DOCSLIB.ORG

Greek Mythology Supplementary Handout

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Greek Mythology Supplementary Handout GREEK MYTHOLOGY SUPPLEMENTARY HANDOUT First of all, a distinction must be made between “myth,” which means “story” in Ancient Greek, and “religion”. Although the Greek gods in mythology were the same gods that were worshipped by the people, different aspects of each god were venerated in different locations, at different times, and by people of varying character, social position, and ethnicity. In Greek religious practice, gods were given epithets, or descriptive names. In Athens alone, I have counted several of these for the god Apollo (Pythian = “slayer of the Delphic python”; Delian =”born on Delos”; Patroos=”father”; Lykeios=”of the wolves”; Daphnephoros=“bearing laurel”; Delphinios=”of the Dolphins”; Prostaterios=”guardian”; Hypoakraios=”under the heights”). Each cult-name generally represents a different shrine, and in some cases, a different form. Zeus, for example can be anything from the thunderbolt-throwing bearded man to a snake that lives under the floorboards of your house! With that out of the way, let’s look at mythology. The main source for the Greek creation myths, and genealogy of the gods is Theogony, a work by a poet named Hesiod, around 700-650 BC. The next page is a genealogical chart that speaks for just how long and complex the poem is. It is a remarkable undertaking, and is printed from: http://www.debbiemcleod.com/mythology/images/genealogy.gif On the following pages is a chart of the Greek deities, their major functions, their attributes (their symbols, things that they carry, or objects that are seen with them that might help you identify them in art), and an attempt at offering equivalent Roman names. This last aspect is something to be wary of, as Romans had their own religion before they adopted some aspects of Greek culture and religion, and sometimes the identifications of a Greek deity with a Roman one are tenuous at best. This chart is a modified version of that designed by Joe Jansen, University of Texas: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/mythologein/index.html The modifications are intended to reflect my own additions as a specialist in the archaeology of Greek religion. Not all of the gods are listed on the charts. Greeks had many gods, representing many aspects of life. Each river and many streams had their own god. There were spirits who watched over the forests and the seas. The Greek gods, at worst, were as dangerous and unpredictable as wild beasts, or the monsters that are their cousins (the giants, cyclopes, hekatoncheires (hundred-handed giants), Typhon, etc.) At best, the gods and goddesses had the qualities of mankind, from human nobility, to human pettiness and jealousy. But they had much more power to benefit or harm the objects of their emotions at any given time, so the Greeks offered them worship with a roughly equal dose of thanks and fear. The underworld, where the dead hoped to wind up (the souls of unburied dead were doomed to roam the earth), was neither heaven nor hell, but a gloomy place of lost souls, wandering around aimlessly and barely aware most of the time. The exception to this is the Elysian Fields, where dead heroes and great people enjoyed relaxation, hunting, games, etc. in a paradisiacal setting. Greek Roman Parentage Concern Attributes Name Name Sky god, Beard, weather, Jupiter / thunderbolt, Zeus Cronus - Rhea sovereignty, Jove eagle, scepter, oaths, throne guests/hosts Marriage, Matron, Hera Juno Cronus - Rhea family peacock Matron; ears of Harvest, Demeter Ceres Cronus - Rhea corn; often w/ Nature Persephone Wild animals; maidenhood, Bow, short Artemis Diana Zeus - Leto successful skirt; often w/ childbirth, animals coming of age Doves; often w/ Love, human Zeus - Dione or Eros(Cupid), fertility, sexual Aphrodite Venus Uranus' genitals and her son. Often attraction, the sea nude or partially beauty so. Commerce, Hat, caduceus travel, thieves, (staff w/ Hermes Mercury Zeus - Maia leads souls to snakes), winged land of the sandals dead “Male” crafts, Lame, bald; Hephaestus Vulcan Hera (alone) metallurgy hammer Water, sea; Beard, trident; Poseidon Neptune Cronus - Rhea earthquakes, chariot over the horses sea Healing, music Young, / poetry, beardless, lyre, Apollo Apollo Zeus - Leto prophecy, bow, coiffure, disease, laurel wreath borders Beardless, Ares Mars Zeus - Hera War, violence shield, sword Civilized life / culture; “female” crafts, Helmet, spear, Athena Minerva Zeus - Metis maidenhood, aegis, owl, olive war (for Athenians); cleverness Household, Matron (rarely Hestia Vesta Cronus - Rhea hearth fire pictured) Ivy in the hair; Ecstasy; panther skin; alcohol, often w/ grapes, Maenads and Dionysus Liber Pater Zeus - Semele drunkenness Baachantes, theater, masks, Thyrsus war-frenzy (a staff with a pinecone on it) Goat legs, Wild animals; pointed ears, Pan Faunus Hermes -nymph shepherds horns, musical pipes Club, lion skin Civilizing over head, bow Heracles Hercules Zeus - Alcmene force, strength, or sword in heroism early depictions Beard, duodent The dead, (two-pronged Hades Dis Pater Cronus - Rhea underworld spear), rarely pictured Young woman; The dead; Persephone Proserpina Zeus - Demeter often w/ agriculture Demeter Beard, staff w/ Asclepius Aesculapius Apollo - Coronis Medicine snake, saucer .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mythic Metamorphosis: Re-Shaping Identity in the Works of H.D. Sarah Lewis Mitchem Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Virgin
    Mythic Metamorphosis: Re-shaping Identity in the Works of H.D. Sarah Lewis Mitchem Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Thomas Gardner, Chair Frederick M. D’Aguiar Paul Sorrentino April 13, 2007 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: H.D., Imagism, Mythic Metamorphoses, Asklepios Copyright (Optional) Mythic Metamorphosis: Re-shaping Identity in the Works of H.D. Sarah Lewis Mitchem Abstract In section fifteen of the poem The Walls Do Not Fall author Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) address her audience and articulates the purpose of the poet in the following lines: “we are the keepers of the secret,/ the carriers, the spinners/ of the rare intangible thread/ that binds all humanity/ to ancient wisdom,/ to antiquity;/…every concrete object/ has abstract value, is timeless/ in the dream parallel” (Trilogy 24). H.D. mined her own life for charged relationships which she then, through writing, connected to the mythic characters of antiquity whose tales embodied the same struggles she faced. Reading concrete objects as universal symbols which transcend time, her mind meshed the 20th century with previous cultures to create a nexus where the questions embedded in the human spirit are alive on multiple planes. The purpose of this research project is not to define her works as “successful” or “unsuccessful,” nor to weigh the works against each other in terms of “advancement.” Rather it is to describe the way she manipulates this most reliable of tools, mythic metamorphosis, in works stretching from her early Imagist poetry, through her long poem Trilogy, and finally into her last memoir End To Torment, taking note of the way she uses this tool to form beauty from harsh circumstances and help heal her shattered psyche.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Narrative Volume 1
    History into fiction: the metamorphoses of the Mithras myths ROGER BECK Toronto Dedicated to Reinhold Merkelbach, whose explorations of ancient narra- tive and the mystery cults have always seemed to me profoundly well oriented, even when I would not follow the same path in detail. This article is neither about a particular ancient novel nor about the genre of the ancient novel in general. But it is about story-telling in the ancient world, and about the metamorphosis which stories undergo when they pass through the crucible of religious invention. Its subject, then, is narrative fiction — narrative fiction as the construction of sacred myth and of myth’s dramatic counterpart, ritual performance. The fictions I shall explore are the myths and rituals of the Mithras cult. Some of these fictions, I shall argue, are elaborations of events and fantasies of the Neronian age: on the one hand, events in both Italy and the orient cen- tred on the visit of Tiridates of Armenia to Rome in 66; on the other hand, the heliomania of the times, a solar enthusiasm focused on, and in some measure orchestrated by, the emperor himself. What I am not offering is an explanation of Mithraism and its origins. In the first place, our subject is story and the metamorphosis of story, not relig- ion. In the second place, I would not presume to ‘explain’ Mithraism, or any other religion for that matter, by Euhemeristic reduction to a set of historical or pseudo-historical antecedents. In speaking of the ‘invention’ of Mithraism and of its ‘fictions’, moreover, I intend no disrespect.
    [Show full text]
  • The Myth of the Messenger Jules Cashford
    ARAS Connections Issue 3, 2011 Figure 1 The Etruscan Hermes. Terracotta statue head. Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome. C. 500 BC. The Myth of the Messenger Jules Cashford The images in this paper are strictly for educational use and are protected by United States copyright laws. Unauthorized use will result in criminal and civil penalties. 1 ARAS Connections Issue 3, 2011 The German novelist Thomas Mann, in his address on the occasion of Freud’s 80 th birthday, spoke of myth as offering a “smiling knowledge of eternity” – such, perhaps, as is evoked by this Etruscan Hermes of 500 BC (1936, p. 89) It is impossible to define Imagination since the only definition we can make is that we are far from it when we talk about it. It is perhaps a power so ultimate that only its own numinous images can call it forth, as though we have, as it were, to ask the Imagination to imagine itself. We might say that whenever there is numinosity – a coming alive of divine presence – literally, the “nod” or “beckoning” of a god – whenever an image becomes translucent to a reality beyond itself, we are in the presence of Imagination. The images that come towards us – as divinities, daimons, soul-birds, angels, geniuses, muses – are all figures who bring messages from afar or beyond, from the heights or the depths – the realms where consciousness may not go, yet on which it rests and through which it grows. “Wisdom first speaks in images,” W. B. Yeats, says (1961, p. 95). The role of “the messenger” is to go between, and so to connect, two terms – gods or persons or worlds or states of being.
    [Show full text]
  • Continuity in Color: the Persistence of Symbolic Meaning in Myths, Tales, and Tropes
    Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern University Honors Program Theses 2016 Continuity in Color: The eP rsistence of Symbolic Meaning in Myths, Tales, and Tropes McKinley May Georgia Southern University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/honors-theses Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation May, McKinley, "Continuity in Color: The eP rsistence of Symbolic Meaning in Myths, Tales, and Tropes" (2016). University Honors Program Theses. 170. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/honors-theses/170 This thesis (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Program Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Continuity in Color: The Persistence of Symbolic Meaning in Myths, Tales, and Tropes An Honors Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of Literature and Philosophy. By McKinley May Under the mentorship of Joe Pellegrino ABSTRACT This paper examines the symbolism of the colors black, white, and red from ancient times to modern. It explores ancient myths, the Grimm canon of fairy tales, and modern film and television tropes in order to establish the continuity of certain symbolisms through time. In regards to the fairy tales, the examination focuses solely on the lesser-known stories, due to the large amounts of scholarship surrounding the “popular” tales. The continuity of interpretation of these three major colors (black, white, and red) establishes the link between the past and the present and demonstrates the influence of older myths and beliefs on modern understandings of the colors.
    [Show full text]
  • Ing Items Have Been Registered
    ACCEPTANCES Page 1 of 27 August 2017 LoAR THE FOLLOWING ITEMS HAVE BEEN REGISTERED: ÆTHELMEARC Ceara Cháomhanach. Device. Purpure, a triquetra Or between three natural tiger’s heads cabossed argent marked sable. There is a step from period practice for the use of natural tiger’s heads. Serena Milani. Name change from Eydís Vígdísardóttir (see RETURNS for device). The submitter’s previous name, Eydís Vígdísardóttir, is retained as an alternate name. Valgerðr inn rosti. Device. Argent, three sheep passant to sinister sable, each charged with an Elder Futhark fehu rune argent, a bordure gules. AN TIR Ailionóra inghean Tighearnaigh. Device change. Argent, a polypus per pale gules and sable within a bordure embattled per pale sable and gules. The submitter’s previous device, Argent, on a bend engrailed azure between a brown horse rampant and a tree eradicated proper three gouttes argent, is retained as a badge. Aline de Seez. Badge. (Fieldless) A hedgehog rampant azure maintaining an arrow inverted Or flighted sable. Nice badge! Alrikr Ivarsson. Name (see RETURNS for device). The submitter requested authenticity for an unspecified language or culture. Both name elements are in the same language, Old East Norse, but we cannot say for sure whether they are close enough in time to be authentic for a specific era. Anna Gheleyns. Badge (see RETURNS for device). Or, a rabbit rampant sable within a chaplet of ivy vert. Annaliese von Himmelreich. Name and device. Gules, a nautilus shell argent and on a chief Or three crows regardant sable. Annora of River Haven. Name. River Haven is the registered name of an SCA branch.
    [Show full text]
  • Examining the Transference Between Mithraism and Christianity Peter J
    \ The Sword and the Cross: Examining the Transference between Mithraism and Christianity Peter J. Decker III Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Manwell Ph. D .. Kalamazoo College Co-Chair of Classics Department I - A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degr~e of Bachelor of ~rts at - - Kalamazoo College. 2013 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ......................... ~ .... : ......................................................ii I. The Cult ofMithras: Imagery, Practices, and Beliefs ............................... .1-21 II. Examining the Transference between Mithraism and Christianity ............... ~ .. 23-38 III. Appendix .......................· ............................................................. 39 Bibliography .................... ·................................................................. 40-44 / 11 Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my loving parents who made it possible to attend Kalamazoo College and allow me to further my studies in Classics. Without their financial and emotional support I would not have been able to complete this Senior Independent Project (SIP). Love you Mom and Dad! I am also deepl_y thankful to the Todd family and their generous grant, the Todd Memorial Classics Study Abroad Grant, which allowed me to travel to Italy and gain the inspiration for the topic of my SIP. I would like to express aspecial thanks to my SIP advisor Prof. Manwell, for putting up with all my procrastination and my challenging writing. I hope you didn't spend to many nights up late editing my drafts. Without all of you none of this would have been possible. Thank you very much. 1 I. The Cult ofMithras: Imagery, Practices, and Beliefs In the spring of 2011 an American atheist group put up a billboard in downtown New York City which read: "Born of a virgin on December 25th, known to his 12 disciples as "the Son of God, and resurrected three days after his death, we wish a Happy Birthday to Mithras, the mythical Persian god imagined over 600 years before that other guy ..
    [Show full text]
  • Hesiod Theogony.Pdf
    Hesiod (8th or 7th c. BC, composed in Greek) The Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are probably slightly earlier than Hesiod’s two surviving poems, the Works and Days and the Theogony. Yet in many ways Hesiod is the more important author for the study of Greek mythology. While Homer treats cer- tain aspects of the saga of the Trojan War, he makes no attempt at treating myth more generally. He often includes short digressions and tantalizes us with hints of a broader tra- dition, but much of this remains obscure. Hesiod, by contrast, sought in his Theogony to give a connected account of the creation of the universe. For the study of myth he is im- portant precisely because his is the oldest surviving attempt to treat systematically the mythical tradition from the first gods down to the great heroes. Also unlike the legendary Homer, Hesiod is for us an historical figure and a real per- sonality. His Works and Days contains a great deal of autobiographical information, in- cluding his birthplace (Ascra in Boiotia), where his father had come from (Cyme in Asia Minor), and the name of his brother (Perses), with whom he had a dispute that was the inspiration for composing the Works and Days. His exact date cannot be determined with precision, but there is general agreement that he lived in the 8th century or perhaps the early 7th century BC. His life, therefore, was approximately contemporaneous with the beginning of alphabetic writing in the Greek world. Although we do not know whether Hesiod himself employed this new invention in composing his poems, we can be certain that it was soon used to record and pass them on.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Mythology #24: the MAENADS by Joy Journeay
    Western Regional Button Association is pleased to share our educational articles with the button collecting community. This article appeared in the August 2017 WRBA Territorial News. Enjoy! WRBA gladly offers our articles for reprint, as long as credit is given to WRBA as the source, and the author. Please join WRBA! Go to www.WRBA.us Greek Mythology #24: THE MAENADS by Joy Journeay In Greek mythology the maenads were female followers of Dionysus. The word “maenad” means “raving ones” and they are portrayed as frenzied on wine and wild dancing. They carry a stick wrapped in vines and tipped with a pine cone. Plato provides a clear overview of the maenads. He wrote that, “The god- intoxicated celebrants draw milk and honey from the streams. They strike rocks with the thyrsus, and water gushes forth. They lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers and draw up the milky fluid. Honey trickles down from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and wolf cubs as if they were infants at the breast. Fire does not burn them. No weapon of iron can wound them, and the snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks. Fierce bulls fall to the ground, victims to numberless, tearing female hands, and sturdy trees are torn up by the roots with their combined efforts.” In their frenzied state, the maenads were said to have killed Orpheus, Ariadne, and Pentheus, the King of the Thebes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art and Artifacts Associated with the Cult of Dionysus
    Alana Koontz The Art and Artifacts Associated with the Cult of Dionysus Alana Koontz is a student at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduating with a degree in Art History and a certificate in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. The main focus of her studies has been ancient art, with specific attention to ancient architecture, statuary, and erotic symbolism in ancient art. Through various internships, volunteering and presentations, Alana has deepened her understanding of the art world, and hopes to do so more in the future. Alana hopes to continue to grad school and earn her Master’s Degree in Art History and Museum Studies, and eventually earn her PhD. Her goal is to work in a large museum as a curator of the ancient collections. Alana would like to thank the Religious Studies Student Organization for this fantastic experience, and appreciates them for letting her participate. Dionysus was the god of wine, art, vegetation and also widely worshipped as a fertility god. The cult of Dionysus worshipped him fondly with cultural festivities, wine-induced ritualistic dances, 1 intense and violent orgies, and secretive various depictions of drunken revelry. 2 He embodies the intoxicating portion of nature. Dionysus, in myth, was the last god to be accepted at Mt Olympus, and was known for having a mortal mother. He spent his adulthood teaching the cultivation of grapes, and wine-making. The worship began as a celebration of culture, with plays and processions, and progressed into a cult that was shrouded in mystery. Later in history, worshippers would perform their rituals in the cover of darkness, limiting the cult-practitioners to women, and were surrounded by myth that is sometimes interpreted as fact.
    [Show full text]
  • Honey Plays a Significant Role in the Mythology and History of Many
    Rhododendron Ponticum Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then beauty is its own excuse for being R.W. Emerson, ‘The Rhodora’ "The Delphic priestess in historical times chewed a laurel leaf but when she was a Bee surely she must have sought her inspiration in the honeycomb." Jane Ellen Harrison, Prologemena to Greek Religion Thy Lord taught the Bee To build its cells in hills, On trees and in man’s habitations; Then to eat of all The produce of the earth . From within their bodies comes a drink of varying colors, Wherein is healing for mankind. The Holy Koran 1 Mad Honey Contents Point of View and Introduction 4 A summary of the material 5 What the Substance is 7 A History of Honey a very short history of the relationship of humans and honey A Cultural History of Toxic Honey 9 mad honey in ancient Greece Mad Honey in the New World 10 the Americas and Australasia How the substance works 11 Psychopharmacology selected outbreaks symptoms external indicators and internal registers substances neurophysiological action medical treatment How the substance was used 13 Honied Consciousness: the use of toxic honey as a consciousness altering substance ancient Greece Daphne and Delphi Apollo and Daphne Rhododendron and Laurel Appendix 1 21 Classical References (key selections from the texts) -Diodorus Siculus -Homeric Hymns -Longus -Pausanias -Pliny The Elder -Xenephon Appendix II 29 More on Mellissa Appendix lll 30 Source of the Substances Botany and Sources of Grayanotoxin 2 Appendix lV 32 Honey and Medicine Ancient and Modern Appendix V 34 The Properties of Ethelyne Appendix Vl 36 Entrances: Food, Drink and Enemas Bibliography 39 3 Mad Honey Point of View and Introduction It’s no surprise to discover that honey, and the bees that produce it, play a notable role in mythology and religion throughout the world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Greek Origin of Caduceum: Æsculapius
    Colombia Médica Vol. 39 Nº 4, 2008 (Octubre-Diciembre) The Greek origin of caduceum: Æsculapius ARTURO G. RILLO, DR EN H* SUMMARY Introduction: Medicine history gives us the chance to reflect about the Caduceus as the synthesis of the dialectic of the sensible and spiritual life. This opens and horizon of comprehension and allow us to recover the legend of Asclepius and it’s cult with the different symbolic elements that structure it. The legend: The historic and mythological references about Asclepius’ existence gives structure to the legend in a real and not-real environment perduring in the occidental medicine tradition as a mystical reference to the deity for the medical practice. The cult: It’s based in the incubation and synthesizes healing rites and therapeutical practices, as medical as surgical; exercise, sleep cures and amusement activities. The symbol: The linguistic origin of Asclepius’ name, the symbolism of the legend protagonists and the iconographic representation of their attributes, converge in the Caduceus to represent the medical practices and ideas synthesis, all them related to the human life. Conclusion: Asclepius’ perception transcends the Olympic divinity and situates him as the healing archetype; that’s why Caduceus is consistent with the system-world representation that rules the actual medical practice. Keywords: Caduceum; Æsculapius; Æsclepius; History of medicine; Philosophy of medicine. El origen griego del caduceo: Esculapio RESUMEN Introducción: La historia de la medicina posibilita reflexionar sobre el caduceo como la síntesis de la dialéctica de la vida sensible y la espiritual. Esto abre un horizonte de comprensión y permite recuperar la leyenda de Esculapio y su culto con los diferentes elementos simbólicos que la componen.
    [Show full text]
  • MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP and MUSIC ENSEMBLE Wed, Mar 30, 7:30 Pm Carlson Family Stage
    2015 // 16 SEASON Northrop Presents MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP AND MUSIC ENSEMBLE Wed, Mar 30, 7:30 pm Carlson Family Stage DIDO AND AENEAS Dear Friends of Northrop, Northrop at the University of Minnesota Presents I count myself lucky that I’ve been able to see a number of Mark Morris Dance Group’s performances over the years—a couple of them here at Northrop in the 90s, and many more in New York as far back as the 80s and as recently as last MARK MORRIS year. Aside from the shocking realization of how quickly time flies, I also realized that the reason I am so eager to see Mark Morris’ work is because it always leaves me with a feeling of DANCE GROUP joy and exhilaration. CHELSEA ACREE SAM BLACK DURELL R. COMEDY* RITA DONAHUE With a definite flair for the theatrical, and a marvelous ability DOMINGO ESTRADA, JR. LESLEY GARRISON LAUREN GRANT BRIAN LAWSON to tell a story through movement, Mark Morris has always AARON LOUX LAUREL LYNCH STACY MARTORANA DALLAS McMURRAY been able to make an audience laugh. While most refer to BRANDON RANDOLPH NICOLE SABELLA BILLY SMITH his “delicious wit,” others found his humor outrageous, and NOAH VINSON JENN WEDDEL MICHELLE YARD he earned a reputation as “the bad boy of modern dance.” *apprentice But, as New York Magazine points out, “Like Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp, Morris has Christine Tschida. Photo by Patrick O'Leary, gone from insurgent to icon.” MARK MORRIS, conductor University of Minnesota. The journey probably started when he was eight years old, MMDG MUSIC ENSEMBLE saw a performance by José Greco, and decided to become a Spanish dancer.
    [Show full text]