Week 2 Flashcards
(40 cards)
1
Q
Beings that came out of chaos
A
• Gaia = Mother Earth
• Tartarus = place beneath the earth
• Eros = god of love
• Erebus = dark and gloomy that resides over Tartarus.
2
Q
Gaia
A
One of the primordial deities that arose from Chaos; she is the “earth” and mother of all.
- very important in first set of gods
- is an archetype.
- 1st earth goddess
—> all daughters and granddaughters can be earth goddess
—> spontaneous gave birth to everything
3
Q
Chaos
A
The first principle of creation, meaning “yawning void.”
- was just like open space
4
Q
kronus (Saturn)
A
The Titan son of Gaia and Uranus
- will castrate his father and separate earth from sky; his Latin name is Saturn.
- He and Rhea eventually become the parents of Zeus.
- kronos said oruonos his father was the first to devise shameful action
5
Q
Cyclopes
A
Three children of Gaia and Uranus:
• Brontes (“thunder”),
• Steropes (“lightning”),
• Arges (“bright”);
• they forge Zeus’ thunderbolts
• their name means “circle-eyed”.
• giant in size
• will always be addressed together
6
Q
Eos (Aurora)
A
The daughter of Hyperion and Theia
- goddess of the dawn and lover of Tithonus.
- cleared a path for Helius her brother, so he knew which direction to go.
- preceeded helius in the sky
- Her Latin name is Aurora.
7
Q
Erebus
A
One of the primordial deities that arose from Chaos
- Erebus is the gloom that pervades Tartarus.
8
Q
Eros (Cupid)
A
One of the primordial deities that arose from Chaos
- Eros, or “love, is the god of the procreative urge for sexual union
- Latin name is Cupid.
9
Q
Hecatonchires
A
The “hundred-handers” are children of Gaia and Uranus
- they aid Zeus in his conflict with the Titans.
- Kottos
- Briaros
- Gyqes
- are always addressed together
- 50 hands coming out of each shoulder
– in total of the 3 they have 300 hands
10
Q
Helius
A
Son of Hyperion and Theia
- god of the “sun”
- his most important myth concerns his son Phaëthon
- has an epithet: he who hears and sees all the things.
- hitched four horses to a chariot and began his journey across the sky, storm of the sun was either helius himself or as later the imply an orb inside a chariot. when he has reached other side of world, he had to find a way to get back home to the east.
And so he had a cup or a bowl floating in oceanas, which he drove his horses and chariot into and himself, And then this bowl floated clockwise around oceans until it finally reached his home in the east.
11
Q
Hesiod
A
Boeotian poet (ca. 700 B. C.) who wrote the Theogony and Works and Days.
12
Q
hieros gamos
A
The Greek term for the archetypal
“sacred marriage” between the earth and sky.
- Gaia + Ouronos
- Kronos + Rhea
- Zeus + Hera (ish)
13
Q
Hyperion
A
A Titan and father of Helius, Selene, and Eos
- a sun god,
- name means “he who travels on high.”
14
Q
Muses
A
The nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne
- goddess of the arts, invoked by poets such as Homer and Hesiod
- their name means “reminders.”
15
Q
Oceanids
A
The children of the Titan Oceanus and Tethys
• they are the countless nymphs of the rivers and streams of the earth
• their name means “the daughters of Ocean.”
16
Q
Oceanus
A
- One of the Titans and father of the Oceanids;
- he is the personification of the freshwater stream that encircles the earth.
- mates with another titan called Tethys
–> 3000 daughters (oceanids, spirits of those riviers), 3000 sons (the rivers)
17
Q
Pontus and Mountains
A
Children of Gaia alone
- Pontus means “sea.”
18
Q
Rhea
A
One of the Titans and mother of Zeus by Cronus.
19
Q
Selene
A
The goddess of the “moon”
- her most important myth involves her love for the shepherd Endymion.
- would follow her brother at dusk, but only when the moon was full.
–> because when the moon is full, it always rises as the sun sets and sets as the sun rises. - imagined that they acquired all kinds of lovers who usually had some young moral men and whom they abducted. (about Selene and Eos)
20
Q
Tartarus
A
- One of the primordial deities that arose from Chaos
- Place beneath the earth. Because the earth at that time was imagined as being flat and so called.
21
Q
Theogony
A
A term that refers to a tale concerned with the generation and genealogy of the gods; it is also the title of one of Hesiod’s most important works.
22
Q
Titans
A
The twelve children of Gaia and Uranus, who personify the forces of the natural world
• they will be defeated by Zeus in the Titanomachy.
23
Q
Tithonus
A
The mortal lover of Eos who is given eternal life but not eternal youth.
- prince of Troy
- the 1st cicada
–> making this myth an aetiological one - eos loved him so much, went to zeus to ask him to make titonus immortal and live forever. zeus nodded his consent. But She did not think to ask that her beloved avoid old age and retained his age. didnt ask if he could retain youth. so his body grows older and older. 1st sign of grey hair spreading to head to chin, she avoided his bed. but kept him in her house and fed him food and ambrosia. But when hateful old age, oppressed him completely and he could not move or raise his limbs. She laid him in a room and locked its doors.
the mythogermers in the last line, it says, from myth the room, that is, his voice flows faintly, dont know what he was really uttering. but mythogoemers decided that, oh, Tithonos must have been the first cicada, which makes us etiological.
24
Q
Ouranus
A
The first “sky” god;
• he fathered with Gaia the Titans, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes, among others
• the separation of earth and sky results from Uranus’ castration by his son Cronus.
25
Zeus
The son of Cronus and Rhea; he is rescued from being consumed
by his father
* Raised on Crete and grows up to free his siblings Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, and Hades
* usurp his father's position, becoming a sky-god himself.
* His consort is Hera, and he becomes "the father of gods and men."
- Epithet of Zeus is father of gods and mean
26
Gaia’s children and lovers
Gives birth to Ouranos and Pontos (sea) alone
Eros comes into existence therefor making sexual desire, uniting male and female.
Gaia + Ouranos
—> is archetype and 1st one of it.
—> union and sacred marriage
3 diff sets of children
* 12 titans
* 3 Cyclopes
* 3 Hecatonchires
(3 is another archetype)
Gaia + Pontos
- children usually monsters
- For some reason the sea was regarded as a place where monsters dwell
- Nereus. called an old man of the sea
--> 50 daughters (nereids) are why he is important
27
Important titans (only 6)
1. Oceanos
— river that circles earth
— river that flows back on itself
— children (3000 sons and 3000 daughters)
- sons are the rivers
- daughters are the spirits of those rivers. Called Oceanids
2. Hyperion
— Hyperion + Thea
—> Helios (sun) + Selene (moon) + Eos (dawn)
— b/c Helios god of sun. Hyperion must’ve been 1st sun god.
- Helios’ bowl/cup.
- Helios epithet: he who seems and hears all things
— Selene comes out at dusk and dawn but only on full moon.
3. Kronos
4. Rhea
5. Themis
6. Mnemosyne
28
centaurs
- majority of centaurs who we encounter in the myths are wild and uncivilized.
- cannot handle wine, which they happen to like drinking.
- always drink too much and they get drunk, and then they turn rowdy and they try to do bizarre things, like carry off the women at a wedding, for instance.
29
Chiron
- only centaur who belongs to culture.
- educated
- important in the heroic myths because he he teaches many of the heroes.
- Chiron was the son of kronos
- So for that reason, Chiron is immortal.
30
Ouranos
first son of Gaia
- a titan.
- represents the sky also translates to heaven.
- seemed to be afraid of his children "the monsters"
--> cyclopes
--> Hecatonchires
31
Mnemosyne
name means memory
- one has to think about how important it was in an oral culture. that we would have a goddess who stands for memory because one would have to call upon new memory.
32
Themis
name means traditional law
33
Rhea and Kronos' children
-hestia
-hera
-demeter
-hades
-poseidon
-zeus
34
Ouranos downfall myth
- according to Hesiod, Ouranos was afraid of his children.
- as each of his children were born it says he hid them in the depths of gaia and did not allow them to emerge into the light,
- Gaya, their mother mourned them because they were her children and she loved them.
- she went to her eldest children, who were the titans and asked them if they would punish their father.
- Only one titan spoke up, and that was kronos
- gaia gave him a sickle jagged teeth.
- he took the sickle and he castrated his father.
- this myth explains why ouranos is no longer powerful
- castration of oruanos brings to life several other important mythological beings.
- kronos threw his father's genitals from the sky. as it fail, blood ripped onto the earth, that is onto Gaia
- first group of new games that are born are called the Erinyes/furies. These are spirits of blood vengeances
- the second group of beings that came from the blood falling onto Gaya are the gigantes or giants.
- The third group. Born from the blood of oruanos. Falling onto the earth are the nymphs of the ash trees.
- However, the genitals kept falling until they finally fell into the sea, where a foam gathered around them.
- And in that foam, a beautiful goddess began to grow. Aphrodite
35
how the myth of Kronos castrating Ouranos is an allegory
- now this myth of kronos casterating his father is an allegory because is that what he really did? , No, ouranos was the sky.
- this kind of this event, understood immediately by farmers, for instance, because they castrated bullets or the male sheep.
- once they did that, those animals became more docile
- basically, and they use their power, to sire other like bulls, desire other calves
- what happens is what is really, what could happen is that Oranos is now powerless.
- He is impotent because he's lost his power by saying that his son kronos Castrated him.
36
Aphrodite
- the genitals of ouranos kept falling until they finally fell into the sea, where a foam gathered around them.
- And in that foam, a beautiful goddess began to grow.
- at the island of Cyprus. This goddess stepped ashore, and she is named Aphrodite, the foam born goddess.
- She was the goddess of fertility. she replaces eros,
- Cyprus was her special cult center, which is why she steps ashore there when she stepped ashore, flat grass groomed, flowers groomed, all showing her as this god of fertility.
37
2 nereids that are important
1. Ampitrite --> becomes wife of Olympian Poseidon.
2. Thetis --> the mother of greek hero Achilles
38
archetypes in these Greek myths
- sacred marriage between earth and sky.
--> Gaia + Ouranos, to Kronos + Rhea, to Zeus + Hera
- Gaia being a mother and earth.
-The characters in these conflicts.
- Earth mother and the queen, sky father and king, wanting for control and settling for an unexcused, sometimes bitter reconciliation between the sexes.
- Zeus has a lot of arguments with his children and his wife, these arguments that Zeus has with his wife Hera, and with his daughter Athena, are really the earth god trying to retain her powers while the worship of zeus are gradually suppressing them so to speak,
39
Kronos downfall myth
- kronos was afraid of his children. Repetition
- Why is kronos afraid? Because Gaia has given a prophecy that he will be overthrown by one of his children.
--> kronos, of course, overthrew his father. Now he has a prophecy. He will be overthrown
- kronos decided he didn't want to be overthrown.
- Hesiod tells us that as each child was born through the first five, this does not include Zeus. first five children were born, kronos swallowed the child whole.
- Why does he swallow them? Well, this way he absorbs the power of his enemies into himself, his potential enemies.
- After kronos had swallowed five of his children, Rhea, who was pregnant with her sixth child, went to visit gaia
- Rhea asked her mother, how could she protect her for six child from his father for being swallowed?
- gaia told rhea that your sixth child will be a youngest child. no more after that
- was destined to always throw his father and become ruler of the gods. and that his name will be zeus
- gaia told her daughter to go to the island of Crete to give birth. Gaia accompanied her daughter to crete
- Then Rhea gave birth. Gaia took the child and hid him in a cave. Then she picked up a stone about the size of a newborn baby and wrapped in a swaddling clothes.
- kronos who appeared and demanded that gaia give him the child. She gave him the stone wrapped up in swelling clothes and kronos immediately swallowed.
- He's been outwitted by his by his wife, and, of course, his mother in particular.
- So zeus grew up. And then the prophecy of Gaia came true.
- gaia gave kronos a potion or cunning words.
- And kronos then brought up all five children in the reverse order of how they were swallowed. all fully grown. But first he brought up the stone because he swallowed the stone last.
40
Why does hesiod have zeus born on the island of crete?
This is an attempt on the part of hesiod to link the greek zeus with the island of Crete and the pre Hellenic earth goddesses
- c. 2000 BCE no one in the Greek world worships. Instead, they worshipped goddesses and earth Goddess,
- These are not Greek names. We have no idea what hera really means or what Athena really means, because they were the names of this earth goddess in the various parts of Greece where they worshiped the earth goddess.
