CLAS 131 Final Exam

Allegory

'a figurative sentence, discourse, or narrative, in which properties and circumstances attributed to the apparent subject really refer to the subject they are meant to suggest; an extended or continued metaphor'

Basic plot of The Golden Ass

Told in first person by character named Lucius, a young man from a well-off family. Opens with Lucius on business trip to a town in Thessaly, a region of central Greece famous for witches. Arrives in town, stays with a friend of a friend; meets his "aunt," who warns him that his host's wife is a witch and to avoid her. Lucius is intensely curious and starts an affair with his host's maid in order to learn about the witch. Finally persuades the maid to allow him to watch the witch at work; sees the witch turn herself into an owl. Lucius then tries to turn himself into an owl, but turns himself into a donkey instead. Antidote is to eat roses but, since none are at hand, the maid puts him in the stable until morning. In the middle of the night, bandits attack the house and steal the donkey Lucius to carry their plunder. Lucius has long series of humorous but often humiliating and painful adventures as a donkey; repeatedly tries to eat roses but is always thwarted. He eventually runs away; that night he is inspired to pray to the moon goddess to end his suffering. The goddess Isis appears and promises to help him; in return he must devote himself to her for the rest of his life. The next day Lucius encounters a procession of the goddess' worshippers; her priest gives him roses to eat; he regains his original form. The novel ends with Lucius initiated into the mysteries of Isis and becoming her worshipper.

Connections between the Bacchae myth and the actual cult of Dionysus in ancient Greece? In terms of _the meaning and development of particular cult practices_

•"eating the god": - Long-standing theory that early worshippers of Dionysus, in a religious frenzy, actually tore apart live animals and ate their raw flesh; the animals were believed in some way to represent and embody the god; by consuming the animal the worshippers were incorporating the god into themselves (literally!) At a still earlier stage of cultural development, a human rather than an animal victim may have been used to represent the god; the myth of Pentheus may thus reflect the original form of the cult. •Problems: - Actual evidence for these practices, outside of Bacchae itself, is very scanty and difficult to interpret. - Theory puts together different bits of information from different places; the full scenario is not found even in Bacchae. - Was this actually an early cult practice, or simply how the cult was imagined (compare the 'eastern origin' of Dionysus)?

Traditional conceptions of moral principles?

•'Justice is helping one's friends and harming one's enemies' (Polemarchus to Socrates, in Plato, Republic 1.334b) •'The virtue of a man is to excel his friends in doing good and his enemies in doing harm' (Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.6.35) •Medea's principles align perfectly with traditional Greek morality (harm enemies, ie. Jason, who harmed her even though she was a friend to him; however she may be harming her friends and herself in this process) •Public shame is important and Medea will not let others think of her as helpless

What kind of god was Dionysus thought to be? What does he embody?

•A god who is subject to no restraints; a god who can cross the boundary between animal and human •Dionysus is a god associated with release from the constraints of civilization, who breaks barriers and bursts bonds, who brings freedom from restraint (ie. mountains, wine, shackles) •Also the reversal of genders

Foundation myths

•A story about the origin of a community (national, ethnic, religious) that helps establish what it means to be part of that community •Foundation myths have tremendous power within a community; individuals and groups can exploit that power by appropriating the myth.

How the monuments of the Acropolis, and the rituals performed there, used local myth to shape communal identity among the Athenians

•Acropolis: - Mycenaean period: a citadel, possible site of palace, original settlement - Early Iron Age and early Archaic period: citadel but also religious center - c.600-480 BCE: primary function shifts from citadel to religious center; temple of Athena Polias ('of the city') and other shrines - 480 BCE: the Acropolis destroyed by the Persians during the Persian Wars - c.450 BCE: monumental reconstruction of the Acropolis begins, with Athens at the height of its power •Parthenon: - Temple of Athena Parthenos, 'the Virgin' - External sculptural decoration: pediment; metopes; frieze - East Pediment: panhellenic myth- birth of Athena; West Pediment: contest of Athena and Poseidon [A local myth about early Athenian history] •Erecheum: Contains Poseidon's sea and Athena's olive tree; shrine/sanctuary to Athena; shrine of Pandrosos (related to story of "Birth of Erichthonios")

The relationship of the Aeneid to the _pre-existing myth of Aeneas_

•Aeneas as heroic figure in Greek myth: prince of Troy, the son of Aphrodite and Anchises (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite). In Iliad, he is the Trojan hero second only to Hector, destined to survive the fall of Troy and rule its people in the future. •Aeneas' voyage to Italy: first mentioned by Timaeus (Greek historian in Sicily, early 3rd century BCE). Aeneas' visit to Carthage and affair with Dido: first mentioned by Naevius (Roman epic poet, late 3rd century BCE). Aeneas' rivalry with Turnus in Italy: first mentioned by Cato the Elder (Roman political leader and historian, mid 2nd century BCE) •Greek myth: Rome founded by Aeneas.// Roman myth: Rome founded by Romulus. Compromise: Aeneas as ancestor of the Roman people.

Arguments for/against the Aeneid as mere propaganda: _ending of Book 6_

•Aeneas leaves the underworld by the gate of false dreams (Ivory), why? - One possibility (first proposed by the 4th century scholar Servius): Vergil wants us to think that everything he's said is false. BUT Aeneas is not a dream and the "future" he sees is all genuine Roman history - Another possibility: Vergil just made a mistake. BUT Vergil took a long time on this so that's unlikely - A third: there as an ancient tradition that true dreams only appeared after midnight so Vergil was telling us Aeneid left before midnight BUT "that's dumb" - Wendell Clausen -This is mostly likely to be to leave Aeneas/the audience with a nagging sense of uncertainty

Thematic connections between the myth of Demeter and Persephone and the cult at Eleusis

•Aetiology: it explains the origin of the Mysteries at Eleusis by associating them with the myth of Demeter's search for Persephone: it was in that context that Demeter herself established the cult by ordering the construction of the Telesterion and teaching the Mysteries •Publicity: the author helped promote this local cult throughout the Greek world. The Hymn dates to 650-550 BCE; starting in 6th c. BCE, the cult becomes increasingly popular throughout the Greek world; Telesterion enlarged starting c. 550 BCE. Association with the Panhellenic myth seems to have helped the cult also become Panhellenic. •The worshipper identifies with the deity by undergoing in the initiation the same sorts of experiences that the deity is said to undergo in the myth. •In myth, mortals may share certain traits with particular deities and as a result may have a special relationship but there is always a distance. In cult as well, the distance between worshipper and deity is usually equally marked. The identification of mortal with god is found only in initiations and mysteries: a very distinctive relationship between myth and cult.

Parallels between the story of Psyche and the story of Lucius

•All the inserted tales in The Golden Ass in some way reflect themes or situations of the main story. •Both are young people from good families, with all the advantages in the world. •Both of them, through their own fault, become outcasts from society and endure a series of difficult and painful challenges. •Both of them in the end are saved. •In both stories, the main character insists on seeing something that he or she has been warned not to try to see, and a result is 'exiled' and undergoes many trials. •Both are in the end saved not by their own efforts but by the intervention of a deity.

Examples of Greek and Roman philosophers using myth to set forth and propagate their own views by _reinterpreting traditional myths_

•Allegorical interpretation: - to interpret a pre-existing story as an allegory (whether it was originally intended to be one or not). Allegorical reinterpretation of traditional Greek myths begins in the sixth century BCE; various kinds of allegorical interpretation develop. •Physical allegory: the gods represent aspects of physical world. Lucius Annaeus Cornutus (mid first century CE), Roman philosopher - Summary of Greek Theology: Hephaistos •Philosophical allegory: the gods represent philosophical principles. Cleanthes (331-232 BCE): Greek Stoic philosopher - Hymn to Zeus

Ara Pacis Augustus and mythic figures in its reliefs

•Altar of Augustan Peace: Decreed by Senate in 13 BCE, dedicated in 9 BCE; Large altar for animal sacrifices within an elaborate enclosure - Figure of Tellus ("Earth) or Pax ("Peace") or...? - Figure of Roma - Depiction of the Finding of Romulus and Remus - The Sacrifice of Aeneas (Carrying his father on his back)

Relationship of the wars in the second half of the Aeneid to the Roman historical context

•Although some of the figures and myths in 'the Gathering of the Clans' were probably invented by Vergil, the names of places and peoples were real enough: towns and peoples in the general vicinity of Rome. •Highly evocative of 'old Italy': local traditions and local place names, long since become 'Roman' and thus evocative of Augustus' claims to be the leader of Italy •Problem: at Actium, Augustus led the peoples of Italy against the peoples of the east; in the Aeneid, the opponents of the peoples of Italy are Aeneas and the Trojans, peoples of the east! War in the second half of the Aeneid evokes the idea of civil war, in that it pits two groups of Roman ancestors against each other. •Civil Wars of the late Republic: - Socinal War ('War of the Allies') or Marsic War ('War of the Marsi'), 91-87 BCE: between Rome and its Italian allies - Civil Wars, 88-82: between Sulla and the supporters of Marius - Civil War, 49-45: between Caesar and Pompey - Civil Wars, 42-31 (off and on): between Octavian/Augustus and others •Many of the original readers of the Aeneid had undoubtedly had their lives disrupted and lost family members and friends as a result of these civil wars: this would have been their primary frame of reference for the accounts of war in Books 9-12.

What is the _physical_ context in which Greek tragedies were first performed?

•An ancient theater (ie. Theater of Dionysus in Athens) was not an enclosed, interior space, but an open-air space consisting of three parts: - theatron: sloped seating area with benches - orchêstra: circular area where the chorus performed - skênê: small building at back of orchestra serving as both scenery and 'backstage' •Scale of venue and absence of technological enhancements and performances during the day: people in the audience are very aware of each other's presence (compare modern sports events) Performers had to give big performances!

Verbal images used by Aeschylus in Agamemnon? How does these relate to plot and themes of the play?

•Animal imagery: dogs, cattle, vultures, eagles, hares, lions, spiders, snakes •Light/dark, fire, blood, animal/human sacrifice •Woven things: Imagery of woven things gradually becomes concrete, and a part of the action (the fabric on which Agamemnon walks, the robe in which he's entangled); reflects plot and theme that everything has a consequence •The Furies: Goddesses that embody retribution for crimes against blood-kin

Mysteries of Demeter at Eleusis

•Annual festival organized around an initiation ceremony (Greek mystêria, 'secret rites', from Greek mystês, 'initiate') •Most Greek religious rituals were performed in public; initiation ceremonies ('mysteries') were secret, open only to past and current initiates, who swore not to divulge what took place in the ceremony •Initiation at Eleusis was available to all, including women, slaves, and foreigners; the only requirement was to be able to speak Greek and not to have committed murder •Celebrated for at least 1000 years, with as many as 3000 initiates a year at its peak •Public aspects of festival well known; details of the actual initiation ceremony still a secret •Follow a certain route and are initiated in Telesterion; initiation is still uncertain but there are references to "things done", "things said", and "things shown"

Key themes and focuses of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter?

•Apparently an aetiology of the seasons, with Persephone's time in the underworld connected to the dormant season and her return to Olympus with the spring BUT note: the author does not spell out this connection, and is much more interested in other aspects of the story, such as the relationship between mother and daughter. •The entire sojourn of Demeter in the house of Celeus at Eleusis, climaxing with the thwarted immortalization of Demophoön and ending with the construction of a temple at Demeter's command •Demeter's establishment of 'mysteries' at Eleusis after her restoration of agricultural fertility

Examples of Apuleius' incongruous handling of myth

•Apuleius treats the gods of myth like characters in fairy tales. •Gods are depicted, especially in the last part of the story, as people in the everyday world of the time (for example, Jupiter bound by the Roman law against adultery): anthropomorphism taken to the point of absurdity •'Cupid and Psyche' seems on one level to be a serious Platonic allegory about the soul's union with the divine, an allegory that may shed light on the meaning of his novel as a whole BUT at the same time, Apuleius deliberately undercuts the seriousness of this by his use of folktale motifs and comic incongruity; he thereby constantly pushes the reader to rethink what he is really doing.

Biography of Apuleius

•Born c.125 CE in Madauros in North Africa (modern M'Daurouch in Algeria) •Studied in Carthage (near modern Tunis) and Athens, spent time in Rome •Married wealthy woman in Oea (in modern Libya); led to accusation of magic •Ended up as a celebrity writer and intellectual in Carthage •Last datable writings: early 160s CE •Main surviving writings (all in Latin): The Golden Ass (or Metamorphoses); Apology, a courtroom speech in his own defense against the charge of magic; On the Doctrines of Plato, textbook of Platonic philosophy •Described himself as a Platonic philosopher

Actors in a tragedy

•Chorus a central element of drama from the start; Dithyrambs include narrations of myths; Late 6th century BCE (?): the chorus is supplemented with a solo performer, an actor who: - enacts a character in the narrative, rather than narrates in third person - speaks rather than sings, but still in meter (iambic trimeter) •One actor: monologues, dialogues between actor and chorus; Aeschylus adds second actor, and thus dialogues between two actors; Sophocles adds third actor, but three-way dialogues remain very rare •Each actor played more than one part: never more than three characters on stage at one time; There could be additional performers in nonspeaking parts (guards, attendants, etc.); Actors wore masks (with wigs attached): a different mask for each character; All the performers, actors and chorus, were men.

Defining characteristics of ancient Greek religion, especially the term "cult"

•Cult (from Latin cultus, 'veneration'): the rituals that linked humans and gods - Prayer; Offerings, including animal sacrifice; Divination •Belief implicit in practices, not made explicit in doctrine (ie. Not 'what are your religious beliefs?', but 'how do you show piety to the gods?') •No sacred scriptures: myth not equivalent to scripture - Scripture: fixed in a text; myth: not fixed in a text, but variable •No explicit moral code based on scripture - General notion that the gods approved of moral behavior and disapproved of immoral behavior •No separate institution: there was no 'separation of church and state' because there was no 'church'. - Rituals performed by individuals, for their own needs, or more commonly by groups: families (heads of households) and communities (priests and other officials) •The polis was a religious community as well as a political community •'A cult': the particular set of rituals used in the worship of a particular god in a particular place •All cults were local: each polis worshipped a particular subset of gods through its own distinctive set of rituals and festivals. Some local cults invited all Greeks to take part, and thus functioned as Panhellenic ('all Greek') cults

Sources for "Cupid and Psyche" in earlier Greek and Roman culture

•Cupid and Psyche was an inserted tale in the Golden Ass told by an internal character. It was the longest of the inserted tales and apparently invented by Apuleius. •Cupid: - Latin Cupido ("Desire") / Amor ("Love") - Greek Eros ("Sexual Desire") •By the late Classical period, Eros has acquired his familiar attributes/characteristics. - son of Aphrodite - mischievous boy - uses bow and arrows to make people fall in love. Euripides is the earliest extant writer to mention his bow and arrows. But the earliest example is from 490-480 BCE! •In the Hellenistic period, Eros also starts to get depicted in the company of a young girl with butterfly wings. - generally thought to be Psyche - Psyche (Greek) = Soul •No literary source before The Golden Ass records a story about these two characters. •Folktale motifs: plot elements, characters, or objects that occur again and again in traditional stories throughout the world •Whether Apuleius invented the story or adapted it from an oral folktale, he certainly introduced it into the story of Lucius (and into recorded literature).

Connections between the Bacchae myth and the actual cult of Dionysus in ancient Greece? In terms of _origin and development of the cult_

•Dionysus as a foreign god: - popular theory interpreted Bacchae as a fact that Dionysus originated in Asia Minor or Thrace and entered Greece only in Early Iron Age - BUT 15th c. sanctuary in Ceos shows "Dionysus" inscribed on earliest offerings and the name was found in Linear B tablets in s. Greece dating to c.1250 BCE. - So the myth doesn't give insight into the historical origin of the cult but into the Greek perception of Dionysus as an "alien" exotic god •maenadism: - "Bacchae" means "female bacchuses" where Bacchus is another name for Dionysus. Implies that worshippers of Dionysus did not simply praise him and make offerings to him, but identified themselves with the god through a kind of religious frenzy and ecstasy. In real life as well as myth, groups of women celebrated rituals of Dionysus on mountains. - Impossible to be certain: myth may reflect history (the hypothetical early stages of maenadism), but it's equally possible that history reflects myth (historical maenadism might have been deliberately created on the basis of the myths)

The relationship of the Aeneid to its _literary_ context

•Epic the most prestigious literary genre; a new epic was needed to celebrate Augustus. Vergil took this on; propaganda? Problem: should he write about Augustus himself? Problematic for both political and literary reasons. •Solution: instead of writing about Augustus, the new founder of Rome, he chose to write about Aeneas, the original founder of Rome. Used myth almost as a metaphor for talking about the present: the efforts of Aeneas evoke the efforts of Augustus; less obviously, Dido evokes Cleopatra.

How does Euripides present the story of Medea and why?

•Euripides at first pushes the audience to side with Medea. •He creates for the audience an acute moral dilemma: we begin (mostly) by sympathizing with Medea, but how far are we willing to go? This pushes the audience to reexamine traditional moral standards and expectations of gender roles

Greek influence on Roman myth and literature: _political background_

•Expansion of area of Roman control starting in late fifth century BCE •Dominant power in Italian peninsula by c.275 BCE •Expansion brought Rome into conflict with other major power of western Mediterranean: Carthage in North Africa (originally a Phoenician colony; Greek 'Phoenician' = Latin 'Punic') •Expansion of Roman power in the eastern Mediterranean beginning c.200 BCE •Rome assumes direct rule of mainland Greece in 146 BCE •Res publica (the people's business): assemblies, magistrates, Senate •Expansion of Roman power brings political and social upheaval; escalating political violence from 133 BCE •Major military leaders contest political supremacy; civil wars off and on from 91 to 31 BCE

What is the _cultural_ context in which Greek tragedies were first performed?

•Fifth-century BCE Athens: drama performed only at annual religious festivals in honor of Dionysus (especially the Dionysia in late March) •Entertainment, but in an official, public context: like town hall meetings. In such a context, poets could use myth to explore moral, political, and social issues of general public importance; hence Greek tragedy so often examines the human condition.

Main elements of the Forum of Augustus and their significance

•Forum: Latin term for 'public square, plaza' •Original forum in Rome: Forum Romanum: - served as center of public life, especially 'town hall meetings' (Senate meeting hall nearby) and court trials (compare 'forensic') - also a center of religious life: many ancient temples and shrines around the edge of the forum - Architecturally messy; developed haphazardly over the centuries •Forum of Caesar: - By the mid-first century BCE, the old forum was no longer sufficient for the amount of public business that needed to take place there. - Julius Caesar decided to construct a new forum nearby to relieve the pressure (and incidentally to celebrate his own achievements). - A planned, unified square centered on a temple and surrounded by colonnades on three sides - Provided an opportunity for the systematic visual elaboration of myth for political purposes: Venus Genetrix, 'the Ancestress' •Forum of Augustus: - Augustus completed Caesar's Forum. - Also followed Caesar's lead and built a similar forum of his own, but even more elaborate. - Vowed a temple to Mars Ultor, 'the Avenger', before his battle against the assassins of his father in 42 BCE. - Work begun c. 25 BCE, temple dedicated in 2 BCE. - Colonnades with statues of great Roman leaders in niches: statue of Aeneas in center on one side, Romulus on the other

Vergil

•Full name Publius Vergilius Maro (also spelled Virgil) •Born 70 BCE in northern Italy •Thorough education in literature (Greek as well as Latin) and philosophy •Eclogues, first collection of poems, c.40 BCE: short, highly sophisticated pieces combining Greek literary models with references to contemporary Roman culture •Attracts patronage of Maecenas, Augustus' 'minister of culture' •Georgics, next major work, c.30 BCE: didactic poem about farming; makes extensive use of earlier Greek and Latin models (including Hesiod). •Begins work on Aeneid; dies in 19 BCE leaving it unfinished (half lines). •His works almost immediately become literary classics; Aeneid becomes the Great Roman Epic.

Greek influence on Roman myth and literature: _cultural context_

•Greece: a cultural sphere defined by shared language, traditions (including myth), and cultural practices// Rome: an individual city in Latium, a specific region of Italy, whose inhabitants spoke Latin; earliest settlements c.1000 BCE, organized city-state by c.600 BCE (Archaic period) •Archaic period: time of Greek and Phoenician colonization and cultural expansion. Extensive Greek colonization in southern Italy as far north as the Bay of Naples; significant Greek cultural influence throughout Italy •Significant Greek influence on Roman culture starting in the Archaic period, esp. religion: Early Romans identified some native Italian deities with Greek deities, and applied the attributes and stories of the Greek gods to Italian equivalents; Early Romans adopted some Greek deities and heroes outright •Latin literature largely based on Greek models; further absorption of Greek myth via literature

_Hittite records_ used in assessing the probability of a historical Trojan War

•Hittite Empire in Turkey (c.1650-1200 BCE): People of central Asia Minor (Turkey), spoke an early form of Indo-European (most closely related to Greek; more distantly to Latin and Romance languages, Sanskrit and South Asian languages, etc.) •References to a city 'Wilusa' (= Ilion?) •References to a people in the west called 'Achijawa' (= Achaioi?, i.e., Achaeans, one of the usual terms for 'Greeks' in Homer); Compare inscription of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenophis III (c.1390-1350 BCE): 'Danaja' (= Danaoi?, i.e., Danaans, another Homeric term for 'Greeks') •Records show that the king of Achijawa protected a 'brigand' in Millawanda (= Miletus?) from the Hittites •Letter from the king of Achijawa to a Hittite king (prob. Hattusili II, c.1265- 1240 BCE) claiming Achijawan rule over islands in northern Aegean •evidence for conflicts along Aegean frontier

Key characteristics/attributes in ancient Greek conception of Dionysus?

•Holding drinking horn and grape vine or thyrsus (staff of fennel topped with a pine cone and often wound with ivy); Wearing garland •Notable deeds in hymn: Easily escapes capture by pirates through miraculous deeds: causes ropes to fall off; causes wine to flow forth, grapes and ivy to grow on the ship; turns himself into a lion, causes a bear to appear, turns pirates into dolphins

Changes that Aeschylus makes to Agamemnon from Homer's version

•Homer's version: While Agamemnon is absent in Troy, Clytemnestra takes Aegisthus as her lover; when Agamemnon returns, Aegisthus murders him, and Clytemnestra kills Cassandra; when Orestes grows up, he kills Aegisthus in revenge •Aeschylus' changes: 1. Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon; she kills him on her own, with no help from Aegisthus. 2. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus both have motivations for revenge. 3. Orestes, commanded by Apollo, kills not only Aegisthus, but also his mother Clytemnestra. •In Homer, the focus is simply on the infidelity of Clytemnestra and the vengeance of Orestes BUT In Aeschylus, the murder of Agamemnon becomes part of a series: each deed is tied to (woven into?) the next, and leads irrevocably to it. Underlying idea: the murder of blood-kin requires vengeance.

How is the resolution that justice is no longer simply equivalent to blood vengeance shown on the _human_ level?

•Human: The old principle of blood vengeance within the family is replaced by the new principle of justice administered through the jury system. •For this, there must be widespread acceptance that individual grievances must be resolved within the framework of the larger political and social community, that individuals do not have the right to exact vengeance on their own behalf, that in certain contexts the demands of family must give way to the demands of the polis.

Vergil and local myth

•Iliad, 'Catalogue of Ships': traditional list that probably in some form dates back to the Mycenaean period// Aeneid, 'Gathering of the Clans': a list concocted by Vergil, drawing in part on local/family traditions (Caeculus, Clausus) and in part on his own imagination (Umbro, Camilla) •Clausus (7.972-77): - leader of the Sabines - It was an old tradition of the Claudian family that their founder Attus Clausus had moved to Rome from the Sabines in the early days of the city. - Augustus' two stepsons by his second wife Livia were members of the Claudian family. •Umbro (7.1034-47): leader of the Marsi, people of central Italy east of Rome (associated with spells; Marruvium their capital; Angitia their goddess; Fucinus their lake) •Camilla (7.1104-22); leader of the Volsci, a people south of Rome; given pride of place in the 'Gathering of the Clans' - No prior tradition of a female warrior in Latin literature (although there is in Greek tradition: the Amazons)

The impact on myth of the shift from a largely oral culture to a largely literary culture

•In the Archaic and Classical periods, myths are increasingly incorporated into specific works of literature and art (Homer, Hesiod, tragedy, etc.), and hence become available to later generations in fixed literary and artistic versions as well as through the fluid oral tradition. •By the Hellenistic period, myths are increasingly known from the fixed versions found in specific works of literature and art; references to myths start to become references to literature and art.

_References in the Homeric epics_ used in assessing the probability of a historical Trojan War

•Increased knowledge of the Bronze Age allows us to realize that the Iliad contains many accurate references to Bronze Age culture - bronze rather than iron as the main metal - the use of chariots in warfare - ruler described as anax (cf. wanax in Linear B tablets) •The important Greek centers in the Iliad correspond to sites that were important in the Mycenaean period, but not the archaic period and later 'Catalogue of Ships' (Iliad 2.484-759), a list of Greek forces: most of the places mentioned are known to have been inhabited in Mycenaean times, but some permanently abandoned at the end of that period. •No mention of Greek settlement on coast of Asia Minor (which took place c.1000 BCE)

Relationship between Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the mysteries at Eleusis?

•Initiates walked to Eleusis and fasted before the initiation •Torches commonly associated with the mysteries •Arrive at Eleusis near the Kallichoron Well, considered to be the one Demeter sat by •Initiates broke their fast by drinking "kykeôn," something stirred up •Telesterion was where Demeter asked her altar to be built •Mysteries were performed every year and initiated never revealed them to non-initiates •The chief priesthood, historically, belonged by inheritance to the family of the Eumolpids, "the sons of Eumolpus"

What choices did Euripides make to the basic plot about the story of Jason and Medea? How did he portray the main characters

•Jason and Medea are not the rulers of Corinth, but resident aliens; Jason's success is due entirely to Medea; Jason deserts Medea to marry the daughter of the king; In response, Medea deliberately kills her own children •Jason: distinctly non-heroic, self-serving, glib Medea: a victim, a woman who gave up everything for Jason only to be abandoned by him; but also dangerous, clever and capable, determined, and very vengeful

Chief conventions of Greek tragedy as a genre?

•Lots of tragedies written but only surviving were: 7 from Aeschylus, 7 from Sophocles, and 19 from Euripides •Origins of tragedy obscure; probably a development of the dithyramb, a type of hymn in honor of Dionysus that was written in lyric meters and sung by a group (a chorus) in a performance that included movement and dancing - strophe: 'turn'// antistrophe: 'counter-turn' •Basic format of tragedy: alternation of spoken and sung segments. The chorus performs songs and dances as interludes between the action (also called 'choruses'); these comment on the action but don't contribute to it.

Is Euripides simply confirming negative stereotypes of women or is he exploiting negative stereotypes of women in order to force people in general to reconsider their own moral behavior?

•Medea appeals to the Chorus as everywoman, successfully: Medea will vindicate women against men •He ends the first two speeches of Medea to the chorus, speeches that elicit a sympathetic response, with statements of these stereotypes •A possible thesis: Medea's confusion of friends and enemies seems to stem from her excessive passion for Jason, whether love or hate; "isn't that just like a woman" •Another possible thesis: Medea is passionate, but never out of control; what is terrifying about her is precisely her calculated determination to follow the logic of traditional morality to the end.

Main issues involved in evaluating the historicity of ancient Greek myths

•Minimal hypothesis: the Iliad preserves some memory of Bronze Age raids, sieges, and battles, but not necessarily a single (much less a ten-year) siege of Troy.// Maximal hypothesis: the Iliad preserves the basic story of an actual campaign along with numerous particular details (notably the names of leaders and participants, as found in the Catalogue of Ships), but shows no awareness of wider political context. •General conclusions: As stories of actual historical events were passed down over the generations, political complexities were simplified or edited out, figures and events were romanticized, and unbelievable feats and divine figures were introduced. It's now impossible to determine what the original event might have been without other independent sources, and even then we can normally only speculate about the general historical context. •We rely on external sources, especially archaeology: excavations at Troy; discovery of Hittite empire and its written records; even the internal evidence of Homer becomes significant only in context of archaeological research into Mycenaean population centers and Bronze Age warfare practices. Without external sources against which to evaluate the myths, impossible to assess: we can't do it simply on internal grounds (except to eliminate the fantastic)

Imagery and themes in Libation Bearers

•More woven things •Animals: ESP snake •Furies become more concrete •Themes of vengeance and justice are constantly mentioned; in order for Orestes to avenge his father, he must murder his mother

Dionysia

•Multi-day festival in honor of Dionysus. First day: public procession to temple of Dionysus adjacent to theater), ending with sacrifices to the god at altar in theater. One day: competition of dithyrambs (choral hymns in honor of Dionysus); each of the ten subdivisions of Athens sponsored a men's chorus and a boy's chorus. One day: five writers of comedies competed, each producing one play each •Three days: competition of tragedies: - City official commissioned three poets to compete - Each poet staged three tragedies and a satyr play on one of the days - Three tragedies could all present one interconnected story (trilogy), but need not - Poets in the competition were awarded first, second, and third prizes

The Later History of Greek and Roman Myth

•Myth begins as an anonymous, oral tradition, passed down over several generations •As Greek (and Roman) culture becomes more literate, myth becomes more and more embedded in works of literature and art, more and more an aspect of elite culture; handbooks ('idiot guides') become popular. •Although myth and cult never formed a coherent whole, they were indissolubly linked: both referred to the same gods. •As traditional Greek and Roman religion gave way to Christianity in the fourth century CE, traditional myth was displaced from the center of Greco-Roman culture. •Its place was taken by new myths: stories from the Hebrew scriptures, stories about Jesus and his followers, stories about new Christian heroes (martyrs and saints). •These Christian myths were dominant during the Middle Ages; some knowledge of traditional Greek and Roman myth survived, but it was of very limited cultural importance. •With the revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman literature and culture in the Renaissance (15th-17th centuries), traditional Greek and Roman myth became a renewed source of inspiration for literature and art. •People may have no longer believed in the gods depicted in myths, but they again used the myths to examine important social, moral, and artistic issues.

The place of myth in ancient Greek religion

•Myth dealt with many issues other than the gods. •Myths about the gods provided a way to think about the nature of the gods and the relationship between gods and humans; cult provided another way, one that was not necessarily correlated with myth. •Nevertheless, myth and cult intersected in important ways: 1. Since individuals cults were almost always local, Panhellenic myths, known to all Greeks, had an important role in promoting the idea that all Greeks really worshipped the same gods. 2. Local myths often served as aetiologies for local cult practices (e.g., the myth of Pandrosos and her sisters and the festival of the Arrhephoria at Athens). 3. Both Panhellenic and local myths were often visually present at cult sites. (eg. The depiction of the contest between Athena and Poseidon on the west pediment of the Parthenon)

Development of philosophy as alternative to traditional myth?

•Myth had an indispensable role in archaic Greek culture: it was used to explore ideas about the nature of the divine, the relationship of people to the divine and people's relationships with one another in both family and political contexts, and was the primary way of remembering the past and shaping communal identity in the present •Starting in the 6th c. BCE, an increasing number of thinkers began to use rational analysis in order to challenge traditional wisdom; the 'Greek Enlightenment'; context for Euripides. Beginnings of philosophy, mathematics, medicine, history, and rhetoric. Associated primarily with prose rather than poetry •Thinkers developed new modes of rational analysis that provided an alternative to myth as a way of thinking about particular aspects of human experience: History as an alternative to myths about the human past; Philosophy as an alternative to myths about the divine and its relationship to humanity

Reasons for reading the story of Cupid and Psyche as an allegory

•Names: Cupid = Love, Psyche = Soul. •Some similarities to the allegorical myths in the works of philosophers, especially Plato •Apuleius as a Platonic philosopher: - Described himself that way and wrote a textbook of Platonic philosophy - Described that way in the manuscripts of his works - An inscription from his hometown of Madauros shows that a public statue was erected to a 'Platonic philosopher': the name is lost, but it was probably Apuleius. •'Cupid and Psyche' as allegory of Platonic philosophy: perhaps 'the soul raised to the realm of the divine by means of love'? 'When the Soul actually sees Celestial Love, it tries to cling to it and ascend to heaven, but its strength is not sufficient; it is only when Celestial Love on its own initiative raises it to heaven that it becomes immortal'

Theme of loss in Vergil's descriptions of warfare

•Nisus and Euryalus (9.241-711) - an episode invented by Vergil - based on night sortie by Odysseus and Diomedes in Iliad Book 10, with significant changes: Odysseus and Diomedes are seasoned heroes who wreak havoc and escape without difficulty; Nisus is young and Euryalus even younger, they wreak havoc but die. •Fathers and sons - Anchises/Aeneas/Ascanius - Evander/Pallas - Mezentius/Lausus (7.890-99) •Surrogate fathers and sons - Anchises and Evander (8.210-25) - Aeneas and Pallas (8.696-701)

Herodotus' and Thucydides' treatments of the Trojan War

•Not 'a' myth, but a very extensive and complex set of interrelated myths of the events leading up to the war, during the 10 years of the actual war, and in the aftermath of the war •Herodotus: - Inquiry: Herodotus travelled extensively throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, recording stories by local informants relevant to conflict - Greeks and barbaroi: Persian Wars as confrontation between Europe and Asia (the modern Middle East) - Why: Causes of human events; Reciprocity: every action is provoked by an earlier one, and in turn provokes another •Thucydides: - Part of his opening argument that the Peloponnesian War was greater than any earlier war - Rationalizing treatment of traditional tales - Critical evaluation of evidence - Economic, social, and political analysis (not moral, as in Herodotus) •Historians like Herodotus and Thucydides also accepted it as a real event, but analyzed it in the same way as they did other historical events and historians did the same as philosophers in using rational analysis to transform myths about the human past into history.

What were some other references to Jason and Medea?

•Odyssey: The only ship to escape the Clashing Rocks is the Argo, when Jason was sailing home from the land of Aeetes. (No reference to Medea at all.) •Theogony: genealogy (Helios is father of Circe and Aeetes, Aeetes is father of Medea) & Jason completes labors set for him by king Pelias, takes Medea to Iolkos; she bears a son named Medeus •Eumelus, epic Corinthia: Medea is heir to throne of Corinth through her father Aeetes, and she makes Jason king; Tries to make her children immortal, but instead they die; Jason then leaves her, and she abdicates •Alternative stories about childrens' deaths: The women of Corinth, unwilling to have a foreign sorceress as queen, rise up against Medea and kill her children; Medea (for unknown reasons) kills Creon, king of Corinth, and flees to Athens. Unable to take her children, she leaves them in a temple for protection; but Creon's relatives kill them anyway.

How is the resolution that justice is no longer simply equivalent to blood vengeance shown on the _divine_ level?

•Over the trilogy, the gods steadily move closer to the human level. The Furies act as the prosecutor, Apollo as the defense, and Athena as the judge. •The Furies, who represent the old principle of blood vengeance, are old gods (children of Night); Apollo and Athena, who represent the new principle of justice through the jury system, are young gods (children of Zeus) •Resolution on the divine level: the new gods win, but the old gods do not entirely lose; rather, they are assimilated into the new system and given a new place of honor.

Special connections with chorus and audience?

•Physically, the chorus is between the actors and the audience. •The chorus interacts with actors but does not contribute to the action; they simply observe and comment. Their role within the play is largely that of an internal audience.

Significance of context and conventions for understanding Greek tragedy as a distinct genre

•Place: one location, outside; Time: continuous action; Action: no violent action depicted onstage •messenger speech: monologue used to describe violent or otherwise unstageable action that takes place offstage •ekkyklema: a wagon used to bring bodies on stage (as at end of Agamemnon) •General points: Not meant to be realistic at all, but a highly stylized spectacle, combining poetry, music, dance, and masks/costumes; Changes over time: role of chorus generally declines (contrast Oresteia with Hippolytus and Medea); tragedy in certain respects becomes more 'realistic'

Examples of Greek and Roman philosophers using myth to set forth and propagate their own views by _inventing new myths_

•Plato: the 'Myth of Er', from the very end of The Republic (Book 10) - A vision of what happens after death. Plato believes: The souls of the unjust are punished, those of the just rewarded. After they are punished or rewarded, the souls get to choose a new life. They then drink from the River of Forgetfulness. - Allegorically: We have the ability to choose what sort of life we live, and philosophy is the best guide to making that choice

Satyr plays

•Plots taken from myth: only complete surviving satyr play, Euripides' Cyclops, tells story of Odysseus and the Cyclops •Chorus consists of satyrs and their 'father' Silenus, with their typical behavior: obsession with drinking and sex, bravado mixed with cowardice •Include much humor, but were not the same genre as comedies

Analyze aspects of Vergil's literary technique in the Aeneid, especially the use of metrical effects, literary allusions, and imagery

•Process of composition: - Wrote prose sketch of entire poem, divided into books - Turned prose into verse, bit by bit - Revised and revised: a few lines a day - 10 years in total! - Written very slowly and carefully, and meant to be read slowly and carefully •Metrical effects - Vergil: dactylic hexameter (long-short short, times six): meter of Homeric epic, adapted into Latin by Ennius (early second century BCE) - Robert Fitzgerald: iambic pentameter (unstressed-stressed, times five): meter of classic English narrative and dramatic poetry (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton) - Techniques to avoid monotony and create emphasis and meaning: Deliberate disruptions to regular metrical scheme; Coincidence or lack of coincidence between sense unit (sentence, clause) and metrical unit (line) •Literary allusions and imagery - Aeneas and loss: of wife, of father, of mother

Developments in Roman history important for an understanding of the Aeneid

•Roman Civil Wars: - Julius Caesar vs. Pompey the Great (49-45 BCE) - Octavian (Caesar's adopted son) vs. Marc Antony (left) and Cleopatra of Egypt (right) •End of Civil Wars: - Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra at the naval Battle of Actium (31 BCE) - Octavian becomes sole ruler of Roman world and takes the name 'Augustus'; first 'emperor', 31 BCE-14 CE

Myth and history

•Settings: usually real places in the ancient Greek world •Characters: with a few exceptions, main characters are humans, generally identified as rulers of identifiable places •Many ancient Greek myths are stories about the human past; hence their inherent connection with history •Prior to the spread of literacy, the main way to preserve stories about the past would have been by means of traditional tales and oral story-telling. (ex. bards) •As stories about the past are passed down orally, they become 'mythicized': Details eliminated, complexity reduced; Characters and events exaggerated; Significance for current audience emphasized; Wider historical context lost; Divine and fantastic elements added; Variations introduced

Compare the use of myth in these monuments to Vergil's use of myth in the Aeneid

•Similarities with the Aeneid: - Political use of communal foundation myths: presentation of Augustus as culmination of Rome's history, from its foundation (Aeneas and Romulus, in both the Forum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis) down through the centuries (galleries of Roman leaders in the Forum of Augustus) to the present (peace, prosperity, and piety in the Ara Pacis Augustus) •Differences from the Aeneid: - Much less complexity and nuance: no allusions to tragedy or loss - Much more widely accessible: visible and understandable to everyone, regardless of their education

Examples of philosophical explanations for the origin of myth?

•Sisyphus: a tragedy from which only one long quotation survives; attributed to Euripides by one of the writers who quotes it and by the others to the sophist Critias; says that the gods were deliberate fiction, invented as a way to maintain social order

_Archaelogical remains_ used in assessing the probability of a historical Trojan War

•Site of Troy identified with the classical Greek city Ilion (Latin Ilium) •Heinrich Schliemann devoted himself to archaeology of the Homeric world; published book of theories about the Trojan war and archaeological sites; began excavations at Hisarlik, now Turkey; discovered remains of major citadel, together with other metal work he called "Priam's Treasure" and tried to smuggle out of country; excavated Mycenae and discovered more treasure •Later excavations at Troy by Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Carl Blegen, Manfred Korfmann, Tübingen, and Brian Rose •Archaeology of Troy: - Ten levels (lower numbers denote lower levels and so earlier settlements); more or less continuously inhabited from c.3000 BCE to c.1200 CE - Troy VIIa (the long-time chief contender for Homeric Troy): c.1270-c.1190 BCE. Date about right; Violently destroyed; human remains found in houses and streets; arrowheads found; Long thought to be only a hilltop fort (a problem for identifying it with Homeric Troy), but most recent excavations revealed a city of some 20 hectares (about 50 acres): one of largest Aegean settlements of its day

Ancient Greek stereotypes about women

•Strong misogynistic streak •General acceptance (among men!) of the idea that women are inferior to men: physically, mentally, emotionally •Women did not fight or hunt. Mythic exceptions prove the rule: Athena, Artemis; Amazons •Women normally did not take part in political life or public life in general, with the exception of religious ritual. •Women in classical Athens were expected to have limited contact with men outside their families.

Major ways that Vergil in the Aeneid transforms material from the Homeric epics

•Structure and plot: - Aeneid 1-6: parallels Odyssey (in reverse) - Aeneid 7-12: parallels Iliad (in reverse) •Major characters at Human level: - Dido in Aeneid: Calypso and Circe in Odyssey - Turnus in Aeneid: Hector (and Achilles) in Iliad •Major characters at Divine level: - Athena in Odyssey: Venus in Aeneid - Poseidon in Odyssey: Juno in Aeneid •Triadic structure of the Aeneid and its relation to earlier literature: - Books 1-4: Dido and Carthage (love/tragedy: compare Medea and Phaedra in Euripides) - Books 5-8: Transitional - Books 9-12: Turnus and Italy (war/epic) •Major episodes: - Aeneid Books 2-3: Odyssey Books 9-12 (hero [Aeneas/Odysseus] tells host [Dido/Alcinous] the story of his adventures up to that point) - Aeneid Book 6: Odyssey Book 11 (hero visits the land of the dead in order to learn of his future) - Many other episodes based on Iliad •Minor episodes: very numerous - Odyssey 5.1-163: Zeus send Hermes to Calypso to tell her to send Odysseus on his way; parallel scene in Aeneid where Jupiter sends Mercury to tell him to attain his destiny

Arguments for/against the Aeneid as mere propaganda: _tragedy of Dido_

•The foundation of the Roman people is destined, but to achieve that destiny is not simple. •Two challenges face Aeneas: Difficulties in reaching Rome and in fighting the inhabitants once he gets there. •Two main human obstacles: Dido, a temptation, and Turnus, an opponent. •Aeneas does give into temptation with Dido. When Dido is removed as an obstacle, is this a good thing? Dido and Aeneas have both fled disaster at home and have led their people to establish a new city in distant lands but she dies so it is tragic that her downfall was falling in love with Aeneas

The relationship of the Aeneid to its _political/historical_ context

•The victory of Octavian (Augustus) at Actium in 31 BCE allowed him: to attain virtually absolute political power over the Roman empire by eliminating the last of his rivals; to restore peace, stability and prosperity to the Roman world: reality as well as propaganda •'Augustus': adjective with connotations of divine approval and prosperity; Augustus as the 'New Founder' of Rome; Cultural revival: art, architecture, and literature all utilized in promoting the ideals of the new regime

The development of history as part of the Greek "Enlightenment"

•Thinkers of the Greek 'Enlightenment' (6th-5th c. BCE) challenged the authority of myth by using rational analysis (logos.) Philosophy as an alternative way to think about the divine and its relationship to humanity & History as an alternative way to think about the human past. Poets continued to compose poems about recent events, like the bards in the Odyssey •Hecataeus of Miletus (late 6th-early 5th c. BCE): wrote in prose; only fragments survive. Wrote Genealogiae. •Herodotus of Halicarnassus (c.485-c.420 BCE): 'Father of History', wrote Histories, long prose account in 9 books of Persian Wars (490 and 480-79 BCE) and their origins •Thucydides of Athens (c.460-c.400 BCE): Peloponnesian War, long prose account of war between Athens and Sparta

Arguments for/against the Aeneid as mere propaganda: _implications of the death of Turnus at the end of Book 12_

•Turnus is a very Homeric hero: cause of anger, the woman promised to him is given to another; desire for glory and delight in battle. Do we treat it as good news when he is removed? An odd ending for an epic: abrupt, grim & Parallels with Iliad's anger of Achilles •'Pious' Aeneas: Aeneas cannot simply follow his desires, whether for death and glory in battle or for love and security with Dido; instead, he must set aside his own desires and emotions and devote himself to doing his duty to the gods and his people. •Iliad ends with Achilles letting go of his anger but Aeneid ends with Aeneas at height of his anger out of a desire for revenge; Aeneas at his worst •This is equally as tragic as Dido's death; not so much because of Turnus' story, but because of Aeneas'.

How does Vergil insert the figure of Augustus into the myth of Aeneas?

•Vergil drew on existing connections. •Genealogical connections: - the genealogy Venus-Aeneas-Ascanius goes back to early Greek tradition; by the 2nd century BCE, the Julian family (Iulius) had identified Ascanius with their ancestor Iulus. - Presented Augustus (adopted son of Julius Caesar) as direct descendant of Aeneas •Thematic parallels: - original founder/new founder - pietas, 'an attitude of dutiful respect towards those to whom one is bound by ties of religion, consanguinity, etc.' - Augustus: presented himself as motivated by piety towards his father and devotion to the common good// Aeneas: characterized by piety towards his father and the gods and devotion to the common good •Usually Aeneas "stands for" Augustus as a general parallel but he is included himself in three key passages: - Book 1: The coming of Augustus foretold in the speech of Jupiter to Venus - Book 6: Aeneas visits the land of the dead; his father reveals to him his descendants and the future heroes of Rome: history presented as prophecy. This scene, the parade of Roman heroes, shows that the power of Rome and Rome's destiny will extend to the ends of the earth - Book 8: Venus, having asked Vulcan to forge arms for Aeneas, now presents them to him; Vergil ends the book with an extended description of the carvings on the shield (Ecphrasis: the detailed description of an object, usually a work of art, as a literary device). This shield shows the future story of Italy/triumphs of the Romans and Augustus is at the center

Examples of the philosophical criticism of myth?

•Xenophanes of Colophon: the application of logos to ideas about the gods ('theology') and the rejection of earlier mythic ideas •Sophists (from Greek sophos, 'wise'): Itinerant teachers in the fifth century BCE who helped spread new ideas and new approaches to important questions, especially through the application of logos; often criticized by conservatives who saw them as subversive of traditional values •Socrates: called himself a philosophos (a lover of wisdom); had convos with people to encourage them to reexamine their values and beliefs •Plato: follower of Socrates, wrote dialogues on philosophical topics; Republic is a very long dialogue centering on the problem of defining justice, but covering a range of topics (ontology, epistemology, ethics, politics); central part is a thought experiment: if we were to establish an ideal society (polis), how would we organize it? •Plato's Criticisms of myth: 1. To attribute immoral behavior to the gods is to set a bad example 2. The gods are by definition morally good; it is therefore false to say that they cause harm to humans 3. The gods are by definition perfect; it is therefore false to claim that they can change shape 4. The gods cannot by definition be ignorant or weak; therefore they cannot deceive

Importance of myth in shaping communal identity and ideology?

•myths of divine presence and favor for the land and its people, especially that of Athena but also that of Poseidon •myths of autochthony (from Greek autochthon, 'sprung from the soil itself') •Panhellenic myths told throughout Greek world, with general significance while local "foundation myths" were closely connected with particular locations and the history of peoples and places