Greek Religion o Polytheistic (gods and goddesses) o Warship at altars, shrines, and temples with animal and vegetable . Parthenon . Temple of at Olympia . Temple of at

Myth = story with truths or meanings to tell us o 8th cen BC - = truth o Pindar 6th cen BC - myth can be true or false o Plato 5-4th cen BC – myth maybe true o Aristotle 4th cen BC – myth = false, logos = truth

Categories of traditional stories o Divine –gods are main characters . They have anthropomorphic qualities “human like” o Legends – humans are main characters . May be the , a demi god o Folktales – about a human, probably underdog o Folk motif – ie wicked stepmothers, youngest child as hero, etc

Vocabulary: o Nectar/ – drink and food of gods o Ichor – blood of gods o – river into underworld, gods cannot break promise made here o – “of the earth” o Etiological – story that explains origins of something o Deus ex Machina – when a god swoops in and saves the day o Omniscience – all knowing o Omnipotent – all powerful

Theories o Hesiod – , . Ultimate misogynist, women are companions of evil works o Aristophanes – all humans came from birds o Plato o Ovid – No source for god . Nature was , god sorted things out Where Humans came from:

 Ovid and Hesiod said there were stages of man o Gold – best time for humans to be alive, died peacefully in sleep -> went into earth, Kronos was ruler o Silver – humans did not worship gods so Zeus wiped them out o Bronze –made by Zeus, always going to war with each other, everyone went to o Heroes – made by Zeus, went to land of blessed (*not described by Ovid) o Iron – miserable, filled with toil and woe

Interpreting myth  Full of symbolism and allegory, historical allegory  Early modern theories: o Enlightenment- rational ie Christian church warnings o Romanticism – antirational ie  Psychological theories o Freud: sex, dream-work o Jung: collective unconscious, archetypes  Anthropological theories: o Frazer - o Malinowski – myths are social charters o Burkert – myth reflects culture, but don’t take out of context  Linguistic theories: o Levi-Strauss – myth is code of communication

Time Periods o Bronze Age – When characters from Homer’s stories lived o Iron Age “Dark Ages” . When Homer wrote down stories for first time . , o Archaic . Hesidod Theogony, some o Classical . When most temples, art, sculptures assisiated with “” were made o Hellenistic o Roman – . Odiv, Metemorphoses

Civilizations o Minoan – Bronze Age . of . King ruled over Knossos . Linear A writing o Mycenaean – Bronze Age . of Greece . Linear B writing (ancient text w/ references to gods) o Helladic o Cycladic o Trojan

Basic Geography = Mediterranean

Mt Olympus Troy

Olympia Athens Pylos Mycenae

Knossos

Phestos