Midterm Review Flashcards
(16 cards)
What myth is not actually a myth because it was created to entertain?
Plato’s “myth of Atlantis”
Example of myth as an aetiology
Amber as hardened tears of the daughters of the sun after their brother Phaethon was killed
How do we know myth is flexible?
Three stories of Elektra’s by the playwrights: all dissimilar, but claim to be telling the same story
How does Pindar change myth to suit his moral values?
“Olympian One”
- Dislikes that gods can eat human flesh
Pelops
- Changed his cheating chariot win to one with winged horses
- Makes his ivory shoulder a birthmark instead
- Doesn’t alter a story of child sexual abuse by Poseidon
What makes greek words reverse meaning?
“a”
How did the greeks view the world?
Flat disk
- River ocean surrounding the circumference
- Olympus above the rim of heaven
- Vault of heaven made of iron
- Tartarus at the very bottom, reserved for punishment
- Helios drives his chariot from east to west in a golden cup
- Aether is a combination of air and fire
Greek myth was not a revealed religion, but what books were there that women revealed to its writers?
Greek muses - Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’
The Sibylline books by The Sibyll(s)
What is ate and menos?
A ‘bad thing’ and a ‘good thing’ in the context of divine influence
What did communication from the gods entail?
Augury: Flight of the birds
Haruspicy: Entrails or liver of sacrificed animal
Monster/Monstrare: Monster to reveal or warn ‘moneo’
What are cthonic gods?
Dark, malevolent gods of the underworld
What is incarnationalism?
Supreme god is too large for the universe, so smaller gods appear on the surface
- Monotheistic and polytheistic at the same time
What is henotheism/monolatry?
Acknowledgement of the other gods, but choosing to devote oneself to a singular god
- Not an issue unless another god is put down to boost one’s own
Who is an example of a deist? What does he believe?
Epicuros - the gods create worlds and then cease to care about them/lose interest
What is pantheism?
God is the universe
What is dualism?
A good and a bad god fighting over the fate of the universe
