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Greek Religion Myth = Story with Truths Or Meanings To Greek Religion o Polytheistic (gods and goddesses) o Warship at altars, shrines, and temples with animal and vegetable sacrifices . Parthenon . Temple of Zeus at Olympia . Temple of Apollo at Delphi Myth = story with truths or meanings to tell us o Homer 8th cen BC - myth = 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 myths –gods are main characters . They have anthropomorphic qualities “human like” o Legends – humans are main characters . May be the hero, a demi god o Folktales – about a human, probably underdog o Folk motif – ie wicked stepmothers, youngest child as hero, etc Vocabulary: o Nectar/ Ambrosia – drink and food of gods o Ichor – blood of gods o Styx – river into underworld, gods cannot break promise made here o Chthonic – “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 – Theogony, Works and Days . 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 chaos, 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 Hades o Heroes – demigods 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 . Iliad, odyssey o Archaic . Hesidod Theogony, some Homeric hymns o Classical . When most temples, art, sculptures assisiated with “ancient Greece” were made o Hellenistic o Roman – . Odiv, Metemorphoses Civilizations o Minoan – Bronze Age . of Crete . King Minos 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.
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