All notes from the in class slides along with all teacher comments. Really an interesting class and my professor Matthew Chandler was amazing, his notes and stories made the class what it is.
Welcome
Topics:
- Course Intro
- What is Mythology?
- Historical Background
3 Requests:
- Suspend 21st century beliefs (I may know more now and have better ration than the
greatest Greeks & Romans)
- Be imaginative (Put myself in their shoes)
- Have fun with it (Stories were meant to be entertaining, take them at face value)
Greeks & Romans share mythology but is not exactly the same
Why do we Study Mythology?
- Greek & Romans had a very interesting view of the world they live in and their place in it
- It’s our own intellectual ancestry which carried heavy influence that has since filled our
world
What is Classical Mythology?
Mythos: A story that is passed on my word of mouth
- Not necessarily a lie, just stories
- Humans tell these stories because they’re fun & entertaining, like campfire stories, which
is why they’re preserved
Logos: A rational account
- Expression + reasoning (for a purpose)
- A story that is always true
No one version of a single myth, they did not remain static as we are reviewing hundreds of
years worth of history, some may be completely contradictory
,Theoretical Approaches to Mythology
True Myth
- Story passed down through word of mouth
- In the first of time, not known when it was taken place
- Focus on relationship between gods & mortals
- A story that explains something eg. why is the sky blue
Eg. Cupid shooting Apollo
Legends
- In historical time, we know when they took place
- Heroic or historical characters
- Has a historical function
Eg. Croesus King of Lydia invading Persia
Folk Tales
- Far more playful
- Once upon a time kinda stuff
- Anti-heroes are common (not fitting a mold)
- Often feature monsters
- Usually entertaining or educational
Eg. Odysseus entering Polyphemus’ (Cyclops) cave and tricking him
Historical Background
Pelasgians
- Before there were Greeks in Greece (Neolithic period), inhabited by Pelasgians
- Indigenous population of Greece, no writing so very little knowledge of them, only
accounts from Greeks & Romans
- Potentially matriarchal (opposite of patriarchal)
- Around about 2000 BC (Neolithic → early bronze) there was a great migration into
Greece
- People coming from the north were called Achaeans, people coming from Lydia and
Crete area moved into the south were called Pelasgians
Acheans
- Spoke a language that would turn into ancient Greek
- Brought in the thought of multiple gods and Anthropomorphic ones (look like and have
human characteristics)
Over a long period of time these cultures merged creating Mycenaeans (1600-1100 BC)
,Minoans (1600-1400 BC)
- Migrated into Crete
- Bulls very iconic in culture
- Controlled the sea
- Lasted till about 1400 BC when they collapsed, evidence suggests an earthquake
followed by burning but it is not known why, theory is a volcano north to Crete but not
100%
- Civilization on Crete didn’t last much past that
Civilizations collapsed from about 1100 BC - 700 BC (roughly) and most mythology is from the
time before that collapse
Comparative Mythology: Conceiving the Divine
Sun
Hyperion (he who goes above)
Helios (some guy who rides a chariot that pulls the Sun)
How are these 2 myths fused? Helios is Hyperion’s son
Additionally, Helios’ sister rides a chariot that pulls the moon and his other sister Eos rides a
chariot that pulls dawn
In the Beginning…
Topics:
- Sources for Greek Mythology
- The Creation of the Universe
- The Creation of Humankind
ca. means about
Historical Background
Iron Age Collapse
- Minian civilization (ca. 1400)
- Trojan war (1184 BC)
- Mycenaean civilian (ca. 1100)
The Archaic Period (800-480 BC)
, - Greeks adopt Phoenician alphabet and start writing again after the last collapse of
civilization
- Homer (ca. 750 BC)
- Iliad
- Odyssey
- Epic poetry
- Unparalleled influence on Greek culture
- Not likely a real person but oral tradition
- Hesiod (ca. 750 BC)
- Works & Days
- Theogony
- Didactic epic (teaches a lesson)
- More narrative, less character driven
- More personal
- Ovid (43 BC - AD 17)
- Metamorphosis (8 AD)
- Roman
- Most important source for Greek & Roman myth after Homer
In the Beginning…
Ca. 5000 BC - Neolithic Age
Cosmology - A belief that the earth was created with a purpose by a god or deity.
Theogony - The birth of Gods.
To the Greeks/Romans, things are created through sex. To them the world was made through
birth. Gods followed.
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