Key Terms -- Final

Question 1

kantharus

Answer 1

an elaborate high-handled wine cup associated with Dionysus

Question 2

thyrsus

Answer 2

a rod made of giant fennel; a ritual implement of Dionysus and his followers

Question 3

satyr

Answer 3

supernatural followers of Dionysus in myth characterized by their goat-like appearance

Question 4

maenad (bacchant)

Answer 4

female followers of Dionysus/mythological analogues of female members of Dionysus cult

Question 5

dithyramb

Answer 5

a ritual, choral song for Dionysus; performed at the Great Dionysia in Athens

Question 6

sparagamos

Answer 6

the ritual tearing apart of animals in mythological (?) worship of Dionysus

Pentheus (young king of Thebes) death alludes to sparagamos in Bacchae

Question 7

theoxenia

Answer 7

(in myth) a visit paid by a disguised god to a mortal home / town

(in ritual) the ritual banquet practice of leaving a couch empty for a divine visitor

Question 8

metatheatricality

Answer 8

allusions to the theater/acting within drama, through verbal references, staging, props, etc.

e.g. Pentheus’ dressing scene involves a costuming scene, drawing attention to the highly artificial costume the actors wears

Question 9

diachronic explanation

Answer 9

an explanation that explains the historical development of a concept, specifically how it evolves over time from one form to another

e.g.: tragedy evolves out of the dithyramb –> it is Dionysian in origin

Question 10

synchronic explanation

Answer 10

an explanation of how a system works at a single moment in time

Question 11

story

Answer 11

a shared, culturally determined, understanding of a mythological event

Question 12

narration

Answer 12

a single telling of a mythological story

Question 13

autochthonous

Answer 13

native, indigenous

e.g.: the population of Thebes is born out of the ground from the snake’s teeth Cadmus kills

Question 14

scapegoating

Answer 14

the development of closed societies leads to internal strife, which can result in violence. the only solution is pre-emptive, structured violence. a single, innocent individual is isolated by society and destroyed.

Question 15

pleasure principle

Answer 15

the drive, located in the id, to maximize feelings of pleasure

Question 16

id

Answer 16

the unconscious seat of drives; one of the three constituents of the psyche

Question 17

ego

Answer 17

the conscious and unconscious seat of rationality; one of the three constituents of the psyche

Question 18

super-ego

Answer 18

the conscious and unconscious seat of the conscience OR the unconscious conscience; one of the three constituents of the psyche

Question 19

reality principle

Answer 19

the acceptance that one’s pursuit of pleasure must be limited, comes from a realization that unchecked pleasure seeking results in pain

Question 20

manifest content

Answer 20

the literal text, prior to critical interpretation

Question 21

latent content

Answer 21

the underlying meaning of a dream/text; what the manifest text exists to avoid disclosing

Question 22

linguistic sign

Answer 22

the building block of language is the “sign.” The sign is composed of two parts:
(1) the signified, i.e. the meaning of the sign, and
(2) the signifier, the presentation of the sign

Question 23

langue

Answer 23

the complete synchronic structure of a language, with its infinite possibilities of combination and meaning-making

Question 24

gross constituent units

Answer 24

the most basic, primary elements of a given myth

Question 25

polar opposition

Answer 25

pairs of opposing entities/object/events; the fundamental relation of gross constituent units

Question 26

talio

Answer 26

“eye for an eye” justice; relates to Theseus somehow?

Question 27

agon

Answer 27

in the context of a tragedy, a type scene in which two characters deliver paired, often competing speeches

highly rhetorical, and can be seen as a close point of contact between the Athenian theater and the formal debates in Athenian courts

Question 28

euhemerism

Answer 28

an approach to interpreting / explaining myth: myths are fantastical elaborations of actual historical events by actual historical people

Question 29

double motivation

Answer 29

in Greek myth, and especially tragedy, the actions/behavior of the characters can be explained as motivated by internal/psychological factors AND by the gods’ will

Question 30

posthumanism

Answer 30

a perspective that calls into question the central tenants of (pre- and post-) renaissance humanism, namely anthropocentrism, the unity of human being, the purity of human being

Question 31

eschatology

Answer 31

pertaining to the afterlife or end of the world

orphism is an eschatological cult

Question 32

metempsychosis

Answer 32

the migration of the soul; the travelling of the soul between underworld and mortal world

orphism probably involved the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul, i.e., metempsychosis

Question 33

haruspicy

Answer 33

the analysis of the organs of a sacrificed animal

performed in Sophocles, Antigone; Tiresias warns Creon of his fault because of this and augury

Question 34

allegorism

Answer 34

an approach to interpreting myth that looks for hidden meanings in a text; it often involves rejecting the literal meaning of the story

Question 35

myth

Answer 35

traditional stories with cultural relevance, usually pertaining to gods and demigods

Question 36

arias

Answer 36

passages sung by the actors in tragedy, reserved for climactic moments in the play

Question 37

ritural structure

Answer 37

(1) separation
(2) liminality (trapped between different spaces or identities)
(3) reaggregation