity)
Other legendary folktales in Herodotus [box]
The story of Candaules and Gyges
The story of Arion and the dolphin
Musician, connected with Dionysus and the dithyramb, the sacred choral song
honoring the god
Favor of Periander, tyrant of Corinth
Plot against Arion
Rescue by dolphin
Historical figure of Periander and perhaps Arion
Association of Dionysus and dolphins
Connection with Poseidon
The story of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos
 Chapter 7: Poseidon, Sea Deities, Group Divinities, and Monsters
Pontus (“sea”)
Oceanus and TethysOceanids
Pontus and GeNereus (an old man of the sea)
Nereus and Doris (an Oceanid)Nereids

Three Important Nereids

Thetis
Prophecy of Thetis’ son
Marriage of Peleus and Thetis
Achilles
Galatea
Polyphemus (a Cyclops)
Acis, son of Faunus and Symaethis
Amphitrite
Consort of Poseidon
Triton
Conch shell

Proteus
Attendent of Poseidon (sometimes his son)
Seer
Ability to change shape
Old Man of the Sea

Appearance and character of Poseidon

Stern, rough, unkempt
Trident
“Earth shaker”
Male fertility of the earth; stallion and bull
Poseidon

Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla, daughter of Phorcys and Hecate
Relationship with Poseidon or Glaucus
Transformation at the hands of Amphitrite or Circe
Straits of Messina
Charybdis, daughter of Poseidon and Ge
Whirlpool

Progeny of Pontus and Ge

Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, and Eurybië
Thaumas and Electra
Iris (“rainbow”) and Harpies (“snatchers”)
Phorcys and Ceto
Graeae (“aged ones”)
Gorgons (Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa)
Perseus
Pegasus and Chrysaor (he of the golden sword)
Children of Chrysaor and Callirhoë
Geryon and Echidna
Children of Echidna and Typhon
Orthus, Cerberus, the Lernaean Hydra, and the Chimaera
Children of Echidna and Orthus
The Theban Sphinx and the Nemean Lion
Ladon, guardian of the tree in the garden of the Hesperides (“daughters of evening”)
Poseidon

Interpretive Summmary
Numerous stories of water divinities
Importance and dangers of sea travel to Greeks and Romans
Mediterranean
Stories of seafarers
Theseus
Jason
Odysseus
Importance of Poseidon to Athenians
Erechtheus
Aegeus, father of Theseus
Unpredictability and mystery of the sea
 Chapter 8: Athena
Birth of Athena
Zeus and Metis (“wisdom”)
In full battle array
Prowess in battle, strategy and tactics of war, goddess of the citadel, masculine virginity

Sculpture of the Parthenon

Athena Parthenos (“virgin”)
Athenian Acropolis (448 B. C.-437 B. C.)
Victory over Persians
East pediment
Birth of Athena
West pediment
Contest with Poseidon over the control of Athens
Doric frieze (metopes)
Lapiths and Centaurs
Sack of Troy
Gigantomachy
Greeks and Amazons
Ionic frieze
Panathenaea; ceremonial robe (peplos)
Statue of Athena Parthenos by Pheidias

Pallas Athena Tritogeneia

Tritogeneia: lake Triton or Tritonis; association with Triton
Pallas, daughter of Triton
Palladium
Pallas (“maiden”)
Parthenos (“virgin”)
Kore (“girl”)

Athena and Arachne

Patron of spinning and weaving
Athena

Character and Appearance of Athena

Weaving as symbol of cunning and human resourcefulness
Fates as weavers
Arete (“excellence”) of a women
Military, political, domestic arts
Wisdom/counsel
Horses, ships, chariots
The double-flute and Marsyas
In Athens worshiped with Hephaestus
Warrior, aegis, Nike (“victory”)
Glaukopis meaning grey eyed (bright eyed or keen eyed?)
Owl, snake, olive tree
Unapproachable virginity
Relationships with heroes
 Chapter 9: Aphrodite and Eros

Aphrodite and castration of Uranus

Aphros (“foam”)
Cytherea, Cypris
Zeus and Dione

Aphrodite Urania (Celestial) and Aphrodite Pandemos (Common)

The Nature and Appearance of Aphrodite

Beauty, love, marriage
Importance of Praxiteles’ work

Attendants of Aphrodite
Charites (“graces”)
Horae (“hours” or “seasons”)

Phallic Priapus
Aphrodite and Hermes, Dionysus, Pan, or Zeus
Fertility
Comic and obscene

Pygmalion
Offense of Cyprian women, who became the first prostitutes
Galatea
Aphrodite and Eros

Aphrodite and Adonis

Phoenician Astarte
Paphos, son of Pygmalion and Galatea
Cinyras and Myrrha
Birth of Adonis
Death of Adonis
Great Mother
Death and resurrection of male consort
Variant: Persephone and the chest
Cybele and Attis
Phrygian Great Mother
Bisexual
Castrationalmond tree
NanaAttis
Galli/Corybantes
Aphrodite and Anchises
Fear of emasculation
Aeneas

Eros
Aphrodite and Eros

The Symposium of Plato

House of Agathon
Speeches on Eros

Aristophanes’ Comic and Profound Myth

Love as a search for completeness

Socrates’ Speech
Diotima, a woman from Mantinea
Eros as intermediary
Poros (“resourcefulness”)
Penia (“poverty”)
Pursuit of the Beautiful and the Good
Interpretations

Cupid and Psyche

Apuleius (second century A. D.)
Metamorphoses (or The Golden Ass)
Elements of folktale, fairytale, and romance
Platonic interpretation

Sappho’s Aphrodite
Lesbos
Devotion to Aphrodite
 Chapter 10: Artemis
Character and Appearance of Artemis
Beautiful, virginal, huntress
Cult places in Asia Minor

The Birth of Artemis and Apollo

Zeus and Leto
Delos
Goddess of childbirth
Death of young girls

Niobe and Her Children

Hubris
Transformation to stone

Actaeon

Callisto and Arcas

Great Bear (Arctus, or Ursa Major, or the Wain [hamaxa])
Bear Warden (Arctophylax, or Arcturus, or Boötes)
Little Bear (Ursa Minor)

Orion
Merope, daughter of Oenopion
Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione, an Oceanid
Sirius (Dog Star)

Arethusa
Transformation into a stream that flows underground
Artemis

Origins of Artemis
Fertility connections
Diana or Artemis of Ephesus

Artemis Brauronia
Brauronia: festival held every 4 years with procession from Athens to Brauron
Cult of Artemis at Brauron
Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris: Iphigenia was first priestess at Brauron
Arcteia: rite of “playing the bear for Artemis”
Myth of the killing of the bear sacred to Artemis
Marriage forbidden until a maiden had “played the bear” (5-10 years of age)

Artemis, Selene, and Hecate

Moon-Goddess
Chthonian characteristics
Trivia, goddess of the crossroads
Nocturnal, occult forces
Artemis

Artemis versus Aphrodite: Euripides’ Hippolytus

Hippolytus, devotee of Artemis
Phaedra
Phaedra’s nurse
Theseus
Goddesses as psychological forces
The misogyny of Hippolytus
Sophronein (“to be temperate”)

Misandry, Artemis, and the Amazons

Lesbian themes

Other Dramatic Versions

Euripides’ two versions; (Hippolytus Stephanephoros)
Seneca’s (d. A. D. 65) Phaedra
Jean Racine’s Phèdre (1677)
Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms (1924)
Robinson Jeffers’ The Cretan Women (1954)
Mary Renault’s The Bull from the Sea

Additional Reading
Scenes from Euripides’ Hippolytus.
 Chapter 11: Apollo

The Birth of Apollo

Zeus and Leto
The Homeric Hymn to Apollo
First part: To Delian Apollo

Apollo and Delos

Delos sacred to Apollo
Impressive archaeological remains
Story of Anius
Anius, son of Apollo, king of Delos
Three daughters: Elaïs (“olive girl”), Spermo (“seed girl”), and Oeno (“wine girl”)
Agamemnon’s attempt to compel them to go to Troy
Transformation into doves, a sacred bird at Delos

Apollo and Delphi

Pythian Apollo, god of Delphi
Crisa under Mt. Parnassus
Slaying of Pytho
Pytho (“I rot”)
Ge-Themis
Omphalos (“navel”)
Cretan sailors and the connection with the dolphin
Apollo Delphinius
Panhellenic Sanctuary
Pythian Games

The Oracle and the Pythia at Delphi

The Pythia, priestess of Apollo
Tripod
Oracular utterancesepic meter (dactylic hexameter)
Castalian Spring
Apollo Loxias
Socrates and the Delphic oracle
Apollo

The Cumaean Sibyl

Sibyl and Sibylla
Aeneas in the Underworld, Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 6
Sibylline Books

Apollo and Cassandra

Apollo and Marpessa

Idas

Apollo and Cyrene

Aristaeus

Apollo and Daphne

Daphne (“laurel”)

Apollo and Hyacinthus

Hyacinthia festival

Apollo and Cyparissus

Transformation into the cypress tree
Apollo

Apollo, Coronis, and Asclepius

God of medicine
Raven, Apollo’s bird
Asclepius trained by Chiron
In Homer’s Iliad Machaon and Podalirius are two sons of Asclepius
Hygeia or Hygieia (“health”) and Panacea are also said to be children of Asclepius
Sanctuary of Epidauros a major center of worship
Socrates’ last words in Plato’s Phaedo
Incubation: sleeping in a holy place
Preparatory rites
Patient to sleep in the hope of having a vision of Asclepius and being healed
Importance of snakes
Aristophanes’ Wealth
Asclepiadae and Hippocrates
Asclepius and Hippolytus
Euripides’ Alcestis
Apollo and the Cyclopes
Servitude to Admetus, king of Pherae
Thanatos (“death”)
Heracles
Asclepius’ staff or Hermes’ caduceus as a medical emblem?
Staff of Asclepius: staff entwined by a single serpent
Confusion with the caduceus
Apollo

Apollo’s Musical Contest with Marsyas

Apollo’s Musical Contest with Pan

King Midas of Phrygia
Mt. Tmolus

The Nature of Apollo

Violence and restraint
Healer and bringer of plague
Good shepherd/sun-god
Apollonian/Dionysian

Additional Reading: The Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3.179-546: To Pythian Apollo)

Apollo in the company of the other gods
Apollo seeks a site for his oracle.
Apollo builds his temple at the site of Delphi.
Hera gives birth to the monster Typhaon.
Apollo vaunts over the she-dragon he has slain.
Apollo recruits Cretans to serve as his priests.
 Chapter 12: Hermes

The Birth and Childhood of Hermes

Zeus and Maia, one of the Pleiades
Argeïphontes (“slayer of Argus”)
Mt. Cyllene/Arcadia
Invention of lyre
Theft of cattle
Confrontation between Apollo and Hermes
Reconciliation mediated by Zeusgift of lyre to Apollo

The Nature of Hermes and His Worship

Cleverness
God of thieves, merchants, youths
Divine trickster
Pastoral/musical
Divine messenger
Traveler’s hat (petasus)
Sandals (talaria)
Herald’s staff (caduceus)
Guide of souls (psychopompos)
God of boundaries or the transgression of boundaries
Herms: boundary markers/fertility
Mutilation of the herms (415 B. C)
Hermes Trismegistus and the Hermetica

Hermaphroditus and Salmacis

 Chapter 13: Dionysus, Pan, Echo, and Narcissus

The Birth, Childhood, and Origins of Dionysus

Dionysus (Bacchus)
Semele, daughter of Cadmus
Nymphs of Nysa
Ino, sister of Semele
Origins in Thrace/Phrygia

The Bacchae of Euripides

God of vegetationthe vine/grape/wine
Agave, sister of Semele
Pentheus, son of Agave
Cadmus, grandfather of Pentheus and retired king
Tiresias, priest of traditional religion
Pentheus as adversary of god
Pentheus as sacrificial victim
Cadmus and Harmoniaserpents
Harry Partch’s Revelation in the Courthouse Park, an American Bacchae

Other Opponents of Dionysus

Daughters of Proetus, king of Tiryns
Driven to madness because of their resistance to Dionysus
Melampus, a famous seer, cured them
Festival of Agriania
Daughters of Minyas
Refusal to worship Dionysus
Transformed into owls or bats
Hippasus
Lycurgus of Thrace
Dionysus

The Nature of Dionysus, His Retinue, and His Religion

Ecstatic spiritual release through music and dance
Entheos: Possession by god
Sparagmos: rending of animal
Omophagia: eating of raw flesh
Ritual communion
Thiasus: sacred band of the god
Bacchae or Maenads
Satyrs
Thyrsus: wand wreathed with ivy and topped with pinecone
Sileni; Papposileni (“older sileni”); Silenus and King Midas
Connection with Great Mother; Rhea and Cybele
Union with Ariadne
Variant of Dionysus’ birth
Zeus and Persephone
Zagreus
Role of the Titans
Creation of human beings
Dionysus

Dionysus and Icarius and Erigone

Dionysus’ Gift to Midas of the Golden Touch

Pactolus

Dionysus and the Pirates

The Dionysiaca of Nonnus

Pan
Syrinx (“panpipe”)
Echo
“Panic”
Son of Hermes and Dryope

Echo and Narcissus

Narcissism
Freud
 Chapter 14: Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries

The Myth of Demeter and Persephone

Abduction by Hades
Hecate and Helius
Demeter’s grief, anger and retaliation
Demeter comes to Eleusis and the palace of Celeus
The Maiden Well
Queen Metaneira
Iambe
Demeter breaks her fast.
Demeter nurses Demphoön.
Hades and Persephone and her eating of the pomegranate
Demeter’s ecstatic reunion with Persephone
Demeter restores fertility and establishes the Mysteries

The Interpretation of the Hymn

Death and rebirth of vegetation
Spiritual metaphor or allegory
Kore (“girl”)
Hades (Pluto or Dis among the Romans)

Triptolemus
Commission to spread Demeter’s arts
Demeter

Eleusinian Mysteries
Special position of Athens
Initiates
Secrecy of rites
Mystery religions
Connection with Orpheus
Rituals
Nine-day interval
Fasting
Torches
Jests
Kykeon: drink of barley and water
Resting at the Maiden Well
Revelation of divinity
Stages of initiaion
Lesser Mysteries: preliminary to initiation
Greater Mysteries: full initiation
Participation in the highest mysteries
Hierophant (“one who shows the sacred thing”)
Hiera (“sacred things”)
Procession
Iacchus and Dionysus
Stages of Greater Mysteries
Dramatic enactment of myth
Revelation of sacred objects
Utterance of certain words
The final revelation: the hiera
The role of Dionysus
The role of Orpheus
Mystery religions and state cult
Archon Basileus: Athenian religious official

Triumph of Matriarchy
 Chapter 15: Views of the Afterlife: The Realm of Hades

Homer’s Book of the Dead (the Odyssey, Book 11)

Tiresias
Anticlea
Heroes
Agamemnon
Achilles
Ajax
Heroines
Tormented sinners
Sisyphus
Outwitting of Death (Thanatos)
Alcaeus of Lesbos, 7th century poet
Revelation of Zeus’ secret
Chaining of Death
Death freed by Ares
Sisyphus in Hades
Sisyphus’ punishment
Heracles
Difficulties of interpretation
Position of heroes
Elpenor
Place for extraordinary sinners

Depicting the Underworld

Representations of the Underworld in art
Dante’s Inferno
Michelangelo’s Last Judgment
Views of the Afterlife

Plato’s Myth of Er
The Republic
Vision of Er
Ardiaeus
Cycle of one thousand years
Chain of being
Necessity (Ananke)
Harmony of the spheres
The Fates or Moirai
Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos
Choice of souls
River of Forgetfulness (Lethe)
Pythagorean/Orphic elements
Plato’s Phaedo
 Views of the Afterlife

Vergil’s Book of the Dead (the Aeneid, Book 6)

Aeneas
Cumaean Sibyl
Golden Bough
Burial of Misenus
Tree of empty dreams
Fabulous creatures
Charon
Cerberus
Untimely Dead
Mourning Fields
Dido, queen of Carthage
Field of renowned heroes
Deïphobus
Tartarus
Tityus
Sisyphus
Tantalus
Titans
Otis and Ephialtes
Salmoneus
Theseus and Perithoüs
Phlegyas
Ixion
King of Lapiths
Punishment on a fiery wheel
First to shed kindred blood
Attempt to violate Hera
Elysian Fields/Elysium
Anchises
Vision of illustrious Romans
Gates of Ivory and Horn
Views of the Afterlife

Traditional Elements of Hades’ Realm

Tartarus or Erebus
Elysium or Elysian Fields
Islands of the Blessed
Three Judges: Minos, Rhadamanthys (or Rhadamanthus), and Aeacus
Rivers: Styx (River of Hate), Acheron (River of Woe), Lethe (River of Forgetfulness), Cocytus (River
of Wailing), Pyriphlegethon or Phlegethon (River of Fire)
Charon and his fare
Hermes Psychopompos
Cerberus
Hades (Pluto or Dis), king of the Underworld
Orcus (“the place that confines”)
Chthonian
Tityus
Ixion
Danaïds
Sisyphus
Tantalus
Hecate
Furies (Erinyes): Allecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone; avengers of blood guilt, especially within the
family
Orestes
The Eumenides (“kindly ones”)

The Universality of Greek and Roman Concepts

The Italian poet Dante (1265-1321)
The Inferno
Vergil as guide
Chapter 16: Orpheus and Orphism: Mystery Religions in Roman Times

Orpheus and Eurydice

Ovid’s version
Hymen
Ill-omened marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice
Orpheus’ descent to Styx
Orpheus’ request
Pluto and Proserpina grant his request on condition he not look back.
Eurydice’s second death
The vengeance of spurned Thracian (Ciconian) women
Variant tradition
Vergil’s Georgics, Book 4
Aristaeus
“Why did Orpheus look back?”
Ovid: out of fear for Eurydice’s well-being
Vergil: a kind of frenzy seizes him
Subsequent literature
Explorations of Orpheus’ motivation
Eurydice’s role at times becomes more pronounced.

Life of Orpheus, Religious Poet and Musician

Origins in Thrace
His mother was one of the Muses, usually Calliope
His father is either Oeagrus, a river-god, or Apollo
Orpheus falls in love with Eurydice, a Dryad
Orpheus as an Argonaut
Musaeus, Orpheus’ son or pupil
Death of Orpheus
Women of Thrace/Maenads
Survival of head and lyre in Lesbos
Apollonian and Dionysian elements
Orphic Hymns
Orpheus

The Orphic Bible

Chronus (Time) as first principleAether, Chaos, and Erebus
Adrasteia (Necessity)
The Cosmic EggPhanes, known by many names, including ErosNight
Phanes and NightGaea (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven)TitansCronusZeus
Zeus swallows Phanes and all creation.
Zeus becomes the One, the beginning and end.
Zeus and PersephoneDionysus (Zagreus)
Tenets of belief
Purity of soul
Corruption of body
Original sin
Transmigration of soul
Purification
Apotheosis
Union with divine spirit
Parallels with role of shaman and shamanism
Shaman: spiritual, mystical figure of great power, who can cross the boundary of this world
into the spiritual realm
Connections with mystery religions
Orpheus

Mystery Religions in Roman Times

Syncretism : harmonizing of different cults and myths into some sort of unity
Mysteries of Demeter at Eleusis
Mysteries of Cybele and Attis
Taurobolium: shedding of the blood of the bull
Mysteries of the Cabiri of Samothrace
Theoi Megaloi (“great gods”)
Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux
Mysteries of Mithras (Mithra)
Persian god of light and truth
Mithraea or underground chapels
Tauroctony (“slaying of the bull”)
Officers, soldiers, and sailors
Initiation of men
Communal meal
Mysteries of Atargatis or Dea Syria, the Syrian goddess
Consort Tammuz or Dushara
Marriage to Hadad, thunder-god
Association with Syrian Baal, Greek Zeus, and Roman Jupiter
Mysteries of Isis
Goddess of fertility
Osiris dismembered by Seth
Horus
The Sistrum or rattle
The Situla or breast-shaped container for milk
Jug of Nile water
Associated with Serapis
Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (or The Golden Ass)
Lucius initiated into the Mysteries of Isis
Isis connected with Cybele, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, Persephone, and Hera