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Home , Omphalos

Wed Jan 11: The Rise of and establishment of the ordered world Ch. 4, pp. 88-107 separation, succession, dragon-combat In the first part of lecture we will discuss the overall timeline of Greek and Roman myth, included below. In the second part we will look at Zeus' rise to power and identify a few key comparisons between Greek myths of divine succession and Near Eastern myths that tell similar stories. Timeline (drawn from Powell 689-690) 10,000 BCE Neolithic Period in Near East: agriculture and settled communities (example: Çatal Hüyük) 4000-3000 rise of Sumerian civilization near Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia). cuneiform writing. (optional reading: Powell 56-61) 3000 Early Bronze age in Greece (non Indo-European place names: example Athens, Tiryns) 2000 Middle Bronze Age; Indo-European Greek speaking people present in Greece 1750 flourishing of Babylonian culture (see p. 98-102; optional reading: Powell 62-63) c. 1600 Late Bronze Age (‘Mycenaean Period’): large palaces, high degree of social organization and trade. c. 1600 flourishing of Hittite civilization (in modern Turkey) (cf. p. 103-4) c. 1250? destruction of the city of Troy c 1200 Dark Age (also called Iron Age): large palaces destroyed (preserving inventory lists written in Linear B), economy and trade shrink. no writing survives. Hero cult (honoring memories of Mycenaeans?) c. 1000 Greeks establish colonies in Asia Minor c. 800-600 Greeks establish colonies in Italy and Sicily c. 800 Archaic period: city-states (polis) flourish: increased trade, economic expansion, rise of festivals, temples are public, not part of palaces invention of Greek alphabet Homer’s Iliad and are written down. Somewhat after Homer, the Theogony of Hesiod is written down c. 700-500 Homeric Hymns are written down 480-323 Classical Period: tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides; philosophy of Plato and Aristotle 323-31 BCE Hellenistic period 31 BCE Roman Period Augustus defeats Cleopatra and Antony at Actium Virgil, Aeneid, Ovid, Metamorphoses

1. Titanomachy (Zeus' Battle with the ) p.89

Zeus vs. brothers and sisters All the other Titans Hecatonchires (weapon for Zeus: thunderbolt) and her son

immortal refreshments: nectar and

'the flashing bolts of his lightning' 'within it [] the Titans are buried by the design of Zeus who assembles the clouds' Atlas -> Mount Atlas 2. Zeus vs. Typhoeus p.92 'the hundred heads of a terrible serpentine monster' 'it melted like wax in a ladle ....just so the earth was melted in the white-hot gleam of the fire' -theft and recovery of the sinews -Mount Haemus ('bloody') (in Thrace) -Mount Etna (in Sicily)

Zeus + ('cleverness') -> 3. Gigantomachy (The Battle with the ) pp.95-6 Zeus, Athena, vs. Giants (Gegeneis =‘Earthborn') division of the world by Zeus, ,

Comparative perspectives on the myth of succession Babylonian Enuma Elish ('When on high') creation of world and rise of dominant god: Apsu + Tiamat; Marduk vs. Tiamat

Hittite Kingship in Heaven succession: Alalush, Anush, Kumarbi, Teshub -it is not known exactly how and when these stories traveled and influenced Greek traditions of storytelling word study moment: for whom was the Atlantic Ocean named? Greek words still used in English: nectar, ambrosia, titan, giant

Sample questions

'Thereafter Gaea was bedded with ______#1______, lord of heaven, and bore deep-swirling , , , , , , and , Themis, , gold Phoebem and fair-featured , Last of all she gave birth to ______#2______, that scheming intriguer, cleverest child of her brood, who hated his lecherous father.'

1. The name that belongs in the blank labelled #1 is a) Cronus b) c) Typhoeus d) e) Zeus

2. The name that belongs in the blank labelled #11 is a) Prometheus b) c) Uranus d) Cronus e) Zeus

3. "______lay in wait to devour each of his children at birth" a. b. Uranos c. Typhoeus d. e. Cronus

4. Uranus tried to prevent his children from overthrowing him by: a) devouring them b) exiling them c) enslaving them d) transforming them e) keeping them hidden in Gaea

5. Uranus was overthrown when: a) Cronus castrated him b) Rhea betrayed him c) Typhoeus defeated him d) Zeus killed him

6. Uranus was overthrown when a) he was pinned under a mountain b) Typhoeus defeated him c) the Giants attacked him d) Cronus severed his genitals

7. A cosmogonic myth describes: a) the end of the gods b) the birth of the world c) the sacred marriage d) the Trojan War

8. A theogonic myth describes: a) the end of the world b) the birth of the gods c) the sacred marriage d) the Trojan War

9. Which of the following is not characteristic of creation myths from ancient Mesopotamia a) emphasis on the importance of water b) the presence of an assembly of gods led by a god serving as king c) successive divine battles leading to present world order d) a ruling god who has power over storms e) continuing and consistent involvement of the gods in human affairs

10. The object here depicted is called: a) the parthenon b) a herm c) the omphalos d) the pythios

11. You are standing near the ‘omphalos’. Your location is: a) Athens b) Delos c) d) Cyprus

12. Zeus was kept safe at birth because a) his mother gave his father a stone disguised as a baby b) his father wanted a powerful son c) warned that he would grow up to be more powerful than his father d) he was born fully armed and able to protect himself

13. Which one of the following is not a goddess with whom Zeus united in an allegorically suggestive sexual union? a) Themis b) Xenia c) Mnemosyne d) Metis

14. The volcanic qualities of Mt. Etna were associated in myth with which of the following: a) b) Giants c) d) Prometheus

15. Which of the following lists put the careers of the authors concerned in the correct chronological order starting with the earliest born and ending with the latest? a) Ovid, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer b) Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Ovid c) Hesiod, Homer, Ovid, Euripides d) Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Ovid

16. Here in a-d are four important literary sources for myth, from poetry authored in the ancient world. Three of these are early Greek sources (750 BCE onwards); one is a later source from Rome (in Latin), from the year 8CE. Which is the Roman one? a) Homeric Hymns b) Ovid, Metamorphoses c) Homer d) Hesiod

17. "in both the Enuma Elish and Hesiod's Theogony, the first generation of gods is made up of primal pairs: Apsu, the male freshwaters, and Tiamat, the female saltwater, and ______and Gaea. Whose name belongs in the blank? a. Cronus b. Uranus c. Zeus d. Chaos e. Typhon

18. "in both the Enuma Elish and Hesiod's Theogony, the first generation of gods is made up of primal pairs: Apsu, the male freshwaters, and ______, the female saltwater, and Uranus and Gaea. Whose name belongs in the blank? a. Tiamat b. Ishtar c. Cybele d. Isis e. Maria

19. ‘As for the genitals, slashed away by the sickle of steel, their impetus carried them out from shore to the tide of the sea. For years the waters swirled them about, as white foam kept oozing from out the immortal flesh. Within it there grew up a maiden who drifted first to holy Cythera, then on to Cyprus.’ Whose birth is here described? a) b) Pyrrha c) d) Pandora e) Athena