ENG3660 Final Exam

Menis

the first word of the Iliad in Greek. A particularly destructive anger usually only attributed to gods - Achilles is one of the only mortals, albeit with divine lineage, throughout Greek myth and literature who possesses this.

Mythopoesis

the making of myths

the variety of ways in which myth circulated in antiquity:Landscape/travel

- knowledge or rumors of what happened where The Symplegades, "The Clashing Rocks" where Jason and the Argonauts sailed through with Hera's help Local lore - shrines to mark certain places Hercules or other heroes might have been

Threnody

- women's lament song.Lament: a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.

Thetis

Sea goddess;wedded to mortal Peleus; mother of Achilles

Tiresias

A Theban prophet who inhabits the underworld. _______ meets Odysseus when Odysseus journeys to the underworld in Book 11. He shows Odysseus how to get back to Ithaca and allows Odysseus to communicate with the other souls in Hades.

Cassandra

A Trojan priestess, captured by Agamemnon and carried to Argos as his slave and mistress. She was Apollo's lover. Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy, but when she refused to bear him a child, he punished her by making all around her disbelieve her predictions. She sees the ancestral curse afflicting Agamemnon's family, and predicts both his death and her own, as well as the vengeance brought by Orestes in the next play.

Aegisthus

Agamemnon's cousin, and Clytemnestra's lover. His father and Agamemnon's father were rivals for the throne. Agamemnon's father boiled two of his rival's children--Aegisthus' brothers--and served them to him for dinner. Since that time, Aegisthus has been in exile awaiting a chance to seek revenge for the terrible crime.

Glaucus and Scylla

Circe gave one a potion for the other, but instead of being a love potion, it turned the other love into a dog-headed monster. Book 14, 82-98

the variety of ways in which myth circulated in antiquity:Oral Performances

Civic and pan-hellenic festivals:-Competitive performances of epic poetry by bards-Choral performances of song and dance-Victory songs to praise victorious athletesWeddings, funeralsSymposium, or dinner/drinking parties of aristocratsStorytelling by family members, nannies (bedtime stories)

Classical Period (490-323 BCE)

Classical Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Greek tragic poets like Aeschylus and Euripides retell stories associated with Homeric epic

Ares/Mars (favors Trojans)

God of War and Blood shed Son of Zeus;

Poseidon/Neptune

God of the sea. He is the divine antagonist n the Odyssey. He hates Odysseus because he blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. He constantly gives him a hard time to get home.

Aphrodite/Venus (favors Trojans)

Goddess of love and beautyDaughter of Zeus and Dione;

Athena/Minerva

Goddess of wisdom and war In or

Athena / Minerva (favors Achaeans)

Goddess of wisdom and warDaughter of Zeus; favors Greeksshe was born from the head of Zeus

Pythia

The woman who sits on the center stone (the Omphalos, navel stone, center of the world) at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. She interprets and delivers the prophecies of Apollo.

Pygmalion and Galatea

He fell in love with a statue that he had made. Venus brought the statue to life and they married. Book 10, 307-371

Astyanax(On the Trojans side also the Dardanians and Lykians)

Hector and Andromache's infant son.

Hector (On the Trojans side also theDardanians andLykians)

Prince of Troy. Son of Priam and Hecuba. Husband of Andromache. Greatest of the Trojan warriors, he is the champion of his people. He is a civilized man, more suited to peacetime than to war. When he slays Patroclus, he brings Achilles back into battle. Hector, in turn, is killed by Achilles.

Paris(AKA Alexander)(On the Trojans side also the Dardanians and Lykians)

Prince of Troy. Son of Priam. Husband of Helen. His choice of Aphrodite in the beauty contest of the goddesses wins him Helen. Helen's abduction causes the Trojan War. Paris is a strong fighter, but he has little appetite for battle

Phoenix(on Greek side also called the Argives or the Danaans)

Son of Amyntor. He is an old mentor of Achilles, beloved by the great warrior. He relates the story of Meleager, hoping to win Achilles over, but he does not succeed in persuading Achilles to return to battle.

Apollo

The prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. God of music, poetry, art, oracles, archery, plague, medicine, sun, light, knowledge, logic, and reason. He commands Orestes to kill Clytaemnestra in The Libation Bearers and serves as a witness in court to defend Orestes in The Eumenides.

Odysseus

The protagonist of the Odyssey. He fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. Husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus. Favorite of Athena and enemy of Poseidon.

the genre of Greek tragedy

Tragedies were performed in threes: they could either tell a full story (like the Oresteia) OR be more loosely, thematically related. This sequence of three was followed by a satyr play, in which characters' costumes included, well, big phalluses, and drank (we have one* remaining satyr play). Think of it as a bit of comic relief after the violence and grief of tragedies.

Charybdis

a dangerous whirlpool personified as a female sea monster.sea monster that dwells on Strait of Messina. Lived under a rock. Swallows large amounts of water then belches it out, creating deadly whirlpools. Considered to be the offspring of Poseidon and Gaea.

Dark Age (1150-800 BCE)

epic poems like the Iliad developing and circulating through the culture of oral poetry

Archaic Period (800-490 BCE)

epic poems such as the Iliad and Odyssey in wide oral circulation begin to be written down; if Homer existed, some imagine him to represent the apex of oral epic culture as it enters the age of literacy and written documents; thus we have these ancient poems

Philia

friendship, tenderness between two friends. (A "platonic" friendship is one without erotic desire involved because Plato's texts discussed this as superior to eros. Aristotle further developed this idea.)

Chryseis

girl captured by Agamemnon during the plunder of Chryse. Her father, Chryses, is a priest of the god Apollo.

Hephaestus/Vulcan (On greek side)

god of fire and metal working. Son of Zeus and Hera;

Aphrodite / Venus

goddess of love and beauty; daughter of zeus and dione

Artemis/Diana (favors Trojans)

goddess of the hunt and the moon Daughter of Zeus and Leto, favors Trojans Twin of Apollo

Baucis and Philemon

hospitable to Zeus and Hermes dressed as beggars; became priests of Zeus' temple; died together - became trees (oak and linden) Book 8, 1000-1021

the tragic chorus

in the context of Ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, and modern works inspired by them, is a homogeneous, non-individualised group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action

epic distance

in the original performances of these epic poems, the original audience would have felt themselves to be in a far different time than heroes like Achilles and Hector. This is on display when heroes throw rocks: Meanwhile Hector snatched up a stone that stood before the gatesand carried it along; it was blunt-massed at the base, but the upperend was sharp; two men, the best in all a community,could not easily hoist it up from the ground to a wagon,of men such as men are now, but he alone lifted it and shook itas the son of devious-devising Kronos made it light for him.(Iliad 12. 445-450)

Supplication

is a form of prayer, wherein one party humbly or earnestly asks another party to provide something, either for the party who is doing it or on behalf of someone else.•the case of Lykaon (21.64)

Pentheus

is the king of Thebes, son of Agaue, grandson of Cadmus and the first cousin of Dionysus. Structurally ________ is Dionysus's foil, thus he is a preserver of law and order, a military man, a stern patriarch, and ultimately a doomed mortal. ________ is not merely a mirror or inverted double of Dionysus; he is puritanical and obstinate, but also curious and voyeuristic.

Eros

lust, erotic desire. The third element in existence, ever, according to Hesiod's Theogony. Its intensity can be dangerous.

the house of Atreus

named for the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, famous figures from the stories of the Trojan War, but the family line is normally traced back to Tantalus, and then on through a further four generations, until the time of Orestes, a son of Agamemnon.

Bronze Age (1600-1150 BCE)

societies similar to those we see in the Iliad exist and the EVENTS of something like the Trojan war happen in about the 1200s BCE (thirteenth century BCE)

Medea

sorceress or enchantress; from Medea who helped Jason and the Argonauts capture the Golden Fleece; known for her revenge against Jason when he spurned her for the princess of Corinth

Exempla

speakers using myth rhetorically to prove a point, persuade someone to do something, or to situate their own mythic ancestry. Thus Homer's poem gives us myths within myth. Cf Dione's speech to Aphrodite

Jason

the husband of Medea and leader of the Argonauts who sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece;

Agamemnon(on Greek side also called the Argives or the Danaans)

the king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus and commander of all the Greek forces at Troy

symposium(Plural: Symposia)

was an important part of ancient Greek culture from the 7th century BCE and was a party held in a private home where Greek males gathered to drink, eat and sing together. Various topics were also discussed such as philosophy, politics, poetry and the issues of the day

Maenads

wild women who follow Dionysus - they tear Pentheus limb from limb - his mother leading the way

Peleus

Mortal Father of Achilles

Augustus

(63 BCE - 14 CE) First emperor of Rome (27 BCE - 14 CE) He restored order and prosperity to the Empire after nearly a century of turmoil. Grandnephew to Julius Caesar. Banished Ovid

Kleos

(fame - the driving force of epic - to be remembered, to be a hero)is the Greek word often translated to "renown", or "glory". It is related to the word "to hear" and carries the implied meaning of "what others hear about you". A Greek hero earns this through accomplishing great deeds.

Timē

(honor in the form of prizes; usually material wealth, but also extends to the distribution of prizes as ransom or after a siege - includes animals and women)Prize and timê Iliad 1.352-56"Since, my mother, you bore me to be a man with a short life,Therefore Zeus of the loud thunder on Olympos should grant meHonour (timê) at least. But now he has given me not even a little.Now the son of Atreus, powerful AgamemnonHas dishonoured me (lit. taken off my timê), since he has taken away my prize and keeps it."

the variety of ways in which myth circulated in antiquity:Religion

- worshipping the gods meant telling their stories - their births, the acquisition of their powers, their great achievements. And!, sometimes, their weaknesses as well.Festivals held for particular gods included performances of poems like this addressed to them, as we see with the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.Choral dances might have also begun to mimic, in a theatrical way, the stories of gods. Festivals for Demeter, for example, might have included a performance of Demeter's search for her daughter Persephone. Some speculate this is how the genre of Greek tragedy came to be.

Homeric Hymns

-during archaic period -collection of poems -composed orally -performed in specific places by aoidoi

Hermes/Mercury (Favors Trojans)

Messenger of the gods Son of Zeus;

Chryses

A priest of Apollo in a Trojan-allied town; the father of Chryseis, whom Agamemnon takes as a war prize.

Scylla

A supernatural female creature, w/ 12 feet and 6 heads on long, snaky necks -Lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart Charybdis -Odysseus successfully navigates the strait, but when he & his crew are momentarily distracted by Charybdis, ______ devours 6 of his sailors alive-Later myth gave her an origin story as a beautiful nymph who gets turned into a monster -To be "between ________ and Charybdis" means to be caught b/w 2 equally unpleasant alternatives

Briseis

A war prize of Achilles. When Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis to her father, he appropriates _______ as compensation, sparking Achilles' great rage.

Ancient Greek concept of a hero

Achieved immortality through song."Received cult": this meant to receive offerings and honors at local shrines well into the classical and Hellenistic ages.Supernatural abilitiesIndividuals with their own concerns and flawsOften given tasks, and their execution of those tasks earned their place in poetic historyNo such thing as an "anonymous hero" - that would be an oxymoron

Patroclus(on Greek side also called the Argives or the Danaans)

Achilles' best friend, killed by Hector when he was wearing Achilles armor, his body is retrieved, his death motivates Achilles to kill Hector

Erinyes (also known as the Furies)

Ancient greek goddesses of revenge, torturing those who commit especially heinous crimes, who hunt Orestes in part of the Oresteia.

Hera (favors Achaeans)

Daughter of Cronus and wife of Zeus; queen of Gods;

Aeschylus

Father of Greek tragedy, wrote Oresteia; proposed the idea of having two actors and using props and costumes

Aeneas(On the Trojans side also the Dardanians and Lykians)

In Book 5 he fights with Diomedes, who overcomes him only when he throws a stone and wounds him in the hip. He falls to his knees, "black night" comes over both his eyes, but Aphrodite, his mother, carries him away from the battle. Diomedes attacks him again shortly thereafter, but he is protected by Apollo, who carries him away to his shrine. There Apollo makes an image of him, who then miraculously reappears in the battle, where he begins fighting and killing. He is even about to attack Menelaos when that warrior is joined by Antilochos and _______ wisely refrains from fighting two such warriors.

Creon

King of Colchis and father of Glauce, Jason's new wife, he banishes Medea and dies a gruesome death when he embraces his dead daughter

Odysseus(on Greek side also called the Argives or the Danaans)

King of Ithaca Supports and advises Agamemnon Son of Laertes and Anticleia, husband of Penelope.

Menelaus(on Greek side also called the Argives or the Danaans)

King of Sparta, husband of Helen, brother of Agamemnon

Priam(On the Trojans side also the Dardanians and Lykians)

King of Troy, father of Hector and Paris

Sappho

Lived on the isle of Lesbos (hence our term lesbian); very little known about her life, and much has most likely been invented. But she might have run a kind of school for girls.Wrote Cupid and Psyche. "Deathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind, child of zeus, who twists lures, I beg you do not break with hard pains O lady, my heart but come before you caught my voice far off and listening left your fathers golden house and came , yoking your car " This is the beginning of one of the only poems we have by the sixth century BCE lyric poet_________________ Bonus: What kind of animal pulls the chariot mentioned here? Doves

Iris

Messenger of the gods

Agave

Mother of Pentheus and daughter of Cadmus. _____ is already one of the maenads (a worshipper of Dionysus participating in orgiastic rites, from the Greek mainad to be mad) at the start of the play. Even though she only enters the play at the very end, her scene is the most powerful and tragic in the play.

Narcissus and Echo

Narcissus was a gorgeous male who admired himself enormously. Echo loved him but he ignored her. Eventually, she was cursed with not being able to speak her own thoughts but only repeat what other said. This bothered Narcissus even more and he taunted her and she eventually wasted away so that just her voice, repeating others' words, remained. He became so enamored with himself that he got stuck peering into a pond, admiring his reflection, and became a flower that grows there. Book3, 616-658

Electra

Orestes' older sister, ________cared for him as a child and loves him dearly. Since her father Agamemnon's death, she has been treated like a slave in the palace, and tells Orestes also that Clytamnestra is about to marry her off in order to break her bond with the house. Like most Greek woman, ________ was totally under the power of her father until she was married, at which point she joined her husband's household and was no longer considered part of her original family. She is fiercely devoted to her father's memory. She loathes her mother and is quick to transfer all of her love to Orestes when he reappears. After going into the palace in silence at Orestes' command, she does not reappear again in the play.

Dionysus

Originator, protagonist and central axis of The Bacchae, this god of wine, theater and group ecstasy appears mostly in disguise as a beautiful, longhaired, wine-flushed Lydian, the Stranger. His non-human forms and powers are also felt acutely throughout the play and _______ the god is clearly different from _________ in disguise, as the Stranger, and yet they are the same. Still, they exist in their different forms simultaneously, so while the audience and the chorus hear the divine god give the command for the earthquake, the Stranger is inside the palace torturing Pentheus. _______ is the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, daughter of Cadmus.

Clytemnestra

Part1(Agamemnon): Protagonist, She is Agamemnon's wife and has ruled Argos in his absence. She plans his murder with ruthless determination, and feels no guilt after his death; she is convinced of her own rectitude and of the justice of killing the man who killed her daughter. She is, a sympathetic character in many respects, but the righteousness of her crime is tainted by her entanglement with Aegisthus. Even so, Aeschylus makes it clear that Agamemnon's death must be avenged. Part2(Libation Bearers): The powerful wife of Agamemnon and mother of Orestes, She is arguably the tragic hero of The Libation Bearers. She is the sister of Helen of Troy, and cousin to Penelope (Odysseus' wife). Although she does not spend much time on stage in The Libation Bearers, her character has already been fully developed in the preceding play, the Agamemnon, and thus her influences are felt and understood. She is a fiercely protective mother, and went to the lengths of killing Agamemnon in order to avenge the murder of their daughter Iphigineia. She is extremely intelligent and persuasive, although her arguments are of no avail against Orestes when it matters most. Although her lover Aigisthos is ostensibly now king of Argos after Agamemnon's murder, it is ______________ who really runs the show. She is not afraid to do a man's job in a man's world.

Hecuba(On the Trojans side also the Dardanians and Lykians)

Queen of Troy, wife of Priam, and mother of Hector and Paris.

Iphigenia

Sister to Orestes and Electra, murdered by her father Agamemnon at Artemis's request during the Trojan War. Clytamnestra avenges her death by killing Agamemnon, continuing and setting in greater motion the cycle of blood violence.

Zeus/Jupiter(Claims neutrality)

Son of Cronus; king of gods and ruler of sky; arbiter of human destiny

Poseidon/Neptune (favors Achaeans)

Son of Cronus; king of the sea;

Achilles (on Greek side alsocalled the Argivesor the Danaans)

Son of Mortal God, Peleus and sea-goddess Thetis King of Myrmidons Mightiest Greek Warrior

Agamemnon

The King of Argos, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the commander of the Greek armies during the siege of Troy. He is the older brother of Menelaus, whose wife Helen was stolen by a Trojan prince, thus igniting a decade-long war. A great warrior, he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in order to obtain a favorable wind to carry the Greek fleet to Troy. During the ten-year conflict, his Queen has plotted his death in order to avenge the killing of their daughter. He appears on stage only briefly, and behaves arrogantly. He goes to his death unaware of his fate.

Golden Fleece

The fleece of the gold-haired winged ram. Jason and his band of Argonauts must get the fleece in order for Jason to be king.The back story:•Marriage of Athamas and Nephele •Spurned, Nephele sends their children away in fear of their new-stepmother. Hermes gives her a flying ram with golden fleece to convey them to safety; as they are flying east, the girl Helle falls and drowns; this location is now called the Hellespont (more commonly known now as Dardanelles). Phryxus, the boy, arrives at Colchis, where he sacrifices the golden ram and is taken in by king Aietes, who keeps the golden fleece as a symbol of wealth and prosperity for his kingdom. •Most accounts agree that a generation later, Jason comes to regain the throne of his father from his uncle Pelias. Pelias says he will give him the throne if he brings him the golden fleece from Colchis.

the elasticity of myth

There is no knowable "original" version of any myth.Myths can be earlier or later, but they all come from a cultural, collective wellspring we cannot know.Myths have many versions; just as there is no original version, there is no one version.Myths change to adapt to and address the current cultural, social, and political atmosphere in which they are being retold, from Euripides' Medea to Carol Ann Duffy's ThetisMyths have many versions; just as there is no original version, there is no one version.Myths change to adapt to and address the current cultural, social, and political atmosphere in which they are being retold, from Euripides' Medea to Carol Ann Duffy's Thetis

Pyrra and Deucalion

Threw stones from the earth to repopulate the earth after zeus punished humanity with a giant flood. Book1, 557-577

Actaeon

Turned into a deer/stag when he saw Artemis bathing. was then killed by his own dogs. Book3, 242-265

the variety of ways in which myth circulated in antiquity:Visual representation

Vase painting Funerary/marriage vases Drinking ware Packaging ware Sculpture Home decoration/wall mosaics Clothing/mirrors/personal items

IO

Was turned into a cow by zeus after hera was about to catch zeus having sex with her. Hera took the cow as a prize and made Argus watch over her. Book1, 865-901

The Homeric Question

Who was—was there a—Homer?No true scholarly consensus on this, the Homeric question.1920s: Parry and Lord's research among Yugoslavian bards.The poet of the Iliad and Odyssey was steeped in a centuries old-tradition, and likely trained from youth to remember and deliver epic poetry.However, the poems could always shift, adapt (like myth itself!): so it is possible that there was one outstanding poet, gifted with an exceptional sense of poetic unity, arresting description and epic similes, that developed from the traditional tales of the Trojan war his own version which was recognized in archaic Greece as great and worth recording/remembering, and which we know as the Iliad.

Andromache(On the Trojans side also the Dardanians and Lykians)

Wife of Hector

Helen

Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta. Helen's abduction from Sparta by the Trojans sparked the Trojan War. Her beauty is without parallel, but she is criticized for giving in to her Trojan captors and thereby costing many Greek men their lives. She offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find his father.

Hellenistic Period (323-30 BCE)

Written copies of the Iliad and Odyssey are collected, and the librarians at Alexandria begin to create standard editions

Ovid

Wrote Metamorphoses

Euripides

Wrote The Medea andThe Bacchae

Orestes

_________ is the son of Clytamnestra and Agamemnon and the brother of Electra. The protagonist of The Libation Bearers, _______ spends the course of the play preparing to avenge his father's murder. At the end of the play, he carries out this vengeance by killing Aigisthos and Clytamnestra. _______ is intelligent and determined, just like his mother. He is well spoken and quick to do whatever is necessary to do justice to his father's memory, even though he knows that he will have to face the consequences.

The omphalos / navel stone

_________________, was originally housed in the Temple of Apollo in the Adyton, the inner chamber of the oracle, where the Pythia was supposedly consulting the gods and voicing her prophecies. The __________ represented Delphi as the center or navel, of the world.A Hellenistic or Roman copy of the original sacred ___________, now found in the Delphi Museum, shows a surface sculptured with the agrenon, the woolen weave which covered the sacred stone. Such effigies of the Delphic symbol were positioned in several spots of the Sanctuary.

Epic similes

a long comparison, often comparing what's happening in the Iliad to the natural world or elements of human life outside of warEX: Menelaus gets wounded, Il. 4.141-7As when some Maionian woman or Karian with purpleColours ivory, to make it a cheek piece for horses;It lies away in an inner room, and many a riderLongs to have it, but it is laid up to be a king's treasure,Two things, to be the beauty of the horse, the pride of the horseman:So, Menelaos, your shapely thighs were stained with the colourof blood, and your legs also and the ankles beneath them.Patroclus gets wounded, 16 486-488Like a lion who has been wounded in the chestAs he ravages a farmstead, and his own valorDestroys him.

Ransom

a sum of money or other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner.the case of Lykaon (21.64)

theomachy

a war or struggle against God or among or against the gods.