Greek Mythology Midtern

Condensation

one dream object stands for several different associations

The Anima

the female qualities of a male personality

The Animus

the masculine qualities of a female personality

The Persona

the mask of ourselves that we present to the world

The Shadow

usually (but not always) a same sex figure, with a personality opposite of yours

2nd Generation of Heroes

who accomplished highly heroic, more realistic deeds (the Trojan War generation). Hector, Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon, etc.

3rd Generation of Heroes

who tried to live up to the heroic deeds of their fathers. Orestes, Telemachus

Karl Muller

Prolegomena to a Scientific Mythology. The origin of myth lies in the mindset of primitive man, and specifically in the interaction between the human imagination and man's physical and historical environment. Every historical period gives rise to its own kinds of myths, and most myth has a historical source. Myths are tied not just to a particular peoples, but to particular places. Trying to reconstruct the original language. Traced myths back to Indo-European-Proto-Mythology (Greek, Roman, and Indic Myths)

The Succession Myths

Kronos castrates his father from inside him then becomes King of Gods Kronos eats his children so they won't overthrow him but Zeus does Gaia always favors the youngest Zeus doesn't let himself be overthrown (Ends cycle of succession) Zeus Swallows his first wife, Metis and then gives birth to a daughter (Athena)- He no longer has a threat Zeus does have other sons and potentially powerful siblings, but it is clear that none of them offer a serious threat to him

Indo European Hypothesis

Muller's Theory Most languages come from this Proto-Indo-European language. Originated in Eastern Europe. Began to branch off by 500-4500 BC (Latest it could have happened). Muller Believed Indo-European myth was an attempt by the Indo-Europeans to explain the physical world. But their language was concrete and limited, so they were incapable of abstraction (myth is, in Muller's words, a "disease of language"). Language was so limited that this is the only way they can describe natural processes. Later misunderstood. Each myth describes natural processes literally and was later misunderstood ("maiden dawn" becomes an actual maiden)

Nature Myth Theory

Muller's Theory. It relates all myth back to a specific natural process (Different from enlightenment). Hidden/distorted/primitive truth of nature. Muller turned away from the rationalism of the Enlightenment, and back to the idea of myth as a hidden or primitive truth, in this case about the natural world

Structuralism

Myth can be studied in the same way we study language. Language has 2 important elements: the actual way that people use it (current usage) and the rules that govern usage (rules). You don't consciously think about the rule when you're using it but you know it. Current usage in a myth is the form that the story of the myth takes. He wants to figure out what the "rules" are that make us tell the myth this way; and he believes that there is a set of rules common to every culture, because of the similarities in myth across various cultures. "Calls these "rules" the deep structure of the myth. Figuring out the structure means figuring out the logical relationships between the pieces of the myth

Euhemerism

Myth contains a hidden or primitive truth, but a more straightforward attempt to rationalize myth than allegory. Myths are stories about historical figures and places. The gods and heroes of Greek myth were really just human beings who performed some extraordinary service for humankind and were venerated for their deeds. Kings who did good deeds. Stories distorted over time. Assumes the poet that wrote the myth was primitive. Strips away primitive writing to get to the logical truth. Created by Euhemerus of Messene

Muthos

Myth in Greek

Functionalism

Myth is designed to explain and legitimize a social institution by locating its origins in an authoritative past: not just rituals, but other things of communal significance like marriage, group membership, land distribution, etc.

The Enlightenment Response

Myth, like religion, is deeply and fundamentally irrational and even absurd. Myth is an impulse of the primitive mind, and the primitive mind is like that of a child. A variation of "Myth is a lie". No longer culturally relevant

Romantic Period Trend

Myths reveal particular details of specific societies, cultures, and peoples. Also interested in origins

1900s Trend

Myths reveal universal truths about the human mind or features common to all human societies, either because they are the product of human society or because they are the product of the human mind. Less interested in origins

Giambattista Vicoo

New Science. Myth originates in a fear of the divine. Divine is merely a projection of human passions upon the processes of the natural world. This understanding of the divine was expressed by early man in concrete and imaginative language (myth)

Zeus

God of the sky and king of the gods

Allegorism

Believes myth contains a hidden or distorted truth Explains the strange and weird elements of Greek myth by claiming that they represent or stand in for some deeper truth about the processes of the natural world, the human soul, or society Weird things are not meant to be read literally

Structure of Theogony

Birth of Chaos (Chasm) and others Children of the Night and Earth Succession 1: Titan's and Heaven's Castration Descendants of Sea Children of Titans Succession 2: Birth of Zeus Challenges to Zeus: Promeheus, son of a Titan Challenges to Zeus: The Titan Challenges to Zeus (and possible Succession 3): Typhoeus, sons of Earth and Tartarus Children of Zeus and other Olympians Children of Goddesses and Mortal Men: the race of heroes

Principles of Hesoid's Genealogy

1. Hesoid moves from relatively undefined deities to dieties of increasing definition (chaos- an empty void- is followed by Earth, the definition of solid matter) 2. While negative aspects can give birth to negative aspects, negative aspects can also give birth to positive aspects (chaos gives birth to Darkness and Night, but they give birth to Brightness and Day) 3. Sexual reproduction produces better divinities than ones produced by one god alone (eg. Brightness and Day)

Metis

A virtue and a diety. Cunning

1st Generation of Heroes

Accomplished highly heroic, unrealistic deeds/ Theseus, Jason, Hercules, Orpheus, etc

The Theogony

Account of how the universe came to be on the divine, cosmic level. Organized genealogy (how gods are related). To ancient Greeks, universe (cosmos) means order. How did the world get order? (Zeus keeps it in order). Ultimately an account of how the procreation and proliferation of the gods stopped and their immortal family became stable and static

Tragic Actors

All male. All wearing masks. 3 main actors. 12 chorus members. Agamemnon, Actor 1: Clytemnestra, Actor 2: Watchman, Herald, Agamemnon, Aegisthus, and Actor 3: Cassandra Antigone, Actor 1: Creon (He is main character), Actor 2: Antigone, Haemon, Tiresias, and Eurydice, Actor 3: Ismene, Guard, and Messanger

Aristotle

All the tragedies contain a recognition (where the main character discovers the identity of someone or something) and a reversal (where the main character goes from good fortune to bad fortune). These movements make us feel pity and fear, and thus experience a catharsis (purification). Oedipus Tyrannus is the perfect play because its recognition and reversal happen simultaneously when the herdsman tells Oedipus his identity

Carl Jung

As a psychoanalyst, he argued that myth was a product of the subconscious/unconscious of the human mind. Because the human mind is the same in every time and place, they believed myths from ever culture would reflect the same themes, and had no interest in myth's origins. Like Freud, he believed myth and dreams are closely related (myth is part of the collective unconscious). Also like Freud, there is a biological reason for the similarities in myth across culture, and it is located in the human mind. The most important thing is not repression, but individuation. The human mind uses archetypes (inherited, archaic patters in the brain) to perform the process of individuation. Archetypes can vary in detail without losing their basic form

The City of Dionysia

Athenian festival at which tragedies were performed, was instituted in 508 BC. Here, three playwrights competed with one another, each producing three tragedies (usually not all on the same subject) and a more lightheartened satyr play. Whoever the judges decided had written the best plays was awarded an ivy wreath. Because of its festive setting, tragedy allowed the community to think about what made them a community

Athenian Tragedy

Began in 510 BC when Athenians became the first democracy. Athenians built up an empire of similarly inclined cities. Fought a 30 year "Peloponnesian War" with the Spartans, which they lost. It is very interested in the mindset and consequences of mythical tyrants and monarchs. Plays concerning the downfall of tyrants or kings would have been attractive to the democratic Athenians. When Athens was expanding its own empire, playwrights may have been suggesting that the Athenians were becoming as bad as the tyrants they loved to hate. It's important to pay attention to how tyrants and kings are characterized in tragedy

Plato (424-348 BC)

Believes myth instills moral code in listeners. Writes The Republic about the ideal city state. Still sees the power/value of myth. Wants to pre-approve myths before they are told in the ideal society

Poseidon

Brother of Zeus. God of sea and earthquake

Tragedy

Originated some time before 532 BC when Thespis was awarded a prize for his performance. Grew out of an oral tradition of call and response between a single singer and a chorus. Classically was primarily plot-driven and involved very little character development (partly because Athenians were familiar with these characters from myth). Were performed in the theater of Dionysus, right below the Acropolis

Themes of Greek Tragedy

Outside/Inside (Represented by the single door on the stage). Actors/Audience (With the chorus as mediators). Mortals/Gods. Levels of Knowledge (The common link between these theme). The audience and gods know more than the actors (dramatic irony) but at the same time, what's inside (actors) knows more, or at least has a different kind of knowledge, than what's outside (audience/gods)

Structuralist Reading of the Theban Cycle

Overvaluing family/blood ties and undervaluing family/blood ties in the Theban Cycle. Oedipus overvalues his mom and undervalues his dad. Polynices and Eteocles (sons) die at each other's' hands, undervaluing their family. Antigone and Ismene (daughters) are both unmarried (overvaluing their blood ties over voluntary associations). Haemon betrays his birth family for his future spouse (undervaluing family). Creon refuses to allow his nephew Polynices to be buried (undervaluing family). Binary Opposition: Female (associated with the family and the house) overvalues her family. Male (associated with politics and the state) undervalues family. Both are right, and both are wrong

Levi Strauss

Created Structuralism Theory

Bronislaw Malinowski

Created the Functionalism Theory. Student of Frazer. No interest in myth's origins, only in its function in historical (or present) times. Studied myths in terms of its current (or historical) social function

Jane Harrison

Created the Myth and Ritual Theory. One of the first female classicists. Interested in the ideas of Frazer

Aeschylus

Earliest of the three canonical Greek tragedians. Introduced the second actor. Adopted the third actor after Sophocles invented it. Probably staged ninety plays, but only seven survive. Won first prize at dramatic competition thirteen times. Orestia a connected trilogy comprising Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies

Christian Heyne

First to use the term "Myth". Treats myth as an academic topic. Believed myth began in the childhood of mankind, when men felt fear and wonder for natural processes and appreciation for exceptional human beings. Primitive language could only tell stories about processes and people in limited and concrete way. Myth arises separately from religion. Myths are dependent upon their environment, and vary according to the nation or group of people who produce them

Enlightenment Trend

Foundation of scientific study of myth. Lumped with religion and seen as irrational and primitive. Interested in origins

Physical Allegorism

Gods and heroes of Greek mythology stand in for Features of cosmos (sun, mood, etc), Natural processes (rain, wind, etc), Body parts, and Social customs and practices Ex: Zeus represents the upper air (aether) and Hera represents the lower air (aer)

Ethical Allegorism

Gods and heroes of Greek mythology stand in for Philosophical values (justice, virtue, etc). This type became very popular in later ages, and can be seen in such works as "Pilgrim's Progress"

Ares

Hera and Zeus' only legitimate son. Resolved to not be a threat to Zeus through his marriage to Aphrodite

Archetypes

Inherited, archaic patters in the brain) to perform the process of individuation

Myth and Ritual

Jane Harrison placed ritual at the center of human society. Every myth originated in a ritual. Myth is an epiphenomenon of ritual (Ex: ritual came first). Myth is designed to explain and legitimize a ritual whose original meaning had been lost. Sometimes called the "Cambridge School" of myth. Rituals make us feel the power of the collective

Myths

Stories humans tell about/to explain the world, society, ourselves, etc.. A traditional tale. Has a claim on the truth. The common property of all Greeks. Culturally relevant. Stories change with times. Use stories to tell deeper truth about our world. Give us insight to our specific interest/fears

Cattle

Tangible wealth before monetary system

1st Generation of Gods

The Elemental Gods: Earth, Heaven, Tartarus (hell), Night, Sea, Eros (erotic love)

James George Frazer

The Golden Bough. Applying the theory of evolution to the history of religious belief, he argued myth belonged to the first of three stages of man's understanding of the natural world. Myth was thus the first way primitive man explained natural processes, by magical thinking (2nd is religion and 3rd is science). Early man lived in agricultural societies and thus was primarily interested in the fertility of crops and animals; this reflected in almost every myth. Myths are an attempt to control fertility

The Homeric Hymns

There are 33 in total. Only 4 are called the "Great Hymns". Composed by a variety of authors. Probably originate from an oral tradition. Follow Homer in style and language. Authors were aware of the poems Homer and Hesoid wrote. Hymns are about one specific god. Defining or explaining his or her essential character and nature and spheres of influence. The narrative of the hymns move us progressively closer in time away from the still unstable world of Hesoid's gods and towards the stable pantheon of the 12 Olympians found in Homer

Reductionism

These theorists tried to reduce all myth to some external element (whether nature or history) of which the myth is a distorted version. Strip away the distortions of a primitive mind, and you have some "truth" about the external world. Reduce myth to one specific thing

Hecatomb

100 cattle

Aristarchus of Samothrace (220-146 BC)

Greatest scholar of the ancient world. Believed that people shouldn't take what Homer says literally. The Iliad was an entertaining fiction/myth

Hephaestus

Son of Hera. God of fire. Is not a threat to Zeus because he is illegitimate and defective

David Home

The Natural History of Religion. Myth is the beginning of religion. It arises from a fear of the natural world. This fear caused early man to deify powerful objects, natural processes, and prominent men

Hermes

Zeus' son. Messenger god

Theagenes of Rhegium

a contemporary of Xenophanes, and many have seen allegorism as a response to critiques of myths that allowed to be "saved"

Displacement

a dream object's emotional significance is separated from its real object or content and attached to an entirely different one that does not raise the dreamer's suspicions about what they have repressed

Formulae

stock phrases that describe characters, events, and scenes

The Romantic Period

Reaction to the enlightenment. Interested, like Enlightenment thinkers, in the origins of myth, and believed it originated in primitive mankind. Intuition, emotion, etc.Modern nation state. Believed that myth reflected the national character of the people who told it. Myth can thus give us insight into specific nations, cultures, and people. Reflected the national character of the people who told it

Structuralist Reading of Oedipus Tyrannus

Read the Oedipus myth as boiling down to a single opposition, which has to do with a very common belief in ancient cultures that each tribe of people is literally "born" from the land that they inhabit. The myth would thus be a meditation on the incongruity of this theory with the actual way that human beings are born (from two parents). Myth represents the anxiety we feel about these two possibilities: knowing we are born from the "same", but hoping or believing that we are actually born from different

Nostos

Return home

Deep Structure

Rules. This structure reflects the structure of the human mind, which is why myths are the same across cultures. Is not necessarily the same as its surface structure, and you have to break the myth down into pieces to understand it

Timai

Spheres of Influence

Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus

Staged at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Athens had just suffered a plague of their own. Often considered the greatest Greek tragedy in existence. Sophocles makes many changes to the original myth to transform Oedipus from someone with a very specific tragedy to a figure that represents the tragedy of being human: we think we know much, when we actually know nothing

Prometheus

Steals fire and give it to humans when gods and men are coming to a settlement at Mekone (Distinguishing themselves). Humans occupy a miserable and uneasy intermediate position between gods and animals (Animals eat meat raw, Gods inhale the smell of it cooking, and Man eats it (like an animal), but cooks it (like a god)). Our punishment for the theft of fire is the institution of marriage (Like animals we must reproduce in order to survive, Like gods we must be concerned with succession). Woman is a fitting punishment for the theft of fire: like fire, she must be constantly fed and tended while consuming a man's labor. The list of goddesses who gave birth to heroes gives us a sense for how the reproductive principle has shifted; it is now men, not gods, who deal with the problems of birth and succession. Relief from the misery and toil of human existence is when singers sing of the famous deeds of men of old (homer) and of the blessed gods who dwell in Olympus (Hesoid)

Aetiologies

Stories about the past that explain something in the present

Telemachus

Sucks because every generation is worse than the one before it "Heroic" Journey Gets tucked in by his nurse Bursts in tears at a council meeting Gives his first command Harshly corrected by Athena in his first speech to Nestor Speaks to Menelaus with poise

Thebes

The Anti-Athens. Much older city than Athens. Its borders touch Athens' borders. In the Persian War, the Thebans had sided with the Persians against the rest of the Greeks. Animosity towards Thebes. Negative version of Athens. Plays based on Theban Royal Family

Sigmund Freud

The Interpretation of Dreams. Argues "we are not masters of our own houses". Believed that folktales, myths, and jokes are related to dreams in both form and content: myths are the dreams of an entire society. Myths reflect the mental development of primitive humanity: the repression of our primal urge to dominate in food and sex. Like dreams, myths are distorted from their literal meaning by the process of condensation and displacement. Since he considered myths the dream for a whole culture, myths also contain this method of condensation and displacement. Prometheus is a figure of condensation (He stands in for the fire god, for fire itself, and also for mankind). Myth shows displacement in that the complicated relationship between mankind and Zeus gets displaced onto a "safe" figure such as Prometheus. As a psychoanalyst, he argued that myth was a product of the subconscious/unconscious of the human mind. Because the human mind is the same in every time and place, they believed myths from ever culture would reflect the same themes, and had no interest in myth's origins

3rd Generation of Gods (Children of Rhea and Kronos)

The Olympians: Hestia (goddess of the hearth), Demeter (goddess of grain), Hera (goddess of the family), Hades (god of the underworld), Poseidon (god of the sea), Zeus (god of the sky)

Bernard de Fontenelle

The Origin of Fables. Myths are absurd, but they give us insight into the mindset of early mankind. Early man tried to explain the universe scientifically. However, his primitive mentality led to explanation through storytelling and exaggeration (myth)

Jung's Five Basic Archetypes

The Self, The Shadow, The Anima, The Animus, and The Persona. In any given myth all five may appear as a stand-in for the individual creating the myth. To perform a Jungian reading of myth, figure out which character is the self (usually the main character), which is the shadow, which the persona. If the main character is male, look for an anima; if female, an animus. In the Furies, Orestes is the self, Apollo is the persona (the hyper-rational side of himself he presents to the world), the Furies are the anima, his seething, repressed feminine qualities or Orestes' shadow

2nd Generation of Gods (Children of Gaia and Ouranos)

The Titans: Oceanus (fresh water), Koios, Kreios, Hyperion, Iapetus, Thea, Thea, Themis, Memory, Pheobe, Tethys, and Kronos

20th Century Trends

The focus on Greek mythology as the only type of myth worth studying it abandoned, and theorists turn to the myths of other cultures, comparing and contrasting them to Greek myth in order to find universal similarities. o Here myth is emphasized as the product of a social institutions, not the product of the human mind

Binary Oppositions

The most important logical relationship. Mutually exclusive, exact opposites of one another. Every myth will contain at least one set of these. Are not meant to be resolved by the myth, rather the myth dramatizes the tension between the opposed elements

Panhellenism

The realization that all Greek speakers were part of a larger Greek society and culture, including practicing a shared religion. Dates to the 8th century. Associated with the founding of the Olympic Games. Manifests itself in the founding of large religious shrines at Eleuis (Demeter), Delphi (Apollo), Delos (Apollo), and Olympia (Zeus/Hermes). Would likely have been sung on festival days for the entire Greek community at these common religious shrines. Play into the impulse of this by creating common stories for the gods and the founding of their major centers, and by avoiding purely local legends

Rules

The rules that govern language usage. You dont consciously know about it when you're using it but you know it

Sophocles

The second of the three canonical tragedians, and the longest-lived. Began staging plays in 468 (competing against Aeschylus) and outlived Euripides. Won first place more often than Aeschylus and Euripides and never came in third. Often considered the perfect tragedian- a balance between the grandeur of Aeschylus and the rhetorical flourishes of Euripides. The Theban Plays were not a connected trilogy like the Orestia, but were staged separately over a long period of time. First Antigone, then Oedipus Tyrannus, and the last Oedipus at Colonus

Current Usage

The way people actually use language. The form that the story of the myth takes

The Muses

They authorize poetry (they remember everything). They picked Hesoid, and gave him a staff. Breathed their voices into him. They tell him to sing of the gods first and last. They sing the Theogony in heaven

Features of Classical Myth

Transition from being an oral society to a written (rational, scientific) one. Homer, Hesoid, and the hymn's versions of myths are now the standards against which everything is measured, and variations are seen as significant. It's easier for us to see how myth is shaped by the historical forces and concerns of the classical Greeks (an later, the Romans)

Xenophanes of Colophon (570-475 BC)

Why are humans projecting human flaws on the gods and celebrating it through myth. The myths we create about the gods are culturally relative. Would rather talk to a guy who talks about philosophy at drinking parties than the "fictions of our predecessors"

Hesoid

Wisdom poetry. His two works: The Theogony and the Works and Days. Products of an oral tradition + Use the same meter and style (formulae, similies, ring composition). His works also seem to have been written down in the late 8th century. Some scholars believe they even predate homer's works, though most believe they are slightly later. Unlike Homer, Hes gives himself a name and a biography (Name is written into work). A farmer, has an idiot brother, muses then inspire him. Not sure if this is an actual person

Aphrodite

Zeus' daughter. Goddess of love and wife of Hephaestus

Athena

Zeus' daughter. Goddess of wisdom. Is not a threat to Zeus because her sole alliance is to her father. She combines both masculine and feminine qualities

Hesia

Zeus' oldest sister, not a threat to Zeus because she is a virgin

Demeter

Zeus' sister. Goddess of grain and agriculture. Second oldest sister. Not a threat to Zeus because she only has a daughter (no son)

Apollo

Zeus' son. Not a threat to Zeus because he is disarmed by the "gentleness" of his mother Leto

Hera

Zeus' wife. Goddess of marriage and the family

Troy

a real city on the Hellenspont and may have served as a center for trade. Archaeological evidence suggests there was a conflict there.

The Self

a same sex figure representing your totality as a self, or the inner part of your personality