Week 11 (Nov 25-29) PDF

November 25, 2024 Monolithic Theories of Myth Cont. 5. Psychological theories (cont.) Freud later returned to the myth of Oedipus with a very different perspective in Totem and Taboo (1912-1913). In this work, Freud posits that the myth of Oedipus preserves the memory of real ‘Oedipal’ events in t...

November 25, 2024 Monolithic Theories of Myth Cont. 5. Psychological theories (cont.) Freud later returned to the myth of Oedipus with a very different perspective in Totem and Taboo (1912-1913). In this work, Freud posits that the myth of Oedipus preserves the memory of real ‘Oedipal’ events in the ‘primitive horde,’ in which the sons of an oppressive father rose up against their oppressor. There is a historical component here, it becomes a memory of a real event. The idea of a ‘primitive horde,’ is an idea of early human history in German scholarship and is now an outdated term. Freud’s pupil, Carl Jung, proposed an influential theory: Myths preserve basic patterns that are universal to the humankind and these ‘archetypes’ recur throughout the world. The problem with this kind of view is that we tend to use it to strip away the particulars of any given myth to suit this narrative of underlying universal commonalities. In the end, myth is more than that. To reduce all mythologies to the ‘same thing’ reduces their impact and individual importance. 6. The Ritual Theory of Myth This theory sees an important connection between myth and religious ritual. Walter Burkert’s work helped this model come back into fashion around the 1970s. Burkert argues that religious practice and rituals are intimately connected with mythical narratives and there is some link between narrative structure and the pattern of actions in ritual. Note that there is no word in ancient Greek that comfortably translates to ‘religion.’ For the Greeks, ritual was ‘ta dromena’ (‘the things being done’), which can also be used to describe stories/myths. However, not all rituals or myths are connected! Theseus and the Minotaur This myth connects to a lot of the ideas we have talked about in class. Theseus is one of the central Greek heroes and an important figure to Athens, who appropriated him from a neighbouring community to make him their own Hercules figure. There is a bit of historical baggage attached to Theseus from the Bronze Age. Among myths, the most basic story is the ‘hero killing monster’ myth, also known as the ‘combat myth.’ We receive many of these myths in a developed form, so it’s difficult to trace their development. Ancient Greece was a place of great geographic variety. One thing about myth, unlike other traditions, there is no sense that any one version of a story is canonical; myths are flexible and can be shaped by tellers to suit the moment. We begin to see in the Archaic period an attempt to put myth together, not necessarily standardising these stories, but rather organising them and forming coherent structures. The Heroic Cycle Here we can talk about heroic cycles. These are series of myth which try to organize all the stories told about a specific figure. Theseus’ heroic cycle is adopted by Athens as a national hero. He fought many monstrous villains around Athens, and these heroes were often portrayed as ‘civilisers’ of a region, taming a landscape by slaying the monstrous inhabitants. The Minotaur The minotaur was Theseus’ most famous adversary. He was the offspring of King Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, and a bull which Minos had refused to sacrifice to the gods. The Minotaur was relegated to the labyrinth between Minos’ palace at Knossos. He was fed offerings of 14 youths, 7 maidens and 7 young men, taken from Athens as a regular tribute to Crete. Theseus sails to Crete as part of the tribute to the Minotaur. In the next part of the myth, we see the recurrence of the mythical ‘betraying daughter’ trope in the story of Ariadne (Minos’ daughter), who falls in love with Theseus and gifts him a thread of gold and a luminous garland to help him navigate the perilous labyrinth. Theseus thus enters the labyrinth and kills the Minotaur in combat. Theseus left Crete with Ariadne, but after a nap on the island of Naxos Theseus forgets her there and leaves without her. Theseus returned to Athens, ever forgetful, and neglected to fly the sail which would signal to his father Aegeus that he was successful in his mission. Aegeus, mourning his son, throws himself into the sea, and so Theseus arrives in Athens to find himself the king. The elements of this myth are very old. The combat myth is one of the most ancient stories of myths. There is also a clear connection between the myth of Theseus and the Minoan world. That isn’t to say that this myth gives us any historical evidence! But it’s clear that as this myth was transmitted it was shaped by the circumstances of the Bronze Age, just as Theseus was later re- shaped by classical Athens. Theseus was particularly adopted by the Pisistratid tyrants in Athens. Pisistratus was briefly exiled from Athens and engineered his return by finding an especially tall woman and brought her back to Athens in the guise that she was Athena herself (in an echo of a myth of Theseus returning to Athens in the company of Athena). Thus, this myth was used as political propaganda. After Pisistratus’ son is expelled and democracy is established in Athens, you would think that Theseus, as a model of an ancient king of Athens, would fall out of favour, but we see his image remain important in Athenian culture. Greek Religion Religion is a massive part of the ancient world, penetrating almost all aspects of daily life in the ancient world. What is religion? A scholar named E.R. Dodds defines religion from an inner perspective, one which explains what it meant to the worshipper: “Religion is a state of mind, a complex of beliefs and feelings about the forces which govern a man’s life and situate it in the world.” We look at the world and often see it as totally random, but ancients look at the world and see it as purposeful. They believed in powers at work in the world that humans cannot fully grasp or understand, but that have a purposeful way of shaping the world around. Thus, for the Greeks, Zeus is the sky and he is the thunder. This perspective personifies powers and it also assumes some purposeful intelligence behind them. The Greeks did not have a simple word for what we call religion. Instead, they spoke of ta theia (the things connected with the gods), theon therapeia (the attendants of the gods), and eusebeia (an appropriate sense of awe (something like fear) towards divinity). This involves the recognition of the power of the gods, can’t control the gods, but also a fear of them. The concept of Hylozoism Hylozoism: Hylo (matter) + zo (life) = all matter is alive. Greeks did not really make a distinction between matter and spirit. They saw matter as alive and motion is indicative of life. This gives rise to the sense that there are divine powers at work in all parts of the world. Thales is said to have said “All things are filled with gods.” Gods is the key here. The world is informed by powerful supernatural forces. Polytheism and Anthropomorphism Nature/the world was not a reflection of a single transcendent deity but informed by numerous discrete deities. This means Greek religion was Polytheistic. These deities are portrayed as human (i.e., anthropomorphic) figures. This is the religious background to the Olympian gods. What is a Greek god? In a sense, they’re an anthropomorphic representation of supernatural forces/powers, but over time they become more than this. There are 3 aspects that constitute a god in the Greek world. They are defined by their immortality. The gods are eternal. They have beginnings, but no ends. Humanity is defined by its mortality. Anthropomorphism is also a key feature to Greek religion. Gods are portrayed in human forms. Gods are regularly summoned to come to their festivals. There is belief that the gods can appear in disguise. This also influences how the gods are portrayed in art. Because these gods are conceived as beings, they have visual and literary artistic depictions. The power of the gods is important. There is a prevailing belief that the gods have power to act upon us and an emphasis on the gods’ capacity to do so. Within each god’s sphere of influence their power is supreme. November 27, 2024 Greek Religion cont. What is a Greek god? (Cont.) If you read the Iliad and Odyssey the gods look like literary characters with distinctive personalities. What we don’t see in epic is that these gods were the objects of cult worship. We’re not talking about people, or literary characters, but cultural constructs, which lack the simplicity and straightforwardness that a literary character had. Even if there are underlying cultural ideas, every centre of worship is going to have different ideas about the god. When we start organising the enormous amount of evidence for ancient cult worship, it is very diverse. The distinctive character of a god is constituted and mediated by at least four factors: 1. Established local cult, with a ritual programme and unique atmosphere for each cult center. Different regions have different cultural contexts. Sometimes different cult centers are similar, and sometimes they differ significantly. 2. A Divine name. Zeus is Zeus. Most Greek names are meaningful in Greek. For example, ‘Patroclus’ means ‘Father’s glory.’ The names of the gods, interestingly, are not immediately meaningful in Greek! We know that the name ‘Zeus’ is derived from the Indo-European root for the word ‘light’ and ‘sky,’ but the Greeks didn’t know that at the time. Instead, they focused on their personality and tried to understand why they are named the way they are. So, Zeus’ grandfather is Ouranos, which is the Greek word for ‘Sky.’ Thus, the Greeks aren’t worshipping the ‘sky’ when worshipping Zeus, they’re worshipping Zeus. This name is shared among cults in the Greek world, which creates a kind of coherent picture, but this uniformity is superficial with an underlying diversity. 3. Myths. These are told in connection with local cults. People would explain what they were doing in relation to myths which concerned the gods. 4. Iconography. The visual representation of gods. Most of the Olympians had very distinctive iconography. Apollo is beardless, has long hair, and a bow and arrow, for example. Names and myths can be spread abroad more easily than ritual, which is usually rooted in a particular place. The Greeks had a sense of shared religion. Iconography transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries. Iconography is interesting in that it ignores linguistic boundaries, and in the context of Greek religion this is often where we see foreign influence come in. Greeks see religious iconography from neighbouring cultures, identify it with their own culture, and bring them back to Greece, incorporated into their own religious iconography. We see lions all through the Iliad, in all kinds of similes, as a projection of ferocity and strength, yet not once does a lion actually roar. This seems to imply that the Greeks didn’t really have much actual contact with lions, and that their cultural understanding was rooted in visual depictions of lions from elsewhere. Local Cult Local cults are rooted in a particular place. Cult sites often feel special or have some significance, which is a little subjective to say, but if you stand at the temple of Apollo in Delphi, you get why the Delphians chose that spot to build their temple. Iconography: The depictions of gods we’ve seen all term are examples of cult iconography. Zeus is shown with the standard thunderbolt on both monumental sculpture and smaller, votive sculpture, and this identifies Zeus as Zeus. Four Generations of Gods The reality of ancient cult is that there are dozens upon dozens of ancient gods all over the place. There are also the Olympian gods, worshipped widely with various epithets depending on their cult sites. The Greek gods are part of the world, part of creation, not its creators. That means we have successive generations, which Hesiod tells us about in his Theogony. Gaia and Ouranos (Earth and Sky, respectively), the primordial couple. Titans (Cronus and his siblings). o Cronus deposes his tyrannical father Ouranos by castrating him with a sickle. Ouranos’ genitals land in the sea, the foam from which rises the goddess Aphrodite. As soon as Cronus’ own children are born to his wife Rhea, Cronus eats them. Zeus leads his siblings to depose Cronus and his siblings. Zeus and his siblings, who currently rule the universe. The Children of Zeus. These children rule alongside the previous generation. People die, and sons succeed their fathers. We see the gods acting this out up until the present generation. Zeus and his siblings, and the children of Zeus, represent the core of ancient deities. The Twelve Olympians See slides for full list* Hades is an exception among the Olympians, as he does not receive cultic activity. Why? It would be weird to worship death as a mortal human. Aphrodite is interesting because she has two prominent birth myths. Hesiod tells us the story of Aphrodite born from the seafoam of Ouranos’ castration. Homer tells us that Aphrodite was born from the union of Zeus and Dione. The Iliad is interested in presenting the Olympians as a family, and Hesiod’s myth presents her as something like Zeus' aunt, while Homer incorporates her more closely into the Olympian ‘household,’ so to speak. Hera is quite a serious goddess, while the Iliad seems to play her down, which doesn’t reflect the reality of her prominence in cultic worship, which shows the interplay between literary and religious tradition. Interestingly, Dionysus was thought to have replaced Hestia as one of the 12 Olympian gods. Dionysus has some particular iconography depicting him as a foreign god who entered Greek from abroad, who replaced the goddess of the hearth, the centre of the household. Greek Drama Greek drama has a significant legacy and cultural importance. The European tradition of drama and theater emerged in the theatre of Dionysus on the slope of the Athenian acropolis. Any city in the post-classical period built a theatre in the Athenian style. The Greek Theatre The Greek theatre was much different from modern notions of a theatre. Greek theatre took place during the day and outside, with no darkness or artificial lights like the modern theater. The theater complex itself has a very distinctive shape. The theatre was continually modified, so the archaeological remains we see are the remains of modifications from the post-classical period. The spherical area at the front was the area where the chorus sang and danced. Over time we see actors, who performed on stage, become more prominent, while the theatrical chorus becomes less so. The origins of the theatre are rather modest. The area of the theatre was originally an area that every Greek community had. It was a large flat area dedicated to the threshing of communal grain, which was also well suited acoustically to the performance of choral performance. Athens is the only community in which drama develops from these spaces. The staging area of the theatre became more established and intricate over time. It was initially a temporary structure, but over time became a more permanently established building. We see increasing separation between the actors and chorus (orchestra) in stage design. In the post classical period we see travelling theatre groups emerge. The acoustics in these spaces were good, as were the performers. We hear of the playwright Sophocles retiring from acting as he suffered from microphonia (‘little voicedness’). The audience listened to these performances quite carefully, and they were able to listen closely thanks to the acoustics of the space. November 29, 2024 Greek Drama Cont. Theatre of Epidauros As mentioned last class, although Drama originated in Athens, other cities also began to adopt the theatre. In fact, most communities in the Greek world have a theatre of some kind. One of our best preserved Greek theatres is the theatre at Epidauros. This theatre was part of a larger temple complex dedicated to the healing god Asclepius. For the theatre at Delphi, the back part which looks like a stage building (scaena frons) is actually the temple to Apollo. Thus, this theater would have originally been a stage for ritual performances. Dramatis Personae The Latin phrase dramatis personae was used by English poets such as Shakespeare to mean the principal figures/characters of a dramatic work, such as a play. Greek tragedy, a genre of Greek theatre, was performed from the 6th c BCE, but its height was in the 5th c. BCE in Athens. It is in the 5th c. BCE that the three great Athenian playwrights, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, produced and performed their famous plays. Tragedy was performed in theatre competitions, and it is important to note that tragedy continued to be performed even after the deaths of these three playwrights, but all we have today are fragments from these plays. We have seven complete plays under the names Aeschylus and Sophocles. These plays were read as school texts in late antiquity, so more copies were made and thus, these texts managed to survive. For Euripides, we have about twenty plays! Dr. Brown also adds Aristotle’s poetics here, wrote in the 4th c. BCE, which covered topics such as tragedy and epic. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides are very different. Aeschylus is generally more conservative, and Sophocles’ plays are less directly related to theological issues but more on human issues. Euripides is much more complicated as a playwright. He has plays where he seems to be a feminist, a misogynist, a pacifist, or a war hawk, etc. He liked to look at how things happened and how things played out (he was much more influenced by radical contemporary thinking). Chronology A unique tragedy is Aeschylus’ Persians (472 BCE). This play concerns the Persian defeat by the Athenians at the battle of Salamis, but from the perspective of the Persians not the Greeks! This was unusual not just for its different perspective, but also the fact that it was a historical play, which was rare. Plays usually concern the gods. In 536/533 BCE, we see the introduction of Tragic competitions at the Greater Dionysia, a Dionysiac festival held in Athens. Accordingly, there is an important gap between the introduction of tragedy and the beginning of our evidence. Tragedy was likelyp introduced by the tyrant Pisistratus during his reorganization of Athenian festivals. Drama and tragedy did not really exist before this in any formal way. What was a Tragedy to the Greeks? It was originally connected with cult rituals. The word drama literally means doing things, focusing on the performance of things. Tragedy literally means ‘goat song.’ Why goat song? Dr. Brown believes that the answer lies in the connection between the goat and tragic competitions. The prize for the winner of the competition was a goat and he would be expected to sacrifice it to the god(s) who the competition was held for, such as Dionysius.  Aristotle says tragedy developed “from the satiric element” or the “satyr thing.” According to him, satyrs performed in plays in the chorus and they also may have assumed the role of actors. Basic Features of Tragedy The Chorus 12-16 chorus members depending on the period. The chorus sung formal lyric poems to break up the play and they may have sung in unison. The chorus was typically dramatized as the play demands, for example, in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the chorus was composed of Theban elders. Limited number of actors In the early period of tragedy, the limit was 2 actors. After the innovations of Sophocles, a third actor was added. These actors would act the entire play, with each playing multiple characters. The Coryphaeus (chorus-leader) The actors in the play enter into dialogue with the chorus leader. The chorus would sing in Doric Greek and the actors performed in Attic Greek. Stichomythia This is a phenomenon where actors speak in dialogue and have the same number of lines, which can create tension. This is highly stylized and formal. Length of plays Moderate length. Typically, 1000-1500 lines. Masks Actors performed in masks made with wooden frames and linen. This was a way of changing identities and probably originated from the masks used in rituals. Contributory Influences Tragedy draws principally on the stories told in traditional mythology and epic narrative, but they seem to stay away from the core scenes of the Iliad, however. The Lyric narrative poets, such as Stesichorus, Pindar, and the Bacchylides had a large influence on the choral songs, which were dialectically distinct (in Doric Greek, not Attic). This suggests that the choral tradition originated and flourished in the Doric areas of Western Greece and then spread elsewhere. This is fitting, considering that tragedy was really put together from different constituent parts taken from all over the Greek world. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King Performed ca. 425 BCE, this play was considered Sophocles’ greatest plays in antiquity and even by modern scholars. It is often seen as a model tragedy, illustrating the way tragedy operates. However, this play is actually really elusive, and some such as Waldock, have argued that there is no meaning in the play.