Midterm Flashcards
(138 cards)
1
Q
Why did humans establish myths? (2)
A
- They began to settle after realizing cosmic order (e.g. cycle of days, seasons, moon)
- They became agriculturally-based
2
Q
What are early examples of mythological thinking and human consciousness? (3)
A
- Religious practices (e.g. burial sites with objects to be used in the afterlife)
- Bear skulls (cycle of hibernation and sleep)
- Venus figurines
3
Q
What do the Venus figurines represent? Where were they found? (3)
A
- Fertility
- A matriarchal order before the patriarchy
- Commonly found next to fireplaces, the heart of the home
4
Q
What does myth/mythos mean?
A
Speech or story; originally oral then written down around 1000 BC
5
Q
What does mythology mean?
A
A collection of stories
6
Q
What are the functions/purposes of myths? (5)
A
1) Give historical facts (e.g. Trojan War)
2) Express religious rites (e.g. worship of gods)
3) Often aetiological (express aspects of nature/origin)
4) Express human feelings and emotions (leads to psychology)
5) Express philosophical ideas
7
Q
What are sagas/legends?
A
Stories with their basis in history
8
Q
What are folktales/fairy tales? (3)
A
- Stories with fantastic beings (e.g. monsters)
- Heroes who win in the end
- A world of magic
9
Q
Mircea Eliade
A
A historian who emphasized the relationship between myths, rituals, and rites and provided explanations to individuals and society
10
Q
Myths and aetiology (2)
A
- Explains nature and facts
- Okay for creation and origins, but doesn’t include heroic myths
11
Q
Myths as allegory and metaphor
A
Suggests that myths contain other meanings, but leaves out complexities
12
Q
Myths and rationalism
A
Suggests that individuals who did great deeds were deified, but doesn’t consider aetiological myths
13
Q
Freud (4)
A
- Used myths as analysis for inner human
- Recurring patterns, symbols, motifs, (e.g. Oedipus complex)
- Reflect incoherent vision and impulses of the sleep world (e.g. the Legend of the Minotaur, Saga of the House of Atreus)
- Telling myths as a form of catharsis
14
Q
Jung (3)
A
- “Collective consciousness” – archetypes and heroic patterns
- Emphasizes the dependence of all societies on myths (important but overvalues similarities in the minds of individual human societies)
15
Q
J.G. Frazer and Jane Harrison (3)
A
- The Golden Bough
- Links myth to ritual and religion
- Limiting
16
Q
Robert Graves (2)
A
- Emphasis on archaeological and literary
- Stresses ritual
17
Q
Bronislav Malinowski (3)
A
- Anthropologist
- Stranded near New Guinea in WWI to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world
- Explores myth not in cosmic terms but as charters of social customs and beliefs
18
Q
Claude Lévi-Strauss (2)
A
- Relation of myth to society
- Makes meaningful connections between different myths, but they are oversimplified
19
Q
Vladimir Propp (2)
A
- Heroic sequence (e.g. Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason)
- But can’t do it for others
20
Q
Walter Burkett (2)
A
- Combines structural with historical/cultural
- Tales are founded on basic biological or cultural
21
Q
Importance of making meaning of myths
A
It’s important to identify patterns, but not all myths fit into patterns
22
Q
What is comparative studies?
A
They show structures and motifs in Greek literature that are common to mythologies of the world
23
Q
Joseph Campbell (3)
A
- His work encompasses oral literal, and material mythology
- Looks at shared spiritual values and legends of various people’s over the centuries
- Sometimes overlooks the complexity of Greek and Roman myths
24
Q
Feminist approaches to myth (2)
A
- Often focus on psychological and social situations of female characters
- Examine the position of women in ancient society (yet cannot impose modern values onto the classical world)
25
Women in Greek society (3)
- Were citizens but couldn't vote
- Took part in society (e.g. religious ceremonies)
- Women had the education (went to the theatre, etc)
26
Common themes of Greek myths (4)
- Blinding passion
- Little distinction between love and abduction
- Homosexuality was respected and practiced
- Homer inspired poets, who inspired drama, who inspired philosophy
27
Who was Hesiod? (2)
- An epic poet
| - Wrote 2 important texts around 700 BC
28
What is Theogony?
Hesiod's poem about the creation of the world, the origins of the Gods and of humans
29
How does Theogony begin? (2)
1) With the invocation of the muses
| 2) There are 9 of them, they are associated with the arts
30
What purpose do the muses serve? (2)
1) The primal importance of the female
| 2) Inspiration for the male poet
31
How were the muses depicted in ancient works?
Undressed which gives artists a way to reveal the human body (beauty and youth)
32
What is chaos? (2)
- Pregnant nothingness; a void giving birth to something
| - Basically Ge or Gaia, mother earth
33
What is Tartarus? (3)
- The deepest part of the underworld
- Represented as the female womb originally
- Later becomes the prison for the worst offenders
34
What is Eros? (2)
- Love, a procreative force
| - Later becomes Aphrodite's son Cupid
35
What is Hesiod's creation myth? (3)
- Gaia spontaneously gives birth to Tartarus and Eros
- The Greeks thought of love initially; love and sex go together
- Coming together of Faia and Eros means the birth of the world
36
Who is Aristophanes?
The first writer of comic drama
37
What is Aristophanes' take on Hesiod's version of the creation myth? (4)
- Eros appears with wings (the prototype of cupid)
- Idea of taking flight and being able to move
- Father of the birds, they were there before anything else
- Satire
38
What is Hieros gamos? (3)
- The sacred marriage
- Seen in comparative mythologies
- The fundamental first principle of male and female joining together to birth
39
Who is Ouranos? What does he do? (3)
- The sky, the idea of the male on top of the female
- Mates with Gaia and they have monstrous children
- Gaia gives birth to the second generation of gods and the hieros gamos
40
Who is Chronos?
- The personification of time and the sky (Saturn)
- Often associated with the golden era
- Name means "carrying the scythe"
- Many temples honouring him in Rome, as a symbol of nostalgia
41
Who is Rhea?
- The female, earth
| - Gives birth to Zeus
42
Theme of castration (3)
- Younger son taking over the previous generation
- Chronos castrating Ouranos
- Zeus castrating Chronos, ends the trend but he still maintains his fear with Prometheus
43
Zeus and Hera
Become the 3rd generation of hieros gamos and the head of the olympian gods
44
What was the Earth Mother Goddess originally? (2)
1) Day and night
| 2) Different phases of the moon reflecting life
45
How does the Earth Mother Goddess work?
1) She is fertile because things grow out of the womb (e.g. agriculture)
2) A creature of love and sex, because it happens without regeneration
3) By the 3rd generation her powers are diluted
46
Earth Mother Goddess and the male/female principle (3)
- Concept of man on top of/covering the woman
- The male is the sky and rain sperm on her (also fertile)
- She is the fertile earth, the womb from which all grows
47
Who were the Earth Mother Goddesses after the split? (6)
1) Demeter
2) Persephone
3) Hestia
4) Aphrodite
5) Hera
6) Athene
48
Who is Demeter?
Goddess of the harvest and fertility
49
Who is Persephone?
Demeter's daughter, the underworld
50
Who is Hestia?
Goddess of the hearth
51
Who is Aphrodite? (4)
- Primal love, creative force
- The female principle of Eors, symbol of sex, love, and beauty
- A powerful force (even Zeus is subject to to her)
- Wife of Hephaestus
- Involved in love triangle with Ares
52
How is Aphrodite born?
When Zeus castrates Chronos and his testicles fall into the sea, out of the blood comes monsters but out of the sperm comes Aphrodite from either Cyprus or Cythera
53
Who is Hera?
Goddess of marriage and children
54
Who is Athene?
Goddess of wisdom
55
What are the other gods that are displaced by the Olympians? (5)
1) Helios
2) Selene
3) Eos (Dawn)
4) Chronos (Saturn)
5) Atlas
56
Who is Helios? (2)
- The sun god
| - In later incarnations associated with Apollo
57
Who is Selene? (4)
- The moon goddess
- Later associated with Artemis
- Falls in love with the handsome Endymion
- Asks to remain forever young
58
Who is Eos? (2)
- Falls in love with Tithonus but when she asks the gods to grant him immortality she forgets to ask for eternal youth
- He gets older and older and eventually becomes a cricket (why old people creak, and aetiological myth)
59
Who is Atlas? (2)
- A defeated Titan doomed to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders
- Often depicted as holding a flat disc as that is how the Greeks saw earth
60
What are the Five Ages?
Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Age of Heroes, Iron Age
61
What is the Golden Age? (3)
- Chronos was rulers
- People were carefree and didn't work
- Lived for a long time and died in their sleep
62
What is the Silver Age? (2)
- The world was worse off than in the Golden Age
| - People were arrogant, irreligious, and lifeless
63
What is the Bronze Age? (3)
- Terrible (worse than Silver Age)
- Weapons
- Killing each other
64
What is the Age of Heroes? (3)
- Battles of Troy and Thebes
- Honour
- Isles of the Blessed
65
What is the Iron Age?
Work, war, dishonouring parents, destructive
66
What do the 5 ages teach us?
The concept of the world getting worse, a vision of paradise in the past
67
Themes of The Illiad (7)
- War
- Love
- Heroism
- Destiny
- Dispair
- Loss
- Meaning of life and death
68
Themes of The Odyssey (4)
- Hero: Odysseus
- Challenges/difficulties faced and overcome
- Happy ending: home, reunion with family
- Odyssey means "quest for life itself"
69
Homer in modern and contemporary poetry (2)
- Both The Illiad and the Odyssey have been revisioned, reinterpreted, and rewritten
- The epics have inspired many great poets throughout time including Yeats and Margaret Atwood
70
What areas were seen as the beginning of city civilizations and more structured societies? When? (2)
- Iran, Syria, Egypt, modern day Southern Turkey, and Greece
| - 3500 BC
71
Who was the first person to look at The Iliad as a historical basis? How?
- Heinrich Schliemann
| - Went to Greece for an archaeological dig, found remnants of Troy and concluded that it had been rebuilt several times
72
Who discovered the mask of Agamemnon and the Mycenae?
Heinrich Schliemann
73
What is Mycenae?
The city of Agamemnon
74
What is the Beehive Tomb?
The tomb of Agamemnon - built like a beehive with Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's names of the wall
75
Who discovered Knossos?
Arthur Evans (an archaeologist)
76
What is Knossos?
The Palace of Minos and the labyrinth
77
What colours are the buildings of Knossos? (4)
Hematite, Lapis, Red clay, turquoise
78
What are the famous wall paintings of Knossos? (4)
1) The Painted Lady
2) The Bull in Knossos
3) Dolphins in the Queen's Bedroom
4) Paintings of monkeys, lilies, and painted ladies
79
When did the Trojan War probably happen?
1250 - 1300 BC
80
How does Mycenae prove that some of the heroes mentioned in the Iliad had historical context?
Shrine devoted to Helen in Sparta
81
What are the 2 theories of why Crete was deveated?
1) The great earthquake in Satorini around 1300 BC
2) The northern tribe came town (the Dorians), took over the Minoan civilizations and became patriarchal -- their king of gods was Zeus, who was born in Crete, linking both worlds
82
What is Zeus considered to be?
What does he rule?
What is he associated with?
- King or leader of gods
- The sky, controls thunder and lightning
- Associated with the eagle and oak tree
83
Who is Zeus married to?
What does she do?
How is she described?
- Hera, his sister, the goddess of marriage
- She hen-picks him for his infidelities
- She is described as "ox-eyed" referring to her fertility
84
What is Hera's animal?
Peacock
85
Who is Hephaestus? (3)
- Son of Hera
- Wife of Aphrodite: their union is of art and love
- Creator of the beautiful, forges art (civilization)
86
Who is Ares? (3)
- God of wasteful war
- Involved in love triangle with Hephaestus and Aphrodite
- Hated by the Greeks, later revered by Romans as Mars
87
Who is Hermes? (5)
- Son of Zeus
- Has winged feet
- Trickster figure
- Messenger god for the gods
- Leads souls to the underworld
88
Who is Athena? (3)
| What is she associated with? (3)
- Daughter of Zeus, born from his head in full warrior gear
- Goddess of war and heroes
- Associated with civilizations
- Athens, olive tree, owl
89
Who is Apollo? (5)
| What is he associated with? (2)
- Son of Zeus and Leto
- Born on Delos
- Twin of Artemis
- Takes over the oracle of Delphi
- Plays golden lyre
- Laurel tree and dolphin
90
Who is Artemis? (3)
| What is she associated with? (1)
- Daughter of Zeus and Leto
- Twin of Apollo
- Virgin moon goddess, goddess of the hunt
- Associated with the deer
91
What is the oracle of Delphi? (4)
A prophecy, sun god, "healer", symbolizes art and civilization
92
Who is Hymen?
The god of virginity
93
Who is Hebe?
The goddess of youth
94
Who is Iris? (2)
- The goddess of the rainbow
| - Messenger god
95
Who are the Graces? (3)
They signify laugher, grace, and beauty
96
Who is Nemesis?
Goddess of vengeance, just rewards for actions
97
Who is Aidos?
Goddess of conscience
98
What are Moriae? (4)
The 3 fates:
- Clotho (spinner)
- Lachesis (meters out life)
- Atropos (cuts life thread)
99
Who is Posideon? (5)
- Father of the sea, ruler
- Depicted similarly to Zeus
- "Earth-shaker" (creates earthquakes)
- Possibly was once the fertility god of springs
- Mated with Demeter, symbolic union of land and sea
100
Who is Oceanus?
Father of the nymphs
101
Who is Proteus?
- The shape-shifter of the sea
- Prophet
- Poem by Sylvia Plath
102
Who/what is Hades? (2)
- Brother of Zeus
| - Name of the underworld
103
What is Tartarus?
"Prison" for great offenders
104
What is Charon?
The ferryman who takes souls acorss the rivers Styx (oath) and Lethe (forgetfulness) to Hades
105
What is Cerberus?
3-headed dog monster guard of Hades
106
Who is Tethys?
Wife of Oceanus
107
Who is Pontos? (2)
- Son of Gaia (no father)
| - Father of Nereus
108
Who is Nereus? (4)
- Old wise men of the sea
- Son of Pontos
- Husband of Doris
- Father of the Nereids
109
What are the Nereids? (2)
- The 50 sea-nymph daughters of Nereus and Doris
| - Most significant: Thetis, Galatea, Amphitrite
110
Who is Doris? (3)
- An Oceanid
- Wife of Nereus
- Mother of the Nereids
111
What is the prophecy surrounding Peleus, Thetis, and Achilles? (2)
- Thetis was destined to have a son that was stronger than his father, so Zeus married her to Peleus
- This reconciled Zeus and Prometheus and set him from the rock and liver-eating eagle
112
Who is Polyphemus? (2)
A cyclops, in a later myth he is said to be the son of Posideon
113
What is the love triangle involving Polyphemus, Galatea, and Acis? (2)
- When Polyphemus sees Galatea and Acis together, he tears a section of a mountain and throws it at Acis to kill him
- Acis calls out to Galatea, she transforms him into a river god to save him
114
Posideon and Amphitrite (3)
- Have a son named Triton; a merman
- Often depicted blowing into a conch shell in paintings
- Trumpeter of the sea
115
What is Posideon associated with?
Bulls and horses
116
Scylla, Posideon, Amphitrite
- Posideon made an advance on Scylla
- Amphitrite was jealous and threw magic herb into her bath
- Scylla became a monster with dog heads
117
Who is Charybdis?
A sea monster
118
What are the Harpies?
Bird-like creatures with the faces of women; cause strong winds and peril to sailors
119
What are the Graeae?
3 sisters that share one eye and one tooth
120
What are the Gorgons?
- 3 goddesses that turn men to stone
| - Stheno, Euryale, Medusa
121
How are Pegasus and Chrysaor born?
When Perseus decapitates Medusa, they are sprung from her corpse
122
Who is Ladon? What does Herakles do to him?
- A dragon who stays with Hersperides
| - Slews him when he stole golden apples from the garden of Hesperides
123
Chrysaor and Callirhoe
Birth Geryon and Echidna (half nymph, half snake)
124
Interpretation of sea deities
1) Importance of sea travel and its perils
2) The extent of travel of sea-farers Jason and Odysseus
3) Imaginative stories, exciting adventures
125
What do character choices, storylines, and endings often do in popular culture?
Postulate an ironic, satirical, and critical glance at contemporary identities and issues
126
What is the meaning of "hero" in the context of popular culture?
Honour, social good, or justice
127
Star Trek vs. The Odyssey (2)
- Similar goals and journeys
- The heroic pattern of leaving the known world, journeying into the unknown, facing problems, vanquishing the monsters with the goal of having a better understanding of humankind
128
Democratization of the concept of the hero (3)
- The entire crew makes up one hero by working together
- Exhibiting the best of American ideals
- They free themselves from the world of the irrational; from magic, oracles, and belief in gods
129
How does Captain Kirk embody classical heroic qualities? (2)
- He is courageous, clever, resourceful
| - His actions are for the communal good rather than individual glory
130
Lieutenant Caroline Palamas is faced with a decision, what does she decide?
Humanity, like Odysseus
131
"Mankind has no need for gods" (2)
- Without love and worship, Apollo fades away
| - No need for gods means faith in humanity as fostering and furthering human progress and development
132
Atlas by Lucille Clifton (6)
- Atlas describing what it's like to have the weight of the world on his shoulders
- "Used to the way my thumb slips into the sea"
- Fires: "flesh burning"
- Working: "sweating"
- New life: "bearing young"
- Necessity: "carry it like a poor man learns to carry everything"
133
Prometheus by Emery George (4)
- About Prometheus defying the gods and giving humans fire
- He expects humans to do good with it (to cook)
- People start using it for the wrong reasons (e.g. atomic bombs, weapons)
- When everything has been destroyed God will be reinstated
134
Europa by Derek Walcott (5)
- Debunking the myth of Europa and Zeus as a sex story
- Discussing white people taking over the Caribbean (poet from St. Lucia)
- Bitter tone
- Zeus disguised as the animal he is associated with, the bull
- Beach scene
135
Alcmene by Yannis Ritsos (4)
- Myth of Alcmene and Zeus
- Alcmene cheated on her mortal husband with Zeus and cannot return to sleeping with a mortal man after sleeping with a god
- She waits for his unlikely return
- Demonstration of the power of the gods
136
Ganymede by W. H. Auden (2)
- Zeus trying to seduce Ganymede without force
| - Ganymede is only interested in war and killing
137
The Search by Rita Dove (3)
- Demeter's grief after the murder of Persephone
- Other women don't understand and think she has let herself go since she no longer styles her hair
- She keeps walking down the path by the river despite winter coming
138
Daphne with Her Thighs in Bark by Eavan Boland
She has been transformed into a laurel tree to avoid getting chased by Apollo
