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Supernatural beings are the main characters, depicted as superior to humans in power and splendor. At times take on human or animal shape at will, control forces of nature: thundar, storm, rain, fire, earthquake. Conflicts take place on immense scale involving whole continents, high mountains, seas.
takes place in a world before or outside the present order where time and space have different meanings than the familar. Many gods in the tales are also venerations of cults serve a specific etiological function -which explains causes |
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| Attempt to answer what happened in the human past, bc the human past explains and justifies the human present. Central characters are humans not gods and goddesses -drawn from ranks of nobility, have extrordinary physical and personal qualities . Most Greeks have no doubt that these people existed and they probably did exist at some time. like divine myths serve a specific etiological function -which explains causes |
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central characters are normal humans, underdog triumphs in the ends- contains folktale types and motifs- example a younger mistreated sister
- is a constellation of motifs that consitutes an independent story that is a story that makes sense in itself and does not depend on its relation to a larger story |
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| are not commonplace events, people or incidens, but are always distinctive or unusual in some way . sister example |
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| often found in greek myth ex: the quest |
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| example: creation myth. Explains the causes that brought the world into existence |
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Men
The boy grew up in the female quarters by their mothers but had to leave once they reached puberity and then they moved to the male quarters
-boys and girls raised by their mothers but also were expected to go to school- they had to memorize the illad and the oddesy
^ they had the status of being the national poems of Greece
after they left the female quarters they were handed off to paidajojos- the paidajojos was there to accompany the boys to make sure they don’t get in contact with the wrong kind of ppl
a lot of the learning was done in the gymnatisuim which meant naked bc everyone was naked while exercising –also a place of learning
the boys started to become secually active but they could not go to have sex with girls but their were many brothels but was not nessacarly shameful –girls that were slaves
Hetairai – a lady of pleasure who may sleep with a man, highly educated women who would carry themselves with pride and self respect but whose favor a man had to win
Women who hadn’t gotten married slaves who gained freedom – they were not so interested in adolesent boys
Pederasty- love for boys
Mentors are made for the boy with permission of the parents
Allowed sexual activiety but with no sexual satisfaction
The older generation would masterbate with the boys legs crossed – intercrural the boy takes the place of a women and to an extent pretends to be a women
That was accepted in society when the youth remains passive and doesn’t get any enjoyment of allow himself to be sodimized
They could continue this when married
In the greek mindset what triggers sex is beauty
Unhibited when it comes to sex
Then are married and are expected to become soldiers
Lesbos- island lived a women in the 7 century bc Sappho in the acheic period a poetess – in one of the poems she describes a girl
Men would often die at combat women died in childbirth but if you got past that you lived a long life
Men became citizens at the age of 21 |
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ideally tall beautiful, submissive, fertile, chaste, silent and virtually invisible to those outside the home.
Women described in literature as ready to lie and scheme to achieve their selfish aims
classical period: girls of good birth would grow up in the gynaikeion "womens quarters" located in the back of the house or on an upper floor where she learned the female art of spinning wool, and making cloth- next to this childbearing was her only other occupation
rarely learned to read and write
greeks were monogamous, offspring from one wife at a time were the mans legitimate heirs
marriage was arranged
in case of divorce the man had to return the dowry
the groom was 30 the female in her tens
wedding was the high poin in her life
groom took her by the wrist- a sign of staged abduction and she left her mothers rule to that of her mother and law and husband
by late teens was a mother
by 35- a grandmother
by 50 if she lived she would be a great grandmother
respectable women only outdoors during certain religious festivals when she averted her eyes from men and covered her head
only ones to take care of dead |
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made up one fourth or one third of the workforce in classical athens and even men of modest means owned them. THey made possible the leisure essential to athenian democracy allowing citizens to argue the law courts, debate public policy in the assembly and fight their enemies on land and sea, practice rhetoric, , history and science
slaves were property and had no enforceable rights
Could receive salaries and save for their freedom |
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had many gods but they did not make the world but dwelled with it, no greek god was all powerful but some controlled different spheres of interest with sometimes overlapped.
the gods did not love humans but had some favorites and did not asked to be loved by them. They expected respect and honor but could act contrary to human needs and desires. They did not reveal their will in writing. The priest had no writings to interpret were required only to perform riturals-bc female and male gods also female and male priest |
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| in which the principal settlement in ancient times was the city of thebes |
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| Southwest of Boeotia with athens as its capital |
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named for the enormous stone citadel of mycenae in the peloponnesus
greek speaking indo-europeans took over the site about 1650
immensely wealthy tombs from about 1600 bc prove its richness and importance and provide a convenient date for the beginning of the mycenaean age
powerful kings ruled the greeks- they constitued a military and an aristocratic elite
lovers of war who used bronze weapons
rode to battle in horse drawn chariots
concentrated great wealth
kings built strong holds from which they supervised highly controlled and centralized local economies - their greates centers of power were mycenae, thebes, orchomeanus in boeotia, athens in attica, pylos in messenia and a site near sparta
mycenaean palaces were strongly fortified
mycenaean greeks called themselves Achaeans
destroyed in 1450 bc
the palace was rebuilt but destroyed again by 1400 bc
ruins containing nonalphabetic script called linear b-supported the palace economy
the coincidence between centers of power in mycenaen times and important locations in cycles of greek legend suggest that many greek legends originated at this time |
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few remains survive, a time of profound social disorganization, depopulation and impoverishment. Petty kings with only local authority replaced by the great monarchs of the mycenaean age. many settlements were split by tribal and family feuds and in the dorian areas by a great gulf between master and subjects
what civilization remained remained centered on the island of euboea- only settlements to carry on direct trade with the near east
the greek alphabet first appears on Euboea where the poems of homer and hesiod may have been written down begining the archaic period |
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| a story that explains the origin of gods and their rise to power |
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Start of democracy
the persians attempted to attack twice while it was a democracy and faile
the second victory of the persians marked the dividing point between the archaic and classical period
after the victory a runner ran 25 miles then died of exhaustion
this is when the great men of athens -herodutus sophocles euripides aristophanes lived etc
polis reached its most effectiveness
the independent city states strugged constantly and murderously against each other but the greeks maintained the sense of being a single people spoke a common language and used common technology of writing and called themselves Hellenes |
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| a story that explains the origin of the world |
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| "chasm" implicit in the word is the separation of two things to make a gap in the middle - first to appear |
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| earth. Asexually bore uranus- sky and the mountains on her upper side, then bore the sea-pontus. and then with uranus produced the titans and also 3 cyclopes and the mighty hecatonchires "hundred handers" |
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| the sky which came from Gaea and was the same size as her |
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| Appeared after Chaos "sexual love or attraction"the source of motion that brings sexual beings together to produce more offspring. is a being as well as the forces that drives hesiods complex genealogies - he also never says that gaea eros and tartarus sprung from chaos |
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| produced with Gaea and Uranus 6 male and 6 female -word has unknown meaning |
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| birthed from gaea - in hesiod's tales cyclopes combined wisdom of the metallurgist with strength. they were clever smiths of the gods that took raw iron from the depths of the earth their mother and made the irresistible weapon of victory- lighting |
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| a titan who would contend with uranus for power is the last born |
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| watery male a river that encircles the world where the dome of the sky touches the flat surfaces of the earth. all water that emerge from wells spring fountains and rivers are feed by his flow. United wth Tethys they gave birth to all gods and 6,000 spirits of the sea, rivers, and springs. |
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| Cronus and Rhea are doublets for uranus and Gaea, the parents or grandparents of the 12 olympians including Zeuz, the king of gods and central praise of hesiods poem |
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| son of the titan hyperion a sun god-helius is also a sun god |
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a son of Helius and Clymene (queen of Ethiopia) an Oceanid. to prove he was his father Helius allowed him one wise
, he asked that he ab allowed to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky- warned of the danger he still did it- the horses unknowning of him dashed near the earth and set the world ablaze leaving libia a desert and the people of ethiopia w burnt skin |
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| a trojan prince loved by Eos , He received a boon like endymions but less serene outcome - he shriveled up and turned into a cicada chirping uselessly into the wind |
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| "earth born ones" beigs of enormous strenght and unbridled violence who one day will bring their power to bear against zeus and his olympian brothers and sisters |
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| south of athens, a small penisula connected to the mainland by a thread of land called isthmus |
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| also called lacedaemon is the territory around the town of sparta |
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| had the best limestone, just east of the mainland not far from athens on several smaller islands and in Thessaly |
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| between the Balkan peninsula and asia minor played a central role in the life of the ancient greeks most of them lived near the sea and took from it the fish that were a staple of their diet, although homeric heroes preferred to eat only flesh |
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| circle islands placed in a rough circle around the tiny central island of Delos, sacred to apollo and artemis and the sporades "sacred islands" which extend along the coast of Ionia, the western coast of asia minor |
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people later called the greeks who belonged to a cultural and linguestic group whose original homeland apparently was in central asia, perhaps east of the caspian sea- beginning in the 4th millennium bc the indo europeans migrated in all directions into europe and asia bringing with them their linguistic and cultural traditions- no exact date of their arrival but the destruction of the existing settlements around 21 bc at the transition from the early to middle bronze age suggest the arrival of a new people- at the same time we find the first evidence in greece of the horse and an animal associated with indo europeans- every language spoken in europe branches from them even though theres no evidence of this language
indo european society may have been divided into 3 groups whose membership was determined by birth: kings priest, warriors, and food producers. They had a highly developed family life and were devoted to war. some think that some basic patterns in greek myth go back to this time
the greek language of later eras was not the tongue of indo europeans but developed over time after their arrival |
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the period of political and cultural revival that began with the invention of the alphabet
witness greek polis- the political independent city state
the members of a polis owed their allegiance to a social group defined by geography in the polis appeared for the first time the explicit concept of citizenship
only men were citizens and could participate in public affairs
women lived in a separate world
greek cultural values depended on spirit of male competition
rebirth of commerce
depended on the sea for commerce transportation and food which had a direct influence on their social structure
dependence on the sea further reduced class distinctions
claims to good birth and upbringing had no survival value. seafaring encouraged extreme individualism and offered rich rewards to the skilled adventurer willing to take risk-practiced by free citizens
in the 6 century commerce recieved an enormous stimulus from the introduction of coinage which made possible capitalism
city states were ruled by strong men known as tyrants
persia absorbed the greek colonies on the western coast of asia minor |
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| found in the ruins in documents a non alphabetic script which made an impression on the mycenaen greeks |
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| 431 bc to 404 bc war with persia which greece never recovered from |
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refers to the historical period that began with the death of alexander the great
after his death the empire quickly broke up into separate and hostile kingdoms but greek culture became world culture throughout the ancient east cities were established
on the greek model, decorated in the greek style and ruled by greeks and speakers of greek. The cultural capital shifted from athens to alexandria. Rome conquered the greek mainland in 146 bc.. the hellenist period ends when alexandria fell into roman hands after the suicide of cleopatra vII |
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| love for boys. isolated from the female sex this practice included men in their 20s who gathered at the exercise ground to admire prepubescent boys and to court them w gifts and poetry |
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| warfare conducted on open plains between opposing lines as many as 16 ranks deep of heavily armed men which were called hoplites |
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| virgin- girls are thought to be wild |
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| pollution from blood and other fluids that exist during childbirth |
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| a youth of good looks said that he would lived a long life if he never saw his face but saw his reflection in a spring and fell in and drowned- narcissimm- self love |
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| dated back to 30 bc when egypt, the hellenistic cultural center fell into roman hands- the western empire crumbled in the 5th century bc but its greek speaking eastern part lasted until ad 1453 |
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| Greeks called the figure this "lady of the beast" whose role in greek religion was to promote the abundance of game. in this case could be linded back to the religious cult of Artemis, who protected wild game. |
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| the land between two rivers, in what is today Iraq. An important source. The greek myth of origin of the present world order in a battle of gods was certainly of mesopotamian origin |
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| "sky" was god of the infinite expanse of the dome above us, across which the sun travels and from which rain falls. He was originally the supreme authority, the source of order in the worlds of gods above and humans below |
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| of unknown racial stoke, spoke a language unrelated to any other known language. They lived close to the persian gulf in the treeless and stoneless mudlands near the esturay of the Tigris and Euphrates river. According to their own tradition they came from somewhere outside mesopotamia, perhaps from Iran or India. Supported by irrigation agriculture, which they invented, the sumerians created the first know full fledged city states by 3000 bc. each city had its own diety . the ruling elite's most powerful tool was cuneiform writing, the first known system of graphic markings with a predictable attachment to elements of human speech- first true writing. earliest myth recorded in cuneiform |
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| "queen of heaven said to be An's daughter, a goddess of sexual love and curiously war. Her lust was insatiable all consuming and dangerous. is like aphrodite in greek myth and somwhat related in the names |
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| Lord of the storm, embodied force, power, the unruly violence of the thunderstorm. a king. An's agent on earth, involved in earthly events. Possessed the tablet of destiny by which the fates of gods and humans were decreed. -reflection of the power of cuneiform writing. -his position was similar to zeus . could bring benefits or bad stuff |
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| composed orally believed by homer himself. Several from the 7th and 6 centuries bc. Four are several hundred lines long. A hymn is a metrical address invoking a god or goddess by listing cultic names and telling an important story about the deity. the homeric hyms are a literary elaboration of an old religious tradition but very unlike near eastern hymns in their focus on mythic narrative on the story about the god. were probably performed in public places at festivals that may have included women and a broad range of social classes |
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| memorized for public presentation by a group of 12 or more boy or girl dancers |
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| tragoidia "goat song"- the goat was associated with dionysus at whose spring festival in athens tragedies were staged. composed in writing the script of a tragic play was not meant to be read but to serve as a prompt book for a live performance. all of greek literature was meant to be heard not read silently. |
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| the earliest tragedian whose works survive. Loved long and elaborate descriptions especially of foriegn lands and high flown metaphorical language . Used myth to explore moral issues as conflict between individual will and divine destiny. |
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| of the 123 plays he wrote 7 survived. likes to show the dignity of human beings in conflict with divine forces |
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