Study Classics Final PDF

UNIT 1 Week 2 Day 1 Divine Myth: Creation 1) What is Hesiod’s Theogony? - Theogony is the words theo and gone which mean the origins of the gods or the birth of the gods - The theogony poem is a genealogy (ancestry) - It is also a cosmogony which i...

UNIT 1 Week 2 Day 1 Divine Myth: Creation 1) What is Hesiod’s Theogony? - Theogony is the words theo and gone which mean the origins of the gods or the birth of the gods - The theogony poem is a genealogy (ancestry) - It is also a cosmogony which is the birth of world order or the universe (cosmos) - Also a sort of political history as it promotes social order - Also serves as a hymn to Zeus 2) In the beginning… - At first, there was nothing but them a chasm (chaos) came into being - Chasm is sort of the first being and is a void from which everything sprung from - From chaos, important figures like Gaia (earth) who is the foundation of the world, Tartarus who is a dark realm beneath the earth but not to be confused with Hades’ underworld for the dead, Eros (love) is a powerful force that brings together and binds things 3) Who are the titans and who are the giants? - TITANS are those born from the union of Gaia (earth) and Uranus (sky, father), they are the first generation of gods that are born from something and did not just appear out of the blue - Not out of spite, but out of reproduction Kronus, one of the sons of Uranus, castrates him by ripping his genitals off and the ones born from the blood of the castration of Uranus are called GIANTS - Nymphs are also born from the castration so they are technically giants but they have a category of their own being 4) The birth of Aphrodite - Aphrodite is born from the castration but not from the blood, she is born from the genitals being thrown in the sea, so she is born from the mixing of the genital and the sea 5) Catalogues of births - Catalogues are lengthy lists of people, places or things 6) The traits of divine beings - Divine beings drink nectar and ambrosia which is different from humans because humans eat bread 7) Monsters - Monsters or monstrous beings are things that eat flesh and are not human or gods but something in between 8) The Olympians - The olympians are the third generation of gods and are children of Rhea and Kronus (the castrator) - Rhea and Kronus are also siblings - Kronus was the original supreme god before Zeus came along  - The children of them are Demeter, Hera, Zeus, and Poseidon Day 2 The Sucesstion Myth 1) Overview of the succession myth in Hesiod’s Theogony 1. Uranus and Gaia (1st generation) - Uranus does not allow his children to be borne from Gaia because he is scared that his children will overpower him - So Uranus has trapped his children inside of Gaia and she creates a weapon with an unbreakable material and gives it to her child, Cronus and tells him to castrate Uranus and he does so, this creates the giants and allows he and his siblings (titans) to leave the womb 2. Cronus and Rhea (2nd generation, the titans) - Gaia gives Cronus a prophecy that one of his children will overpower him and he gets scared and eats most of his kids, Rhea hids Zeus and replaces him with a swaddled stone, Cronus eats the stone and when Zeus grows and forces him to throw up his siblings (first generation of olympians and third generation overall) and the stone, Zeus also overthrows Cronus 3. The titanmachy - A war that lasted 10 years - Zeus frees the cyclopes and the hundred handed ones (which were imprisoned by Uranus) - Zeus and his allies (Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed one) win and imprison the titans in tartarus 4. typhonomachy - Zeus battles against Typhoeus (born from Gaia and Tartarus) and wins, then he also imprisons Typhoeus - Typhous is the final divine threat to Zeus’ supremacy 5. Zeus distributes roles and privileges amoungst the gods - The children of Zeus are the second generation of Olympians and the 4th overall generation 2) Zeus and Cronus - Zeus is the one who induces vomiting in Cronus 3) Zeus and Typhon - Aphrodite makes Gaia fall in love with Zeus and gave birth to Typhoneus - If Zeus was less intelligent, he could have ruled over the mortal and the immoral - The Zeus throws Typhonues into tartarus and gets sad about it 4) The establishment of Zeus’ divine and patriarchal authority - Zeus gives a bunch of honours to people and has a lot of children with a bunch of people (including his own children) - He gets this person pregnant and it is said that the fetus will be a super smart bou and he gets worried and swallows the whole pregant lady with the kid who turned out to be athena and that’s why she pops out of his head  - There are apollo and artemis who are twins, artemis lives in the woods and does not have sex ever, she lives in the wild and if she sees you she kills you - Ares is the god of sensless war - Hepaetus is for labour unions and he engages in craft, he is also disabled and hobbles around and is made fun of for that - Hermes is the messenger god - Dionysus is the god of wine (he is adrian pimento in the new percy jackson series) people did not consider him a god so he drugged a bunch of people and ate the queen’s son - With other deities he had the the seasons and the fates and the charities and the muses Day 3 Comparatice Approaches to Myth 1) Comparative approaches to myth - Comparative approaches to myth came from european colonization James frazer and the 4 steps to comparative approaches to myth (the golden bough) 1. Find a problem 2. Gather examples 3. Explain it 4. Test the theory 2) Hittite succession myth - Alalu reigns for 9 years and gets overthrown by anu - Anu reigns for 9 years and his son kumarbi bites anu’s balls off to impregante himself - Teshub is born, he struggles for power and then he rules The derverni papyrus - It is in a lot of pieces and is from around c.350 bce - There is some commentary on some theogony (not Hesiod’s) from the 6th century - Also talks about Zeus swallowing genitals and throwing them up to make stars 3) Comparisons - Uranus to cronus to zeus - Alalu to anu to kumarbi - The removal of genitals in a reproductive way Week 3 Day 1 Prometheus and Pandora 1) The children of ipaetus - Promethus is a child of iapteus, iapteus married clymene - Prometheus means fore thought, to think ahead, plotting and planning - His brother is epimetheus, this means afterthought, he is up to no good  - He has four sons and they all experience some sort of painful labour from zeus 2) Prometheus and zeus: sacrifice - The sacrificial meat at mecone - Prometheus takes the good stuff out of the ox and disguises it as the bad meat in hopes that the humans get the good stuff, zeus is aware of this deceit but he still picks the bad meat and gets mad and decides to make humans miserable 3) Prometheus and zeus: fire - Zeus prevented humans from having access to fire so prometheus stole it and gave it to the humans, this really makes zeus lose his marbles and he sends pandora as a punishment 4) Pandora - Pandora is literally made out of clay and she is adorned by athena - She has this jar that she opens and scatters around stuff (bad things) the only thing left in her jar is hope and no one really knows why - Pandora is pretty on the outside but evil on the inside - This poem is actually for hesiod’s brother, perses, over a property dispute - This poem is also a pessimistic poem about the decline of the human race Day 2 Myth and Ritual: Sacrifice 1) Overview of greek ritual - Ritual is THINGS SAID AND THINGS DONE - Mythoi is THINGS SAID ABOUT THE THINGS DONE - AETIOLOGY: a story that explains the cause, reason, or origin of a custom Types of rituals - Prayer - Sacrifice - Oaths - Dedication - Supplication - Gift exchange/xenia (guest host relationship) - Funerary rituals - Public speeches/ritual song 2) Sacrifice at mecone - Greeks made sacrifices to the gods on olympus in return for divine favour - A perfect animal was slain at an altar by a priest - The animal was then cut into portions - The bones were wrapped in fat and burned on the altar so that the smoke rose up to the gods - The meat was cooked on spits and divided among the people present - The meal at mecone is the first sacrificial feast 3) Approaches to myth: ritual Ritualism: what is myth doing? Relationship with ritual  - An approach to myth that puts myth as a general category into a significant relationship with ritual - In its more extreme form, ritualism insists that all myths are derived from or related to rituals - In a more moderate form, a ritualist theory might describe myths and rituals as similar reactions to the same external event Connection to functionalism: - Ritual explains the social function of the myth and the myth’s meaning; ritual is the point of origin for the myth - Functionalism: group of people who work together to provide a stable enviroment 4) Sacrifice in myth: ritual - The meat at mecone Day 3 Myth and Ritual: Prayer and Invocation 1) Prayers - Speech act: an utterance considered as an action for example saying “I do” in a wedding ceremony - Ritual actions that include speaking - Words that are considered an action - They are formulaic 2) Invocation: Hesiod’s Theogony - INVOCATION: to call upon (the god) - Might refer to specific locations or shrines, calling gods by their titles - Then you offer some persuasive words or retellubg what you want them to do for you based on something you’ve done before - The third part is called PETITION: asking for the thing or favour you want Week 4 Day 1 Homeric Hymn to Demeter I 1) What is a hymn? - A song sung in praise of a god or a goddess - Usually beings with an invocation - Contains elements of a prayer Names the god or goddess Makes a reference to birth stories, locales, uses epithets Praises them, and calls them to be present (sometimes) 2) What are Homeric Hymns? - A collection of hymns in dactylic hexameter (the meter of homeric epic) - They are archaic - Extended invocations 3) Overview of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter - Persephone is picking out flowers and is abducted by hades as his bride  - Demeter searches for her frantically and her endless grief causes a famine - Demeter learns from helios that hades took persephone to the underworld as his bride and demeter withdrawals disguised as an old woman refusing to allow crops to be grown until persephone is returned - Zeus interferes and negotiates to allow persephone to return to earth but she must remain in the underworld for a portion of each year 4) The marriage of Persephone to Hades Family and the oikos - Physical space - items/property - Legal unit - political /community unit Marriage - Social insitiution - Public and civic - Religious and economics - inheritance Womanhood in ancient greece 1. Birth and infancy 2. Puberty (kore) 3. Marriage (gune) 4. Motherhood (meter) 5. Old age (grau) Day 2 Homeric Hymn to Demeter II 1) Comparative approaches: the Great Mother - Recurring archetype of a powerful, maternal deity associated with fertility, creation, and the cycles of life and death - Generative force, both creative and destructive aspects of nature - Seasonality, fertility, abundance, renewal - Appears across various ancient cultures including mesopotamia (inanna/ishtar), egypt (isis), greece (demeter), rome (ceres), asia minor (cybele) Symbolism - Earth - Moon - Animals - Rites of passage/initiation Roles - Creator - Nurterer - Protector - A figure who descends into the underworld 2) Demeter and kore as aetiology  - Demeter and persephone sometimes called demeter and kore (for girl), like mother and daughter - Persephone serves as a aetiology for death as hades is literally taking her to the underworld - Seasonality of persephone is symbolic of death and rebirth 3) The ancient greek agricultural economy - Common feature have stuff like barley, maybe whear, grapes, figs, olives, legumes like peas and lentils and chickpeas - There are goats and sheep, not a lot of cows though 4) Comparative approaches: Inanna and Dumuzi - Inanna is about fertility and her sister challenges her to go to the underworld and so she does - There are 7 gates to get there and at each gate she must remove one article of clothing or jewellry - When she gets there she is transformed into a piece of rotting green meat and is hung in the corner, this represents the decline in reproduction on earth - Then because inanna said that if she is not back in a few days get help, so someone gets help from the gods - Comparison: someone has to stay in the underworld for a bit and comes back 5) Comparative approaches: Isis and Osiris - They were siblings and spouses, then isis ripped osiris apart Day 3 Homeric Hymn to Demeter III 1) Demeter and Demophon - Demonphon was a mortal that demeter tried to make immortal - Demeter uses fire as a way to make demophon immortal also feed him ambrosia - Demeter makes an oath to another type of ritual in greek religion 2) What are the Eleusinian Myteries? - Mysteries or secret rites known only bby the initiates of the cult of demeter at eleusis - Participation in the mysteries seemed to foster a sense of community, ensured the growth of grain and promised a happy after life - About death and underworlds - Associated with the temple to demeter 3) RItual Theories and the Eluesinian Mysteries - There were sacrifices outside the temple and they were assured that there would be something positive in the afterlife - In the homeric hymn to demeter, demeter reveals herself as divine 4) Triptolemos/Triptolemus - Someone mentioned at the end of the hymn UNIT 2 Week 5 Day 1 1) What do we mean by epic? - From the greek word “epos” - Called “aoide” or “song” inside the poems, performed by specialist, wandering poets for hire, individually called an “aoidos” or plurally “aoidoi” - Greek epic is poetry in this style - Homeric epics are the two prime examples of this style the Iliad and the Odyssey 2) What is the epic tradition and what is the trojan cycle? Epic tradition - Shared themes, contents, characters, story patterns, but each performance is individual - Tradition comes from the latin word tradito which means to hand over or to hand down - Shared language between poets and the audience - Composition in performance, formulaic speech - Performed at local feasts or religious rituals - The name “homer” is a convenient label for this long stnaing oral tradtition, not actually a historical person; he is a culture hero Trojan cycles - A collection of traditional sotries centered around the trojan war - Leading up to the trojan war: - The judgement of paris - The oath of suitors - The abduction of helen - The cycle also includes: - The nostoi (returns) - The wedding of peleus and thetis - Ajax’s suicide from slaughtering the sheep - The oresteia 3) What is a hero? - Not what we mean informally by “hero” not driven by morality or interested in doing “the right thing” - Rather than being paragons of virtue, as heroes are viewed in mamy modern cultures, ancient greek heroes has all of the qualities and faults of their fellow humans - Driven by norms of their world, very different from ours - Generally they are humans from the remote past, often descended from the gods bu are mortal and destined to die, they are aristocrats and warriors 4) Important heroic concepts - KELOS: to hear, that which is heard reputation, report, fame, a thing spoken or heard, a form of immortality a recompense for the hero’s death as continued existence in future song  - AIDOS: shame, self respect, reverence, a fear of criticism from superiors, family and comrades, and a feeling of concern for vulnerable, like beggars and strangers - TIME: value, honour, both the status of an individual in a group and recognition of that status by others - ARETE: excellence, being the best at something, having the best of an innate quality - GERAS: reward, gift of honour, privileges or things to which one is entitled due to martial performance or status - XENIA: hospitality, guest host relationship, a reciprocal, even contractual relationship between host and guest, whole families or individuals could become guest friends (xenoi) - NOSTOS: safe return, the successful return hom, often after an extensive journey Week 6 Day 1 The Iliad and Achilles 1) Summary of the iliad - Takes place in the tenth year of the trojan war - Towards the end of the war but not the end - Quarrel between achilles and agamemnon, agamemnon also takes away briseis which is the withdrawal of achilles and his myrmidons (his loyal warriors) - Duels and trojan victories led by hector, son of priam - Embassy to achilles - Death of patroclus which make up a new rage of achilles - Death of hector - Priam pleas for hector’s body, the funeral of horse-taming hector 2) A note on literary devices in the iliad - Simile: uses like or as - Metaphor: state one thing is another thing - Apostrophe: narrator addresses something inside the story directly 3) The proem of the iliad The wrath sing, goddess, of peleus’ son achilles The accuresed wrath which brought countless sorrows upon the achaeans, and sen down to hades many Valiant souls Of heroes, and made the men themselves to be the Spoil For dogs and birds of every kind; and thus the will of Zeus was accomplished Of this sing from the time when atreus’ son, lord of Men, and noble achilles 4) Analysis of book 1  1. Chryses, a priest of apollo and victim of an achaian raid, comes to the achian camp to ransom his daughter chryseis 2. Agamemnon refuses which prompts chryses to pray to apollo to bring a plague against the achians 3. Achilles calls a meeting to address the plague. Agamnemnon and achilles argue, athena intervenes at a critical moment, stopping achilles from killing agamemnon 4. Nestor calls for peace, achilles acquiesces bitterly and leaves, vowing not to come back to their aid. Agamemnon’s herald take away briseis 5. Achilles laments his situation. Thetis, his mother and a sea goddess hears him and comes to help. Achilles asks thetis to persuade zeus to give power to the trojans and kill achians and make agamemnon look weak while achilles is absent 6. Thetis assents, goes to zeus. In the meantime, the achians bring chryseis back to chryses and they make a sacrifice to appease apollo 7. Zeus is persuaded by thetis, agrees to allow the trojans to harm the achians. Hera, who supports the achians notices this conversation and confronts zeus about his plotting. Zeus asserts his dominance 8. Hephaestus calls for peace, stating mortals are not worth divine conflict. He serves drinks, the gods laugh, feast, enjoy some poetry and go to bed 5) Plot summary of book 9 1. The trojans have pushed the achians away from troy and back to their ships. The achian leaders hold a council at night to figure out what to do agamemnon suggests running away, diomedes tells him he can go but the others will stay and fight 2. Nestor suggest tryin to persuade achilles to come back to fight with gifts. Agamemnon agress, suggests a great deal of gifts. Nestor chooses heralds and friends of achilles to go 3. They go to achilles hut and find him playing the lyre. Achilles invites them in. patroclus prepares a meal 4. Odysseus speaks first, flatters achilles, offer the gifts, but tactfully leaves out the insulting conclusion of agamemnon’s offer 5. Achilles sees through the deception, rejects the gifts as valueless since they come from a man who does not value the honour attached to gifts. He then says that he will go home because his daddy has plenty of things for him 6. Achilles also tells the group that thetis has prophesied two fates for him: a short life with KLEOS or a long life without it. He tells them to go home but to leave phoinix because he wants him to come home with him 7. Phoinix speaks up and tells achilles to respect their familial bond and listen to him. He tell achilles a story of meleagros as an example the point being: things will turn out as agamemnon wants, achilles will eventually return to battle, its better to take the gifts now then to refuse then and still have to return later 8. Phoinix’s story or his relationship as a mentor seemed to have an effect on achilles. Achilles steps back form his decision to go home and says instead he will decide what is best tomorrow  9. Ajax, irritates but ever a practical man, tells the group they should leave, achilles is stubborn and unwilling to be appeased. He adds by confronting achilles directly that he owes it to his community of fellow warriors to put tis problem aside 10. This has the greatest impact on achilles. He tells ajax he respects his perspective and point but his anger is too great to just forget. He concedes that he will stay and rejoin the battle is hector gets too close to their ships 11. The embassy returns to te achian leaders, odyssey reports achilles refusal to return and to the gifts. Diomedes states that if he will not return they had best get some sleep and prepare as best as they can for the next day of battle Day 2 The Embassy and the Death of Patroclus 1) Death, burial, care, and philia in the iliad - KEDOS: care, concern for others, particularly for the dead - PHILIA: feeling of love/friendship; your PHILOS or PHILOI (plural) are people who embody this feeling for you 2) Summary of iliad 16 - Patroclus comes to achilles and begs him to allow him to go fight in achilles place, wearing achilles armour - Achilles allows this but order patroclus to only drive the trojans away from the ships then to return, he warns him not to lead an assault on troy, seince apollo will protet them - Hector manages to set fire to one ship while patroclusis arming himsel with achilles’ gear. The myrmidons (achilles’ soldiers) enter combat eith patroclus. Achilles prays to zeus to give glory to patroclus and to see him home safe - Patroclus and the achians attack the trojans. Patroklus has an ARISTEIA, killing many - Patroclus meets sarpedon, zeus’ son. Zeus contemplates saving him but hera states that if he does they alwill save their children. So instead zeus prepares a divine funeral procession - Patroclus kills sarpedon, glaucus and the lycians and hector and the trojans prepare to fight patroclus and the achians for sarpedon’s body - Zeus sends apollo to rescue sarpedon, patroclus pushes the trojans all the way back to troy, fights with apollo until apollo threatens him - Patroclus retreats, kills hector’s brother charioteer. This encourages patroclus to try again against troy, apollo strikes him so hard his armour (achilles armour) falls off - Euphorbus, a trojan, stabs the now naked patroclus, hektor kills patroclus and boasts that neither patroclus nor achilles could best him - Patroclus in his dying breath tells hector his death will follow soon, patroklus dies, hector responds with confusion and re-enters battle 3) Summary of iliad 18. 1-183 - Antilchos comes as a messenger to achilles. Achilles wonders if patroclus has died  - Antilochus tells achilles that patroklus has dies. Achilles reacts and antilochus worries he will try to kill himself - Thetis and the nymphs hear achilles’ wailing, thetis comes to her son. Achilles acknowledges that zeus brought the trojans glory but that patroclus died as a resuls - Achilles decided he must go back to battle ane kill hector, thetis notes this will mean his own death will soon follow, achilles accepts this - Thetis leaves to get new armour for her son Day 3 The Death and Ransom of Hektor 1) Summary of iliad 22 - Achilles amid killing trojans tries to kill apollo (much like how patroklus tried to do the same thing) apollo warns him away - Priam sees achilles rushing over the field straight for hector and begs kector to come inside the walls - Hecube sees the same thing and begs hector to come inside the walls - Hector debates what he should do, worries about AIDOS thinks its possible he might even beat achilles, decides to stand his ground - However, when achillescharges at him, hector runs - Zeus considers interceding (much like sarpedon), athena warns him not to (much like hera) - Hektor and achilles run around troy three times, zeus places their lives in scales, hector’s is heavier. Athena tells achilles the gods have abandoned hector - Athena tricks hector taking on the image of his brother, she tricks him into standing his ground - Hector tried to bring terms to their duel, he will return achilles body if he wins, asks that achilles do the ame - Achilles refuses, battle begins, athena vanishes from hector;s sight and aids achilles. Achilles boasts that hector will be food for dogs and birds. hector begs to be given back to his parents for burial - Achilles refuses, hector prophesizes his death (much like patroclus) hector dies, the other achians come and stab his body - Achilles drags hector’s body behind his chariot, all the trojans react with pain and mourning - Andromache, who is not on the walls hears the shrieking, rushes to the walls, sees what’s happening and faints. When she awakes she performs a lament for hektor, herself and their son 2) Supplication - Supplication is tiaul begging, desperately requesting something using a formula - To supplicate someone you must use beseeching words and ritual gestures - Make a pleading speech! - Kneel before the host - Grab kness  - Be very pathetic and degrading and desperate and forceful and intimate 3) Summary of iliad 24 - Patroklus has just been elaborately cremated and buried with funeral games (this is iliad 23) this care is constrasted with achilles treatment of hector, who remains unburied and whom achilles continues to mistreat - Apollop protcts hector’s body from defilement and calls a counsel of the gods saying this cannot be allowed to continus. Zeus agrees and sends thetis to tell achilles to return hector to proam - Zeus also sens iris, his messenger, to priam to tell him to go to the enemy camp in secret and ransom his son. Priam prepares, his wife tries to stop him, but priam insist on going - Between troy and the achian camp priam meets hermes, disguised as a young achian man.hermes helps priam reach achilles hut - Priam enters achilles’ hut unseen supplicates achilles, kisses his hands and begs him to think of his own father - Achilles is moved and weeps for his own father for the fact that they will not see each other again - Achilles agrees to return to hector, places body on priam’s wagon - Achilles has not eaten since patroclus’ death, priam has not eaten since hektor’s death achilles encourages priam to eat with him by saying even niobe, who lost many children still allowed herself to eat - Achilles agree to a 9 day truce to allow the trojans to bury hector, the each go to sleep - In the morning, priam returns to troy. Hector’s body is processed into the city. Andromache, hecabe and helen each lament hektor - The trojans build a pyre, burn hector’s body and build a burial mound. The poem ends Week 7 Day 1 The Odyssey and the Metis of Odysseus 1) Basics of the Odyssey - In his absence his wife penelope is beet by suitors, wanting odysseus’ power and position - Penelope holds them off with clever ruses, odysseus uses his own cunning and the aid of his guests to get home - Odysseus’ son telemachus must grapple with not knowing what happened to his father and being able to remove the suitors - Xenia, nostos, metis, are the poem’s important themes - Contrasts itself with the iliad, problematizes the iliad’s perspectives 2) Note on structure - The Odysseu’ narrative order, the sequence of how the story moves jumbles and plays with time - Its temporal order, the sequence of chronological events is not linear  - Sometimes events are happening simultaneously, and important past events are told in the middle of the poem Structure: temporal order 1. Odysseus and his crew set sail for ithaca, leaving troy but they stop at places along the way 2. Stop at the land of cyclopes, odysseus mistreated polyphemus and steaks his sheep, polyphemus is poseidon’s son. Polyphemus asks his father to make odysseus suffer, he is angry and agrees 3. Odysseus and his crew end up swept far off course, they meet many obstacles but they eventually reach circe’s island. They party there for a while until odysseus decides they really want to get home now 4. Circe gives them instructions on how to get ome, they set sail again and navigate past more obstacles 5. Out of food, odysseus and his crew stop at an island called thrinkia that is sacred to the helios, and contains his favourite cows. Athena warns odysseus to not eat them but he does not listen and eats them anyways 6. Now both poseidon and helios are angry with odysseus and his crew, the two work together to destroys odysseus’ ship and kil his crew 7. Odysseus washes up on calypso’s island, calypso refuses to let him go and holds him captive for 7-8 years 8. Athena, odysseus’ patron, calls a council of the gods to advocate fot odysseus’ realease, gods agree, they end hermes to bring the news to calypso and odysseus 9. While pointes 1-8 are happening, the more time that passes the more the people of ithaca grow convinced that odysseus is not coming home, telemachus is too young to rule so young men of appropriate ruling age from the local aristocratic families come to court penelope (odysseus’ wife). Overtime they abuse telemachus and penlope’s xenia more and more but no one has the means to eject them 10. While hermes goes to calypso, athena goes to telemachus and tells him to learn about his father, the suitors plot to kill him. Telemachus goes to nestor in pylos and menelaus in sparta and learns that his father is alive and on his way home 11. At the same time, odysseus having been released by calypso, builds a raft and sailed the land of phaiakians anf they treat him as they are good hosts. Odysseus tell them his story and they agree to bring him home 12. Odysseus and telemachus arrive at ithaca around the same time. Telemachus and odysseus reunite outside the palace in the hunt of a pig farmer named eumaius hosts them well. Athena disguises odysseus so he can learn about the suitors firsthand 13. Odysseus is mistreated i his own home and penelope decides to host a final contest for her hand in marriage with odysseus’ bow. Odysseus wins te contest and he throws off the disguise and slays the suitors with the help of telemachus  14. Odysseus and penelope are reunited. The families of the suitors et angry (because all their kids are dead) war almost happens but zeus and athena step in and odysseus is reasserted as king of ithaca 3) Review of key terns: nostos and xenia - Nostos: safe return: successful return home, it also focuses on the hero retaining or elevating their identity and status upon arrival - Xenia: hospitality, guest-host relationship 4) The proem of the Odyssey and Metis - Metis: cunning intelligence, craftiness, the quality of being able to use your wits and the environment to find successful solutions to threatening problems - Metis refers to both the ability/quality of being able to manipulate a situation to your own benefit, mental advantage-seeking means to have metis, the sucessful tricks, plots, disguises, or ruses undertaken for personal gain or to avoid threats is a metis - In the iliad and the odyssey, the person who mainly has metis is odysseus Day 2 Xenia, Dike, and Tisis in the Odyssey 1) Dike - One of the most important concepts throughout greek culture. It means justice, but what justice is or means changes overtime - In homer, dike means correct behavior in human relationships, the conservation of the existing way of doing things or the correction of a violation of this customary behaviour - Thus justice is not a legal or moral outcome but the restoration of how things ought to be - Guest ought to be respected, suitors out to bring gifts, slights ought to be repaid - Dike is helping you philoi and harming your ekhthroi - What is right or just is what ought to happen or what is expected, fulfillment of expected fulfillment of expected customs, habits or relationships. It is social correctness rather than a law - Morality is not defined as a contrats between paragons of ethical goodness and evil villans - Rather morality is defined by a willingness to keep within established rules or recklessly and blatantly disregarding them 2) Atasthalia - When on blatantly or recklessly disregards the conventional rules of behaviour 3) Tisis - Since justice is reciprocal, acts of atashtalia warrant repayment in the form of vengeance - Of one is harmed by an enemy it is just that the harmed person will seek to return harm - We might call this vengeance or revenge  - Tisis is a retaliatory action that an avenger performs, especially kiling that at the same time implies en entire sequence of events that makes the act of killing into retibution rather than mmurder or some other way of conceiving killing 4) The tisis narrative and the polyphemos episode 1. The master is absent - Polyphemus is absent from his cave and odysseus enters 2. Unheeded warning: grounds for atasthalia - Companions advise fleeing, odysseus is not persuaded - Odysseus plots and prepares to deceive and blind polyphemos 3. Plotting and revenge - They blind him, steal his sheep 4. Retributive action (vengeance!) - Poseidon makes odysseus wander and rid his companions 5. New conditions: former order is restored - Odysseus is lost 5) Xenia and the polyphemos episode Week 8 Day 1 Odysseus’ Nostos 1) Summary: odysseus in ithaka - Odysseus arrives on ithaka, athena councils him on how to destroy the suitors, disguises him as a beggar goes to fetch telemachus - Odysseus in disguise visits a loyal servant eumaeus the swineherd, tests his loyalty - Telemachus returns home, odysseus continues to question eumaeus, odysseus learns about some of the abuses the suitors are commiting against his househld - Telemachus arrives at eumaeus’s hut and sends eumaseus to inform penelope of his return odysseus reveals his true self to his son. Telemachus and odysseus plan on how to destroy the suitors - Telemachus goes to the palace first. Odysseus in disguise goes with eumaeus to toen where they meet melanthios, a gothered who insults odysseus. Odysseus arrives at the palace and is assaulted by antinous and the suitors - Odysseus is forced by the suitors to box with another beggar, odysseus wins the right to beg at his own house, he is insulted by melantho and some other servant women. The suitor eurmachus throws a stool at him - Telemachus and odysseus begin their plan. Penelope questions the disguised odysseus about her husband. Eurycleia recognizes odysseus because of a certain scar he has. Penelope decides to test the suitors once and for all - Nest day a feast, the suitors continue to assault and insult odysseus. Penelope listens - The archery contest is set. Whoever can string odysseus’ bow and shoot through a line of ax heads will win penelope. None of the suitors can string the bow. Odysseus wins with ease  - Penelope and odysseus are reunited. Penelope test odysseus by asking hi to move their marriage bed. Odysseus gets angry because the bed is rooted in a tree. This was a test and odysseus passed it. - The souls of the suitors make their way to hades. Agamemnon praises odysseus and commends penelope. Odysseus goes to meet his father laertes 2) Tisis and the suitors of penelope - 108 suitors, aristocrats from ithaka and the nearby areas occupy odysseus’ oikos, ostensibly seeking to marry penelope - The showdown scene with te suitors involves much mayhe,m and violence including mass muder, hanging, mutlitaion and torture 3) Recognition scenes and odysseus’ nostos - Recognition scene is any scene where a character reveals his/her identity or acknowledged the identity of another and a recurring type of scene that appears in a regular sequence in the second half of the odyssey and enacts odysseus’ reunion with members of his family - Acknowledgement, revelation, disguise, and identity are prominent themes especially in the odyssey’s narrative of odysseus’ return - Odysseus’ identity as a successful returning her is something that he controls and lays claim to, it is his choice to withhold his identity from and later reveal it to, the phaecians, the cyclops, the suitors of penelope and his own family - The type acne involves up to three moves. These are a testing, a deception and either a fortelling of odysseus’ return or a recognition that he has returned - The deception allows odysseus to recon his oikos without risk and gauge his addressee’s reaction to the potential of his return - In the testing move, odysseus manipulates the addressee to determine their loyalty to him and his oikos during his absence, with a view to making them eligible to be reunited with him - This is why there are non recognition scene with te suitors of penelope: with them odysseus seeks vengeance, or tisis, not reunion 4) Penelope - She does not want to marry someone else and she is smart so she says that she is weaving something and when she finishes weaving it she will marry someone, but every night she will undo the weaving making it look like she is weaving very very slowly Day 2 Perseus 1) Who is perseus - Son of danae and zeus - He kills medusa - Saves and marries adromada from a beast - Acrisis is his grandfather and he recived a prohpecy that he would be destroyed if his daughter has a son - He encloses his daughter, danae in a tower  - Zeus finds her and impregantes her in a golden shower - The baby is discovered by acrisis - Then he puts danae and perseus in a chest and throws them in the sea so he does not really directly kill them but more so the elements kill them 2) Perseus life and deed Danae and perseus at sea Danae and the girl’s tragedy story pattern - Prohibition: danad forbidden to marry - Seclusion: locked in a tower - Violation of prohibition: zeus rain shower and conception of perseus - Threat of punishment: danae and perseus are put into a chest - Libteration: rescued by dictys Persues and the hyperboreans - The chest landed on the island of seriphos - Recued by the fisherman dictys - Perseus comes of age on seriphos - Hie mother is pursued by the evil king polydected and perseus offers him anything else he wants - So the king says he wants the head of medusa - Athena helps him with advice - He must also seek advice from graiae - He tricks the grais into directing him to far off nymphs, who give him: a cap of invisibility, winged sandals, a pouch - Perseus ises an adamantine sword borrowed from hermes to behead medusa. He does this by looking at her reflection in the shield - Pegasus, fathered by poseidon emerges form medusa’s neck Medusa 3) Iconography of perseus - Cassiopeia and cepheus, queen and king of ethiopia: thier daughter is andromeda - Cassiopedia’s hybrid angers poseidon, who floods the land, demands the sacrifice of andromeda, chained to a cliff, andromeda waits for a seamonster to some and seize her - Perseus kills the monster, rescues her, and claims her hand in marriage - Perseus returns to seriphos and turns polydectes and his court to stone - He gives the head of medusa to athena who places it on her shield - He returns to argos, and accidentally kills his grandfather acrisius with a discus, fulfilling the prophecy - He becomes king of tiryns and mycenae Day 3 Herakles 1) Who is herkales  - The most prominent greek hero in myth and cult - The name herakles is connected to hero in early antiquity because of stuff 2) Herkales’ labours 1. The nemean lion 2. Lernaean hydra 3. Erymanthean boar 4. Cerynthian hind 5. Stymphalian birds 6. Augean stables 7. Cretan bull 8. Diomedes mare 9. Girdle of hippolyta 10. Cattle of geryoneus 11. Apples of hesperides 12. Cerberus 3) Other adventures - Conflict with centaurs - Fights with antaeus, son of gaia - Conquest of troy under laomedon (pre-trojan war) - Argonaut journey (jason and the argonauts) - Meropes - Caucus in italy 4) Interpreting herkales’ adventures - Battles in the wild , monstrous, and dangerous animals - Herkales’ adventure earn him great kleos as a hero - Civilizing influence? Murder of te egyptian king busiris and the end of human sacrifice - Indo-european traditional material - Narratice parallels to near eastern and egyptian ideology os kings - Sparta and the dyarchy 5) Megara, deinira, omphale and iole - Megra (euripides’ erakles and seneca’s hercules fures) - Deianira (sophocles’ trachiniae) hylloes - Iole, atonement in servitude to omphale in lydia, achilles the river achilles, tyrsesus are the etruscans - Seeus’ poisoned blood and herkales’ immolation/apotheosis 6) Hekles’ legacy - Large number of cults in the entire greek world - Much like divine cults vs hero cults - Thasos- cultic meals - Young men in military training - Hellenistic times, protector alexikakos (defender against evil) and kallinkos (who brings beautiful victory) 7) Iconography of herkales  - Earliest pictorial record c.700 bce - Common scenes include: feasting, labours - Early depictions he is bearded later though he has no more beard Week 9 Day 1 1) Who is theseus - Mythical king of athens and athenian her - Generation before the trojan war - Poseidon and aegus 2) Theseus life and deeds 1. Periphetes 2. Sinus 3. Crommyonian sow 4. Sciron 5. Cercyon 6. Procrustes 7. Marathonian bull or cretan bull - Minos failed to sacrifice his finest bull to poseidon - Poseidon’s revenge: pasiphae falls in love with the bull, gives birth to the minotaur - As one of his labours, herkales brings the cretan bull to eurystheus. Eurystheus is unable to control it and it rampages throughout peloponnese - Thesue slays it at marathon - Aegis of athens killed a son of minos, andrigeus, who won alll the athletic games hosted by athens - Minos went to war with athens and won - He demanded that 14 athenian youths be regularly sacrificed to the minotaur in the labyrinth - Thesus volunteered to be sacrificed or was simply a part of te group by a lot and sailed to crete - The cretan princess ariadne fell in love with him, helps him with thread so he can get out of the labyrinth - Theseus either abandons ariadne on naxos or dionysus steals her (persephone anad hades) or he is forced to leave (gods or storm) - Aridadne’s curse: that theseus suffer from his forgetfulness as much as she has - He forgets aegus’ instructions about replacing the black sail with a white one - Aegues’ suicide - Ariadne with undergoes sparagmos or becomes the bride of dionysus - Amazon expedition with herakles - Antiope, hippolytus - Amazonomacy at the areopagus - Phaedra (ariane’s sister) - 2 sons semophon and acamas - She falls in love with hippolytus  - Death by suicide - Curse on hippolytus, also death - New mission: a daughter of zeus - Thesus at the centauromachy at peirithous wedding - Helen (tyndareidai) - Persephone - Theseus’ death - Theseus returns from the underworld to find his city at war with parta over helen - He goes to skyros to arrange an alliance with king lycomedes - He falls or is pushed from a cliff and dies - Compare his father’s death 3) Theseus as athenian king - The myths aof theseus’ cretan adventures may be a way of explaining, in legendary time, the signs of a historical shift of the centre power in the aegean from crete to athens - Clearly athneocentric, these myths depict theseus as a civilizing culture hero in opposition to the cretan “other” - Athenian cynicism - Athenian democracy - Idealized king and prototype athenian: theseus represents all the virtues which the classical athenians ascribed to themselves courage, justice, willingness ot help - Popular in athenian cult (like herakles) - Exploits are particularly popular in athenian art in the late archaic period 4) Iconography of theseus Day 2 Jason 1) Who is jason - Early threat on his life - Raised in the countryside by chiron - Prophecy of his coming (sandal) - Tested by a deity (hera) - He is given a seemingly impossible task (the golden fleece) - He goes on a long journey, fraught with daner and some montrous beings and eventually return home - There is a women , medea, who helps im 2) Jason and the argonauts - Stories vary as to the origin or cause of this mission, to get rid or jason, to link up with medea, to prove the supremacy of poseidon or hera, the oracle - Refers broadly to the group of heroes who were sent by pelias under jason’s leadership on the argo (the first ship) to get the golden fleece 3) Medea - Divine connections to helios  - Part od a family that is already othered in greek myth - Powerful witch who fell in love with jason (ariadne?) - Her magical powers enabled jason to perform impossible tasks set by aeetes - Yoking of wild bulls, sowing of dragon’s teeth, battle with army of sown men - Medea drugs the dragon guarding the fleece - Jason offers marriage in return for her betrayal of her father - Muder of absyrtus - Return to iolcus - Destruction of pelias - exile 4) Jason and medea in corinth: euripedes’ medea 5) Comparison: ovid’s Herodies - Ariadne to theseus and medea to jason 6) The telos of jason - The journey of the argonauts - Representative of the cult os hera in thessaly vs poseidon (represented by pelias) - Shaped after aeneas (especially in roman text), who in turn reflects traits of jason (watch for this when we come to aeneas) - Jason does not have a robust iconographic record like theseus and herakles Day 3 The Theban Cycle 1) What is greek drama - Drama - Tragedy - Singing and dancing was the heart of the performance of tragedy centered around the chorus - Highly choreographed dance songs with elaborately costumed and masked men in an open spance orchestra was the dominate physical and aethetic presence of tragedy, constantly on stage - It was the ods, the songs, of tragedy as much as the speeches which were inspired the first ancient and modern repreformances of greek tragedy 2) What is the theban cycle - A collection of traditional stories centering around the theban royal family - Sung about in three, they are mostly lost now - One was about patrcide and incest - Cycle is just as old as the trojan - Cycle is mentioned in the iliad and they odyssey 3) Mythic background to sophocles’ antigone: the house of labdakos - Keep in mind: this is one version of the antigone and not the version of the antigone - Laios and iocasta have trouble conceiving - Then laios has relations with with epilaste and they have a chile  - Then they put the child outside in hopes that the natural forces will kill him - A sheppard finds him and raises him - Then he kills his father (but he does not know its his biological father) and sleeps with his mom and has four kids with her, he is named oedipus 4) Mythic background to sophocles’ antigone: variation and orality 5) Some important literary techniques: dramatic irony and ambiguity Week 10 Day 1 Antigone I 1) Mythic innovation in sophocles’ antigone 1. The issue ot the argive dead was suppressed, shifting focus to polyneikes alone - The dispute is not between athens and thebes but between members of the royal house 2. The condemnation and suicide of antingone - Changin the main opponent of kreon, antigone for adrastos/theseus transforms the drama 3. Bettothal of haimon, kreon’s son, to antigone - Haimon should already be dead 4. Eurydike’s role in kreon’s suffering - Eurydike’s role increases the pathos 5. Ismene’s role in the first halk of the play - Ismene, like antingone have new roles which reshape the story 6. The gods are assigned a ditinctinve and crucial role in the play - The family “curse” continues 2) Dramatic irony and ambiguity as literary techniques Dramatic irony - A gap or difference between the apparent and the actual - The irony may be created and exploited by a character or it may be fundamental to the whole plot and structure of a play - Verbal irony: when a character says something that means more than they know - situational irony: when characters act on false assumptions, making decisions that will have unintended consequences for themselves - A difference in degrees of knowledge, audience knows what the characters do not, or some character know what others do not Ambiguity - Words or situations that allow alternative or multiple meanings at once or can be legitimately understood in more than one way - The quality of being open to more than one interpretation - Can work on different levels - A word can have two meanings intended at the same time - A sentence could express different things at once - A concept can be ambiguous 3) Themes in context: the non-burial of polyneikes  - Attitude towards the burial of public enemies is unclear - Temes of revenge and the humiliation of the enemy, how far is too far - Penalty for traitors and temple robbers means the refusal of burial in the boundaries of the polis - Execution og some criminals in the barathron - Posthumous exile - Familial obligations and rites - Women and lament - Antigone’s devotion means inherited taint of incesst? 4) Themes in context: polis/oikos - Polis is the city state - Physical, geographical location with defined borders - A political entity made up of politai members of the polis, who may live in the broader territory controlled by the polis but are citizens of it - Oikos - Houseold, house, fundamental residential,economic, and social unit of athenian life/society - Consist of the physical elements (dwellings, land, animals) and the social group that occupies it, slavesadopted members of the family - Familial obligation vs the demands of the larger community 5) Themes in context: gender politics - Stauts and proper roles of women, sons, fathers, and rulers - Marriage and children are the prime object os female upbringing - Conflicting obligations, daught and husbadn/father, son and father/wife (new oikos) - The possibilities of female autonomy and subjecticity - Antigone as ambiguous feminine and masculine - What antigone gives voice to is traditionally feminine, her argument is take up and her actions completed by me - The limitations of traditional view of male authority and discipline - Kreon’s often emotional bodering on shrill insistence that men must be master of women 6) Themes in context: philos and exthros - Philia is hte feeling of love/friendship; your philos or philoi are people who emoby this feeling for you, philos is one who is an extension of yourself, can be comradesm family, xenoi, lovers, lifelong friends - Exthros means enemy, plural is exthroi, coming from the noun for hate, and the adjective for hated or hateful 7) The chorus and their entrance song - Council of 15 elders (aristoi of thebes) - The odes (choral songs) are sung collectively - When in diologue with other, the chorus leader speaks for the whole - Orchestra, the chorus is always present on stage and sees all the action Entrance song of the chorus: rhapsodic hymn vs kletic hymn  1. Invocation (names, eputhets, birth, attributes, localities) 2. Hypomnesis, reminding of past benefactions and epiphanies 3. Envoi, bye and thanks again! Day 2 Antigone II 1) Scene 3: the agon of kreon and antigone - 376-445 the guard returns with antigone who confesses to the burial of polyneikes (the guard leaves) - 446-525 kreon and antigone confront one another, ismenes is also accused of the burial - 526-581 three way dialogue between antingone, kreon, and ismene (who pleds for acceptance from antigone and then with kreon for antigone’s life - Chorus on ate (582-625) The guard/watchman’s rhesis (407-440) - Tension build- antigone is on stage but the guard describes what happened - Vivid portrayal of antigone’s devotion to plyneikes while deepening the mystery around the burial - Quick moving - Reveals unexpected sympathy and sensitivty towars antingone - AGON: competetion, here in words rather than athletic, competition with a winner 2) Scene 4: the agon os kreon and haimon - Kreon (639-680) and haimon (683-723) have their own rheses in which the pending execution of antigone for crimes against the polis - Kreon and haimon engage in a bitter and quick stichomythis that escalates quickly, concluding with haimon vowing kreon will never see him again (762-765) - The chorus leader persuades kreon to let ismene live but kreon asserts that antigone will be entombed alive, thus avoiding miasma (766-780) - Chorus to eros amd aphrodite (781-800) Structure of the agon - This agon has both moral/political and personal dimensions - Its rare for sons and fathers to meet on stage in greek tragedy and when it does happen it is not comfortable - There is tension between an adult son and thier fathers because sons must assert the mselvesto aquiretheir own oikos through marriage and their own reputation Kreon’s argument 1. Sons are an extension of their fathers (obedience and discipline within the oikos mean they are in the same polis) 2. Women are danger and distraction which are desires for pleasure 3. Obedience in dosmestic and military sphere equal political order In this case antingo is exthros 3) Scene 5: antigone’s kommos  - This is the musical climax of the play. The lyrics heighten the emotionality of the agitation felt by both antigone and the chorus - Antiphonal exchange (not readable) - Antigone feel abandoned and mocked by the gods and other characters andby her philoi - Consider how the chorus responds to antigone: they are ambiguous in their consideration of her position - Antigone’s funeral lament for herself parallels greek marriafe rites, a marriage to death - Torches, veils, lamentation, delivery form one owner to another - Like a bride moving from her oikos to her husband’s oikos, antigone embarks on a new but final journey, without processional songs, and bridal hymns Antigone’s rhesis on philia 1. Addresses her tomb - Tricolon: a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses with anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses 2. Addresses her philo who have already dies especially polyneikes - Reicolon with anaphora again - Antigone emphasizes her singular responsibility for the burial 3. Antigone provides a new explanation regarding her obligation to polyneikes 4. Conclusion with comments on her mistreatment and the inaction of the gods Day 3 Antigone III 1) Themes in context: piety and divine law - As a general principle: divine aw overrules humans - The lesson is not a comforting one: punishment (tisis) rather than reward/profit/gain (kerdos) - Traditional family based cult practice new vs old, upper vs lower gods - Tiresias, the mantis, mantis: a seer - An expert in the art of divination - The connection between sight and knowledge (oida) - Highly paid, well respected, educated members of the elite who played an essential role in the conduct of daily life, political decisions and military campains - Conterfeits and charlatans 2) Scene 6: tiresias, the seer and the moment of peripeteia - Tiresias’ rhesis is a messenger speech that vindicates antigone - A second agon between kreon and haimon - Prompted by the chorus leader, kreon completely changes his mind, completing the reversal triggered by the prophetic knowledge of toresias - Chorus a kletic hymn to dionysos  - PERIPETEIA: reversal, the turning point in a tragedy after which the plot moves steadily to the conclusion, it is discuessed by aristotle in the poetics as the shift of the tragic protagonisht’s fortune from good to bad - Tiresias is an authoratative and tradtitonal figure in greek tragedy - The relationship between tresias and the leader is often strained - seer= warner who is often ignored by the leader with great consequences, this increases the pathos and the irony of the play - Tiresias describes what he has observed in nearly grotesque detail, the tone is macabre - In attempting to perform augury, the birds begin to tear each other apart - The sacrifices he attempts fail and the result is a fireless sacrifice in which the meat explodes - Tiresias explains the situation in the city as a doctor explains the symptoms of a disease with a diagnoisis - Miasma has taken place from the non burial of polyneikes and it is threatening the polis - Tiresias prescribes a remedy - At first kreon rejects tresias - Force stichomythia follows - Tiresias delivers a prophecy 3) The final hymn of dionysus - The final hymn of the play is ironically optimistic and filled with a sense of excitement: will it al work out now that kreon has changes his mind - Follows the generic conventions of klectic hymn 1. An extended invocation including the address, epithets, information about dionysis’ birth, localities, and attributes 2. Hypomnesis: a reminder of dionysis’ connection to thebes 3. An appeal for help Other thoughts: - Some scholars see references to demeter and lakhs + eleusinian mysteries (ritual) - Some scholars see the quasi mystical language as am implicit reference to haimon and antigone 4) Scene 7&8 overview Scene 7 - Messenger frames the downfall of kreon as sympathetic - Eurydike arrives to hear what has happened and the messenger explains in full detail that antigone and haimon are dead - The chorus and the messenger exchange worried words about the silent exit of eurydike and he enters the house to investigate Scene 8 - Kreon arrives with haimon’s body and laments vehemently, especially after the body of eurydike is brought on stage following her suicide off stage - The chorus closes the play with a moral of the story that focuses on piety and good sense 5) The final kommos - The kommos feature no new information once we are told by the messenger that eurydike has killed herself - The scene is emotionally punctuated by heaped up exclamations, the misery is clear through the words themselves - Kreon’s misery is in direct contrast with his confidence and arrogance exhibited earlier in the play - Kreon is erratic and chaotic with his speech in comparison with the chorus and the messenger who are quite measured in this scene - The moos is misery and humiliation for kreon and his family and acceptance and understanding by the community who look to the future (kreon’s isolation) UNIT 3 Week 12 Day 1 Roman Myth 1) Three major influences on roman mythic traditions 1. Native religion on toman mythic tradition - Countless divine numina (nodders) - Not anthropomorphic, each one is a very limited function Examples: - Janus (gate): numen of doors and bridges - Robigo: numnen of the mildew that attached the wheat crops - Lares: ancestral spirits, protector of household members - Penates: protectors of the storehouse, household properties - Sacrifidum: making sacred 2. Etruscan myth and ritual - The etruscans were a culturally sophisticated and politically powerful nation - They dominated a large part of the italian peninsula until the roman revolt of 509 bce - They are the source of the names of several roman gods (minerva, juno, jupiter) - They are also the source of many roman rituals and superstitions - Specific forms of surgery (watching bird signs and reading them ritually) and omens 3. Greek colonization of italy - Greek colonization of southern italy in the archaic period - Direct and indirect influences - Eventual conquest of the greeks by the romans in the 2nd century bce - Adapted greek art and literature to meet their own ideological needs - Important roman deities eventually took on the personalities of greek gods (jupiter/jove took on the qualities of the god zeus) 2) The trojan cycle and roman myth - Aeneas (a trojan hero in the iliad) was the son of aphrodite and anchises (the homeric hymn to aphrodite) - Aeneas escaped the ruins of troy with his father, son and a group of refugees, they embark on a long journey that eventually takes them to a new home in italy (compare with odysseus) - The legendary founding of rome is often dated to c.753 bce - Latin legends attempt to fill in the time between the mythic fall of troy and the founding of rome 3) Early latin myths Aeneas and ascanius - After arriving in italy and winning a war, aeneas founded the city of lavinium - His son, ascanius (also called lulus) founded the city of alba longa  - There follows a long line of legendary kings of alba longa Numitor and amulius - Brothers and rivals for the throne of alba longa - Amulius unjustly drove numitor out - Amulius appointed numitor’s daughter\ter, rhea silve (or ilia) as a vestal virgin to serve the goddes vesta - This appointment is an honour but is made for strategic reasons - Mars, the god of war rapes rhea silvia and she gives birth to the twins romulus and remus - Amulius exposes the babies to die, placing them in a basket on the stream of the river tiber Romulus and remus - The twins come of age and rid the land of robbers - They then avenge their grandfather numitos and put a replacement on the throne - After this they quarrel over the founding of a new city, romulus kills remus (a story of foundation sacrifice) - Romulus founds rome - Rome, founded by a descendant of both mars and venus has its origins in fraticide - Rome frows its population by offering asylum to fugitives The rape of sabine women - The romans without any prestige were unable to attract wives - Romulus invited the neighbouring sabines to a lavish festival - The sabines come unarmed with their families, expecting a party - The romans seize their daughters of the sabines, taking them away from their families - There follows a long war between the romans and the sabines which ended by the women tgemselves Lucretia and the origins of the republic - Before 509 nbce, an etruscan monarchy ruled rome - The last etruscan kin was tarquin the proud (tarquinius superbus) - His son, sextus tarquin, while on military service witht the roman soilder collantinus heard about the virtue of collatinus’ wife, lucretia. Meanwhile his own etrucscan wife opened her home to lavish and licentious parties in his absence - Tarquin gained access to lucentia’s home as a guest while her husband was on duty and raped her, after threatening her with death and dishonour - Afterwards, lucretia summoned her husband and his friend, brutus, told them her story and killed herself - Brutus as a result of what happened to lucretua, led a revilt against the etrucan monarchy and founded the roman republic 4) Characteristics of roman myths - Has strong links to roman history and latin traditions - Roman myth has fewer supernatural elements then greek ones - Patriotic  - Moralistic - Reflects roman patriarchy - Celebrates roman pragmatic and military values - Emphasizes piety Day 2 Vergil’s Aeneid 1) A very brief historical overview of rome - The roman republic grew over time into a large empire - 264-146 bce: punic wars: rome against carthage in north africa - Greece itself became a roman province in 146 bce - 88-31 bce: a series of devastating civil wars in rome - octavian , the nephew of julius caesar, briefly shared the rule of rome with mark anthony, but they soon became enemies - Mark anthony and his ally cleopatra of egypt were defeated at the naval battle of actium in 31 bce - Octavian, now called augustus caesar, reined as emperor 27-14 bce - Roman empire continued for centuries 2) Who is publius vergilius maro (vergil) - Lived 70-19 bce - Lived though a long civil war that ebded with augustus’ rule - Valued peace - Wrote the eclogues, the georgics and in the last years of this life, the aeneas, encouraged by augustus - Greek models are very important, but the values reflected in his poetry are distincly roman 3) Major themes of the aenied - Exile, refugees - Colonization - Rome and its history - Fathers and sons - Piety - Personal sacrifice - Emotions as destructive (love and rage) - Divine interest in the political world of humans - Divine fate as inescapable 4) Overview of the aeneid and juno’s wrath The aeneis is an epic poem in 12 books: - Books 1-6: voyage to italy (compare to the odyssey) - Persecution by juno - Encounter with dido (tragic and legendary) - Journey to the underworld - Books 6-12: war in italy (compare the iliad) Savage juno’s wrath  - Juno is hostile to troy - Carthage is a city dear to juno - She persecutes aeneas on land and sea - Final reconciliation occurs at the end of the poem - Contrast jupiter’s role and character 5) Jupiter’s prophecy for rome - War in italy - Founding of lavinium - Founding of alba longa - Rhea silvia, romulus and remus - Victory over greeks - Julius caesar, augustus 6) Aeneas and venus - Venus in the form of a tyrian huntress meets aeneas and tells him all about carthage and dido’s story - She urges him to enter the city of cartae where he will find his lost companions - She covers him in a mist so he can enter the city unseen - Can be compared to odysseus and athena 7) Carthage and the temple of juno - A newly founded city in north africa - Ruled by dido, a woman, a widow devoted to the memory of her murdered husband sychaeus, a refugee, a just and competent ruler presiding over her new city - “Happy they whose walls already rise!” cries aeneas, lifting his eyes towards the city roofs - She is also luxurious, foreign, exotic - As her guest, aeneas share the story of troy’s fall Week 13 Day 1 Vergil’s Aeneis II 1) Queen dido - As she enters the poet compares her to diana: “laws and ordinances she gave to her people; their tasks she adjusted in equal shares of assigned by lot” - She welcomes the trojans graciously - Aeneas, feeling safe, send for his son from the camp - Venus substitutes cupis to make dido fall in love with aeneas 2) Overview of books 2&3: aeneas’ story - Comparable to odysseus among the phaeacians - Aeneas’ story of the fall of troy - The trojan horse, greek deception and impiety - Troy in flames, the death of priam  - Aeneas finds helen cowering and wants to kill her. Venus intervenes, she shows him that the gods are destroying troy and reminds him of anchises, ascanius, and his wife creusa. She instructs aeneas to leave troy - Anchises’ reluctance to leave is overcome by divine signs - Loss of creusa; her ghost urges aeneas to go on without her 3) Book 4: unhappy dido burns - Love as fire,a wound, a poison, destructive to the welfare of the state - Dido as univira, torn by her fidelity to the memory of sychaeus and her love for aeneas - Her sister anna persuades her by appealing to what would be best for carthage 4) Book 4: the tragic wedding - Marriage - Rumour as a destructive force - Zeus sends mercury - Mercury’s message (aeneas’ fate, aeneas’ son) - Aenesa decides to leave carthage - Dido is abandoned, ruined, shamed - Her curse and suicide - Compare with nausicaa, circe, calypso, medea, and cleopatra 5) Dido’s curse “This is my prayer; this last utterance i pour out with my bloos. Then do you, tyrians, persecute with hate his stock and all the rae to come, and to my dust offer this tribute! Let no love ot treaty unite the nations! Arise from my ashes, unknown avenger, to harass the trojan settlers with fire and sword, today, hereafter, whenever strength be ours! May coast with coast conflict, i pray, and sea with sea, arms with arms; war may they have, themselves and thier children’s children!” Day 2 Vergil’s Aeneid III 1) Book 6: the underworld - Arrival in italy at last, at cumae, a portal to the underworld - Aeneas wants to visit his father’s ghost - The sibyl (a female prophet of apollo) is his guide - First he must retrieve the golden bough 2) The golden bough - The doves help him find it, they are sent him by his mother 3) The topography of the underworld (and the odyssey) - Many regions for people who died in different ways, the innocent and the guilty, children, lovers, suicides, criminals, war heroes - Comaprable to the underworld episode in odyssey 11 - Aeneas encounter with dido’s ghost (odysseus and ajax) - Greek heroes are terrified of aeneas (odysseus an achilles) - Deiphobus’ story of helen’s treachery (odysseus and agamemnon)  - Tartarus and the worst sinners, but also the blissful groves with kings the past soilers, priests, poets 4) Anchises in the underworld - Anchiese explained about the river lethes and the process of purification and reincarnation - Anchieses lays out a grand vision of rome’s future history to the time of augustus 5) Anchises on roman virtue “Others, I doubt not, shall with softer mould beat out the breathing bronze, coax from the marble feature to the life, plead cases with greater eloquce and with a pointer trace heaven’s motinos and predict the risings of the stars: you, roman, be sure to rule the world (be these your arts), to crown peace with justice, to spare the vanquishes and to crush the proud.” Day 3 Vergil’s Aeneid IV 1) Books 7-12: war in italy - There is a new invocation - Latium and the rutulians - Piety- latinus and lavinia vs turnus - Whoever marries lavinia gets to rule latium 2) Juno’s hostility revisted - Juno incites the fury of amata and turnus - War between turnus and aeneas each with allies - Object of war: lavinina hand and the right to rule - latinus the wise king is willing to submit to fate - Lavinia represents contested territory 3) Alliances - Evander, a wise old king of arcadia, is allied with aeneas - His son pallas fights on aeneas’ side - Turnus kills pallas and takes a golden belt from his body - Aeneas, formerly restrained in battle reacts to this loss with rage - Venus procures divine armour for aeneas from vulcan - On the shield are scenes from rome’s future history, including the battl eof actium, augustus - The etruscans are allied with turnus, king os rutulians - Turnus threatens to set fire to the trojan ships - Camilla a virgin warrior queen allied with turnus, like an amazon, is killed in battle 4) Tuenus, pallas, and aeneas - Turnus kills pallas and strips his corpse aeneas, enraged, seeks reveneg - Final battle between turnus and aeneas, jupiter scales - Juno at last yields to jupiter and fate, stops opposing aeneas on condition that the latins keep their name and language - Aeneas chases turnus, like a hunter after a stag  - Final scene of the poem: aeneas seeing pallas belt on turnus, refuses to spare turnus’ life and blood 5) The death of turnus