Midterm 2 Greeks and Roman Mythology BYU

Poseidon's offspring includes a particular equine (horsey) "son" who was born from the bloody neck of decapitated Medusa. What is the name of that offspring?

Pegasus

Which of the following is NOT true of Pentheus' role in the Dionysos myth?

Pentheus crushes the cult of Dionysos before it took hold of his kingdom

Who lost the contest for primacy of Athens?

Poseidon

Macfarlane looks always for "Junior Sky Gods", those divinities most likely to overthrow Zeus and take his place ruling the next "dispensation". Maybe it'll be Athena. Name some attribute of Athena that you think qualifies her especially to maybe take over and rule if "something" should someday happen to Zeus.

She wields Zeus' aegis, she is born specially, she both/neither male-female...

According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, which of the following does Hermes NOT do on his first day of life?

Successfully defends himself on Charges of theft

Aeschylus won first prize for his trilogy of tragic plays in 458 BC. Individually, they are named Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides. But what is the title given to the trilogy as a whole? (Select the right one.)

The Oresteia

Maurizio wants you to know something about Apollo Musagetes, which is a cult title referring to one aspect of Apollo's divine activity. What does MUSAGETES, the Greek word, mean?

The leader of the Muses

Maurizio notes that the Athenians "created and canonized a series of adventures" for one of their local heroes so as to "shap[e] him into a civic hero who embodied and promoted the greatness of Athens." Who is this hero?

Theseus

Numerous young women in classical mythology are loved by Apollo and given a peculiar gift. Cassandra, the Cumaean Sibyl, the Pythia (priestess of Apollo at Delphi) are all "blessed" in similar ways. What is common to the "gift" they all receive from Apollo?

They are all gifted with prophecy, but the message is difficult for people to understand.

Macfarlane speaks of Hermes' "liminality". The term LIMEN is a Latin noun that means one of the following. Which noun below translates LIMEN into English?

Threshold

Athenians took pride in the birth-myth of Erichthonius, who was born from the earth after an unusual encounter between Athena and Hephaestus took place. The myth justifies the Athenians' claim that they are [blank]. (The one-word adjective begins with the letter a.)

autochthonous

Choose to fill the blank precisely: Theorizing about heroes generally, Maurizio says that "the careers of Achilles, Heracles, and Oedipus suggest that the Greek term HEROS differs [blank]_ from our modern understanding of the term 'hero."

greatly

You may not previously have encountered the term Maurizio uses to name ancient "hero shrines" in Greek. Select the term below that means "an ancient hero shrine".

heroon

How can anybody possibly justify the heroization (or horrification) of Oedipus after all he did?

solved Sphinx's riddle, rescued Thebes from plague, pursued truth against the most horrifying prospects, endured to the end

Ovid tells the story of an art contest between Arachne and Minerva. What was the artistic medium they contended over?

textile Weaving

Plutarch tells the story of Cleomedes who killed his wrestling opponent and sixty children. Maurizio notes that Cleomedes "does not offer a path for other men to follow," but Maurizio concludes that Cleomedes' deeds were ... what?

"Not exemplary but extraordinary"

In Greek myth various sun-gods hold the distinction of being The god of the Sun. Put them in chronological/mythological order, earliest to latest. - Apollo - Helios - Hyperion - Phoibos

- Phoibos - Hyperion - Helios - Apollo

The Mutilation of the Herms is an actual historical act of vandalism that occurred on the eve of the Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC. The message behind the mutilation, according to Maurizio, may have been the suggestion "that by participating in the Sicilian Expedition, the citizens of Athens were not [[blanking]____." (Fill that blank with one of the following.)

...fulfilling their protective duty

What are the 5 traits of a classical hero?

1) A hero was understood to be a man who had died 2) Heroes perform extraordinary deeds that may or may not be moral 3) Heroes die prematurely, violently, or mysteriously 4) Heroes were worshipped at their gravesites 5) Heroes obtain a form of immortality through song and cult

What is a hermaion?

A lucky Haul of Fish

Who was it that wrote the award-winning trilogy called The Oresteia (458 B.C., Athens), the one that explained what the foundation of Areopagus meant for the Athenians?

Aeschylus

When Poseidon offered a salt-spring and the horse, what did Athena offer at the Contest for primacy of Athens?

An olive tree

Aeschylus' Oresteia pits two "young" Olympians against each other in an attempt to work out the problems of patriarchy vs matriarchy, lasting justice, and the end of cyclical revenge. Athena wins the debate in the end, solving the crisis by establishing the Athenian Areopagus. Who is her Olympian rival in this debate?

Apollo

Walter Burkert said, with some humor but with a lot of concision, that this Olympian is "the most Greek of the Greek gods." Which divinity did Burkert have in mind?

Apollo

Cybele is an Anatolian (Near-Eastern) motherearth-goddess of tremendous influence and incredible potency. She bears affinity to Greek Hera, Aphrodite, and Artemis; but Maurizio associates Cybele especially "with Greek conceptions filtered by the Romans" with which goddess?

Artemis

Macfarlane's precious statue replicates a reduction of a famous sculpture in the Louvre, called the Diana of Versailles. The principal figure in the sculptures is iconographically similar to what Greek goddess?

Artemis

The Homeric Hymn to Apollo narrates Apollo's slaying of a gigantic snake, the Python, whose carcass rots in the sun. Where does this act take place, according to Greek legend?

At Delphi

Maurizio seems to consider The Statue of Liberty as an iconographic and thematic derivative of which Greek goddess?

Athena

Girls who "play the bear" at Brauron enact a ceremonian transformation in which the initiates abandon [blank] to become a socially responsible adult woman". What do they abandon, according to Maurizio?

Child selves

When we say that herms have an apotropaic function, we are speaking of which (of the following) property?

Defense

This Olympian is peculiar. Not least because he once died. He was dismembered by the Titans in the Titanomachy, had his heart given to Athena for re-engendering, and had other body parts buried near Delphi. The god's brutal dismemberment and rebirth makes him unique among Olympians. WHO IS IT?

Dionysus

Who is the son of Semele?

Dionysus

Apollo abducted a crew of sailors from Crete, according to the Homeric Hymn, and hijacked their ship to Delphi. What was the animal shape Apollo assumed when he performed this abduction?

Dolphin

Alcmene's son is in Zeus' mind when he declares that the child about to be born will become king of Tiryns and king of men. Hera, though, undermines Zeus' prophecy. Somebody else becomes king at Tiryns. Who turns out to fulfill that prophecy actually, because of Hera's intervention?

Eurystheus

True or False: Homer tells about how Paris shot Achilles in the heel in the Iliad. (Warning! Tricky question.)

False

True or False: Macfarlane thinks that Oedipus is a hero, because Oedipus murdered his father, married his mother, begot children with his mother, caused his sons to despise one another, and ruined a dynastic line in the process.

False

True or False: Euripides, according to Maurizio, reports a historically true account when he tells the story of Pentheus and Agave, for historical evidence suggests that in real life female worshippers of Dionysus engaged in such violence as the play narrates.

False, it's not based on real Historical/Evidence

According to classical mythology, what does Heracles do under the influence of divine rage that Hera inflicted upon him?

He murders Megara and their two children

Hermes is often called by his epithet, Argeiphontes, which means something in Greek? Which of the following below translates Argeiphontes into English.

He who slew Argus

Maurizio observes that "without her anger, Heracles would not have set out on his labors [and the path that led to his divinization]." Whom does Maurizio mean? Who conceived that anger?

Hera

What is the name of the child of Aphrodite and Hermes, a bisexed god who as an adsolescent swam in the pool of Salamacis?

Hermaphroditus

Maurizio describes the iconographic representations of a particular deity as "a beardless young man on the cusp or boundary of adulthood". Which god is she describing?

Hermes

Who is Maia's son?

Hermes

Speaking of Artemis, Maurizio explains that a particular young man in myth/cult "represents youthful virginity and devotion to Artemis that young girls must relinquish on marriage, [and] lamenting his death could be seen as a way for girls to recognzie and ritually mourn the end of their own youth and virginity." Who is the boy?

Hippolytus

The black-figure kylix shown (ca 530 BC) is famous for representing the earliest depiction of a ship under sail. It also depicts the narrative familiar from one of the Homeric Hymns. Which Homeric Hymn is depicted in this old cup?

Homeric Hymn to Dionysus

Earlier ages regarded KOUROI (shown in the image) as representations of Apollo. Scholars now do not regard KOUROI as representations of Apollo; but they are "Apollonian". — Explain in a few words how to get out of the circularity of this reasoning.

If Apollo were to be depicted, he would look like a kouros — youthful adult, handsome, composed; however KOUROI are no longer thought to be cult images of Apollo.

Agamemnon, grand general of the Greek expedition against Troy, unwittingly killed a deer sacred to Artemis at Aulis. The fleet could not sail until Agamemnon should sacrifice his eldest daughter, decreed the oracle. What is the daughter's name?

Iphigeneia

Did Theseus forget Ariadne on Naxos or purposefully abandon her?

It depends

The Roman god often equated with Greek Poseidon was in his essence "the Italic god of water ... protect[ing] watercourses and expanses of water threatened by evaporation in the heat of the summer." At his festival in mid July, not sea-faring but rather the creation of water-cooled shade was the focus. What is the name of the divinity?

Neptune