Midterm Terms Flashcards by Bailey Richardson

*powerful beings of various kinds
*take place in world outside/before present order
*analogous to modern theoretical science
*not same as religion, although linked

Divine myth

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*story/roots in historical fact or relationship to history
*analogous to history (can contain elements of historical truth)
*principal actors are heroes and heroines

Legend

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*Central characters are usually ordinary human beings
* can relate, often low social status, monsters wicked sorceresses; mistaken identity; moral/magical content

Folktale

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I give so that you may give

Do ut des

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pollution; incurred from murder - familial killing often can only be removed ritually or via a king

Miasma

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*not written by homer
*poems to various authors
*same dialect as homers epics

Homeric Hymn

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explains origin or cause of something

Etiological Myth

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*known for being sailors
*beautiful & intricate pottery
*named after mythical king Minos (myth of minotaur)

Minoans

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*perhaps the Greek culture which fought in the war of Homer’s Iliad
*warlike society
giant palace complex @ Mycenae
*ruled by wanax (king)

Myceneans

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*Myceneans believed the walls were so big only the cyclops could have built them

Cyclopean Walls

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*attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities

anthropomorphism

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messages and stories transmitted orally from one generation to another (speech, song, dance, art, sayings, proverbs, fables)

Oral Tradition

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*German businessman who believed events in Homer’s Iliad could be verified archeologically
*found tons of artifacts, did not document well, named them after characters, sold and kept a lot of them

Heinrich Schliemann

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*Used dynamite - did not record properly
*destructive science, can only be done once
*took artifacts out of context and country

Heinrich Schliemann

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*goat skin
*shield w/serpent border used by Athena and Zeus

Aegis

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alphabetic script

Linear B

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*recorded frequency of every symbol character, & those in juxtaposition appeared on tablets
*180,000 notecards
*died @ 43 on verge of discovery

Alice Kober

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*decipherment in 1952
*looked for name Ko-no-so (knossos)
*acknowledged & credited Kober - went unnoticed by scholars

Michael Ventris

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oral poet

aoidoi

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*song stitcher
*compiled all different songs together

rhapsode

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*story that explains the “origin of the gods”
*creation of present world order

theogony

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*story that explains the “origin of the world”

cosmogony

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*Early gods’ representations of natural forces on abstract concepts
*Birth of gods = ordering of cosmos

cosmology

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*sacred marriage
*between sky god and earth mother

Hieros Gamos

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*"swift-footed Achilles" *"rosy fingered Dawn" *"the wine dark sea" *alternate names focuses on aspects of gods usually helped fit meter of aoidoi performing

epithets

*memorized public presentation group of 12+ male or female children dancers

Choral Song

*often involves necessary choice btw equally unpleasant options *Aristotle - imitation of an action that's serious and completed *purification of the emotions often mythological stories

Tragedy

* purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity & fear) primarily through art

Catharsis

palace of Minoans; labyrinth structure

Knossos

Hospitality, ritual/protocol of proper guest/host relationship; if violated (steal host food, kill guest, etc.) Zeus can come after you (sacred to Zeus)

Xenia

"soul-guide" Hermes is called this

psychopompos

*a Bride "virgin" *girl thought to be wild and dangerous like the Goddess Artemis, to whose cult young girls served

Parthenos

Temple dedicated to Athena as a virgin

Parthenon

'standing at the threshold' or a 'period of in-between-ness'

Liminal/Liminality

Transition from life to death

Liminal spaces

Associated with Rebirth (Demeter) one who lives under the earth

Chthonic deity

fatal pride was the downfall of many heroes

Hubris

*A stone pile (travelers throw stones on for good luck) was stylized into a pillar with a human head, usually bearded, and an erect phallus. *gods' wand, a staff intertwined with two snakes copulating, carried by human heralds (Hermes staff)

Herm/Caduceus

*The place Apollo ruled *a Pan-Hellenic religious center to which all Greeks paid respect, regardless of their unending political differences

Delphi

At Delphi, the prophetess was called this after the dragon Python

Pythia

legend states that there was an earlier one of these that functioned under Gaea or Themis.

oracle

War with the Titans

Titanomachy

*Myth of how the next generation overtook their parents (Uranus & Gaia to Cronus & Rhea to Zeus & Hera) *Children defeat parent (father) to take over

Succession myth

The act of tearing apart or mangling

Sparagmos

b;ank

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*"married to Rome" Served as priestesses to Vesta (Hestia) for at least 30 years *afterwards could have some autonomy in city if they did not marry *could not shed their blood *kept the eternal flame going

Vestal Virgins

"raw-eater". The eating of raw flesh or meat. Associated with the cult of Dionysus because of the myth of Divinity and the fate of Pentheus

Omophagia

the act of transcending to a god, to become a god (Hercules does this as well) Ariadne and Semele

Aptheosis

a journey (descent) into (and back from) the Underworld; one of the few Olympians to travel there

Katabasis

*staff with a pinecone on top *Dionysus Staff

Thyrsus

*barley drink *Demeter drinks it at Celeos and Metaneira's castle

Kykeon

soul; people

Psyche, Demos

Battles @ Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis; where the Hoplites fought. Were driven into the sea by Athenian citizen-soldiers

Persian Wars

Heavily armed men; comes from hoplon = shield or armor

Hoplites

Two Rival Leagues (Sparta - a military state ruled by aristocracy and Athens - democratic) fought each other for 27 years; cant stop sending money to Athens without receiving backlash

Peloponnesian Wars

"Land between the river" occupied the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq; where many important Greek myths have their origin

Mesopotamia

Created the first known city-states; on the Persian Gulf near the Tigris and Euphrates; Hundreds of gods and goddesses in their pantheon; culture appeared suddenly

Sumerians

Get stuck here if you are not given proper funerals or burial rites (CANNOT enter the underworld without these)

Limbo

River of Woe

Acheron

river of forgetfulness, must drink from it and forget earthly existence

Lethe

*Nida Waterfall *Cape Matapan *Cave of the Sybil *Diros Cave

Entrances to the Underworld

Dis and Pluto

Hades

Rich

Dis

the place that confines

Orcus

*have to be inducted in order to learn practices *spiritual resurrection after death

Mystery Religion (Eleusinian Mysteries, Cult of Dionysus, Orphism)

(epos = "word, song") a long narrative poem celebrating the deeds of heroes

epic

*Group activities *Communal sparagmos and omophagia appealed especially to women (involved heavily in myth) *viewed as a demon

Cult of Dionysus

Swear by this and cannot break oath

River Styx

image

eidolon

breath

psyche

an image of what one was in life, attenuated form

shades, spirits, and ghosts

*precession for dead *have a eulogy *preparing the body *Parentalia festival *Lemuria Festival (Roman)

Funerary Practices

having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck

apotropaic

Midterm Terms Flashcards

(73 cards)