Table of Contents

  1. Heisod's Theogony and Zeus
  2. Apollo and Artemis
  3. Aphrodite, Adonis, Demeter
  4. Dionysus and Orpheus
  5. Midterm Notes
  6. Module 13
  7. Module 14
  8. Module 15
  9. Module 16
  10. Module 17
  11. Module 18
  12. Module 19
  13. Module 20
  14. Module 21
  15. Module 22



Heisod's Theogony and Zeus

May 11, 2016

CLAS 104 Rough Notes

Module 3 and 4

Pg. 61-116 and 117-167

Hesoid’s Theogony, the Titanomachy and Humans pg. 61-116

  • muses dancing
  • first is chaos, then Gaia (Ge), dark night
  • Tartarus is a deep place in Earth and Erebus is a darkness of Tartarus
  • Ge bore Uranus , mountains, and Pontus
  • Day and Aether from Erebus and Night

Sacred Marriage of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Ge, Earth) and their Offspring

  • Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Thebe, Tethys, Cronus (Gaia and Uranus)
  • Cyclopes: Brontes (Thunder), Steropes (Lightning), Arges (“Bright”)
  • Cottus, Briareus, and gyres were arrogant children
  • holy marriage = hieros gamos

Selene, Goddess of the moon

  • daughter of Hyperion and Theia
  • like her brother, Helius, drives a chariot

Eos, Goddess of the Dawn, and Tithonus:

  • Roman: Aurora
  • epithets in poetry

Cronus (Sky) and Rhea (Earth), birth of Zeus

  • Cronus and Rhea gave birth to Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus

Zeus

  • Hestia goddess of hearth and fire
  • Typhoeus (or Typhaon or Typhon) is a dragon that opposed Zeus

Creation of Mortals

Creation of Pandora

  • Zeus’s anger at Prometheus
  • Pandora means “all gifts”

Io, Zeus, and Pandora

  • Prometheus Bond
  • Hermes cut Argus’s head off and known as Argeiphontes or “slayer of Argus”

Lycaon

  • Zeus caused a great flood and was angry at Lycaon

Deucalion

  • the Greek Noah
  • wife was Pyrrha

Zeus and the Pantheon pg. 117-167

Hestia goddess of the Hearth and Fire

Children of Zeus and Hera

  • Eileithyia, Hebe, hephaestus, and Ares
  • Eileithyia is the goddess of childbirth shared with Hera and Artemis
  • Hebe is goddess of youthful bloom
  • Hephaestus is the divine artisan, god of creative fire and divine smith

Ares, God of War

Extra Tips

  • Day did not arise from Chaos in Hesiod’s description?
  • Hephaestus fashioned Pandora
  • Selene is the goddess of the moon
  • the Erinyes were created from Uranus’s blood
  • Deucalion is the Greek counterpart to Noah and a son of Prometheus?
  • Argus was the guardian over Io
  • Selene and Helius is not a Titan
  • Pontus is not an offspring of Gaia and Uranus
  • Zeus was angered by Lycaon and caused the flood cause of him
  • Homer credits Zeus and Hera in the creation of the world



Apollo and Artemis

May 18, 2016

CLAS 104 Rough Notes

Module 5 and 6

Pg. 251-284 and 227-250

Apollo Pg. 251-284

Birth of Apollo

  • Zeus mated with Leto and conceived the twin gods Artemis and Apollo
  • chorus of maidens the Deliades
  • island of Delos was sacred to Apollo
  • Anius son of Apollo
  • Anius had three daughters, Elais (Olive Girl), Spermo (Seed Girl), Oeno (Wine Girl)

Other Loves of Apollo

  • Apollo and Cassandra (daughter of Priam)
  • Apollo and Marpessa (daughter of Evenus, a son of Ares)
  • Apollo and Cyrene (bore a son named Aristaeus, Cyrene wrestled a lion)
  • Apollo and Daphne (Daphne means ‘laurel’ and explains why it is sacred to him)
  • Apollo and Hyacinthus (young man)
  • Apollo and Cyparissus (Cyparissus killed his stag by accident)
  • Apollo and Coronis (role as god of medicine, son was Asclepius)

Asclepius, the god of healing

  • staff of Asclepius was a single serpent entwined
  • heroic physician
  • two songs Machaon and Podalirius
  • chief method of healing was incubation (sleeping in a holy place)
  • surgical operations were magically performed on sleeping patients and after the vision of god, snakes would move freely among patients providing healing by licking them
  • Hippocrates, a great physician from 5th century BC founded a medical school in Cos
  • Asclepius restored Hippolytus to life and incurred Zeus’s wrath where he was hurled into the lower world for disruption

Apollo Music Contest with Marsyas and Pan

The Nature of Apollo

  • many and complex
  • contradiction to tragic dilemma of human existence

Artemis Pg. 227-250

Birth of Artemis and Apollo

  • Leto mated with Zeus
  • Artemis is born first and helps deliver Apollo
  • one of Artemis’s functions as a goddess is childbirth

Acteon

  • a hunter who lost his way and had the misfortune of seeing Artemis naked

Callisto and Arcas

  • Callisto because the Great Bear or Ursa Major and Arcas became Little Bear or Ursa Minor

Orion

  • tried to rape Artemis
  • hunter gets stung to death by Artemis’s scorpion
  • Orion becomes a dog, Sirius or Dog Star

Arethusa

  • nymph, a follower of Artemis

Origins of Artemis

  • virgin goddess

Artemis, Selene, Hecate

  • as a moon goddess, Artemis is sometimes closely related to Selene or Hecate
  • Hecate is a cousin of Artemis
  • Selene in heaven, Artemis on Earth, hecate in the realm of Hades
  • offerings (known as Hecate’s suppers) were left to placate Hecate

Artemis vs. Aphrodite

  • Aphrodite is enraged
  • Hippolytus will have nothing to do with Aphrodite
  • Phaedra the second wife of Theseus, father of Hippolytus
  • Phaedra commits suicide after having thoughts of love with her stepson

Extra Tips:

Pytho: “I rot” Niobe: her children are killed by Artemis and Apollo. The youngest girl is shielded by Niobe and Niobe is turned to stone.




Aphrodite, Adonis, Demeter

May 25, 2016

CLAS 104 Rough Notes

Module 7 and 8

Pg. 193 - 226 and 339 - 358

Aphrodite pg. 193 - 226

  • Aphrodite is god of beauty, love, marriage
  • Graces named (Charites)
  • Nana daughter of the god of the river Sangarios
  • Eros male counterpart of Aphrodite
  • Aphrodite was unable to ensnare Athena, Artemis, and Hestia
  • Cupid fell in love with Psyche

Demeter pg. 339 - 358

  • abducted by Hades
  • Hecate and Hellius hear the abduction
  • Celeus rules Eleusis



Dionysus and Orpheus

June 08, 2016

Module 11 Dionysus pg. 304-388 Module 12 Orpheus pg. 388-400

Module 11:

  • Dionysus born from Zeus and Semele (daughter of Cadmus)
  • Hera got even and Semele was burned when seeing Zeus’s true magnificence

Dionysus:

  • god of vegetation in general, the vine, the grape, and making and drinking of wine

Module 12:

  • lost new bride Eurydice
  • singer and poet



Midterm Notes

June 13, 2016

Intro

  • myths means word, speech tale
  • some myths are based on historical realty
  • elements that are not considered truth, but explore certain absolute truths of human nature and existence
  • three categories, Homeric hymns (myth proper, how gods interact with humans), Saga/Legend (connection to history), folktale (fantastical adventure of a hero, like Hercules)

Interpretive Theories

  • etiological greek word “aitia” means “cause”
  • explains the causes or origins of certain things which cannot be explained in other ways
  • Oedipus Complex Freud believed that a boy wants to sleep with his mother and a girl wants to sleep with her father

Greek and Roman History Mythology

Neolithic period:

  • people entered Greece over 40,000 years ago
  • around 6500 BC
  • not greek speakers

Early and Middle Bronze Ages:

  • economy, trade, settlements

Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean):

  • in 1450 BC Myceneans took over Crete
  • around 1200BC the Mycenaean civilization collapsed (unclear why) and Greece entered a dark age

Dark Age c. 1150-900 and revival period 900 - 750:

  • development of iron and alphabet

Archaic Period 750-500 BC:

  • Hesiod, Homer, Homeric Hymns, colonization, expansion

Classical period c. 500-323 BC:

  • rise of Democracy

Hellenistic Period c. 323-30BC:

  • death of Alexander the Great

Foundation of Rome and Roman Republic c. 753BC - 27 BC:

  • traditional foundation of Rome 753BC
  • founded around 507/507 BC
  • Julius Caesar

Early and High Roman Empire 27BC - 200 AD:

  • Vergil, Ovis rose to fame
  • innovative time

Hesiod’s Theogony:

  • Homer Iliad and Odyssey
  • hexameter verse
  • retold in performance
  • Chaos
  • Earth (Gaia), Tartaros, Love (Eros), Erebos (dark gloom of the underworld), (Nyx) night also come form chaos
  • Ether (air), Hemera (day), Ouranos (sky or heavens), Pontus (sea)
  • Titans , Cyclopes, Hundred-Handers
  • Kronos plans with Gaia to lop off Ouranos genitals and it is done
  • from those genitals, Aphrodite is born
  • Kronos and Rhea give birth to Zeus and the Olympian generation

Kronos and Rhea:

  • Zeus is concealed and not eaten as Kronos’s children do not overpower him
  • Kronos eats a stone and Zeus rules with his thunderbolt
  • similar to Hittite culture of Anatolia

Prometheus:

  • gave humanity fire
  • humans take the meat and gods receive the smoke of burnt fat and bones
  • Zeus was angry
  • Prometheus steals fire and hides it in a stalk of fennel
  • fire is like technology industry and power

Pandora:

  • evil
  • contrived by Zeus
  • The lame One (Hephaestus) made it and did a favour for Zeus
  • eat up man’s products and make him poorer
  • she opened a jar of evil of every type

Zeus:

  • weather god, storm god
  • hurler of thunderbolts
  • powerful god wielding the thunder-bolt, king seated on throne
  • zeus the liberator
  • sexual powerful
  • married to Hera
  • father of Apollo and Artemis by Leto
  • father of Hermes with Maia
  • father of Persephone by Demeter
  • father of Dionysos by Semele
  • Athena was born from his head
  • Ganymedes abducted by Zeus

Zeus and Danae:

  • oracle foretells that Danae’s son will kill Arcrisius, so he locks her in a room
  • Zeus breaks into the room and she gives birth to Perseus

Zeus and Europa:

  • Zeus disguises as a bull

Zeus and Io:

  • Hera becomes mad
  • turns Io into a white heifer and guards her with the snake Argus so Zeus can’t change her back

Olympia:

  • northwest Peloponnese
  • Elis and the river Alpheios runs through it
  • occupied since the second millennium BC
  • Pausanias, Greek historian
  • two origins
  • Pelops triumphed over Oinomas by having his charioteer Myritlos sabotage his chariot, and he was thrown off and killed
  • Pelops married Hippodameia
  • other origin is that Hercules cleaned the stables of King Augeias of Elis with the river Alpheios and established the sanctuary of Zeus and the Olympic games
  • Nike minor goddess of victory personified
  • Olympic games every 4 years, until it was banned in 394AD by Theodosius I
  • Olympic games truce and received a wreath of wild olive leaves from the sacred grove of Zeus

  • Zeus was father of many in pantheon

Apollo

  • connected with the Sun
  • Paean is treated as a god of healing (separate from Apollo)
  • healing, purification, destruction, care for the young, prophecy, poetry, music
  • Delos and Delphi are two cults of Apollo
  • Zeus and Leto bore Apollo
  • hosioi, holy men

Apollo and Marpesa:

  • Marpesa chose Idas over Apollo because he was mortal, and it was a motif of unsuccessful love affair

Apollo and Cyrene:

  • nymph Cyrene
  • Apollo falls in love when she is wrestling a lion
  • son with Apollo named Aristaeus

Apollo and Daphne:

  • Cupid strikes Apollo with a golden arrow
  • Cupid shoots Daphne with a lead arrow to shun love

Apollo and Cassandra:

  • Cassandra could tell the future (Troy)
  • Apollo wanted her, but she refused
  • Apollo cursed her so no one would believe what she was saying
  • she became frustrated

Apollo and Coronis:

  • Coronis cheated on Apollo
  • Apollo shoots her with an arrow
  • tries to heal her, but cannot save her
  • power of revenge and healing meet tragically

Apollo and Hyancinthus:

  • Hyancinthus fetches the discus but it kills him
  • male youth

Marsyas:

  • part goat, part man, satyr
  • challenges Apollo to a music contest on his flute, loses and was skinned alive

Artemis

  • wilderness, bow and arrow
  • prizes virginity
  • contrast to aphrodite
  • deity who brings punishment and death

Niobe:

  • boasts that she is better than Leto because she has 6 boys and 6 girls
  • Diana and Apollo kill Niobe’s sons and daughters and is changed into a rock

Actaeon:

  • he sees Artemis naked
  • she turns him into a stag

Callisto:

  • huntress who is raped by Zeus
  • Artemis banishs her from the band for pregnancy
  • Hera turns her into a Bear
  • turns into a constellation alongside Arcas, her son

Orion:

  • famous hunter tried to rape Artemis
  • Artemis made a scorpion sting Orion to death

Birth:

  • born from Zeus and Leto on Ortydia
  • closely linked to Selene

Aphrodite

  • Athena, Artemis and Hestia could not be tamed by Aphrodite’s power
  • juxtaposition from Aphrodite and Artemis

Hippolytus (By Euripides):

  • Aphrodite makes his step-mom Phaedra fall in love with Hippolytus
  • Phaedra leaves a note for her husband Theseus that it was Hippolytus who lusted for her, and curses his son to die

Anchises:

  • Zeus employs Aphrodite to fall in love with Anchises, irony where Aphrodite will be conquered by her own power
  • gives birth to Aeneas, who will found Rome

Ares and Hephaestus:

  • Hephaestus (Aphrodite’s husband) learns of Aphrodite’s affair with Ares sets a trap
  • all of the gods stand around and laugh at her
  • goddess of love suffers shame before the gods

Adonis and Persephone:

  • Aphrodite falls in love with Adonis
  • Aphrodite hides him in a chest and gives him to Persephone
  • spends 4 months a year with Aphrodite and 4 months a year with Persephone (decided by Zeus)

Cupid:

  • scratches Venus with one of his arrows and falls in love with his mother Venus
  • is not locked in a chest, but killed while on the hunt of a tusk of a boar, and changed into a flower by Aphrodite
  • Pygmalion is disgusted with the prostitution, he makes a statue he falls in love with
  • prays to Aphrodite to have the statue as his wife, named Galatea, son Paphos
  • Paphos granddaugher falls in love with her father Cinyas (famous hero of Cyprus)
  • he is furious and she is turned into a myrrh tree which drips tears and Adonis is born of the tree

Eros/Cupid

  • son of Aphrodite

Cupid and Psyche:

  • Psyche is extremely beautiful
  • has Cupid make Psyche fall in love with a terrible man
  • Cupid falls in love
  • father consults the oracle
  • her lover hides her from the serpent in the mountains
  • Psyche is in grief after almost trying to kill Cupid and tries to commit suicide
  • Psyche does impossible tasks, sort mixed grains (ant helps), wool from dangerous sheep (reed helps her), go to a tall mountain and bring back water (eagle of Jupiter gets it), take a fragment of Persephone’s beauty and not look in the box
  • she uses food to calm cerebus and money for charon
  • she looks in and has a deathlike sleep
  • Cupid tries to save her, and psyche is made a goddess

Demeter

  • meter = mother
  • tamer of the earth
  • search for persephone
  • goddess of corn and wheat, controls vegetation and growth of crops

Hades and Persephone:

  • Hades carries off Persephone
  • Demeter disguises as an old woman and tells them she was kidnapped by pirates in Crete
  • tries to make Demophon immortal, by feeding ambrosia and putting him in the fire, but Metaneira cries out that her son is in the fire
  • Demophon is removed and Demeter demands a temple and altar
  • creates a famine for the world because she is angry at the loss of her daughter
  • Hades gives Persephone a pomegrante, and binds her to Hades forcing her to return to him for a time each year
  • lives in Olympus for 2/3 the year, and 1/3 with Hades
  • Persephone’s stay in the underworld is a aition (explanation of the cause) for winter

Hermes

  • son of Zeus and Maia, nypmh and daugther of Atlas
  • messenger god
  • part in birth of Dionysus, Zeus shows Semele the true form and Semele is burned to ashes
  • clever, trickster
  • inventor of Lyre
  • hymn of Hermes’ birth
  • steals cattle of Apollo
  • does not actually eat the cattle
  • Hermes is father of pan, inventor of panpipe
  • Hermes two snakes wrapped around a staff confused with Apollo’s son Asclepius with two snakes sign of physician
  • conductor of souls
  • crosses boundaries

Aphrodite and Hermes:

  • Hermaphroditus is born, goes into hills
  • nypmh Salmacis falls in love and eventually blends into him
  • aition for both sexual organs

Athena

  • born from Zeus’s head
  • goddess of war
  • Athena’ mother is Metis, meaning wisdom, embodiment of craft and cleverness

Arachne:

  • challenges Athena to a weaving contest
  • Athena reveals herself and Arachne hangs herself, but Athena takes punishment and turns her into a spider
  • Athena Ergane, craft maker

Ares

  • god of war
  • destructive and hateful to Zeus
  • Zeus’s son

Poseidon

  • carries trident
  • fish and other animals
  • earthquakes
  • has the seas
  • also controls the earth and taming horses

Odysseus:

  • tricks the Cyclops and drives a stake into his eye
  • Poseidon is mad since the cyclops Polyphemus is his son, and constantly drives him off course and from getting home

Amphitrite:

  • married to amphitrite, nereid, daugher of nereus, son of sea (Pontus) and earth (Ge)
  • Poseidon falls in love with Scylla, daughter of Hecate and Amphitrite puts magic herbs to transform Scylla into a horrible monster
  • Scylla attacks Odysseus’ crew in Homer’s Odyssey

Dionysus

  • god of wine, celebration
  • son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes

Pirates:

  • abduct Dionysus and everyone except the helmsman doesn’t know he is a god
  • Dionysus brings punishment among the pirates

Pentheus:

  • Pentheus does not believe that Semele and Zeus bore Dionysus
  • Dionysus makes all the women go to the mountains intoxicated to celebrate Dionysus
  • Dionysus convinces him to dress up like a female celbrant and then Pentheus is torn apart by his mother Agave

Orpheus

  • searches for Eurydice his wife
  • he is a singer and poet
  • Eurydice is bitten by snake
  • Hades and Persephone give Orpheus a chance
  • he cannot look at her to see if she is alright, and fails
  • he gives up women and he plays charming music
  • the women fall in love with him, and Bacchantes dismember him
  • he punishes the Bacchantes who killed Orpheus by turning them into trees
  • connection of ancient worlds with death and afterlife



Module 13

July 22, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 13

Underworld

  • gods live in Heaven and few mortals
  • most souls go to Hades, good or bad
  • Tartarus, could be considered a parallel to our Hell
  • people who distinguished themselves in the eyes of the gods existed in a part of the underworld known as Elysium, an equivalent perhaps to our Heaven

Homeric View

  • Homer Odyssey is earliest 8th or 7th BC
  • Odysseus return from Troy
  • shipwrecked
  • takes years to find his way home to his wife Penelope
  • instructed to go to the land of the dead by witch Circe

Land of Dead

  • he meets the soul of his comrade Elepenor
  • Elpenor tells Odysseus to return to bury his body
  • burial is important since his soul is not at rest
  • life preferable to death
  • meets Achilles (semi-divine hero) and tells him he would rather be a slave on earth than rule in the underworld
  • Tantalus tantalized by water to drink and food to eat
  • he is punished for stealing food, telling humans what the gods discussed, or cooking his son Pelops to see if the gods realized
  • Sisphyus must push a boulder up a hill, only to have it fall (punished for sins against gods)
  • Sisphyus told Zeus he carried off his daughter Aegina and Zeus sent Thanatos (Death)
  • Sisphyus trapped Death in chains so no humans died, but Area freed death and took him revenge
  • punishment in Homeric view is acting in a way against the gods, not failing one’s interaction

Plato

  • fourth-century Greek Philosopher Plato
  • world beyond what we see and know in life which itself is an illusory reality
  • emphasis on the soul (psyche)
  • soul of human separates at death and is returned to true existence after death
  • mortal man Er returns to life to recound his experience of what happens to souls after death in Myth of Er
  • different outcomes for the souls of men, depending on how they acted in life
  • Plato, virtue of life is significant for the one’s lot in afterlife

Virgil

  • Latin poet, book six of Aeneid
  • poem written at the end of first-century BC
  • Aeneas descends ot the underworld
  • Aeneas son of Aphrodite and Anchises
  • Aeneas goes to underworld to see his father Anchises
  • must get a golden bough sacred to Persephone and bury his comrade Misenus
  • aided by Sibyl prophetess of Apollo at Cumae
  • those not buried are not allowed to cross into the realm of the dead, and must wait in between two world until they are buried
  • Cerberus, guard dog of underworld
  • Tartarus, a terrifying fortress which holds great sinners such as Tantalus and Sisyphus
  • Tityus, assaults Leto and fate is now stretched across nine acres as a bird eats away his liver (which continuously regenerates to allow the punishment to continue eternally)
  • Tartarus also houses those people who have sinned against fellow humans, those who hated their brothers and harmed their relatives



Module 14

July 23, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 14

Theban Saga

  • Thebes and Mycenae

Foundation of Thebes

  • Thebes located in Boetia, northwest Athens
  • founded by Europa’s brother, Cadmus
  • Zeus abducted Europa as a bull
  • Cadmus went to Delphi to the oracle of Apollo
  • oracle told him to follow a bull and forget about Europa his sister
  • followed cow to Boetia, founded Cameia which became Thebes
  • has to sacrifice cow, snake of Areas guards water, Cadmus eventually kills the snake
  • Athena says to sow the teeth of serpent into the ground
  • armed men, Spartoi grow up from earth and fight until there are only 5
  • Thebans descended from the Spartoi
  • Cadmus given Harmonia the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite
  • four daughters Ino, Semel, Agave, Autonoe of Cadmus and Harmonia

Oedipus

  • Laius cursed lineage by abducting Pelop’s son Chrysippus
  • Laius was destined to be killed by his son
  • Laius and wife Jocasta pierce ankles on Mt. Cithaeron
  • servant take the baby to the mountains but pitied him and gave him to a Corinthian shepherd
  • Oedipus learns the truth that he is destined to marry his mother and murder his father
  • for this reason doesn’t return to Corinth, but goes to Thebes and fulfills the prophecy
  • blocked by Laius on the way there and in anger slew him fulfilling the prophecy

Thebes and Oedipus

  • sphinx, face of woman, lion body, wings of bird
  • asked riddle, anyone who failed was killed
  • riddle was four feet, two feet, three feet, which is a human at different ages
  • Creon, Jocasta’s brother offered the throne to the person who could solve the riddle and Oedipus became king with the mother, Jocasta as his wife

Oedipus Blindness

  • two sons Polynices and Eteocles, two daughters Antigone and Ismene with Jocasta
  • plague comes, oracle of Delphi says to rid land of pollution
  • Oedipus vows to do so, unaware his is the pollution
  • Oedipus’ father in Corinth, Polybus reveals the truth of his birth
  • he discovers he is the son of Jocasta, Jocasta hangs herself
  • slower to understand, but blinds himself by poking his eyes with pins
  • Sigmund Freud desire of young men to sleep with their mothers Oedipus Complex
  • motif of recognition and understanding
  • divine will expressed as the oracle of Delphi and impossibility of avoiding it



Module 15

July 24, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 15

Pelops

  • Atreus Tantalus and Pelops, Pelops son of Tantalus, and cooked by his father
  • Tantalus invited gods to a banquet, and prepares his son
  • Demeter eats a piece of his shoulder, and repulses
  • she is a civilizing goddess, some say bring an end to cannibalism
  • Pelops is restored to life with a marble shoulder
  • some say he is taken awya by Poseidon as his lover
  • links house of Atreus to the gods, and exemplifies hubris and curse for the family

Restoration

  • Pelops leaves Asia Minor to go to Elis in the Peloponnese to win Hippodamia, daughter of king Oenomaus
  • he must win a chariot race, and thirteen suitors failed, the king kills suitors he caught
  • it is said he may have got help from Poseidon, or bribed Myrtilus to take linchpins from the wheels of Oenomaus’ chariot
  • King Oenomaus crashes and dies in pursuit

Curse of the House of Atreus

  • Pelops is not given Hippodamia as a prize, and Myrtilus tries to rape her, but Pelops discovers it and throws Myrtilus off a cliff
  • Myrtilus curses Pelops and his descendants
  • in mythology qualities of good and bad run in families
  • Pelops becomes king and has sons with Hippodamia, Atreus and Thyestes
  • the brothers fight for the kingdom, which was fortold by a oracle
  • it is said whoever gets a ram with golden fleece will get the city
  • Pan brings the fleece to Atreus, but Thyestes steals it by sleeping with Atreus’ wife Aerope, who gives it to Thyestes

Thyestes and Atreus

  • Thyestes became the first king at Mycenae
  • Atreus later returns and banishes Thestes
  • Atreus takes further revenge, pretends to reconcile, invites Thyestes to a banquet and kills Thyestes’ sons, except for Aegisthus
  • feeds them to Thyestes
  • Thyestes does not notice until he has eaten, and curses Atreus
  • motif of cannibalism as well as curse on family

Agamemnon and the Trojan War

  • Agamemnon, son of Atreus
  • Agamemnon becomes king of Mycenae and married to Clytemnestra, two daughters, Iphigenis and Electra, son Orestes
  • Agamemnon and Greeks go to war in order to revenger the fact Helen, wife of Agamemnon’s brother Menelaus was taken away by Paris to Troy
  • troops father at Aulis but winds too strong to sail
  • winds caused by Artemis, because two of Agamemnon’s hawks attacked and ate a pregnant hare
  • to appease he will sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia
  • he chooses to kill Iphigenia for the army and sake of revenge
  • Clytemnestra is furious with her husband

Agamemnon’s Return Home

  • return home is play by Athenian playwright Aeschylus
  • Clytemnestra plotted with one remaining son of Thyestes named Aegisthus to murder Agamemnon upon returning home
  • they welcome him, then throw a net over him while he is in the bath and stab him, other versions at a banquet
  • Clytemnestra also mad he Agamemnon brings home Trojan prophetess Cassandra, who she also kills
  • is Clytemnestra’s actions understandable when she killed her husband when her husband killed their daughter?
  • curse of previous generations is present as the son of Thyestes, Aegisthus helps Clytemnestra get revenge on the son of Atreus, Agamemnon
  • is Agamemnon entirely at fault, he sacrificed his daughter to not be ashamed in front of the Greeks and one must follow the divine Artemis or the curse will be on all

Orestes and Electra

  • Clyemnestra and Aegisthus gain control of Mycenae
  • Orestes who was away, learns of his fathers fate, and returns to take revenge
  • with the help of Electra, he murders Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra
  • cycle of family revenge
  • avenges the honour of his father
  • Orestes is pursued by Furies who avenge parricide
  • he seeks purification at the temple of Apollo in Delphi
  • some versions, purification does exculpate him from guilt, Aeschylus’ version Athena only grants absolution when he casts the final vote when the Athenian jury is deadlocked
  • Athenian courts in justice and divine punishment and absolution
  • Electra becomes major character in later fifth-century tragedy, two plays written about her in Sophocles and Euripides



Module 16

July 24, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 16

Homer

  • important stories from Trojan war, from 8th century BC
  • Homer’s Iliad
  • anonymous ancient biographer said Homer died when he could not work out a riddle from an Arcadian fisherman
  • All that we caught we left behind, all we missed carry, which is lice
  • Homer’s connection to Ionia, Northern Asian Minor
  • Iliad and odyssey are written in Greek Ionic dialect
  • story is a tradition of cultural transmission and invention, rather than one single composer
  • oral composition theory, oral poetry
  • explains historical inconsistencies in Homer
  • the time Homer wrote, the Trojan war, is in the early Mycenaean bronze age
  • heroes coming from Mycenae, Pylos, and Thebes, great Mycenaen cities
  • Heinrich Schliemann, german archeologist, discovered what is believed to be Troy in the Troy
  • one layer was sacked in 12th century BC
  • unsure if it is linked with Troy
  • smaller scale than in Iliad
  • one can track elements from poem to historical reality despite lack of factual reality
  • Mycenean culture was warlike and feudal
  • bronze age society, bronze instruments, armour, chariots, shields, shield of Achilles, sometimes has iron-age instruments

Trojan War

  • Helen, most beutiful woman in Greece, daughter of Zeus and Leda (wife of kind Sparta)
  • one of four children, and sister of Agememnon’s wife Clytemnestra
  • courted by many, but chooses great Menelaud, brother of the general Agamemnon
  • lives in Sparta with him named Hermione
  • Trojan prince Paris (Alexander) visits Sparta seduces Helen, and takes her back to Troy
  • Greek army raised to regain Helen from Troy
  • Helen’s willingness to go with Paris is ambiguous in Iliad
  • she wants homeland and new lover, greater or less culpability to Helen
  • sometimes just her phantom went
  • capture pretext of war, so Zeus can reduce the population of earth

Judgement of Paris

  • great beauty, weakling
  • son of Priam and Hecuba
  • Paris brother with Hector, whom Achilles will kill near the end of the war
  • war lies in Judgement of Paris

  • story is a wedding feast for Peleus and Thetis, parents of Achilles, Eris (goddess of strife, who is mad she is not invited)
  • Eris throws a golden apple onto the table for the most beautiful, and Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite claim they are the most beautiful
  • Paris a mortal prince must decide, because he was exposed as a child, since Hecuba his mother dreamt he would be the downfall of Troy
  • Paris lived since he was suckled by a bear on Mt. Ida and grew to be a shepherd
  • Hera promises royal power, Athena offers victory in war, Aphrodite offers him the most beautiful woman, Helen
  • he chooses Helen and the Trojan war is set to begin

War in the Illiad

  • Helen was abducted
  • Iliad begins narrative in the tenth year of the war
  • Greeks trick the Trojans with the Trojan horse
  • Achilles is killed pursuing Trojans, killed by Paris who shoots his ankle, with the help of Apollo who is on the side of the Trojans

Achilles

  • born of Thetis, a sea nymph, and Peleus a mortal
  • Thetis tried to make him fully immortal by holding him over a fire at night and anointing him with ambrosia, or by dipping him in the war of the river Styx
  • he was submerged making him immortal, but the part Thetis held, the ankle was vulnerable
  • Achilles hell, weak spot
  • anger of Achilles driving theme
  • Thetis learned of her son’s possible fates
  • stay home but live a long inglorious life, go to Troy and die a glorious hero
  • one story, Thetis tried to prevent Achilles from going and bringhim him to Scyros island, but Odysseus and Diomedes brought him armour and Achilles put it one when trumpet sounded battle

Troy

  • well fortified
  • Iliad, Priam is safe from war in the walls
  • to defeat Trojans, Greeks need to enter the walls
  • Epeus a Greek with help from Athena built a hollow horse, and Greek heroes hid themselves
  • Greeks sailed away, impression they gave up
  • Virgil in his Aeneid, Sinon was left behind, and lied to Trohans and said it was an offering to Athena

Important People

Agamemnon—Leader of the Greeks and a great warrior. Menelaus—King of Sparta and the husband of Helen.

Diomedes—King of Argos and a great warrior of the Greek army. He is also a wise counselor. Nestor—King of Pylos. During the time of the Trojan war he is an old man, but he was once a great warrior. He is the wisest Greek leader at Troy.

Ajax the Great, son of Telamon— Ajax the Great is the son of Telamon. He is a strong warrior, known more for his brawn than his brains.

Ajax the Less— Ajax the Less is the son of Oileus. A less distinguished warrior than Ajax. He is best known for dragging Priam’s daughter from the temple of Athena where she had taken refuge during the sack of Troy.

Odysseus—King of Ithaca, known as a great warrior but most prominently as a very clever and tricky individual. Not wanting to go to war in the first place, he pretended to be mad, but was discovered, when the hero Palamedes took Odysseus’ son Telemachus and put him in the path of his plow; Odysseus did not, of course, run him over, showing that he was sane.

Achilles—The great hero of Greeks and the leader of the Myrmidons, son of Thetis and Peleus.

Patroclus—Also a great warrior. When young, he had killed a man during a game of dice and Achilles father took him in to be Achilles’ companion; they are perhaps lovers and Patroclus is important for the story of the Trojan War.

Priam and Hecuba—King and Queen of Troy. Priam is said to have had 50 sons and 12 daughters, 19 of which he had with Hecuba. At the time of the Trojan war they are older parents.

Paris (Alexander)—Son of Priam and Hecuba. A pretty boy, patronized by Aphrodite. Hector, Andromache and Astyanax—Prince of Troy, his wife and son. He is the greatest warrior second to Achilles in the battle at Troy. He kills Patroclus which spurs Achilles to rejoin the battle to kill him.

Cassandra—Daughter of Priam and prophetess doomed never to be believed. She foresaw the fall of Troy but nobody listened to her. She is eventually taken as the concubine of Agamemnon. Aeneas—Son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He escapes Troy with his father Anchises. He is important in mythology for founding Rome which he does after leaving Troy and sailing to Italy.

Glaucus and Sarpedon—The leaders of the Lycians, allies of Troy. They are both great warriors. Glaucus has a famous meeting with the Greek warrior Diomedes in Iliad book 6. Sarpedon is the son of Zeus, and the greatest Trojan hero after Hector. Sarpedon is killed by Patroclus




Module 17

July 25, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 17

Odysseus and Nostoi

  • Greeks victorious return from Asia Minor to homes around Greek Aegean
  • these returns, called Nostoi
  • many returns were disastrous, involving shipwreck, death, or expulsion
  • some heroes, Diomedes, Idomeneus,and Philoctetes leave Greece and settle in Italy
  • Greek colony in archaic period
  • sea travel dangerous
  • Odysseus journey home is a fantastic one, involving romance and elements of folktale
  • Odysseus must endure hardships and adventures before returning home
  • wanders ten years and Poseidon is hostile and causes him to go off course
  • suitors in Ithaca try to marry Penelope thinking he is dead
  • Penelope remains faithful, but they waste his property with feasting and celebration
  • Telemachus searches for him when he is adolescent

Books

  • books 1-4: Telemachus goes to search, visits Menelaud in Sparta
  • books 5-8: Odysseus is released by nymph Calypso
  • Calypso offers immortality and life of pleasure with her, but he wants to return home with his wife
  • he sails on a raft, the storm destroys it and he goes to Scheria, island of Phaecians
  • Nausicaa falls in love with him and takes him to her parents Alcinous and Arete, he is treated kindly
  • books 9-13: feast held by ALcinous in Odysseus honour
  • recounts his adventures, the Phaecians return him to Ithaca, Poseidon turns them to stone as punishment
  • books 14-24: Odysseus is reunited with him son and swinehard Eumaeus
  • he goes in as a beggar and tests Penelop
  • kills the suitors and reunited with his family
  • he travels from Asia Minor to Africa, Italy, and as far to Straits of Gibraltar

Principle Adventures in Odysseus’ Journey

  • Cicones: Thracian city of Ismarus
  • sack the city but spare Maron, priest of Apollo and he gives twelve jars of wine
  • Lotus Eaters: whoever eats the fruit forgot everything and wanted to stay, Odysseus gets his men away with great difficulty
  • Polphemus: Cyclops eat his compaions two at a time
  • says his name is ‘nobody’ and then gets him drunk to eat him last, Odysseus drives a sharp wooden stake heated by fire into his eye
  • says ‘nobody is killing me’ and pay no attention, sneak out under a sheep
  • Polyphemus prays to father Poseison Odysseus not return, this is the source of anger at Odysseus
  • Aeolus and his winds: leather bag containing winds, reached home, crew opened bag thinking it was gold, and blew back to Aeolus
  • Laestrygonians: a savage group that sink all but odysseus’ ship and eat the crews
  • Circe: witch connected to the east (descendant of the sun), turns men into pigs, Eurlochus reorts what happened
  • with the help of Hermes resists it and sleeps with Crice without being turned into an animal
  • Circe sends him to the underworld to see Tiresias
  • Journey to Underworld: in Module 13 Notes
  • Sirens: lure people in with singing, then kill them, Odysseus put wax in their ears and bing him to the mast so they could hear the sirens without swimming to them
  • Charybdis and Scylla: Charybdis three times a day sucked in all the war and spit it out, Scylla originally a sea nymph jealous of Amphitrite (wife of Poseidon) into a monster with six dog heads and twelve feet, takes six men from Odysseus’ ship
  • Cattle of the Sun: Helios have pastures, Circe told him not to touch the animals, crew eat some, Zeus destroys ship with thunderbolt, Odysseus survives along on floating mast to drift to island of Calypso

Return Homer

  • dressed as a beggar by Athena
  • over 100 suitors vying for Penelope
  • suitors spend days deasting on Odysseus’ wealth
  • clever and remains faithful to her husband
  • she puts they off by promising to marry one as soon as she finishing weaving burial garment for Odysseus’ father Laertes
  • weaves by day, undoes work by night, until fourth year she is discovered by the treachery of one of her maids
  • Penelope says she plans to give herself the next day to someone who can shoot an arrow straight through 12 axe heads (small hole in the handle)
  • No one can do it
  • he does the task, and reveals himself, with the help of Telemachus he kills the suitors
  • forces servant women of Penelop to clean the hall and hangs them
  • tests his identity by questioning his knowledge of their marriage bed, one left of a living olive tree
  • violence juxtaposed by great journey with romance of Penelope
  • multifaceted warrior, clever, faithful husband, son, father, harsh exacter for revenge
  • he brought something to the domestic sphere



Module 18

July 25, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Perseus

  • founder of city Argos is Phoronus
  • mainly worshipped Hera
  • Perseus slays Medusa
  • gets help from Hermes and Athena
  • gets cap of invisibility, winged sandals, pouch from Nypmhs
  • gets Scimitar from Hermes

Gorgons

  • turn things to stone that look at their faces
  • Athena tells Perseus to look at Gorgon’s through a shield

Return Home

  • Perseus uses Medusa’s head to turn Polydectes and his followers to stone
  • Perseus follows Acrisius to Larissa in Thessaly and eventually kills him accidentally

Belerophon

  • Pegasus is born from the body of Medus when she is slain
  • Bellerophon is a hero of Corinth
  • Tobates sends him to kill the Chimaera lion, goat, and back of serpent, kill great warriors the Solymi and the Amazons, and men arranged by king Iobates
  • tries to complete the tasks but dies trying to fly too high with the horse
  • motif mortal punished or harmed for trying to rise beyond his station to the level of immortals

Theseus

  • son of Poseidon

Six Labours

  • Epidaurarus kills Periphetes, son of Hephaestus
  • in Corinth he kills the robber Sinis
  • near the village Crommyon he kills a great sow
  • at the cliffs of Sciron he kills Sciron
  • at Elieusis he kills Cercyon throwing him in the Earth
  • between Eleusis and Athens he kills Procrustes
  • most famous labour was killing the minotaur

Arrival in Athens and the Minotaur

  • Theseus becomes the successor to Aegeus
  • Minos was son of Zeus and Europa



Module 19

July 26, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 19

Theseus and his Labours

  • Theseus’ mother is daughter of king Pittehus of Troezen
  • Theseus is son of Poseidon and semi-divine
  • alternate, son of Aegeus, king of Athens and descendant of the foudners
  • Aegeus sleeps with Aethra in Troezen and tells her that the child must grow up not knowing who his father war
  • if he is a boy she should be sent to Athens to life up a heavy rock under which Aegeus leaves a sword and pair of sandals as recognition tokens (recognition tokes are common in Greek and Roman myths)
  • he must complete six tasks
  • at Epidaurus, he kills Periphetes, son of Hephaestus, who is armed with a club
  • in Corinth, he kills the robber Sinis, who kills people by bending trees to the ground, tying victims to both trees and letting them go
  • near Crommyon he kills a great sow (female pig)
  • at Sciron, he kills Sciron who would make all who pass wash his feet, and he would kick them over the cliff to be eaten by a large man-eating turtle, he throws him to the turtle
  • at Elseusis he kills Cercyon in Wrestling by lifting him in the air and throwing him to the earth
  • between Eleusis and Athens he kills Procrustes who made travellers lie on a bed, if they were too long he would cut them with a saw and if they were too short he hammered them to stretch them, Theseus kills him with a saw and hammer
  • Theseus killing of Minotaur, centre of vase

Theseus’ Arrival in Athens and the Minotaur

  • Theseus arrives in Athens he is not immediately recognized by his father
  • Aegeus is now married to Medea
  • Medea fled to Athens after she killed her children
  • Medea recognizes Theseus as Aegeus’ son but fears he will rivan her own son Medus for the kingship of Athens
  • she tells Aegeus to invite Theseus and give him poisoned wine
  • Theseus carves the meat with the sword under the rock in Troezan and Aegeus recognizes him at the last second and knocks the cup from his hand
  • Theseus becomes his successor and helps defend against uncle Pallas who is vying for the throne

  • most famous labour is killing the minotaur
  • brought bull of Marathon to Athens
  • Heracles and Theseus connection
  • Theseus must kill the minotraur because Minos the king of Crete attacked Athens after his son was killed out of jealousy by the Athenians when he was victorious at the Panathenaic athletic games
  • Athens surrendered and would send 7 young men and girls to be food for the minotaur
  • Minos was the son of Zeus and Europa
  • taurous means bull in Greek, Minotaur born from Minos and Pasiphae
  • Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a special bull to indicate support for his rule in Crete, but does not sacrifice the bull as he should
  • Poseidon makes his wife fall in love with a bull and give birth to a human-bull hybird
  • Minotaur is kept in Crete in a labyrinth
  • to protect the Athenians, Theseus volunteers to go in to kill the Minotaur
  • Minos’ daughter Ariadne falls in love with him, Ariadne gives him a thread to trace way out or a wreath to light the way
  • Theseus would not be able to do this without the help of Ariadne
  • he abandons Ariadne on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus becomes her lover
  • Theseus becomes king, as his father dies tragically
  • Theseus promised if he were victorious he would change the sail of his ship from black to white, but forgets and Aegeus throws himself off a cliff thinking he is dead into the sea in despair
  • etiology of Aegean sea
  • Theseus is a hero and saviour with mistakes and moral reproach, similar to Heracles



Module 20

July 26, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 20

Heracles

  • connected to Argos and Thebes
  • Greek world
  • few mortals in Classical Mythology to be divinized
  • lion skin and club

Birth

  • born to Zeus and mortal Alcmena
  • Amphitryon is the mortal husband of Alcmena
  • Zeus sires Heracles with Alcmena in her husband’s absence
  • Zeus came in the disguise of her husband and tricked her into sleeping with him
  • Alcmena gives birth to twins Heracles and Iphicles
  • Zeus says that today the birth of a man shall rule over all that dwell around him and he shall be of him race of blood
  • Hera jealous, speeds up the birth of the wife of mortal Sthenelus (Alcmena’s uncle) and delays the birth of Heracles and Iphicles
  • Sthenelus’ son rules all that dwell around him instead, and Heracles has to serve Eurystheus
  • another version, Hera sends snakes and Heracles strangles the snakes as a baby
  • another story, Hera makes Heracles go mad and kill his first wife Megara and their children
  • once purified he is advised by the Oracle of Delphi to go to Tiryns and serve Eurytheseus for 12 years completing any labours

The Twelve Labours

  • first six were situated in Pelopnnese
  • last six on the edge other world
  • labours rid world of bane, or struggle against death and mortality
  • foreshadow eventual divinization
  • athloi meaning labours

  • Nemean Lion: kills it with a club
  • skin of lion said to be invincible

  • Lernaean Hydra: 9 heads , 8 mortal 1 immortal, Hera sends a crab that Heracles kills, his nephew Iolaus helps to burn the stump with a brand so heads cannot grow back
  • gains poisoned arrows from the poison of the Hydra

  • Cernean Hind: less violent, golden horns, sacred to Artemis, pursues it for a year and Artemis takes her animal back

  • Erymanthian Boar: vicious animal, traps it and puts it in a jar
  • centaur Pholous entertained Heracles
  • a jar of wine was opened and many centaurs attacked Heracles
  • he fought them and wounded immortal Chron until he was relieved by Zeus and Prometheus, Pholus also died by dropping an arrow on his foot

  • Augean Stables: Augeus, son of Helios, king of Elis ordered Heracles to clean out his stables, Heracles diverted the rivers of Alpheus and Peneus to flow through the stables and offered 1/10 of his cattle, but did not honour it
  • after the 12 labours, Heracles returns to Elis with an army and kills Augeus, rivers are close to Heracles and some say he established the Olympic games

  • Stymphalian Birds: flushes them out with bronze castanets given by Athena and then shoot them, lake called Stymphalus

  • Cretan Bull: (overlap with Theseus)
  • must fetch great bull Poseidon sent to Minos, brings bull back after he is set loose

  • Mares of Diomedes: deadly man-eating hrses, has a herd of horses, Heracles tames them by feeding Diomedes to them
  • Eurystheus sets them free
  • wrestly with Thanatos (Death) and brings Admetus’ recently deceased wife Alcestis

  • Girdle of Hippolyta: Hippolyta queen of Amazons, Heracles has to get her girdle
  • he defeats her in battle and takes it

  • Hesione is saved by Heracles by a sea monster
  • Hesione daughter of Laomedon, early king of Troy for whom Apollo and Poseidon built walls of Troy, Laomedon did not sacrifice for them so they sent sea monsters so they could be appeased by the sacrifice of Hesione (overlaps with Perseus and Andromeda)

  • Cattle of Geryon: bring cattle back to Eurystheus, Helios gives him a golden cup and kills Geryon and his gang and goes back to Spain with the Cattle

  • Apples of Hespides: three daughter of night, golden apples protected by Ladon serpet
  • wedding gift from Gaia when she married Zeus
  • kills Ladon after asking Nereus where they are
  • Heracles gives them to Eurystheus, Athena takes them back to Hesperides
  • another version Atlas gets them while Heracles holds the world

  • Cerberus and the Underworld: three headed dog to Eurstheus, helped by Hermes and Athena who escort him out of the the underworld and bring it to Eurystheus and he returns him to the underworld

Apotheosis

  • marries his second wife Deianira
  • Deianira is sister of Meleager who Heracles met in the underworld while fetching Cerberus
  • he must wrestly river-god Achelous, who had horns and could change shape
  • breaks the horn and returns it for the reward of the horn of Amalthea
  • centaur Nessus carries Deianira across a river on way back home
  • Nessus tries to rape Deianira, Heracles tries to kill him with an arrow tipped in poison
  • he tells Deianira to collect some of his blood now poisoned to stop Heracles from loving another woman
  • Heracles does fall in love with Iole, the daughter of Eurytus who taught him archery
  • he throws Iole’s brother from the citadel of Tiryns, when asking how to cure his madness, in Delphi he receives no reply and tries to steals the sacred tripod
  • he wrestles with Apollo himself until Zeus stops it
  • Heracles says he must be sold to slavery for a year
  • Deianira dips a robe in poisoned blood of Nessus and sends it to Heracles to wear at a sacrifice to Zeus
  • Heracles burns terribly over his both
  • he is asked to be carried to Trachis
  • he is burnt on a pyre, his mortal part is consumed and he gains immortality
  • marries Hebe, wine-pourer of the gods, Deianira kills herself with a sword after realizing what she hasdone
  • apotheosis cause of semi-divine becomes full divine
  • Heracles was an extraordinary man both savage and civilizing highlights both boundaries



Module 21

July 28, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 21

Jason and the Argonauts

  • before the Trojan war
  • Jason and argonauts to retrieve golden fleece
  • by poet third century, Apollonius of Rhodes
  • parallels with myth of Odysseus’ adventures
  • number of Argonauts or Minyae varies, around 50
  • Orpheus, father of Achilles, Peleus, and Heracles make up Jason’s crew

Phrixus

  • son of mortal king Athamas and divine Nephele (cloud)
  • after Nephele went back to the sky, he married Ino the daughter of Cadmus
  • Ino tried to destroy her stepchildren
  • in a plot she convinces the women of Boetia to try the seed so grain does not grow
  • Athamas sends an envoy to Delphi to seek advice but Ino intercepts it and gives false advice that he must sacrifice Phrixus to end the plague
  • Athamas was willing to sacrifice his son, but Nephele snatched her children and put them on the back of a flying ram with a golden fleece, a gift from Hermes and flew toward the black sea eastward
  • passed over Hellespont, Helle fell into the sea and drowned
  • went to Colchis and sacrificed it to Colchis Aeetis
  • hung it on a tree in a grove of Ares guarded by a watchful serpent

The Journey

  • Iolcus, time of Athamas was ruled by his brother Cretheus
  • Cretheus’ son, Aeson, was the father of Jason
  • Cretheus’ wife, Tyro had an affair with Poseidon and Pelias took over the throne of Iolcus when Cretheus died
  • Jason was educated by centaur Chiron
  • Jason returns after 20 years to reclaim the throne, but Pelias does not want to relinquish his rule
  • Pelias warned of man with one sandal but an oracle, and Jason arrives in Iolcus with one sandal, while he helped a woman (Hera in disguise) across a river
  • Pelias hopes to kill Jason on a journey, sends him to fetch the golden fleece from Colchis
  • Jason calls upon all heroes of Greece who collect in Iolcus
  • Argo is the ship they travel in built by Argos with the help of Athena
  • Minyae are called Argonauts (nautes = sailors)

  • Hypsipyle and the Lemnian Women: island Lemnos, women of island, stay a year, Ahprodite angry at Lemnian women because they did not sacrifice to her
  • made all their husbands take Thracian concubines
  • women murdered all their husbands except king Toas
  • Hypsipyle hides her father in the temple of Dionysus and sends him off the island in a chest
  • Jason has a love affair with Hypsipyle and other Argonauts have other affairs with the women
  • Heracles, intent on the mission, convinces the Arognauts to leave the island

  • Cyzicus and Doliones: stop in Propontis encounter king Cyzicus and the Doliones
  • king is hospitable, Heracles helps kill the giants who lived near
  • try to leave, they are blown back to Cyzicus by winds , fight former host unknowingly, King Cyzicus is killed, and ARgonauts bury him before leaving

  • Amycus: land of Bebyces, barbaric tribe, foreigners box with king Amycus, son of Poseidon
  • Heracles has left at this point to look for his male lover Hylas (abducted by Nymphs)
  • Argonaut Polydeuces (son of Zeus) fights Amycus and kills him with a blow to the nose

  • Phineus and the Harpies: a blind prophet plagued by the Harpies because he revealed too much to mankind
  • harpies take all his food when they try to eat and leave small putrid morsels
  • Argonauts Zetes and Calais, winged song of north wind Boreas chase the harpies and defeat them
  • Phineas gives important information when passiong through Symplegades or Crashing Rocks, where they continuously crash together
  • pass through with the help of Athena
  • release a dove and if it was successful row through at full speed while the rocks moving out once again, Athena gives the ship an extra push
  • once the argonauts pass through, the rocks stand still forevermore

  • Jason and Aeetes: in Colchis, must win golden fleece, king of Colchis Aeetes, child of sun
  • daughter is the famous Medea, Aeetes is an evil king who suspects Jason has come to do harm
  • Jason must perform a series of tasks
  • yoke a pair of fire-breathing bulls, till an extremely large field, sow it with teeth
  • teeth grow armed men he must defeat
  • Jason is able to do this with the help of Medea, by the will of Hera and Athena, Medea falls in love with Jason
  • Medea is both a young maiden and powerful sorceress as she descended from the sun
  • Medea agrees to help Jason defeat the bulls, and the great serpent
  • for the bulls, gives him a magic iontment to protect him from fire and stone to throw to make the armed men fight each other
  • drugs to subdue the serpent
  • Jason mistreats Medea, but abandons her for a Greek princess, Medea is powerful woman of eastern descent, non-Greek, leaves her homeland for love

  • Journey Home: stop at island of Crice, pass by sirens, protect them from Aeetes, even if they are married
  • perform marriage in Phaeacia after which the Colchians stop chasing them

Arrival Home

  • Pelias still refuses to give the throne
  • Medea powerful witch, kills Pelias through trickery
  • makes Aeson, Jason’s father yougn again by cutting him up and boiling him in a cauldron and does the same for a ram
  • She convinces Pelias’ daughters to try the same on their father
  • magic only works for Medea and Pelias dies
  • Jason and Medea are drive to Corinth
  • some say Medea was the queen because Aeetes was king there before he left for Colchis
  • Euripides tragedy Medea focuses on the tragic affair of Jason and Medea

Betrayal and Murder of Children

  • Euripides fifth-century BC tragedy Medea
  • Jason divorces Medea to marry Glauce, (also named Creusa), daughter of Creon, king of Corinth
  • Medea sends a poisoned robe and crown which burn both Glauce and Creon
  • she kills her own children in revenge against Jason
  • Medea flees to Athens and marries king Aegeus

  • early version is children killed accidentally as Medea hid them in sanctuary of Hera hoping to make them immortal, Euripides showed Medea’s horrifying intentional of killing children
  • it is difficult to understand how a mother could kill her own children to exact revenge
  • Medea is terrible wronged as well, helped Jason through love, betrayed her family, left her homeland to live as a foreigner, Jason is not presented as strong or effective, but competent
  • treatment of Medea questions heroism and character
  • Culpability and blame are not easily assigned in Euripides’ famous account of this tragic and moving affair



Module 22

July 29, 2016

Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22

Module 22

Foundation of Rome - the Aeneid

  • Ovid narrating innovative and adapted versions of original Greek myths
  • foundation of Rome
  • blend of Greek and Roman Mythology
  • Homer’s Lliad, Aeneas is said by poseidon to escape from Troy when it is sacked and become ruler of the Trojans
  • in fifth century BC Greek historians connected Aeneas with Italy
  • Early Romans looked back to Greek Mythology to identify the Trojan warrior Aeneas
  • Vergil who in first century BC most developed, drew upon Homeric Iliad and Odyssey as well as Greek myths such as Jason and the Argonauts

From Troy to Italy

  • Aeneas escapes as one of the few Trojans to escape after Greeks sack the city of Troy
  • Poseidon helps him escape because it is fater
  • he founds Rome
  • takes Anchises, his father on his back
  • Ascanius, his young son also comes
  • Aphrodite/Venus is the mother of Aeneas
  • stops at island of Delos, cult of Apollo, he would found the city
  • thinks it is Crete, but searches for Italy, original home of Dardanus
  • Epirus and Sicily, where his father Anchises dies
  • ends up in Carthage, queen Dido

Dido and Aeneas - Tragic Love

  • tragic love affair
  • Venus and juno make her fall in love with Aeneas (similar to Aphrodite and Hera make Medea fall in love with Jason)
  • Aeneas also loves her, but Mercury tells him he must move on, dido kills herself in despair
  • burns all the gifts given to her by Aeneas, but kills herself with a sword Aeneas gave to her
  • she curses Aeneas and his descendants
  • prophecy of war between Romans and the Carthaginians

War at Latium

  • goes back to Sicily briefly before going to Cumae
  • he goes to the underworld to meet his father Anchises
  • then goes to Latium
  • king Latinus, who gives his daughter Lavinia in marriage, originally bethrothed to Turnus, prince of a tribe called Rutuli, oracle of Faunus said to Latinus to give Lavinia to a foreigner
  • Juno sends one of the furies to anger turnus, who opposes the union and starts a war
  • latins fight the Trojans, who are helped by Etruscans, another tribe in Italy
  • Aeneas defeats Turnus in individual combat
  • founds Lavinium after marrying Lavinia
  • Aeneas dies three years later in battle and becomes a god

Romulus and Remus

  • Ascanius founds Alba Longa in Latium
  • Romulus and Remus found Rome, are royal line of Alba Longa, four cenuturies after the death of Aeneas
  • said to founded in 753 BC

  • Romulus and Remus are twin brothers, son of Mars and Rhea Silvia
  • exposed by their great uncle Amulius, who took throne from their grandfather Numitor
  • Romulus and Remus were supposed to be thrown in the river Tiber, but servants pitied them and left them next to the river
  • saved by a wolf, and found by Faustulus, a shepherd of Amulius
  • brought before Numitor, help him regain the throne of Alba Longa and go to found their own city
  • found the city on the banks of the Tiber, the spot they are rescued by the wolf
  • omen of birds, and watched birds, Romulus received the favourable omens
  • other version Remus argued and was killed, Remus jumped over the walls of the city which Romulus is building on the Palatine and Romulus interprets this as hostile and kills his brother

Sabine Women

  • shortage of women
  • requests women from surrounding tribes refuse
  • Romulus brings women to the city through violence and trickery
  • invites the Sabines to a festival and takes many woman starting a war
  • Romans and Sabines fight until the Sabines eventually attack Rome
  • Sabine women now mothers of Roman children, bring a truce
  • Sabine women play a pwoerful role in bringing peace