final Flashcards
Odysseus
Penelope: Wife
Avoids the War
Achilles
Son of Peleus and Thetis.
Learns from Chiron.
Death: Paris kills Achilles. Ajax helps his corpse.
Agamemnon
Boasted that he was better than Artemis.
Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia (daughter).
Iliad
Most complete source of the Trojan War.
Anger of Achiliies towards Agamemnon, Chryses, Chryseis.
Embassy to Achilles
Achilles was still pissed and about to leave when Agamemnon offers Achilles an enormous reward. Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix (Achilles’ former tutor) bring the offer, He declines.”I will not fight Hector, I am going home tomorrow)”
Patroclus (Achilles’s best friend)
Begs Achilles to return or to let him wear his armor so Patroclus can stem the bleeding of the war and save the burning ships. Achilles says yup but don’t go close to the walls of Troy… Guess what? Patroclus goes too close and kills Sarpedon (son of Zeus) but Hector Kills him… Takes Achilles armour.
Death of Hector
Achilles, with new armour made by Hephaestus, and pissed that Hector had killed Patroclus (His boyfriend), goes on a rampage and kills lots of dudes. Trojans flee inside the walls but Hector makes his stand. Achilles killes Hector, Hector curses him (you’ll soon follow), and Achillies dragged him behind his chariot for days.
The Ransom of Hector
Priam (Father of Paris & Hector), with the help of Hermes, sneaks into the Greek camp and talks to Achilles (offers ransom for Hector’s body), thinking of his own father, Achilles agrees and returns the body. “And so they buried horse-taming Hector.” (final line of Iliad, Homer)
Ajax
Ajax is able to take Achilles’ corpse and bring it back to the Greek lines amid a rain of arrows. Achilles’ armour was offered as a prize to the next-best warrior. Supposed To be Ajax but Odyssesus, using his intellect, gets it. Axajx = butt hurt.
Death of Ajax
He placed his sword in the ground and thrust himself upon it.
After slaughtering a flock of sheep thinking it was the Greeks who didn’t give him the armour, they all laugh at his mistake, he rage quit the game and kills himself
Only example of this kind of suicide in all of Greek myth.
Divine myths
Principal characters are gods and goddesses
Legends
Protagonists are human characters.
The story is about the hero
* Gods/goddesses may play a role
* Claim to narrate events from the human past
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh: was a real ruler of the Sumerian city of Uruk (“the first city”).
* Remberbed for building city walls [first monumental buildings: ziggurat, temples]
* POP = 40,000 (surounging 80,000) [Domestication of grain]
* As king he abused his powers (slept with every virgin before her wedding night)
Enkidu
Created to rival him but becomes his best friend
Motif of “true male companion”
Humbaba
Guardian of the forest and was killed by Enkidu and Gilgamesh
* Motif of the “broken taboo” and “divine retribution”
Ishtar
(Goddess): promised Gilgamesh rich rewards for impregnation. NOPE!
* Motif of “male hostility towards the treacherous sexually aggressive female”
Released the bull of heavens (father, Anu “king of heaven”)
Gilgamesh kills the bull
Enkidu dies after 12 days of illness
* Motif of the “hero mourning for a companion whose death he partly caused”
Utnapishtam
he and his wife were the only mortals who survived the flood.
* Gilgamesh fails his tests (ex. Herb and staying awake). 7 loaves of moldy bread.
* He returns home and accepts his mortality: Motif of “journey to the underworld”
Perseus “Destroyer”
Son of Zeus and Danae
When Acrisius discovered Perseus, he built a wooden box and placed them both in it.
* Thrown to the sea but saved by a fishermen (Dictys) lol dick
