CLA2323 October 22 Past Paper PDF

CLA2323 October 22 [The underworld and the afterlife] Back on Oct. 1, we were studying the three levels of the Underworld, to which humans might be assigned. Specifically--- \- the general Underworld: the "fields of asphodel" \- Tartarus: the Underworld's "basement", for punishment \- the parad...

CLA2323 October 22 [The underworld and the afterlife] Back on Oct. 1, we were studying the three levels of the Underworld, to which humans might be assigned. Specifically--- \- the general Underworld: the "fields of asphodel" \- Tartarus: the Underworld's "basement", for punishment \- the paradise of Elysium: Slides 75--79 of the Oct. 1 slideshow ["would you like a ticket to elysium"] Probably most real-life ancient Greeks didn't worry about punishment in Tartarus---reserved for egregious sinners. But the prospect of a bleak eternity in the general Underworld would have been discouraging to many people. By contrast, obviously, the possibility or hope for Elysium would have had strong appeal. This situation created a response fairly early in Greek history, by the mid 500s B.C. Within Greek religion, there arose certain fringe beliefs that promised their followers an assured admittance to Elysium. [The mystery religions: tickets to elysium] These fringe faiths promised their believers a happy afterlife. They are referred to by modern scholars as "mystery religions" or "Mysteries". This term comes a word used by the ancient Greeks: mustēria, "rites for the initiated". The word mustēria derived from the Greek word mustēs, "an initiate," "someone who has been initiated into a select group". And the word mustēs comes from a verb muein, "to keep your mouth shut". As in certain modern Freemason clubs or university fraternities (or the Mafia), secrecy on certain topics was a strict condition of your belonging [Two major mystery faiths in ancient greece] the Mysteries of Eleusis (or Eleusinian Mysteries) \- Buxton pp. 30 and 213 the Orphic Mysteries---also known as Orphism or the Mysteries of Dionysus (or the Dionysiac Mysteries) \- Buxton pp. 52 and 212--213 [The Eleusinian mystery\'s] In this variant faith, you would worship Demeter and Persephone in hope of winning Persephone's favour, to your advantage after you die. That is, Persephone, as queen of the Underworld, would arrange for you to be admitted to Elysium. [Orphism: our 2^nd^ mystery-faith to look at] The Derveni papyrus fragments (Buxton page 52) and Petelia gold leaves (pp. 212--213), both from the 300s B.C., are two major modern archaeological discoveries that shine light on Orphism/the Orphic Mysteries/the Dionysiac Mysteries. These three terms all = the same thing. In Orphism's alternative theology, the god Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Persephone. That is, Dionysus' mother is not the human princess Semele of Thebes (as in the mainstream myth at Buxton page 53). According to Orphism, if you worship Dionysus in the correct (Orphic) way, then, when you die, Dionysus will intercede on your behalf with his mother, Persephone in the Underworld, to get you to Elysium. See Buxton page 52 for Orphism's peculiar version of the Dionysus story: Zeus fathered Dionysus on Persephone, his daughter. This was prior to Hades abducting her. The baby Dionysus, persecuted by Hera, got murdered, cooked, and eaten by the Titans at Hera's instigation. In response, Zeus incinerated the brutal Titans, and from their ashes Zeus created humankind. Meanwhile, Dionysus got reborn, since Zeus had been able to rescue and preserve the child's heart, for regeneration. Thus, by Orphic doctrine, (i) we humans combine elements of brutality and divinity and (ii) Dionysus has a connection to the Underworld. Confusingly, the adjective "Orphic" and the noun "Orphism" refer not to Dionysus but to a human hero, Orpheus. Orpheus was someone who had famously visited the Underworld, in the mainstream Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice: Buxton pp. 171--173. [Orpheus\' role in the orphic mysteries] In Orphic belief, Orpheus was credited with being a "prophet" or "gospeller" of this alternative faith. Supposedly, he had been first person to teach the cult's "gospel truth" to others. Question: Why Orpheus as the prophet, specifically, rather than (say) Heracles or Teiresias? Answer: Three possible reasons--- [Why Orpheus as the prophet?] Answer: Three possible reasons--- \- the musician Orpheus was imagined as a poet who had left behind writings relevant to Orphism. \- Orpheus in myth had visited the Underworld and had returned. This detail would establish his authority regarding human afterlife. The Orphic Mysteries maintained certain (fraudulent) writings, supposedly written by Orpheus: something like "When I was in the Underworld, I saw Dionysus there..." \- Orpheus was pictured as being not Greek: Instead, he came from the non-Greek region of Thrace, north of Greece. Perhaps this detail was used in Orphism to explain why Orphism was not mainstream in Greek religion. [The mystery religions: "cults" but not creepy] The mystery cults were not creepy or sexual: Entire families might attend. But probably there was some pious fraud involved in the claim that they could get you into heaven. The initiate would be given certain secret passwords and secret knowledge (perhaps about an alternative myth about Persephone?), meant to assure the worshipper that he/she would be guided to Elysium after death. See Buxton page 213, with the page 212 illustration: the Petelia gold leaves from the 300s B.C.: remarkably precise instructions for the soul to remember on arrival at the Underworld: where to walk, which spring to drink from, and exactly what to say, to make sure that that soul would be directed to Elysium. [Mystery religions of the roman empire] In the real-life ancient Greek world, mystery religions multiplied during the cosmopolitan Hellenistic era (300--150 B.C.) and the Roman Empire (150 B.C.--500 A.D.). In the Roman Empire, attention turned to new deities, including foreign imports like the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Persian god Mithras. But whether Greek or non-Greek gods were worshipped, these faiths held a central promise that they could teach you the correct knowledge and rituals so that you could attain a happy afterlife. A few years ago, a CLA2323 student asked me if this god Mithras of the Roman Empire was the same divinity or spirit who is recognized in modern Iranian Zoroastrianism as Mithra. The answer is yes: He was Mithra, imported from Persia to the Roman Empire in about the first century A.D. [The boundary between gods and humans] Buxton chapter "Honour and Boundaries": pp. 88--93 \- This strong chapter is Buxton's transition in his book, from talking mainly about gods (pp. 1--87) to talking mainly about humans (page 88 and onward). \- The chapter presents a number of myths where a human character trespasses on the boundary between human and divine and gets punished. \- In Greek myth, "humans" mainly = "heroes". However, a few humans in Buxton's chapter are not heroes. \- Please note: Heroes are human. If you want to call them "demigods", just remember that they nevertheless grow old and die. \- The Buxton chapter sketches some differences between god and human, and some of the rules that humans are expected to follow. [Honour and boundaries] All the characters in Buxton's chapter get punished by the gods for having transgressed somehow on the territory of the gods. Most of them merely get killed on Earth. Most do not get tortured in the afterlife. Not all of the pp. 88--93 characters are evil. Some of just stupid. Some are unlucky. A few seem innocent and not deserving at all of the gods' anger. In one or two of the tales, it's the capricious god(s) who look bad. A partial list of the victims enumerated in the book-chapter--- Evil: Lycaon \[Lykaon\]: pp. 88--89; Tantalus: page 89; and Ixion: page 89 Stupid: Salmoneus: page 90; Marsyas (not human, technically): page 90; and Phaethon: page 93. \[Also Arachne: page 80.\] Innocent: Asclepius \[Asklepios\]: page 91; Icarus \[Ikaros\]: page 92; and Teiresias: page 93. \[Also Actaeon (Aktaion): pp. 76--77\] Who in this list shows hubris? Evil: Lykaon: pp. 88--89; Tantalus: page 89; and Ixion: page 89 Stupid: Salmoneus: page 90; Marsyas (not human, technically): page 90; and Phaethon: page 93. \[Also Arachne: page 80.\] Innocent: Asclepius: page 91; Icarus: page 92; Teiresias: page 93; Actaeon: \[pp. 76--77\] Answers:...? \- fatal pride \- insane arrogance \- the biblical "pride that goeth before a fall" In ancient Greek myth and stage tragedy---also in moralizing history-writing such as by the Greek historian Herodotus---hubris can lead a human character into an overconfident action that results in disaster for the person. The person has forgotten that he/she is not a god. In English, the word hubris gets transliterated as "hybris" or "hubris": either one. However, this isn't just an abstract rule in ancient Greek mythology\... [The greek notion of hubris] Clockwise from top left--- Harvey Weinstein Jian Ghomeshi Martha Stewart: convicted of securities fraud in 2004 Sean "Diddy" Combs: charged with sex trafficking: trial is pending Jordan Belfort (at left), the real-life "Wolf of Wall Street," played by Leonardo DiCaprio (at right) in the 2013 movie Aside from the real-life DiCaprio, all those people seemed to forget that they weren't gods. Each one reached a point, in his or her flight of success, where the thinking seemed to be "I can do whatever I want---financially, sexually, etc.---and nothing bad could ever happen to me. I'm too important." They thought they were above justice. The idea of hubris is one of ancient Greece's most impressive contributions to modern thought. The principle appears to be fundamental to real-life human behaviour---at least within a certain breed of successful people (? mainly male). Success → Arrogance → A false feeling of invulnerability \["I'm like a god" or "I will never make a mistake"\] → Bad judgment → A voluntary action that is disastrously rash, bringing ruin to the person. [Hubris: pride that goeth before a fall] The underlying lesson of hubris is that we humans are weak at core. Not only can failure ruin us, but even success can ruin us, too. Success can go to our heads and make us start acting in bizarre, thoughtless ways---ways that invite disaster: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall," says the biblical book of Proverbs (Chapter 16, verse 18). The Greeks noted this real-life aspect and just mythologized it. The worst offenders in the Buxton chapter (Tantalus, Ixion, etc.) are obviously guilty of hubris. Ditto for the really foolish offenders, like Arachne or Marsyas. But Phaethon's reckless wish to drive the sun-god's chariot seems, at worst, borderline. Is it hubris or just adolescent bad judgment? And are Asclepius or Icarus guilty of hubris at all? Remember: Icarus doesn't start the story by deciding he wants to fly. Asclepius in particular invites admiration, sympathy. [Apollo: enforcer of the boundary] Any deity might punish a human who shows disrespect, but generally this distance between gods and mortals is embodied by the god Apollo. Why Apollo specifically? Two reasons, perhaps--- Like father Zeus, Apollo is a god of balance in Nature and in the universe. He oversees the concepts of due proportion and harmony. This harmony-aspect clearly relates to Apollo's role as god of music, but it relates also to his being the god of medicine: A doctor seeks to restore the patient's internal harmony or balance. Thirdly, the harmony-idea can apply to punishing trespassers: By destroying or correcting a human intruder, Apollo safeguards an aspect of universal balance. As a god who's not perfectly friendly toward humans to begin with, Apollo fits as being heaven's "hatchet man" on this issue---more so than Zeus, Athena, or Hermes. [The two proverbs displayed at Delphi] Relevant to the ideas of balance and boundaries is a fact about Apollo's famous temple at Delphi, in real-life ancient Greece. Inside the temple, two proverbs were displayed carved into the stone wall. Supposedly they were the god's advice to humans: (1) "Nothing in excess" and (2) "Know thyself"---meaning "Remember your puny human limitations, as compared with the gods' powers". Obviously, "Nothing in excess" reflects Apollo's role as lord of harmony, moderation, and proportion. "Know thyself" reminds us that Apollo tends to "put down" us humans: He puts us in our place. As has been said already, Apollo---both in his aloof personality and in the sinister aspects of his worship---remains distant from humans. He typifies one aspect that runs through Greek mythology. [On earth, the age of heroes begins] \- Buxton page 54: Hesiod's Five Ages \[or "Races"\] of Humans: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, and Iron \- thus the heroes = the 4th age of humankind. See the page 97 chart of the "begettings" done by Zeus: human mothers, baby heroes. \- the Greek word hērōs means "protector". Plural: hērōes. \- the "descending" metals of the Five Ages: similarities to the biblical Book of Daniel and to ancient Persian writings. Coincidence? Earth has had a population of human beings since the days when Cronus \[Kronos\] ruled the universe, before Zeus. Then came Zeus' accession, probably during the human Age of Silver: Buxton page 54. Then came the Age of Bronze and its violent end (whether or not by the Flood): Buxton pp. 54, 58--59. After the third human age, the Age of Bronze, as the human population recovers, Zeus gets involved in the breeding of certain humans: He descends to Earth many times to have sexual intercourse with mortal women. The woman always gets pregnant, usually with a son. The son is born to become a hero, with more-than-human powers of one kind or another. The son carries a "spark" or "seed" of the divine, which may linger for a few generations more, in the hero's bloodline. [The age of heroes, but created by sexual violence] However, the procreative sex is almost never consensual: Zeus normally forces himself on the woman. Or at best, he deceives her somehow. The impregnating of the princess Alcmene \[Alkmene\] is one example of force-less deception: She believes she is lying down with her husband. Buxton pp. 98 and 115. Zeus' pattern with mortal women is just an extension of his earlier extramarital intercourse with his own sister Demeter and with numerous nymphs and other minor goddesses (Maia, Leto, Metis, Themis, etc.), for the begetting of gods. (This took place after Zeus dethroned Cronus and banished him and the Titans. See Buxton page 48.) Only this time, it's human heroes who are being created. Aside from Zeus, other male gods---Apollo, Poseidon, and Hermes, for example---descend to Earth for nonconsensual intercourse with human women. Again, the woman always gets pregnant, usually with a son. This helps create a whole generation of heroes. The repeated impregnating of women by Zeus and other gods has the purpose of strengthening the human race. The human family is being given some divine help---in muscle strength and bravery, or in mental power or technological aptitude---so as to better battle villains and to organize civilization on Earth. As we've seen in a prior generation in heaven, Zeus is delegating some of his protective-and-organizing duties: Just this time, he's delegating to human heroes on Earth. Footnote: See the page 114 genealogical chart for an interesting detail. Zeus impregnates Danae, a human princess of Argos, to beget the hero Perseus. Eventually, Perseus has a granddaughter Alcmene, a princess of Mycenae. Zeus impregnates Alcmene---who technically is his own great-granddaughter!---to beget Heracles, the greatest of heroes. Here we see Zeus renewing the divine element in the family's bloodline, after two generations. The implication in the storytelling is that otherwise the divine spark in a human bloodline would fade over two or three generations and would naturally die out. [Also, male human love-objects] In a variation of the usual pattern, the gods sometimes choose to couple with handsome young males: for example, Zeus and Ganymede, Poseidon and Pelops, or Aphrodite and Anchises. Interestingly, the teenaged Pelops is imagined as both a hero-in-the-making and as a love-object for the god Poseidon. Buxton pp. 148 to 150 top. In class, we discussed male--male relations in Greek mythology back on Oct. 8, in the lecture session after the midterm exam. From the goddess Aphrodite and the Trojan nobleman Anchises, the Trojan hero Aeneas \[Aineias\] is born. Buxton page 78, lower right. [Zeus\' love affairs: why the sexual violence] Student question: "OK, the 'impregnating' part we understand. But why all the violence toward women? Why does that aspect recur in the myths?" Answer: Perhaps its storytelling purpose is to spare the young women's reputations. Explanation: As already mentioned, every single time Zeus or another god has sex with a mortal woman, the woman gets pregnant. The baby usually is male, usually a future hero. The victim-mother usually is identified as a princess: the daughter of the ruling family, or at least of a noble family, at a Greek city like Thebes or Argos or Mycenae. Further, the woman almost always is a maiden: This is her first experience, her first child. The idea seems to be that the "hero formula" works best if the woman is a virgin chamber until chosen by Zeus. So, from the storytelling viewpoint, the violence may be necessary to explain how the women got pregnant. In real-life ancient Greece, well-born young women did not have premarital affairs with men. Women at marriage were virgins. Any scandal otherwise was deeply shameful to the family. So, in the storytelling, since Zeus isn't going to marry the women, the explanation of their getting pregnant has to be something that carries no blame to them. In theory, Zeus could hypnotize the women or put them to sleep, but an assault more clearly absolves the females of any consent, any "wrongdoing". Student question: "Could the mythology be condoning Zeus' behavior? If Zeus is the universal lord of justice and order, then doesn't the mythology automatically approve of anything he's shown to do?" Answer: A good question. Greek mythology is full of examples of bad behavior---which often is characterized as being bad---even from heroes and gods. In this case, for one thing, assaulting noble-born maidens was not an approved activity in real-life ancient Greece. For another, humans generally are not invited to imitate Zeus. A religiously pious Greek of 500 B.C. would say that Zeus' behavior is beyond our human ability to judge: Whatever Zeus does is correct, because he's Zeus, but we humans are not invited to imitate it. Or there could have been a different ancient-Greek interpretation: simple puzzlement and exasperation with this image of a criminal Zeus--- "Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods everything that is shameful and hateful among humans: theft and adultery and committing perjury under oath." ---the Greek philosopher Xenophanes, circa 530 B.C [The ancient Greek heroes: an overview] A hero is mortal and will inevitably die, but meanwhile he (or she) is capable of great feats, whether as a warrior or inventor or statesman, etc. In the exciting tales of Greek mythology, various heroes will slay monsters and villains, or will organize kingdoms, or will introduce civilizing arts such as agriculture and medicine to humankind. As you know, in Greek mythology, the tales of the heroes outnumber tales purely of the gods, at a ratio of 5:1. [The typical Greek hero: a few facts] The ancient Greek word hērōs, "protector" derives linguistically from an Indo-European word-root serw-, "to protect". This same root occurs also in our words like "preserve" and "conserve". As already said, the hero is a human, although with superior powers of some sort. \- Slides 54--56, above, discuss aspects of the hero's birth: Typically (but not always) he is the son of Zeus or of another god, with a mortal woman. As said, we have only one famous female hero: Atalanta. Buxton pp. 106--107 [Among the heroes: some variations] Footnote: The foregoing info notwithstanding, not every single Greek hero in the literature can be identified as a god's descendant. A minority of the heroes are (apparently) 100-percent human. One such seems to be Atalanta, our only famous female hero. Also, as said already, not every single hero is a warrior. Please keep in mind the occasional pattern of the peaceful, civilizing hero: Deucalion, Triptolemus, Orpheus, Daedalus, Asclepius, etc. Also, not every single human child of Zeus is male. Helen of Troy is a daughter of Zeus: Helen technically has heroic blood. [The end of the age of heroes] The Age of Heroes was imagined as lasting about four or five generations only. It was a short window of time---which ancient Greeks, like the poet Hesiod (700 B.C.), imagined as occurring in the "old days", now long past. Back in those imagined old days, the gods would consort with humans: dine with humans, sleep with them, call them "son" or "daughter", give them advice or practical help, etc. The heroic age was thought to have ended sometime after the Trojan War, by which time the gods had terminated their intimacy with humans. The Trojan War was the heroes' last hurrah. Afterward, the gods withdrew to the extent that Zeus and others would no longer seek intimacy with humans: There were no new hero-babies conceived. Instead, the divine spark existing in certain human bloodlines went unrenewed and was allowed to dwindle out. The human generation after the Trojan War was more-or-less the last one to include heroes. Probably (as said) these last heroes were thought of as the fourth or fifth hero-generation. According to Hesiod, after the heroes there came the Age of Iron: an era of hardship and injustice. This is imagined as being our era---we who are the audience of the mythology. The troubled Iron Age is ours. [The author Apollodorus] Apollodorus \[Apollodoros\] is the name traditionally given to the author of a Greek prose handbook titled the Library (Greek: Bibliothēkē)---that is, "the library of mythology" or the collected tales of mythology. The Library is a handbook of condensed myths. Written perhaps in the early 100s A.D., the Library today supplies a major source for our knowledge of the plots of the Greek hero myths. If a hero's tale isn't known to us from Homer or a very few other Greek writers, then probably we know it from Apollodorus. For example, Apollodorus is our major source for the story of Heracles' Labours, also for the myths of Perseus and Bellerophon. Incidentally, Apollodorus' name means "gift of Apollo". Note: Please don't confuse Apollodorus with the Greek poet Apollonius \[Apollonios\] of Rhodes, who also is a source for us. See the page 8 textbook chart, halfway down. [The hero Perseus of Argos] Apollodorus \[Apollodoros\] is the name traditionally given to the author of a Greek prose handbook titled the Library (Greek: Bibliothēkē)---that is, "the library of mythology" or the collected tales of mythology. The Library is a handbook of condensed myths. Written perhaps in the early 100s A.D., the Library today supplies a major source for our knowledge of the plots of the Greek hero myths. If a hero's tale isn't known to us from Homer or a very few other Greek writers, then probably we know it from Apollodorus. For example, Apollodorus is our major source for the story of Heracles' Labours, also for the myths of Perseus and Bellerophon. Incidentally, Apollodorus' name means "gift of Apollo". Note: Please don't confuse Apollodorus with the Greek poet Apollonius \[Apollonios\] of Rhodes, who also is a source for us. See the page 8 textbook chart, halfway down.