Greek Mythology: Olympian Verticality & Zeus vs Chaos PDF

4 Olympian Verticality Zeus vs the Forces of Chaos  4 Zeus and Hades The Vertical Axis 4.1 The Titanomachy 4.2 Zeus, King of the Olympians 4.3 Hades, Lord of the Underworld  The Vertical Axis  The Vertical Axis “Heaven and earth together account for the vertical...

4 Olympian Verticality Zeus vs the Forces of Chaos  4 Zeus and Hades The Vertical Axis 4.1 The Titanomachy 4.2 Zeus, King of the Olympians 4.3 Hades, Lord of the Underworld  The Vertical Axis  The Vertical Axis “Heaven and earth together account for the verticality of an image.” (Bachelard 1990, 121) Poster for 1896 Salon (Paris) curated by Josephin (le Sâr) Peladan  The Vertical Axis “Verticality is ensured by the polarity of the cellar & the attic, the marks of which are so deep that, in a way, they open up two very different perspectives for a phenomenology of the imagination. Indeed, it is possible, almost without commentary, to oppose the rationality of the roof to the irrationality of the cellar … Up near the roof, all our thoughts are clear … As for the cellar … it is first and foremost the dark entity of the house, the one that partakes of subterranean forces.” (Bachelard 1964, 17-18)  1. Sky: “Transcendence; infinity; Height: the Heavens; the Verticality & realm of bliss; sovereignty; order in the universe. Sky gods … symbolize cosmic rhythms” (154) Symbolism 2. Earth: “The Great mother … universal genetrix … (Cooper 1978) Nourisher … Nurse … Earth Mother is the universal archetype of fecundity, inexhaustible creativity, & sustenance. The Earth & Heaven as matter & spirit … The circular floor depicts the earth, the dome-shaped roof the heavens … “ (59) 3. Cave: “an omphalos; the world centre; the heart … the meeting place of the divine & human, hence all dying gods & saviors are born in caves; inner, esoteric knowledge; that which is hidden … Initiation ceremonies most frequently took place in a cave as symbolic of the underworlds where death took place prior to rebirth and illumination.” (31) Yggdrasil: modern attempt to 4. Darkness: “Primordial chaos; the powers of chaos … reconstruct Norse world tree which connects heavens, earth the foetal state of the world... everything returns to & underworld darkness in death & dissolution.” (50)  Greek Myth Mount Olympos & Hades/Tartarus Top: Mount Olympos/Ouranos, home of Olympian gods Mid: Gaia (Earth); from within Gaia (via Old Eros) were generated both Ouranos & Tartarus; Humanity eventually lives in the middle between these poles, on ‘the Earth that leaps to the heights, descends to the depths.’ (Vernant 2001, 5) Bottom: Hades/Tartarus Distance: Bronze anvil would fall 9 days from heaven to earth, another 9 days from earth to Tartarus. A man would fall for a year before he reached it. (Theogony 721ff) The Titanomachy [Image: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Titanomachy]  Titans vs Olympians Olympians: Zeus and 5 siblings (on Mount Olympus) Titans: Kronos and 11 siblings; on Mount Othrys “Mount Othrys (6,560 feet high), lies on the southwestern plain of Thessaly, and Mount Olympos (9,600 feet high) to its north, so that the battle between the gods and the Titans, the Titanomachy, must have taken place on the plain itself.” (Powell 2017, 73, n.506)  Mount Olympus Brief, general account in Hesiod; few references in Homer; longer account in Apollodorus Few visual images (how could one depict such a cosmic event?) Epic Titanomachia lost (8 fragments, none helpful)  Importance of metis Battle rages for “10 long years” (“which is to say ‘many myriads of years’: a ‘long year’ can be a hundred or even a thousand years long”: Vernant 2001, 19) Indecisive: “The world’s theater is now not only established but occupied and torn apart by that endless war between the first-generation gods and the second, their children. Here again, cunning [metis] will make a difference... victory will go to the camp that can employ not only brute force but also subtle intelligence.” (19) Metis provided by Prometheus, son of Titan Iapetus (not really a Titan, but not an Olympian either–not of their stock; cousin of Zeus): Pro-metheus = fore-sight/planning; some traditions say Prometheus advised Zeus to use metis not just brute force (but Prometheus does not enter the battle)  Zeus’ Helpers Zeus uses metis (and advice from Gaia) to enlist help of the 3 Cyclopes & 3 Hecatoncheires: frees them from Tartarus, promises them nectar and ambrosia (food of the immortals: makes them truly divine and immortal [note running food/consumption/belly theme] Zeus unleashes the disorder of these unruly forces: against Titans (who embody those forces) (Vernant 2001, 21) Cyclopes: “they represent the blaze of sight … that [one] eye has a blasting force, like the weapon they present to Zeus” (Vernant 2001, 8); thunderbolt is “an unimaginably powerful and intense compression of of light and fire” (21). Hecatoncheires: have the arm power to hurl the lightning bolt “At the peak of combat between the divine powers, when Zeus shoots out his thunderbolt and the Hecatoncheires attack the Titans, the world falls back into a chaotic state. The mountains crumble, chasms gape open, and from the depths of Tartarus, Night’s kingdom, a mist suddenly rises from the depths. The sky collapses onto the earth, things return to the state of Chaos, to the primitive condition of primeval disorder, before things had any form. Zeus’ victory is not merely a way of conquering his adversary and father, Cronus; it is a way of re-creating the world, remaking an orderly world out of Chaos, out of a Void where nothing is visible, where all is disorder.” (Vernant 2001, 22)  Defeat of the Titans The River Styx (a Titan: “the menacing powers of the Underworld”) sides with Zeus: her 2 sons are Kratus (the power to vanquish foes) and Bie (overwhelming brute violence) (Vernant 2001, 23-24) Zeus now has overwhelming power – with help of Hecatoncheires’ hundred arms, pins down the Titans under a mountain of boulders Hecatoncheires seize the immobilized Titans and carry them down to Tartarus (they cannot be killed) “where there is no direction; a gaping void open to the depths of the earth ….” (Vernant 2001, 23) Styx runs through Tartarus, Hades, and eventually up to the surface; Hecatoncheires stand guard to ensure the Titans never again rise from this prison into the light Kratus and Bie always by side of Zeus: other Olympians proclaim him king  Zeus is King Zeus “establishes a divine universe that is hierarchical, ordered, organized, and that will therefore be stable. The world stage is constructed, the scenery is set. At its summit reigns Zeus, the organizer of the world brought out of Chaos” (Vernant 2001, 24) He apportions functions to the other Olympians Oceanus (Titan: neutral) continues as before Reconstruction of Statue of Zeus at Olympia  Challengers to Zeus: Typhoeus/Typhon (Vernant 2001, 28-35) Gaia mates with Tartarus to produce the gigantic, monstrous Typhon Why? Some said out of rage at treatment of her children, the Titans; others: one last child Typhon is a “chthonic”/terrestial being: “chthon” = “a term for the earth in its brooding, dark aspect”; strong trace of that Chaos, disorder which is still inside Gaia Typhon: fearfully strong; arms as powerful as Hecatoncheires; powerful feet always in motion; arms & legs & feet forever flailing; 100 serpent heads, each with projecting black tongue, each with pair of eyes that “shoot forth a scorching flame”; speaks language of gods & humans, cries of all wild beasts (30); “a jumble of all kinds of things” (31) “Typhon launches an attack on Zeus. The battle is terrifying … Zeus wins by making a kind of earthquake, an upheaval of the elements. The waters flood the land, the mountains crumble when Zeus thunders in his efforts to smash, to conquer the monster with his blast. In the very heart of Hades, the chasm of the dead and of night, everything churns together, all is yawning void. Typhon’s struggle with Zeus is the struggle of the monster with 100s of blazing eyes against the lightening flare of the divine gaze. Of course Zeus’ blasting eye, with the light it projects, will prevail over the flames thrown by the monster’s 100 serpent heads. Eye against eye. Zeus wins.” (Vernant 2001, 31)  Challengers to Zeus: The Giants/Gigantes (Vernant 2001, 35-38) Gigantes were born of Gaia as fully-formed, armed fighting soldiers: never infants, they represent the strength & violence of the young, vigorous, physical warrior capacity in the world; uncertain existential status (mid-way between mortal & immortal) They challenge Zeus for supreme power: battle rages between the Giants and the 6 Olympians (the “Gigantomachy”), each with own weapon Olympians unable on their own to defeat the strength of the Giants (“the strength of a constantly Gaea, Poseidon and the giant replenished age cohort: young men just starting a Polybotes, Athenian red-figure kylix C5th B.C., Antikensammlung Berlin military life”: 36)  Challengers to Zeus: The Giants/Gigantes (Vernant 2001, 35-38) Enlist help of a mortal … Heracles: son of Zeus & mortal woman, Alcmene; wreaks havoc on Giants … Chronology issue: Heracles (Age of Heroes) … when did this battle occur? But struggle not quite over yet: Gaia (always contrary) searches for ultra-rare immortality-giving herb so Giants will not die Zeus finds it first and harvests it: “Never again will a leaf of that immortality plant be found anywhere on earth” (37) Giants defeated and … die? Tartarus? Athena & serpent-footed Giants; Greek marble relief from Aphrodisias C2nd B.C., Istanbul Archaeological Museum  Zeus: the King of the Gods “With Zeus’s victory over the Giants, his reign finally appears to be firmly established; the gods who fought beside him will hold forever the prerogatives they were awarded. They have the heavens, where there is only light, pure light. At the bottom of the world are night and shadows, Tartarus or Hades: It is the abode of conquered gods, of monsters brought to heel, of the Giants reduced to immobility, tied up and put to sleep like Cronus. They are largely out of the running, out of the cosmos. Those gods aside, the world between contains beasts and men–creatures that experience both night and day, good and evil, life and death. Their life is bound up with death, like the food they consume.” (Vernant 2001, 38) But …  4.2 Zeus  Zeus – Father of Gods and Men Name: Zeus (nominative case); Dia (accus.), Dios (gen.), Dii (dat.) Indo-European Di̯ēus; Indic: Dyaus Pitar; Latin: Diespiter / Iuppiter; Germanic = Ziu/Tiu/Tiwaz as in “Tuesday”) Zeus of the Luminous Sky/Daylight (Latin: Deus = god/Dies = day; Greek “Eudia” = fair weather) Both Sky God & Weather God (i.e. “Zeus is raining”; lightening) Thought to dwell on: Mt. Olympus in Thessaly; Mt. Lykaion in Arcadia, Mt. Oros in Aegina, Mt. Ida in Asia Minor Iconography = Eagle; Lightening  Zeus (Simon 2021) Indo-European patriarchal Sky God: with migration into Aegean, confronted pre-Greek deities Hera (becomes his wife), Athene (his daughter), Poseidon (his brother) (11) Each of these formed part of conspiracy against Zeus (Iliad I.400); Iliad 15.187-95: Poseidon objects to Zeus’ rule: he, Hades & Zeus are equals; but ascents to Zeus’ rule for fear of thunderbolt (Gantz 1993, 58) While Zeus’ children are mostly Olympians (bolsters his strength), Poseidon’s children are only demi-gods (12) Not national god (in Iliad, Trojans also pray to Zeus) Also influence of Near East: Hittite, Mesopotamian, Minoan precedents for successive generational overthrows ending in victorious Sky-God; also for nature of Zeus’ birth (12-13)  Zeus (Simon 2021) Temples to Zeus not as old as temples to Hera (eg at Olympia) … Zeus probably originally worshipped under open sky (13) Dodona (in Epirus, North-Western Greece; untouched by Mycenean influence): oracle of Zeus (most ancient cult site of Zeus) under sacred oak tree outdoors At Olympia: oracle of Zeus via divined flights of birds, sacrifices at great altar Ties between Dodona and Thessaly (home of Achilles): Iliad 16.233ff: Achilles invokes Zeus as “Pelasgian” (pre-Greek god); Cult of Dodona Zeus may have originated much further north (14) Spouse of Indo-European (Dodona) Zeus was Dione (mother of “young” Aphrodite): ousted by Hera but remained important in far North of Greece  Zeus (Simon 2021) Earliest temples (indoor worship) to Zeus 6th – 5th Cent. CE: Nemea, Olympia, Athens (incomplete until reign of Roman Emperor, Hadrian), Arcagas (Sicily) Influence of 6th Cent. BCE tyrants (18) Right: Reconstruction of Temple of Zeus at Olympia: built by citizens of Elis (nearby) 470-456 BCE; gigantic cult statue of Zeus  Zeus – Father of Gods & Men All powerful warrior and enthroned symbol of cosmic order; ruler of the Olympian gods by acclamation of all of them Zeus alone can accomplish things from his home on Mt Olympus Most “polymorphic” of the gods: can change into almost any form (Simon 2021, 11) Worshipped with bull sacrifice Resistance to Zeus by Olympians rare, resulting in threats or actual punishment (see 6.3) Regularly wants to destroy humanity  Zeus and Cosmic Order many different epithets Zeus Polieus protects the Polis Zeus Agoraeus: protector of the marketplace Zeus Boulaios protects city councils Zeus Herkaios and Zeus Ktesios protects the oikos and its possessions Zeus Xenios: protector of guests Zeus Horkios: protector of oaths Zeus is the lord of justice, Dios Dika Roman marble colossal head of Zeus 2nd century CE (British Museum)  Ouranos/Mount The Top Olympus of the vertical axis (Gantz 1993) Tension between actual mountain on earth and celestial abode close to/identified with “Ouranos” Actual mountain in Northern Greece (Thessaly, region of Pieria); when Hera leaves Olympus to go to Lemnos (Iliad 14.225- 30) & Hermes leaves to visit Kalypso (Odyssey 5.50), they pass through Pieria (real locations) Other instances: gods reside somewhere in the sky above Olympus: either closer to “Ouranos” (here: the heavens high above earth), or identified with it; or Olympus seems not to be attached to the earth (120) Hesiod: an anvil takes 9 days to fall from Ouranos to Earth (129)  Olympus/Ouranos (Gantz 1993) Gates to Ouranos/Olympus: seem to consist in thick clouds (Iliad 5.794-54; 8.393-96) (121) Sometimes Zeus sits by himself underneath the gates “on a peak of many-ridged Olympos” (suggests actual mountain) Can be described as snowy, but also “perpetually bathed in a brilliant light” (Odyssey 6.42-46) (121) Hymn to Apollo (189- Zeus seems to have a palace on “Olympos” or in 206): Olympian gods have Ouranos, but other gods (incl. Hera) also seem to have rollicking party in Zeus’ own abodes on Olympos made by Hephaistos (121) house Few mortals invited to Olympos/Ouranos eg Vase paintings: Heracles (who becomes a god), Ganymedes, Semele, Ariadne (123) sometimes see gods in own home (123)  The Sacred and the Profane (Eliade 1957) The sacred and the profane are “two modes of being in the world, two existential situations assumed by [humanity] in the course of [their] history.” (14) Sacred space can be described as a physical space, ie part of our world, that is either permanently or temporarily infused with the metaphysical space of divinity, or related in a special way to the spirit world. Hierophany (appearance – phainein - of the hieros, or holy): when humanity becomes aware of the sacred “because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane.” (11) “We are confronted by the same mysterious act – the manifestation of something of a wholly different order, a reality that does not belong to our world, in objects that are an integral part of our natural, ‘profane’ world.” (11)  4.3 The Bottom of the World: Hades & Tartarus  Hades “An ancient vase painting shows the three brothers as three rulers of the world, with the emblems of their power: Zeus with his lightening, Poseidon with the trident, Hades with his head turned back to front. This last is he who might not be looked upon, the dreadful god of death, who caused all living things to disappear, who made them invisible. People who sacrificed to the beings of the Underworld had to do so with averted gaze.” (Kerényi 1951, 231)  Hades, Lord of Shadows Brother of Zeus & Poseidon Etymology of name disputed: possibly “unseen one” (as chthonic god under earth), or “invisibility-giving” (possesses a helmet/cap that makes him/other wearers invisible: Iliad 5.844-45) His allotted role: Lord of the “misty darkness’ of the Underworld; tasked with ruling the dead & preventing them from returning to world above Some of his many Epithets: Polydegmon ("he who receives many guests"), Ploutôn (“he who enriches”), Aïdôneus (“He who is not seen”), Pylartes (“with firmly closed doors”) Other Underworld figures: Hecate, Nyx, Erinyes, Cerberus, Charon, Kronos, Hypnos, Moirai, Thanatus; Hermes leads souls to there  The Vertical Axis Opposite to Zeus & Helios (the Sun: visibility-giving) (Kerényi 1951, 230) Sometimes known as “Zeus under the Earth” or “Hospitable Zeus of the Departed” (Gantz 1993, 72; Kerényi 1951, 230) Prominent in the Hymn to Demeter: abduction of Persephone, who later returns for part of each year (Spring) [see below] Also known as Pluto (Plouton = wealth-giver); gems, minerals etc. found deep within earth Chthonic gods received sacrifice into the earth in pit: animal burnt whole – not shared amongst worshippers Demeter & the Vertical Axis Triad: Demeter – Persephone – Hades (Earth-Seasons- Underworld) Abduction of Persephone (while picking flowers) by Hades with full permission of Zeus Athena & Artemis somehow connected: involved as witnesses or accomplices; Hecate (Chthonian Goddess of magic) tells Demeter what happened Demeter’s grief: famine over the earth Persephone returned to her for 2/3 each year, with Hades in Winter Eleusinian Mysteries: permanent reenactment of vertical axis (Earth – Hades - Earth)  The Abduction of Persephone by Hades (Hellenistic fresco from the tomb of Vergina, Greece. 340 BC) Hades & Persephone Pinax (votive tablet) of Persephone and Hades and Persephone Hades, sanctuary of Persephone at Locri  Hades, Lord of Shadows Hades in “Clash of the Titans” Sometimes has a staff (like Hermes); possible role in judging the dead No cult of Hades Sanctuary of Hades at Eleusis Special sanctuaries: Samothrace, Elis, Eleusis Eleusinian Mysteries: connection to Demeter, Persephone & Hades  The Vertical Axis Encounters with mortals who descend to Underworld & return above: Herakles (possible battle over the capture of Cerberus), Theseus (went with Perithous to abduct Persephone); Orpheus (who went for Eurydice); (Odysseus, but didn’t get to Hades himself) And the dead allowed to leave: Sisyphus, Protesilaos (1st Greek to die at Troy), Eurydike (almost … ) (Gantz 1993, 72) Bust of Hades. Marble, Roman copy of a 5th century Portrayed in such instances as being BC Greek original quite compassionate  Location: polar opposite of Olympos: the Underworld is Hades the place for departed shades (Gantz 1993 Wide Gates of Hades (Iliad, 23.71-74) River Styx has to be crossed to reach Hades (Iliad 8.369); must be buried properly to be able to cross (only 1 mention in Homer: Iliad, 23.71-74) (124) Acheron River: mentioned later by Alkaios as river over which dead cannot return to Earth (124); elsewhere as entrance to Underworld (cf Charon); also Lethe River (“Forgetfulness”) Charon the Ferryman: first in painting by Polygnotos (470-60 BCE), but possibly earlier; later in Euripides’ Alkestis (125); charge of 2 obols mentioned 1st in Aristophanes’ Frogs (405 BCE) (125) Persephone specifically noted in Odyssey as present & active in Hades (Od. 11.225-330) Cerberus: 3-headed dog guarding Underworld: he “wags his tail at those coming down but eats anyone attempting to leave” (127; see Hesiod, Theogony, 767-73); stolen by Heracles  How to get to Hades (the location) The dead are transported there by Hermes (Hermes Psychopompos: “Leader of the procession of souls”: see Odyssey Book 24 where dead suitors are taken down there) Odysseus: entrance at the ends of the Earth (Pillars of Hercules: between Spain & Morocco) [Vergil’s Aeneid: in the center of Italy: go to Cumae, Italy; entrance is at Lake Avernus] Circe’s directions from her island (Aiaia): “the ship is to sail before the north wind across Okeanos to the far shore, where Odysseus will find the grove of Persephone, with its willows and poplars (Odyssey 10.504-40). From there he will proceed into Hades, where Pyriphlegethon and Kokytos (a branch of the Styx) come together into Acheron, and there dig his trench for the blood of the sheep.” (Gantz 1993, 123) [imprecision due to “sacred and profane”] 1997 TV “Odyssey” Entrance to the Underworld 1997 TV “Odyssey” The Underworld 1997 TV “Odyssey” The Underworld  Tartarus (Gantz 1993) Homer: As far below Hades as Earth is below Ouranos; closed in by iron gates & a bronze threshold (Iliad 8.10-16) (128); Hesiod: bronze anvil would fall 9 days & nights from Earth to Tartaros (as far as Ouranos is from Earth); brazen wall or fence & “night poured in 3 layers around the neck, as if he envisioned Tartaros as a bottle” (129) The place where gods who oppose Zeus are threatened with being sent (eg Iliad 8.10-16); not mentioned in Odyssey (128) Where Titans (esp. Kronos & Iapetos) are imprisoned, “in this darkness, at the lowest limits of earth and sea, where they delight in neither sun nor winds, sitting with deep Tartaros all about them” (Iliad 14.274, 278-79; 8.478- 91) (128); Hesiod (Theogony 713-45): describes placing of Titans in Tartaros; guarded by Hecatoncheires; Aeschylus (Prom. Bound) has Prometheus hurled there Becomes almost interchangeable with Hades over time  Isles of the Blessed Elysion, Elysian Plain, Isles (Gantz 1993, 132-35) of the Blessed: somewhere either in or somehow connected to the Underworld; happy place where few blessed mortals go after death No mention in Iliad (emphasis on finality of death); Odyssey: sea-god Proteus tells Menelaus (married to Helen, so son-in-law of Zeus) he will go after death to “the Elysian plain and the ends of the earth…where there is the easiest possible way of life for mortals: no snow or rain, but always soft cooling breezes from Oceanos” (132: Od. 4.561-9) Hesiod (Works & Days 156-73): some of the 4th Race of Men (demi-gods, heroes) will go there after death to be ruled by Kronos (released from Tartaros for this task) Location: seems to be near far west Oceanus (also the entrance to Underworld in Odyssey) Fragmentary mentions of “the White Island” (Leukê Nêsos): Proklus’  Isles of the Blessed (Gantz 1993, 132-35) Pindar (C5 BCE; Olympian 2.56-83): “golden flowers growing on trees and in the water, soft breezes [and without labor and tears], the rule of Rhadamanthys and Kronos – and the term ‘islands of the blessed’ is specifically used.” In fragment of dirge by Pindar: “eternal sunlight, meadows with red roses, incense, and golden fruit, while the residents occupy themselves with horses, or the lyre, or draughts, the first mention of the need for entertainment.” (134) Lyric poet Ibykos (C6 BCE) has Achilles taken there, marries Medea (odd!); also mentioned in Apollonius’ Argonautica (133-34) Further developed by Vergil (Aeneid VI), Plutarch (Life of Sertorius VIII.2) and others Occupants: Rhadamanthys (son of Zeus & Europa; wise king of Crete), Kronos, Kadmos, Peleus, Achilles, Helen, Menelaus (?), Medea (?) Possibly a place where gods and men might come together again (under Kronos) (133)  Not depicted … how do you imagine it? The Isles of the Blessed  Sources Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Trans. Maria Jolas. Beacon Press, 1964 Bachelard, Gaston. Fragments of A Poetics of Fire, tr. Kenneth Haltman. Dalls Institute Publications, 1990 Cooper, J.C. An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames & Hudson, 1978 Dowden, Ken & Niall Livingstone, eds. A Companion to Greek Mythology. Blackwell, 2011 Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and The Profane, tr. William Trask. Harvest Books, 1957 Ferry, Luc. The Wisdom of The Myths: How Greek Mythology Can Change Your Life. Harper Perennial, 2014 Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Volume 1. John Hopkins University Press, 1993 Herington, J.C. Poetry into drama: early tragedy and the Greek poetic tradition. U of California P, 1985  Sources Kerényi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. Thames & Hudson, 1951/2002 Morris & Powell. The Greeks. Prentice Hall, 2012 Powell, Barry. The Poems of Hesiod. Trans. by Barry Powell. University of California Press, 2017 Simon, Erika. The Gods of the Greeks. University of Wisconsin Press, 2021 Vernant, Jean-Pierre. The Universe, The Gods and Men. Trans. Linda Asher. Perennial, 2001