identifying myths from photos

Question 1

Danae and the golden shower (Zeus)

Answer 1

• Acrisius receives a prophecy that he will not have a son (an heir) but his daughter, Danae, will and her son will kill him.
• in an effort to prevent the prophecy from occurring, he locks Danae in a bronze “tomb” but Zeus is a horny guy and if there’s a will, there’s a way.
• he appears as a golden shower/mist (represented like a golden glow of sorts) and impregnates Danae with what will become Perseus

Question 2

Heracles and the snakes (rage of Hera lmao)

Answer 2

Heracles is born from Zeus and Alcmene.
- Zeus appears to her disguised as her husband (:o), Amphitryon, and impregnates her.
- Hera hates Heracles because he is a reminder of Zeus’ affair and attempts to kill him all of the time.
- She sends snakes to try and kill him but instead Heracles is chilling because it’s Heracles, a strong guy, and he grabs and kills the snakes

Question 3

Leda and the Swan (Zeus)

Answer 3

Zeus goes yo wow she is a stunner (talking about Leda) and then approaches her like a swan because swans are nice ig and then he impregnates her (probably forcefully) with eggs :o
She has 4 kids (some not from Zeus?):
1. Caster
2. Polydeuces
3. Clytemnestra
4. Helen

Question 4

Europa and the Bull (Zeus)

Answer 4

Europa is the autonomous figure for the continent of Europe
- she catches Zeus’s eye, Zeus appears to her and seduces her as a bull (for why i’m not sure)
- when she gets close to him (not knowing it’s Zeus), he scoops her and forcibly impregnates her
- most notably, she conceives Minos

Question 5

Abduction of Ganymede by Zeus

Answer 5

Zeus thinks the Prince of Troy is kind of a cutiepie<3 and abducts him, making him his personal cupbearer
- sometimes Zeus snatches him as an eagle

Question 6

Hera seduces Zeus

Answer 6

Occurs during the Trojan War, Hera and Zeus were rooting for opposite sides
- Hera decides to distract Zeus in an effort to help the Greeks, her distraction of choice is seduction (she acquires Aphrodite’s help to beautify herself)
- Zeus sees her and finds her so attractive that he cannot help himself but admit all of his infidelities to explain just how attractive he finds her
- They engage in you knooow, therefore preventing Zeus from assisting the trojans

Question 7

Marsyas (arrogant mortal tsk tsk)

Answer 7

Marsyas was a great musician, so great that he believed he could win against Apollo in a musical contest
- Hearing the challenge, Apollo agrees to a contest (because how dare a mortal challenge a god, not just a god but THE god of music). The terms were that the winner could do anything to the
loser.
- Big surprise, Apollo won and ohh boy. He chose to flay Marsyas. He removed the skin. From Marsyas.
ouchie

Question 8

Cumaean Sibyl and Apollo - how to identify her?

Answer 8

Sibyl (a priestess) was a girlfriend of Apollo
- in exchange for her virginity, she picked up a handful of sand requesting to live for as many years as there are grains of sand
- he granted her the wish
- later she refused to enact her end of the bargain and he allowed her to shrivel up from old age because she never asked for immortality

Question 9

Apollo and Daphne

Answer 9

Apollo loved Daphne and, of course to show your love you chase them in an effort to forcibly have sex with them - he chased her and she panicked, not wanting to be with him, prayed to the gods to be granted an escape
- her prayer was granted through her transformation into a laurel tree
- this is how the laurel tree became Apollo’s sacred tree

Question 10

Asclepius - how to identify? his relevance?

Answer 10

Asclepius was born from Coronis, Thessalian princess, and Apollo
- they get it on and she gets pregnant
- then she decides to get with another man and is snitched on by a raven
- the raven tells Apollo and he kills Coronis by enlisting Artemis
- but Apollo then revives Asclepius because the baby didn’t do anything

Question 11

Apollo and Hyacinth (rip)

Answer 11

Apollo fell in love with Hyacinth
- one day, they were playing with a discus and Apollo hit Hyacinth killing him
- in mourning, from the blood of Hyacinth, Apollo grows a hyacinth flower

Question 12

Ares and Aphrodite

Answer 12

They had a long time romantic relationship but were never married because of Aphrodite’s marriage to Hephaestus.
- They were considered a couple despite the adulterous nature of their relationship.
- They had several children together:
1. Harmonia
2. Deimos
3. Phobos
4. Eros

Question 13

Hermes - how to identify?

Answer 13

God of thieves, merchants, guides, travelers, speed and is also considered a “psychopompos”
Recognized in art through the presence of:
1. Petasos - traveler’s hat
2. Chlamys - cloak worn over his shoulders
3. Caduceus
4. Often has a beard
5. Wings - visual representation of swiftness
6. Boots have a hook-like flopping piece on the top front

Question 14

Hermaphroditus - uniqueness?

Answer 14

• Child of Aphrodite and Hermes
• Intersex; from one side they appear as a female,
  from another they appear as a male (the fluidity of
  their appearance allows them to appear as both “desiring”
  as well as “desirable”

Question 15

Cattle of Apollo

Answer 15

Referencing the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, when he was a baby, Hermes crept out of his crib to cause some trouble.
- He stole his brother Apollo’s sacred herd of cattle, and made them walk in reverse to make it more difficult to track.
- The whole purpose of Hermes stealing the cattle was to gain the attention of Apollo, and therefore, the attention of Zeus. This was the goal as he was born without anyone knowing so he had to get creative in how he gained his spot in Olympus as well as how he gained his divine offices.

Question 16

Actaeon (RIP- literally)

Answer 16

Actaeon was out hunting with his dogs when he accidentally stumbled across Artemis bathing in a pool.
- Artemis is a virgin goddess so this was very bad for
him. Some nymphs attempted to cover her body but they were too small to cover anything of significance
- She splashed him with water, turning him into a stag for his transgression
- His dogs caught his sent and tear him apart
(sparagmos)

Question 17

Arachne

Answer 17

Arachne gets a little too arrogant
- She’s a great weaver and boasts that she was better than Athena and challenged her in a contest
- She agreed, disguised as an older woman.
- Athena weaves one of her own myths of her being chosen over Poseidon as the patron god of Athens, Arachne weaves the crimes and infidelities of the gods
- Athena wins because duh and she transforms Arachne into a spider (the weaver of the animal kingdom)

Question 18

Pygmalion and Galatea

Answer 18

Pygmalion was a sculptor and sculpted his own ivory statue of his ideal woman which he falls in love with and names Galatea.
- He prays to Venus and she grants his prayer by making his sculpture come to life.
- They have three kids, two of them have an incestual affair resulting in the creation of Adonis, one of Aphrodite’s most significant loves

Question 19

Triptolemus - relevance? how to identify?

Answer 19

He was an early Athenian King and mythologically speaking, was the inventor of agriculture.
- Demeter teaches him her rights as well as the
cultivation of cereals, Triptolemus travels around the Greek world teaching other Greek communities how to grow food.
- He travels around by a chariot pulled by “dragons,” serpents.

Question 20

Dionysus and dolphins

Answer 20

1. Dionysus is on the beach when pirates sail by.
2. The pirates decide to capture him so they could sell him for ransom, but they discover that Dionysus cannot be restrained.
3. The boat is transformed into a garden and the pirates are transformed into dolphins, they jump into the water to live.
   **This story shows that Dionysus is not always violent but sometimes his punishments are a show of his miraculous abilities.

Question 21

Pentheus…. sorry bud:(

Answer 21

This myth comes from “Bacchae,” by Euripides, and is the story of Dionysus returning to Thebes.
1. King Pentheus doesn’t believe the Dionysus is a god and forbids his worship.
2. In response, the women are driven mad and run to the wild to worship Dionysus.
3. Dionysus tricks the king; he lures him with the knowledge of how and why the women are worshipping. The king agrees to be shown, Dionysus redresses the king and takes him into the wilderness.
4. Once they arrived to the site, the king cannot see how they are worshipping and asks if he can climb a tree to see the worship, Dionysus tells him this is a great idea.
5. Upon climbing the tree, the maenad see the king but believe him to be a spy. They ripped the tree out of the ground and his own mother rips the king apart.

Question 22

Orpheus - how to identify? his story?

Answer 22

He can be identified as just being a head.
1. Orpheus was engaged to Eurydice but on their wedding day she was bitten and killed by a snake.
2. Depressed and yearning, Orpheus sings and charms his way to the underworld to reclaim her.
3. Persephone and Hades agree to his request with one condition, he cannot look back.
4. shocker, as they have almost ascended, he looks back and sees Eurydice slip into the darkness.
5. Orpheus is at an all time low; just wanders around.
6. He ends up in Thrace where bacchae meet him and like him. They offer an spicy kind of proposition but he rejects.
7. The bacchae rip him apart (sparagmos)

Question 23

Birth of Dionysus

Answer 23

1. Zeus, disguised, impregnates her
2. Semele is hanging out, Hera, disguised, appears to her and tells her that she needs to ask Zeus to appear to her the same way he appears to Hera.
3. Semele goes to Zeus and asks him to grant her a request, he agrees before hearing it. She asks for what disguised Hera suggested.
4. Bound by his oath to her, he appears as a lightning bolt, incinerating her instantly.
5. Dionysus doesn’t die; Hermes takes Dionysus to Zeus and Zeus sews the fetus into his thigh until it comes to term

Question 24

Sisyphus

Answer 24

The King of Corinth became infamous for his general trickery when he twice cheated death.
- Sisyphus ultimately got his comeuppance when Zeus dealt him the eternal punishment of forever rolling a boulder up a hill in Tartarus

Question 25

Tantalus

Answer 25

Tantalus was the rich but wicked king of Sipylus.
- For attempting to serve his own son, Pelops, at a feast with the gods, he was punished by Zeus to forever go thirsty and hungry in Hades despite being stood in a pool of water and almost within reach of a fruit tree.
- Origin of the word tantalize- to torment or tease

Question 26

Ixion

Answer 26

Attempted to rape Hera but she gets replaced by a cloud and he has sex with it thinking it’s her.
His punishment in Tartarus was to be bound to a fiery wheel that was perpetually spinning.

Question 27

Argus and Hera

Answer 27

Knowing that Zeus is lying about Io being a cow, Hera requests the cow as a gift which he grants. Hera then appoints Argus to watch over the cow.
- Zeus enlists Hermes to help free Io from the gaze of Argus (he has 100 eyes)
- Hermes does some recon and then disguises himself
as a shepherd, causing all of Argus’s 100 eyes to fall asleep
- Hermes beheads Argus and frees Io.
- Hera takes the one hundred eyes and combines them with a peacock (THE MYTH IS ETIOLOGICAL FOR THE SPOTS ON A PEACOCK, the peacock being Hera’s animal)

Question 28

Io and Jupiter

Answer 28

1. Jupiter appears to Io and “seduces” her as a cloud of mist
2. Hera sees a strange looking cloud on a clear day and investigates it. Zeus turns Io into a cow to hide his infidelity.
3. Suspecting what Jupiter is up to, Juno requests the cow as a gift which he grants. Juno then appoints Argus to watch over the cow (he has 100 eyes).
4. Zeus enlists Hermes to help free Io, so Hermes does some recon and then disguises himself as a shepherd, and causes all of Argus’s 100 eyes to fall asleep
5. Hermes beheads Argus in frees Io, who was then driven from the Argive plain by a gadfly sent by Juno to torture her and wanders an impossibly far distance
6. Io ends up in the east, meeting Prometheus where, according to Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, they exchange a dialogue.
7. She ultimately ends up in Egypt, where Zeus frees her by “touching” her. She is impregnated upon this touch and births Epaphus.

Question 29

Gorgon - how to identify?

Answer 29

In art, can be identified by:
- Snake hair
- gold wings
- THEY STARE INTO YOUR SOUL; they are positioned to stare at the viewer- this is NOT normal in depicted characters in antiquity
- tongues out
- tusks cuz hell yeah
The gorgons are most notable for their story of Perseus slaying Medusa.

Question 30

Humbaba

Answer 30

A GIANT figure present in Mesopotamian myth:
- Enkidu and Gilgamesh go out together, they are scared to enter the land of cedars/land of the living because Humbaba was assigned, by Enlil, to guard it.
- He is ultimately killed by the two heroes.

Question 31

Perseus and Andromeda

Answer 31

1. Queen Cassiopeia, boasts the she is more beautiful than he sea nymphs (which girl boss you are in a coastal community right by the sea, what are you doing??)
2. The nymphs go to Poseidon and ask him to defend their honor, Poseidon sends Ceto (the Kraken)
3. Andromeda gets offered to Ceto as a sacrifice in an effort to rid the community of Poseidon’s punishment.
4. On the way back after defeating the Gorgon, Perseus sees Andromeda changed to a rock and falls in love<3
5. He goes to the king saying, “I will kill the Kraken if you let me marry your daughter and also give me your kingdom,” the king agrees (even though Andromeda was already betrothed to Phineus)
6. Perseus, being the swag guy he is, slays the Kraken, gets the girl, gets the kingdom, they are having a great time.
7. Phineus is like “yo she was my bride. what the heck” and then Perseus goes “oh is that so? well here’s what i think about that” and whips out Medusa’s head and turns him into stone
   the end<3

Question 32

Tablet of Gilgamesh

Question 33

Maenad - how to identify?

Question 34

Perseus and the Graeae

Question 35

Perseus and the Gorgon (medusa)

Question 36

The abduction of Persephone - how to identify?

Question 37

The return of Persephone - how to identify?

Question 38

Perseus’ escape from the gorgons

Question 39

Argus - connection to Io? how to identify?