Lecture Notes on Myth PDF

January 9, 2025 2:12 PM Lecture 1 - Jan 8th, 2025 Myth What is myth (muthos) ? ○ Homer: an emphatic utterance, command, threat ○ vs. generalized epos (pl.epea): speech, word, story, poem  Epos: more generic term for speech  This word has many meanings...

January 9, 2025 2:12 PM Lecture 1 - Jan 8th, 2025 Myth What is myth (muthos) ? ○ Homer: an emphatic utterance, command, threat ○ vs. generalized epos (pl.epea): speech, word, story, poem  Epos: more generic term for speech  This word has many meanings  No relevance to false/truth -> myths are just stated ○ Hesiod: altheia/etumon (truth) vs. pseudos (false)  Distinct from muthos □ For Hesiod there is nothing in myth that makes it truth or false ○ Pindar: true muthos vs. false muthos  Logos as general account (typo on p.10) ○ Plato:  Logos vs. muthos (type on pg.10)  True vs. false, reason vs. tradition  For plate myth has value, don't get caught up that he values truth more  Muthos can complement logos ○ Aristotle:  Muthos as plot  Muthos as plot is important  Tragedy is more *philosophical* than history By the Roman age there was one (by implication) universally accepted definition of mythology: ○ A corpos of stories every educated person was expected to know (Alan Cameron) A working definition: a myth is a traditional story with collective importance Tradition vs. the Particular The English word 'tradition' derives from Latin traditio, which refers to a 'handing down' or 'passing down' Myth doesn’t exist in a vacuum ○ Doesn’t come out of nowhere ○ Myths are transmitted from one generation to another  Not from one sole person Lecture Notes Page 1   Not from one sole person When stories are traditional they are also anonymous ○ No author ○ We have versions of the myth from an author Myth is traditional, but we only have particular sources ○ These are pregnant with an artist's particular ideas or agenda ○ Variations on a tradition are significant Use of myth varies over time, from work to work, place to place ○ No two versions should be identical ○ Mythology is the study of these two poles: the forest and the trees ○ Mythography is the writing of myth Myth and Mythology Can involve gods, so = religion ? Religion and ritual activity ○ Beware of prioritizing belief when discussing religion ○ I would stress action, instead: ancient religions are not based in doctrine or faith but are practices Myth can explain a society to itself (and to us): it holds meaning Lecture Notes Page 2 Lecture 2 - Jan 10th, 2025 January 10, 2025 11:29 AM Kinds/Elements of Myth We distinguish myth, legend, folktale as distinct kinds of story For the ancients, myth includes elements of all three ○ Ancients didn’t think of these 3 things as distinct from each other *The modern distinction has a meaning* ○ *Divine myth is like a science: explains the world as it is* ○ Aition = 'cause'; aitiological (etiological, aetiological) = 'explanatory' For Powell *Legend is like history: human activity in the past* *Folktales are often fictional, but their motifs or types are often shared by diverse cultures* ○ Not exclusive to one culture or another ○ The heroic quest = type ○ Motifs ○ 'beggar in disguise', 'magical journey', 'assistance of a god(dess)' = motifs Divine myths (sometimes called true myths or myths proper) are stores in which supernatural beings are the main actors. Such stories generally explain… (from txt. Book) Myth - science, legend - history, folktales - motifs (general ideas of these categories) Why our prof doesn’t like these categories ○ Distinguishing divine myth, legend and folktale is misleading ○ Heroic tales almost always involve gods ○ Both divine myths and heroic tales employ folktale motifs ○ One kind of divine myth describes how the world (as inhabited by human beings) came into being ○ Heroic tales can be etiological too Let's understand myth (in the ancient sense) as including some or all of these elements StarWars is not considered a myth because it isn't traditional and has an author - myth is anonymous Geography Italy Etruria Rome Sicily Lecture Notes Page 3  Sicily Carthage (north Africa) Knowing where these are will be on a test (all written down places) Asia Minor Asia Minor Miletus Troy Ionia Aegean Seas: Regions Macedonia Thessaly Boeotia Attica Peloponnesus Islands Euboea Crete Cyclades Bodies of Water Ionian Sea Aegean Sea Peloponnesus Argolis Mycenae Corinth ○ Isthmus of Corinth Laconia ○ Sparta (Lacedaemon) - when talking about Spartans often say Lacedemonians Olympia Ionian Sea Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica Thessaly Mt Olympus Boeotia Thebes Delphi Lecture Notes Page 4  Delphi Attica Athens *test will be marking these places on map - general location - generally good spelling ***Polis - ancient Greek city state *** can be tested, order, rough dates Chronology Early/ Middle Bronze Age 3000-1600 BCE Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) 1600-1150 BCE Dark Age 1150-825 BCE (sometimes referred to as Iron Age) Archaic Period 825-480 BCE Lecture Notes Page 5  Lecture 3 - Jan 13th, 2025 January 14, 2025 8:56 PM Chronology Early/ Middle Bronze Age 3000-1600 BCE Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) 1600-1150 BCE Dark Age (Iron Age) 1150-825 BCE Archaic Period 825-480 BCE Classical Period 480-323 BCE Hellenistic Period 323-30 BCE Roman Period 30 BCE - 1453 AD Hellen " Greek" istic "ish" Minoan Crete and the Indo-Europeans 2200-1450 BCE: Minoan culture on Crete ○ King Minos, the labyrinth ○ Labrys, axe with two blades ○ Minoans are NOT Greek speakers The Indo-Europeans ○ Thanks, linguistics (tres, three, drei, troi, tre, etc.) ○ Move into Europe -> one group -> branched off to specific groups later ○ Migration from central Asia ○ Arrive in Greece circa 2100 BCE ○ Interaction with Minoans - violence ○ Conquer the Minoans circa 1450 BCE Late Bronze Age (1600-1150 BCE) Linear A script (Minoan, not Greek) Linear B script (Mycenaean, early form of Greek) ○ Michael Ventris (1952) - who cracked it The Bronze Age (= Minoans and Mycenaeans) is the setting for many myths Minoans - Crete (earlier) , Myceneans - Mainland Greece (later) Destruction of Troy circa 1190 BCE ? Dark Age & Archaic Greece Lecture Notes Page 6  Dark Age Greece ○ No writing (not even Linear B) ○ Scant pottery & archaeological evidence Archaic Greece (circa 825) ○ Alphabet - new writing system - imported from Phoenicia ○ New kind of community: the polis, the independent city-state ○ Commerce & trade, coinage introduced ○ Democracy at Athens (508/507 BCE) - replace tyranny ○ War with Persia (490-479 BCE) a convenient end-point Classical Greece The 'golden age' of Greek literature and art Freedom ○ Democracy in Athens ○ Spartan military valor Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) ○ Sparta defeats Athens Hellenistic Greece Infighting continues until 338 BCE ○ Philip of Macedon unites Greek world ○ Alexander the Great in Persia (332-323 BCE) The Hellenistic Kingdoms ○ Ptolemies in Egypt *  Ptolemies were a Macedonian Greek dynasty that rules Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great ○ Cleopatra defeated by Rome 30 BCE (end of Ptolemies) -> Roman control over the Mediterranean Context Slavery ○ Freedman ○ Important social group in Rome - slaves who have been given their freedom Religion ○ Magic ○ Supernatural ○ Miasma  Blood/stained by murder-> ritual to cleanse/purify sacrifice Oracle Lecture Notes Page 7 ○ Oracle  Riddle Lecture Notes Page 8 Lecture 4 - January 15th, 2025 January 15, 2025 11:33 AM Continuation of Context Religion: Romans are very superstitious ○ Many gods ○ Want to stay in alignment with the supernatural forces ○ Do lots of rituals, sacrifices to stay in alignment The stain of miasma stays ○ Polluted by miasma -> need to get rid of pollution ○ If you have pollution you will spread this to your community In myths questions and answers to oracles is more elaborate, riddle answers ○ IRL more simple questions (yes/no) Dreams can be messages from the Gods Italy's melting pot:  Etruscans ○ At the start Romans were a lot of independent groups -> over time become romans ○ Diverse interaction of cultures before Rome monopolized these groups ○ Iron Age Italy (mix of cultures) ○ Roman myth isn't an exact copy of Greek myth  Romans ○ Res publica The Development of Myth  From Indo-European to Greek ○ Linear B tablets name many groups  Motifs from the near east ○ No such thing as purely 'Greek' myth ○ The near east is powerful, advances -> Greeks come into contact with them  Interaction (economic and cultural) ○ There are forces outside Greece world influencing Greek Myth ○ Coalesce in the Bronze and dark ages  Oral transmission bard (aoidos) Lecture Notes Page 9  ○ bard (aoidos)  Bards - best English translation - a type of signer ○ Myth didn’t get written down till farther in the future - transmission was oral ○ Myths were handed down over centuries -> which lends to myth changing over time ○ The signer would influence the song ○ Composition in performance Myth in Archaic Greece (800-480 BCE)  The Main Genres: ○ Epic (epos = song)  Long narrative poem (about heroes) ○ Hymn  Long narrative poem (about gods) ○ 'Wisdom literature'  Near-eastern  Law, agriculture, nature, etc.  'Catalogs' of names  Main issues ○ Performance  *Festival context* ○ Aoidos vs. rhapsode  The bard (aoidos) is inspired, composes orally  *Rhapsode is 'a song-stitcher' (refashions existing works)*  Jazz music vs classical music; performer vs. composer  Textbook assumes writing ○ Never talk about Homer and writing ○ Maybe Homer dictated his texts HOWEVER think of Homer as bard The Classical Period (480-323 BCE)  Choral song  Tragedy ○ Aristotle ( Aristotle didn’t write tragedy, wrote philosophy) ○ Aeschylus ○ Sophocles ○ Euripides ○ Epic just gay telling a story, singing -> tragedy there is acting out Lecture Notes Page 10 Lecture Notes Page 11 Lecture 5 - January 17th, 2025 January 17, 2025 11:27 AM Continuation of Lecture 4… The Hellenistic Period (323-30 BCE) Epic ○ Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica ○ Callimachus: Aitia *** nb name Mythography ○ Catalogue and compile ○ Apollodorus: Library -> interested in coherent story/ cole's notes/compiled information versions The Roman Period (post-30 BCE) Vergil: Aeneid ( describes the wandering of a Roman prince who goes to Italy - establish blood line that leads to king of rome) Ovid: Metamorphoses (all the myths in this collection involve change) Origins and Interpretation The Development of Myth Origins ○ Early religion and fertility ○ Potnia theron (mistress of beasts)*** ○ Mesopotamian and Near Eastern influence  Alphabet  Creation myth (Enuma elish) > Hebrew bible > □ When on high  Know a lot more today than we did even a century ago…  Mesopotamia (region between two rivers) Near-Eastern/Mesopotamian Origins Sumerians (4000-2300 BCE) ○ Cuneiform  They wrote on clay tablets - pressing a tool into clay, wedge shape incision ○ Polytheism  Many gods, extraordinarily powerful gods, humans live to please the gods  An = sky, source of kingship  Inanna = queen of heaven, love and war (creation and destruction)  Enlil = lord of storm, An's agent on earth Lecture Notes Page 12   Enlil = lord of storm, An's agent on earth  Enki = lord of earth, fertilizer, trickster  A community of anthropomorphic gods ○ Ziggurat  A temple  God's home Semites ○ Akkadians ○ Babylonians  Hammurabi (1750 BCE)  Enuma elish (when on high) *** ○ Hebrews  Monotheism  Modified Phoenician alphabet Hittites (in Asia Minor, Not Mesopotamia) Egyptians ○ Important interaction for Greeks The Interpretation of Myth Two intersecting trends ○ Representation/symbolism  The 'what is it?' approach ○ Teleological (what is it for)  The 'what does it mean?' approach Tells us more about the interpreter than the interpretation (thoughts, concerns, ideas of the people at the time) Ancient theory Rationalism ○ Xenophanes (VI BCE)  Anthropomorphism; ethics  "If cows had gods…"  Animals have human characteristics  The Greek gods display human characteristics □ Gods reflect ourselves (human) □ Cheat, treat each other badly other human behaviors ○ Plato  Amend (but doesn’t discard) myth ○ Palaephatus***  Rationalize the impossible □ Actaeon and his dogs □ Myth as a 'disease of language' -> language transforms into a Lecture Notes Page 13  □ Myth as a 'disease of language' -> language transforms into a new story that was not the original Allegory ○ X is really about Y  Mars and Venus = Strife and Love ○ Theagenes  Natural forces □ Fire vs. water ○ Bad Stoic etymology: Cronus > Chronos = Time  Cronos actually has nothing to do with Chronos (not same Greek word, Stoics are wrong)  Juno > hear > aer (Anp)/ Aura Symbolism ○ X is Y Euhemerism **** (test or exam) ○ Gods were great humans ○ The basic idea: the things we identify as gods are not actually immortal beings they were just great humans(king) -> strip away the supernatural/godly aspect Theory distorts ○ 'hidden' meanings  Myth = primitive  Theory = 'advanced' -> only it can capture the real essence of the story -> myth doesn’t have meaning without the theory behind it Moral allegory (particularly Medieval) ○ Harpies as prostitutes ○ Fulgentius on the Judgement of Paris  Example to be avoided  Presented with a choice: Hera, Athena, Aphrodite who is the most beautiful □ Political, military, beauty/pleasure □ Chooses beauty/pleasure/sex □ Indicates his moral depravity Theory is always distorting myth ○ Lots of theories involve thinking the ancients are primitive ○ This prejudice is dangerous ○ Don’t fall into the trap of theory=advanced and myth=primitive January 20th Neoplatonism ○ Calling all philosophers ○ The material world = change, continual cycle (becoming and decaying) Above this world is a world of unity - gods resides - perfection stability Lecture Notes Page 14  ○ Above this world is a world of unity - gods resides - perfection stability ○ The one Birth of Aphrodite ○ Aphrodite is perfect ○ Birth enters the material world, has to be clothed ○ Our world vs world above of perfection unity, stability Lecture Notes Page 15 Lecture 6 - January 20th, 2025 January 20, 2025 11:27 AM Continuation of Interpretation of Myth Enlightenment ○ The new world and primitivism ○ Contrast between them (Europeans) and other societies ○ These societies were 'primitive' ○ Antiquity becomes ignorant: Fontenelle Vico's ages: teleology ○ From nature (Gods), to society (Heroes), to science (Man) ○ From myth, to legend, to philosophy ○ Truth = advanced ○ Humanity is advancing towards a perfection (age of enlightenment) Romanticism ○ Anti-Enlightenment ○ Not interested in scientific truth, rather things that harder to pin down, feelings, nature ○ Define value in the 'primitive world' ○ Feeling, nature, myth = lost truth  Creuzer □ Indo-European origins > cross-cultural Languages today have roots in Indo-European Proto-European Came from central Asia into Europe □ Ground his analysis in the fact that a Europeans descend from a common people, why a lot of cultures have similar myth  Bachofen □ Matriarchy in 3 phases (victims>peace/community>aggression) □ Precedes patriarchy Anthropology ○ Darwin and evolution ○ Tylor's animism: everything has a soul  Myth as mistaken as science  Can't do science so uses myth to explain stuff ○ Frazer's The Golden Bough  Political succession (slave overthrows king)….  Myths share a common pattern □ How the young replace the old □ Succession myth □ The King of the Wood □ The need to rejuvenate -> threat to community, aging king is a Lecture Notes Page 16  □ The need to rejuvenate -> threat to community, aging king is a social problem, threatens stability of the community -> need to put community back to stability  Myth elaborates ritual: young replaces old> fertility & vitality  Magic > religion > science  Myth is not appropriate for a scientific world  Primordial right (def primordial?) Malinowski and Functionalism ○ Myth as charter, justification ○ What is myth's function? ○ Why property is owned by a family, tell a story to explain why/justify ○ Myth is product of a purpose Linguistics ○ Muler and solar phenomena: light vs. dark  Reduce characters to solar phenomena, the sun  Phaethon as drought □ Myth -> Drive the chariot -> couldn’t control the sun god chariot, scorched the earth, explains why some people are dark □ Zeus hits him with a thunderbolt □ Apollo and Daphne: Sun chases the Dawn Sun coming after the dawn ○ Like Palaephatus ' disease of language' Comparative mythology ○ The Indo-Europeans-again! ○ The social 'grammar' of myth  Myth follows the same rules and patterns outline, format Psychology ○ Freud: the subconscious > crude symbolism  Condensation and displacement  Dreams ○ Jung  Ill leave Jung to the English theorists  Archetypes Structuralism (Levi-Strauss) * very imp to interpretation of myth ○ Mediate opposites > formalism ○ Oedipus: autochthony and origins  Propp: matriarchy and patriarchy Syntax' or 'rules' ○ Hestia and Hermes at Olympia  Fixed vs. mobile  Female vs. male Lecture Notes Page 17  Female vs. male Lecture Notes Page 18 Lecture 7 - January 22nd, 2025 January 22, 2025 11:32 AM Burkert's contextual approach ○ Changing cultural and historical conditions ○ Programs>ritual ○ More about trying to understand the ancient circumstances where the myth came out of Myth and Mythology: story and its interpretation Creation Hesiod's Theogony ○ Theogony = 'origin/birth of the gods' ○ Cosmogony = 'origin/birth of the universe' ○ A hymn to Zeus  Teleological (aims towards an end point, climax Zeus in charge = yes that’s what we want, came through the crisis and conflict, end point after series of generations)  Multi-generational end point Motifs ○ Reproduction ○ Intergenerational strife ○ Male vs. female  Zeus can reproduce by himself (ascendency of men over women) Other creation myths ○ Homer: Tethys and Oceanus ○ The 'Orphic' cosmogony Generation #1: unbridled fertility ○ Women can reproduce by themselves, very fruitful ○ Chaos (super fertile), Earth, Tartaros, Eros (first 4)  Chaos = 'to yawn, to gape', an emptiness, starts with nothing  Earth = Gaea/Gaia/Ge  Tartaros = the cavern inside Gaea  Eros = desire, attraction, motion ○ Emptiness>something>more distinction, things start to divide>movement Born of Earth and Chaos ○ Erebos=darkness ○ Nyx=night ○ Aither=radiance ○ Hemera=day ○ Mountains ○ Ouranos=heaven ○ Pontos =sea Generation #2: Titans, Cyclopes, Hundred-handers ○ *Titans = 'to exert'*  Ocean and Tethys  Kronos and Rhea ○ Cyclopes: Brontes ('Thunderer'), Steropes ('Flasher'), and Arges ('Brightener') ○ Hundred-handers ('Hecatonchires') ○ The world is scary place, monstrous Castrating Ouranos, hates his children wants to hide them away, not letting them be born ○ Earth under duress (Ouranos not letting children being born, plugging up earth) ○ Etiology (earth and sky/heaven get separated) ○ Blood produces Erinyes, Giants, Ash Nymphs  Grey unconquerable  Sickle=adamantium  Kronos comes in clutch and uses the sickle against his father ○ Genitalia produces Aphrodite  Fertility, deceit, violence  Seafoam, came from genitalia falling into the sea Generation #3: The Olympians ○ Like father, like son?  Will the son behave as Ouranos  Swallowed his children  Zeus eventually gets his dad to regurgitate siblings and the rock that was supposed to be Zeus (rock in delphi)  Earth motivates □ Via prophecy □ Tells Zeus to partner with the Hundred-handers  Titanomachy □ Alliance with Hundred-handers and Cyclopes (help Zeus) Gifted the lighting-bolt Zeus' Regime ○ Zeus does not go unchallenged  Typhon: 100 dragon heads, terrible roar  Prove Zeus is actually powerful, final challenge □ Remake the cosmos □ Apollodorus' alternate version Like father like son? ○ Another prophecy ○ Zeus swallows Metis -> births Athena out of his forehead (obtains cleverness as well) Lecture Notes Page 19 Lecture 8 - January 24th, 2025 January 24, 2025 11:30 AM Zeus' Regime Zeus' marriages ○ Metis = "cleverness"  Athena ○ Consumes Metis -> wants to end the cycle of younger generations usurping the older one ○ The goal of Hesiod's account is to show why Zeus is the most powerful (can even progoneate by himself) Themis = "law" ○ Seasons  Dike = "justice"  Eirene = "peace" ○ The three Fates  Fate -> how much time we have -> length of string-> our mortality is built into Zeus' world -> we are subjected to fate -> Human lives are represented by strings and the fates decide how long they are ○ Hera  Ares ○ Demeter  Persephone / Kore ○ Mnemosyne (memory)  The Muses Yet Another Threat Titans Typhon Metis Giants (Gigantes = 'earthborn') ○ Need Hercules' help  Later in the timeline Divine Myth Hesiod is one (Greek) account of creation Be sensitive to sources Typhon beneath Mt. Ena (many sources) Demeter (as a Mare) + Poseidon ○ Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.25.5 ○ Ovis, Metamorphoses 6.118 The myth is local to Arcadia Lecture Notes Page 20  ○ The myth is local to Arcadia Near-Eastern Parallels Enuma elish ○ "When on High" ○ Sweet (Apsu) and salt water (Tiamat) mingle ○ Four generations of kids ○ Apsu plots destruction ○ Ea casts a spell, overthrows his father ○ Apsu->Ea->Marduk  Marduk is a storm god  Marduk is the hero of enuma elish/how Zeus is to Hesiod's theogony ○ Marduk's wind brother Tiamat ○ Her lover Kingu appointed ○ Marduk fills her with his storm and shoots (a la Jaws) ○ Imprisons Kingu Marduk's world ○ Temple for Anu, Enil, Ea ○ Constellations ○ Calendar ○ Sun and Moon ○ Clouds, wind, rain (from Tiamat's spit) ○ Fog From her eyes flow the Tigris and Euphrates Creates humans>serve ○ From Kingu's blood Hittite Kingship in Heaven Alalash > Anush > Kumarbi >Teshub Nine year interval Consumption of Anush's genitals Another conflict of Kumarbi and Teshub Kumarbi begets Ullikummi with a rock (=Earth?) Teshub cuts Ullikummi from Ubelluri ○ Uses weapon that separated heaven and earth Shared motifs Young vs. old Motion vs. static Wisdom vs. brute force Wicked parents Lecture Notes Page 21 Lecture Notes Page 22 Lecture 9 - January 27th/2025 January 27, 2025 11:31 AM Humanity No single version of the creation of humanity Something divine (i.e., grown) or created (by artifice)? From the ashes of the Titans (Orphism/ Enuma elish)! ○ We have some of the divine within us Life sux…totes Theogony's orderly divine community ○ An ideal A fundamental question for Hesiod and the Greeks: ○ "Why is life so hard?" ○ Work and Days - Hesiod is asking this question ○ A series of etiologies Pandora A punishment devised by Zeus ○ Pandora is the first woman and conceived as a punishment by Zeus Responds to the theft of fire by creating a woman = Pandora ○ Pandora in Greek means "Gift of all" ○ Hephaestus: from water and clay ○ Athena: teaches weaving ○ Aphrodite: desire, heartbreak and love ○ Hermes: lies, deceit, "the soul of a bitch" ○ Pandora = 'all gifted', or the 'gift of all (the gods)' Etiology for women, marriage, and childbearing ○ Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em *caduceus = the staff of Hermes How are women a punishment? ○ Origin of bad things  Lies, deceit: pretty to look at  Consumers, not producers □ Zeus "saw to it that women, / curse of mortal men, should invent work utterly useless" (Theogony 591-602) ○ Female activity ignored  E.g., Childbearing, weaving, household maintenance ○ Pandora's jar ○ All of the evils are in Pandoras box/jar (death, sickness, misery…) ○ ***Jar not box ○ Before jar was open the men did not live with evil From Pandora to Prometheus Lecture Notes Page 23 From Pandora to Prometheus Backstory involves Prometheus (Theogony) Mekone*** ○ Gods and human feast ○ Prometheus divides and portions  Bones wrapped in glistening fat  Meat concealed in the stomach  Zeus chooses the portion that isnt edible and humans get the edible stuff ○ Offers the fat to Zeus (who notices the trick)  Zeus resents it, but choses the bones and fat  Etiology for ritual and sacrifice: □ Why do humans burn fat and bones for gods? Why not punish Prometheus? ○ Humans suffer b/c Mekone  Zeus takes fire away (???) ○ Theft of fire  Pandora is Zeus' reponse  Mekone = trick, Zeus takes fire away, Prometheus get fire back -> women (Zeus real mad) P. Helps humanity Z. Makes life harder ○ Echoes the sacrifice  Pandora = the offering: pretty but worthless  Fire = the useful portion ○ Prometheus punished, too  Chained  The eagle - slowly getting liver eaten  Heracles (=Hercules) will release Prometheus and Humanity ○ Why help humans?  Sometimes Epimetheus creates humanity ○ Beyond BBQ ○ All human arts originate with Prometheus  Homebuilding  Astronomy  Mathematics, writing  Husbandry ( domestication of animals)  Seafaring  Medicine, pharmacology  Divination (prophecy, extispicy, omens)  Sacrifice Lecture Notes Page 24   Sacrifice  Metallurgy ○ An icon for the Romantics and counterculture Wait: Humanity Feasted with the Gods? ○ Hesiod on the hardship of human life ○ The Five Ages  Golden Age (Cronus) □ No work □ No old age □ Men are like gods  Silver Age □ Have long lives □ Foolish □ Violent □ Not reverent  Bronze Age □ Violent and warlike □ Kill each other  Heroic Ages □ Half-gods □ Isles of the Blesses (Cronus) Lecture Notes Page 25