How did the ancient Greeks look at myths in a historical context?

-believed myth was a part of their history

-did not necessarily see myths as historically accurate due to the length of time btwn the heroic age and the historical age was lengthy

-resulted in general process of rationalization by which the myths are manipulated to make them fit w/ an overall conception of history

-this included explaining away fantastic/improbable elements of a myth

"father of history"

Herodotus

-wrote account of Persian wars

-attributes the east vs. west conflict to a series of thefts of women on both sides leading down to Paris' theft of Helen

wrote history of Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

-generation after Herodotus

-more critical than Herodotus, did include material which today would be considered myth

(ex. believed Minos, king of Crete existed)

wrote a work tracing the history of Greece down to the Trojan War

Hecataeus

-used rationalization to construct his account because this "history" only existed in mythical tales

(ex. Myth of Heracles' capture of Cerberus was explained as a result of someone taking the name of a large snake called "the hound of Hades" and applying it to the idea of a three headed dog)

Hesiod: Theogny (the Genealogy)

-gives account of the origin of the universe and its dev/changes through a series of generations of gods, leading to the generations of heroes that led down to the historical age and Hesiod himself

-genealogy becomes through since it is ordered w/ in a sequential structure

-aristocratic families of the Greek city states forged a link btwn their own families and those of the heroic age to secure their own status and position in the state

Greeks divided into 3 basic tribes based upon ethnic/linguistic distinctions:

Dorians

Ionians

Aeolians

Which historical movement was linked w/ the myth of Heracles?

"Dorian invasion from the NW"

-Heracles was an important hero of the Dorians and Greeks in general

The labours of Heracles were said to result from his cousin usurping his right ful throne in Mycenae even after his death....

-his descendants, the Heraclids, had still not reclaimed the land

-after 3 generations they were said to have returned and reclaimed it

-reason for the delay was that that the family of Agamemnon had been in power during this time

When the Heraclids returned, the Peloponnese was divided btwn btwn three ethnic/linguistic groups:

Spartans

Argives

Messenians

Myth claims that Messenia was awarded to...