• 800 - 480 BCE
• Predates the classical period
• Flourishing of epic poetry, the arts, and commerce
• Beginning of coloniztion
• Introduction of the greek alphabet
• Emergence of Greek polis (city state)
• Homer Hesiod, and Homeric Hymns authors composed in this era

• The first principle, from which the cosmos emerges.

·      A long poem (always in verse)

·      Earliest form of Greek literature

·      Flourished during the Archaic Period

·      Began in the oral form and was later written down

·      Written in hexameter

·      Usually talked about heroes and gods

·      Always contained an invocation to the Muses at the beginning and end

·      Notable epic poets were Homer and Hesiod

• Goddess of the Earth
• Mother of the Titans and Typhoios
• Overpowered by the weight of Ouranos
• Gives Kronos sickle to castrate Ouranos

• Nine daughters of Mnemosyne (Memory) and Zeus
• Appear at the beginning of the Theogony, Iliad, and Odyssey
• Invoked by the poet to help him begin and remember his song
• Muses can see the past, present, and future

·      Children of the Titans

·      Zeus is the most important (King of Gods)

·      Aphrodite is included in the Olympians (although born earlier)

·      Name comes from Mt. Olympos where they live

·      12 main Olympians (Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Hestia, Hades, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite)

·      Other notable Olympians include Persephone and Dionysos

·      Son and mate of Gaia

·      God of the Sky

·      Castrated by son Kronos

·      First gods to populate the universe

·      Chaos, Gaia, Tartaros, Eros

·      Means birth of the gods (gony – Birth, Theo – gods)

·      Sometimes thought of as a cosmogony

·      Is a religious text in terms of explanation of Greek religion

·      Other forms of the Theogony exist

·      Attests to the divine authority of Muses

·      Muses stand in as the messengers of the Gods

·      Created by Hesiod

• Children of Gaia and Ouranos
• Referred to as the "gods from before" (Before Zeus' rule)
• 12 Titans (Okeanos, Tethys, Koios, Krios, Hyperion, Theia, Kronos, Rhea, Mnemosyne, Themis, Iapetos, Phoibe)

• Goddess of Wisdom
• Emerges from Zeus' head
• Possess strength, cunning, and intelligence equal to Zeus

• Son of Ouranos
• Castrates father
• Tries to prevent succession by swallowing his children
• Is a Titan
• Married to sister Rhea
• Father of the Olympians
• Represents craft and brute force

• Greek word meaning cunning
• First wife of Zeus
• Swallowed by Zeus while pregnant with Athena

• Wife of Kronos
• Hides Zeus away from Kronos

• Supreme ruler of gods and men
• Son of Kronos
• Leader of the Olympians
• Absorbs Metis' intelligence and cunning
• Challenged by Typhoios

•  Babylonian Succession myth featuring the god Marduk and his rise to power.
• From 2nd millennium BCE
• Based on older Sumerian creation myths
• Told as part of religious ritual

• Hittite succession myth that details story of Kumarbi, and the birth of storm-god Teshub from Kumarbi's body.
• From 1600-1200 BCE

• Servant of Anush who replaces him in succession for royal/divine power. 
• Bites off Anush's genitals, swallows his semen, and becomes pregnant with the storm god Teshub, whom he gives birth to through the "good place" (thought to be his penis).
• Impregnates a rock to form Ullikummi

• The supreme god in Babylonian mythology, featured in the Nr. eastern text called the Enuma elish.
• Compared to Zeus
• Supreme ruler of gods
• Associated with thunder and lightning

• Hittite myth which continues Kingship in Heaven. 
• Tells of birth of stone child Ullikummi and his fight with the storm god Teshub.

• A kind of myth which deals with the succession of sons over fathers over a number of generations. 
• Many Greek and Near Eastern myths use this format to tell of how a divinity came to be a supreme ruler.
• Younger generation opposes, overcomes another, until present world order comes into being

• Progression towards “order”

• Monstrous child of Gaia and Tartaros. 
• Typhoeus challenges Zeus' rule in the Theogony and is eventually defeated by him.
• Born from Gaia and Tartaros
• Alternatively child of Hera
• Sexless birth with help from earth
• Reared by the she-dragon Pythos whom Apollo kille

• The group of mythological heroes who died in the Trojan and Theban wars
• Fought but names were passed down through stories/myths
• Heroes are demi-gods
• Died and went to special island

• There are five ages of man (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Age of Heroes, Iron)
• Myth of decline throughout the ages
• Life gets worse with each passing age with the exception of the Age of Heroes

• Violent and marshal people
• Bronze is related to war (bronze armor, bronze weaponry)
• Killed each other off quickly
• People made from ash trees

• Greek word for hope or expectation
• Elpis is the only thing left inside Pandora's Jar

• Epimetheus means afterthought
• Not to bright brother of Prometheus
• Takes Pandora as bride

• Under the rule of Kronos
• No need to work and no disease
• Didn't really die, went to "sleep"

• Current and worse age of mankind
• Age of toil, disease, good mixed with evil

• First woman
• Creates the race of women
• Created by Zeus and other gods as punishment for Prometheus' theft of fire
• Opens jar that releases evils upon the world

• Titan who tricks Zeus twice
• Makes Zeus choose smaller portion at Mekone
• Steals fire for mankind
• Often associated with man and humankind
• Fathered by Iapetos and an Okeanid
• Brothers were Atlas, Menoitos, Epimetheus
• Name means forethought
• Punished by Zeus for his trickery (Eagle pecks at live for eternity)
• Can see prophecies (Sees Zeus' prophecy)

• Men lived as children for 100 years
• Died after a brief adolescence
• Did not honor the gods

• Son of Anchises and Aphrodite
• Hero in the Trojan War

• Mortal that Aphrodite falls in love with and sleeps with
• Father of Aineias

• Mother of Perseus
• Locked in room by father she can not have children
• Impregnated by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold

• Eos is the goddess of Dawn
• Tithonos is a Trojan man
• Eos falls in love with Tithonos
• Eos asks Zeus to give Tithonos immortality but forgets to ask for eternal youth
• Tithonos grows old and is locked away by Eos

• Trojan boy whom Zeus falls in love with
• Zeus makes him his cup bearer
• Receives immortality and eternal youth

• Impregnated by Zeus in the forum of a swan
• Mother of Helen & Clytaemestra, Castor & Pollux

• Site of the Trojan War
• Located on west coast of Turkey

• Son of Zeus and Leto
• Brother of Artemis
• Timai are the bow, the lyre, and prophecy
• Born in Delos
• Founds sanctuary at Delphi
• "Straight line" god

• Site of Apollo's sanctuary and oracle
• Located in Northern Greece

• Wife of Zeus
• Queen of the gods
• Timai is marriage
• Mother of Hephaistos, Typhoan, Hebe, Eileithyia

• Trickster/robber god
• Son of Zeus and Maia
• Concocts scheme to enter the Pantheon
• Timai are the messenger, shepherd, and companion to mortals
• God of boundaries and travel
• Embodies the idea of Metis
• Comparable to Prometheus
• Wanted meat instead of ambrosia

• A collection of hymns in honor of the gods
• Composed in the archaic period
• Referenced as Homeric because they are written in the same style
• Hymns celebrate the lives of Olympian gods