Week 3 Flashcards
(22 cards)
1
Q
After Zeus overthrows his father, what did the cyclopes give to him
A
- immediately released his uncles, the cyclopes, from their prison.
–> from the depths of the earth, or Tartarus. where Oruanos imprisoned them - cyclopes were so happy to be free from their prison, they gave gift
-the thunder and the lightning and the bright flash of the lightning, Basically, he assimilated them.
- hesiod says, this gave power to Zeus over all the rest of the mortals.
2
Q
Kronos and his allies in 1st battle
A
- 10 titans
- atlas, brother of prometheus and epimethus
3
Q
zeus’s allies in 1st battle
A
- themis (titan) (name means traditional law)
- prometheus and epimethus
- styx (oceanid)
-hecatonchires
4
Q
1st battle Zeus fights in his rise of power
A
Titanomachy
5
Q
Titanomachy (battle against titans)
A
- kronos vs Zeus
- lasted 10 years
- released cyclopes
- released hecatonchires when Gaia advised him that they could help him in this battle.
- zeus threw thunder and ,He threw lightning from his hands
- hecatonchires used all of their 300 hands together, and threw boulders, huge boulders of Titans.
- The sea crashed loudly and the broad sky quaked and grown.
- The voices of the two sides reached the starry heaven as they called out, clashing without battle cries.
– starry heaven = Oruanos - Zeus’ lungs filled with fury & he began to display his full might, sky and from Olympus together, between the continuous lightning flashes and the bolts flew thick and fast with the stalwart hand and thunderous and lightning trading supernatural flames.
- But then, the scale of battle turned. Until then, they attacked each other, fighting furiously in fierce combat.
- in forefront was hectanochires
- 300 rocks from their stalwart hands, they discharged their rocks, darkening the titans sky and then bound them in painful bondage having defeated them by force for all their pride,
- After hectanochires have driven those Titans down into Tartarus, they remain there.
- They remain there as prison guards to make certain that the Titans don’t escape.
- Atlas got a special punishment, he was condemned to hold up the sky forever, not the Earth. (later on becomes the earth)
6
Q
2nd battle Zeus fights in his rise of power
A
typomachy
7
Q
Typomachy (Zeus vs Typhoios)
A
- when Zeus had driven the titans out of heaven, huge earthsbore as her youngest child, Typhoios.
- typhoios’ arms, are employed in feats of strength, and the legs of the powerful god are tireless.
- Out of his shoulders came a hundred fearsome snake heads with black tongues flickering, and the eyes in his strange heads flashed fire over the brows.
- And there were voices in all his fearsome heads, giving out every kind of indescribable sound.
- Gaia seems to have turned against him because she mothers this, brings forth this dragon as a challenge for Zeus.
- Gaia is testing him
– “Is he smarter than his father or his grandfather?”
– “Is he really worthy of becoming the king of the gods?” - Had the father of gods and men not taken sharp notice and thundered hard and stirred, and the Earth ran fearsomely round about, and the broad sky above the sea and Oceanus’s stream and the realms of chaos.
-A conflagration held a violet dark sea in his grip, both from the thunder and the lightning and from the fire of the monster, from the tornado winds and the flaming bolt
– battle with fire against fire.
– fire comes from this dragon’s eyes and, Zeus’ lightning.
- Zeus accumulated his strength in taking his weapons, the thunder lightning and smoking bolting leaped from Olympus and struck.
- And he scorched all the strange heads of the dreadful monster on every side
- When he had overcome him by belaboring him with blows, typhois collapsed, crippled, and huge earth groaned
- Flames shot down from the thunderstruck world when he brings the smitten down in the mountain glaze of rugged etna
- zeus threw typhoios into Tartarus.
8
Q
Typhoios/typhon
A
- Gaia + Tartaros
– united in intimacy by golden Aphrodite. - he’s a dragon, which is a snake-like creature.
- he’s immortal because his parents were immortal
- first dragon that we encounter in Greek myth, and he is an actual dragon, which of course is a snake-like being.
- dragons are often associated with those with the Earth and the underworld, thus typhoios’ parents.
Gaia –> Earth, Tartarus –> Underworld - From typhoid came storm winds, evil raging blasts, scattered ships and destroying sailors
9
Q
significance about Zeus rise to power myth.
A
- Zeus fights against Typhoios, it’s an archetype.
– Archetype b/c is the first battle against a dragon - Zeus is the first dragon slayer
- Zeus is hero
Folktale
- these battles all happened one right after the other.
- Three battles. Three is important folk tale number.
- like heroes with 3 quests or challenges
Comparative theroy
- Babylonian myth
–> Marduk versus Tiamat.
structuralist theory
- good against evil, The idea is that the hero, no matter who the hero is, is good, represents what is good, represents civilization, whereas the dragon or monster represents the opposite.
- nature versus culture. Culture, civilization, that’s represented by the gods.
Allegory theory
- the battles making sense of natural disasters like volcanos and earthquakes
- Zeus’ rise to power is allegory that they symbolize the triumph of the sky god over the Earth goddess.
– B/c initially, it’s the Earth goddess, Gaia, who is all important
10
Q
3rd battle Zeus fights in his rise of power
A
Gigantomachy
11
Q
Gigantomachy (battle of giants)
A
- Gaia urged the Giants to climb up to Mount Olympus And attack Zeus’s palace up there. So the giants followed Gaia’s instructions.
- Zeus and his family, his siblings, and his divine children, that is the Olympians, live in his palace at the top of Mount Olympus.
- Zeus threw his lightning against the giants
- giants threw boulders and burning trees, which they carried with them up to the top of Mount Olympus.
- giants seemed almost on the verge of winning the battle.
- battle was a stalemate.
- Well, then Gaia gave a prophecy.
– The prophecy was that the gods could only win this battle if they enlisted the help of the greatest hero. Heracles - Athena, who was Heracles patron deity, went to him and invited him to come and help the gods fight the giants.
- We don’t really know what Heracles did, to tell you the truth
- We’re told that the giants were killed, or at least buried under mount etna (a volcano)
– should have been immortal because they were born from Gaia, the blood of Oruanos
-
12
Q
why was Heracles involved in gigantomachy?
A
- Because over time he became the most popular hero.
– So popular that he had to be integrated into practically every other myth and help in whatever battle or whatever is required of him. - as his myth develops, gets involved in virtually everything, almost all the other myths.
- there’s another reason why relates to structuralism,
– nature versus culture - The gods and the heroes represent civilization, whereas all these monsters represent nature, What is wild and untamed
13
Q
After the 3 battles what happened? (what did gaia do? and who ruled over what?)
A
- Zeus defeats Gaia by defeating her children
– thus Zeus frees himself from Gaia’s control. - So Zeus, by defeating all his battles with the help of his allies, his siblings, and children, etc, Gaia accepted Zeus.
– she said he was too strong, could not be defeated, so she advised his siblings, proclaimed him to be the king and rule over all the immortals - Zeus then assigned their powers to them. So he’s bringing order to this Greek universe. That’s where cosmos comes in.
- Zeus brought order or cosmos to a world previously dominated by chaos (chaos = void, not disorder like now)
- His brother Poseidon got the sea. And his brother Hades got the underworld
- Earth daughters still rule the Earth, except it’s not Gaia anymore.
- Hera replaces her grandmother as the earth goddess.
- Demeter was a cultural deity.
– important because she brought forth the grain that fed their domestic allies and people as well. - Hestia was a domestic goddess, worshipped in a household. Goddess of the heart.
– couldn’t have a banquet without her present so obviously it seems as though there was something about a meal or eating
14
Q
cosmos
A
- chief god in the Greek universe, which the Greeks called the cosmos, Because he brought good order to everything.
-
15
Q
Prometheus myth
A
- name translates as one who thinks before, or he who thinks before.
- he knows the future
- because Zeus is now the chief sky god, it’s assumed that Zeus knows everything and knows what’s going to happen in the future.
- Prometheus tests Zeus, he challenges him to find out if that is fact.
- invited Zeus and the rest of the gods and human beings to a feast.
- sacrificed an ox
- wrapped rich and fatty innards of the ox In the skin of it
– idea is by drafting it in the skin of the animal, it doesn’t look very appetizing. - gave that to the mortals
- Then he wrapped the bones in fat and set that portion in front of zeus
- Zeus pointed out to Prometheus that the two portions were not equal.
- Zeus knew that Prometheus was playing a trick on him by offering him the inferior portion and this appears somehow to be the bones wrapped in fat.
– b/c knew bones inside, not nutritious. - even though humans got a portion that looked more inferior because it was wrapped in the skin, it contained the flesh of the animal, a nutritious part of that animal.
- still zeus accepted the bones wrapped in fat.
- Zeus is angry with Prometheus but punished humans
- Why? Because they had benefited from the threat by receiving the meat.
- Zeus punished humans by hiding fire: kept in the sky where the gods lived
- humans needed fire to carry out proper sacrifices to Zeus and the Sky Gods.
- Prometheus went up to the sky and stole fire and brought it down to earth in a hollow fennel stalk.
- then Zeus punished him
- Prometheus was bound or chained to this rock on Caucasus mountain range. Zeus sent an eagle to eat Prometheus’ liver, which ruled back every night.
16
Q
Kirks opinions on prometheus myth with the feast
A
- said the two portions should have been equal because of this time gods and men met on equal terms to enjoy communal peace.
– In other words, they met for meals. - before this time, they would never have to sacrifice to the gods, supposedly, but now they will because Prometheus has taught them how they have to propitiate the gods.
- happens to take place during the first of those five ages. (golden age)
- Kirk refers to this as the first sacrifice, interpreted using the ritual theory of myth.
17
Q
Tricksters
A
is regarded as the archetype of tricksters because he is the first Greek trickster.
- usually on someone who is more powerful than the trickster is.
- through the trick, the trickster causes a change in society or between different groups
- tricksters are usually clever and cunning,
- Culture heroes generally are tristers. (Prometheus is one)
- tricksters provide fire to the beings.
–> By giving humans fire, also gave the Greeks techne, which is just skill or art. “skill at doing something” - tricksters are often associated with creation of life
18
Q
play by Ispolis called Prometheus Bound
A
- Prometheus has been chained to the side of that mountain in the Caucasus range.
- the Oceanids and they all rush downstream, and they come to visit
- Prometheus boasts about what he’s done for human beings.
- He says, look, what I’ve given humans. And yet he says Zeus is punishing me, implying obviously that Zeus isn’t happy about the way Prometheus helped human beings,
Gave humans/ what he said humans couldnt do:
- sense and mind
–> taught the human beings how to think
- they had eyes, but they couldn’t see
- They had ears, but they couldn’t hear. They just wandered around in confusion like the shapes of dreams, their whole long life.
- taught them how to make brick-built houses.
- couldn’t distinguish winter, or blossom in spring, or fruitful summer.
- did everything without judgment.
- showed them the rising and setting of the stars,
- discovered the numbers and letters,
- harnessed animals and was leaving them to the yoke to give relief to mortals in their greatest toils.
- made horses docile under the reins of the chariot
- he discovered remedies for humans.
- The benefits hidden deep within the earth, the copper, the iron, the silver, the gold.
- after punishing Prometheus Zeus then form of the creation of a woman.
- Prometheus is usually said to have been the creator of humans. comes from that Roman poet, Ovid,
19
Q
Pandora myth
A
- Several of Zeus’s children, were involved in her creation.
- Hephaestus created Pandora out of earthen water, which of course was used to make vases
- Athena closed Pandora. Now Athena was the weaving goddess
- Aphrodite, he made Pandora beautiful and seductive.
- Hermes taught Pandora how to speak flattering words or lies, gave her a cunning nature.
- After Pandora was completed, or created, Zeus ordered her to take her to Prometheus’s brother, who is named Epimetheus.
–> Edinetheus’s name is he who thinks afterwards - According to Hesiod, Prometheus had warned his brother never to accept anything from Zeus because he said whatever it was, it might prove harmful to the human beings.
- Pandora was presented or offered by Hermes to Epimetheus as a bride, when Pandora was offered her hand in marriage, she had a jar (pithos)
- Zeus presumably gave her the jar.
- And presumably she opened the jar because Zeus put that in her mind to open the jar.
- Why? Because when she opened the jar, all the evils escaped which have since plagued human beings.
- these evils are work and painful diseases which bring death.
- But she closed the jar because Zeus caused her to put the lid back on the jar and when she did, hope was left inside the jar.
20
Q
Pandora
A
- Pandora was a forgotten epithet of Gaia.
–> Because it’s Gaia, the Mother Earth, who actually gives all gifts.
21
Q
Well, why is hope in the jar with all those evil things?
A
- The Greeks, for instance, regarded hope as a minute Anxious thought for the future.
–> hope could be good, but it could be bad. - Part of the reason that philosophers have argued that hope is bad is because we hope for things that we probably will never get. We have high expectations for what the future holds. And we’re hoping that everything turns out in a way that then it doesn’t.
- One suggestion is that hope may refer to children who are the hope of the future.
- it’s almost as though the jar represents the wound and the hope represents a child yet to be born.
–> idea of the child is important because in this golden age, humans supposedly lived on and on and on. - So if humans were immortal in that golden age, why do they need children now?
–> in that new age where they’re going to work hard, and they’re going to get diseases and die. That means if they want the type of immortality, they have to have children.
22
Q
comparing Pandora in works and days with the woman created in the Theogony
A
- in the works and days, Pandora is the instrument, the tool through which Zeus sends these evils, work and disease into the world. So he’s using her,
- The woman in the Theogony herself, according to Hesiod, is the source of evil.
- Because, for one thing, now Hesiod says men have to marry.
- And if you might get a good wife, but you might not.
You’ll get a bad wife. And if you have children, Well, the children can turn out to be good. - On the other hand, if you don’t have children, all of the children that parroted or the wealth-lovered will all be distributed amongst distant relatives who you don’t even know.
- bad wife is probably extravagant. She’s spending all your money before you, as quickly as you make it,
