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Notes on all lectures and summary of readings "Classical Mythology (GE2V14012)"
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Notes on all lectures and summary of readings "Classical Mythology (GE2V14012)"
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Classical mythologyInhoudsopgave
Lecture 1 – what is mythology (genre, function, meaning)..............................................................................4
Why do myths matter?.........................................................................................................................................4
What is mythology – definitions?.........................................................................................................................4
What is mythology not?.......................................................................................................................................5
What myths are about?.......................................................................................................................................6
What is the meaning of myths?...........................................................................................................................7
Reading week 1............................................................................................................................................ 10
The Creation of the World..................................................................................................................................10
Prometheus........................................................................................................................................................11
Demeter and Persephone...................................................................................................................................11
Deucalion and Pyrrha.........................................................................................................................................12
Io and Zeus.........................................................................................................................................................12
Europa................................................................................................................................................................12
Kadmos...............................................................................................................................................................13
Aktaion...............................................................................................................................................................13
Phaeton..............................................................................................................................................................14
Perseus...............................................................................................................................................................14
Philemon and Baukis..........................................................................................................................................15
Daphne...............................................................................................................................................................16
Lecture 2 – The Greek Pantheon................................................................................................................... 17
Typology of Greek gods......................................................................................................................................17
Chthonic gods.....................................................................................................................................................18
Deities of the wilderness and the sea.................................................................................................................19
The Olympian gods.............................................................................................................................................20
Order or chaos....................................................................................................................................................21
Lecture 3 – Sacred Places: Myths and sanctuaries......................................................................................... 22
Myth, landscape, and sacred place....................................................................................................................22
Ancient Greek sanctuaries..................................................................................................................................23
Ancient Greek cultic practices............................................................................................................................24
Reading week 2............................................................................................................................................ 26
Tantalus..............................................................................................................................................................26
Arachne..............................................................................................................................................................26
, Niobe..................................................................................................................................................................26
Sisyphus..............................................................................................................................................................27
............................................................................................................................................................................27
The Dioskouroi (Dioscuri, sc., Kastor & Polydeukes = Castor & Pollux)..............................................................27
Orpheus and Eurydike........................................................................................................................................27
Meleager............................................................................................................................................................27
Atalante..............................................................................................................................................................28
Keyx and Alkyone...............................................................................................................................................28
Midas..................................................................................................................................................................28
Daidalos and Ikaros (Daedalus and Icarus)........................................................................................................29
Ion.......................................................................................................................................................................30
Lecture 4 – Hero Myth: Monsterslayers........................................................................................................ 31
The culture hero creates order...........................................................................................................................31
Theseus, an Athenian culture hero.....................................................................................................................32
Herakles, the traveling hero...............................................................................................................................33
Herakles, transcultural hero...............................................................................................................................34
Lecture 5 – Hero myth: the heroic quest....................................................................................................... 35
There and back again: the quest........................................................................................................................35
The myth of Perseus as paradigm......................................................................................................................35
The structure of the heroic quest.......................................................................................................................37
Hollywood & the journey of the hero.................................................................................................................39
Reading week 3............................................................................................................................................ 40
The myth of Herakles.........................................................................................................................................40
The Argonauts....................................................................................................................................................46
The myth of Theseus;.........................................................................................................................................47
Lecture 6 – Homer and the epic tradition..................................................................................................... 49
The iliad and the European identity...................................................................................................................49
The contents of the iliad.....................................................................................................................................49
The iliad and the historical reality......................................................................................................................50
The Homeric question........................................................................................................................................51
Epic as a mythological genre..............................................................................................................................53
The iliad as epic poetry.......................................................................................................................................53
Conclusion: who was homer..............................................................................................................................54
Reading week 4............................................................................................................................................ 56
The Trojan War...................................................................................................................................................56
The Tantalids (dramatis personae: Elektra, Orestes, et al.)...............................................................................59
,Lecture 7 – myth and ritual - Death and Resurrection: To Hell and Back Again..............................................66
Explaining the meaning of myth........................................................................................................................66
Is there a connection between myth and ritual?...............................................................................................68
The (presumed) rites of the year king................................................................................................................69
Spring festivals and rites of reversal..................................................................................................................70
The dying and rising god....................................................................................................................................71
Lecture 8 – myth and ritual: coming of age and initiation – Death and resurrection......................................74
Descents into the underworld (katabasis = downward journey).......................................................................74
Initiation (katabasis) myth and initiation ritual.................................................................................................74
Coming of age in the enchanted forest..............................................................................................................76
Folktale and mythology: from Grimm to Propp.................................................................................................76
A bit of Nachleben..............................................................................................................................................77
Reading week 5............................................................................................................................................ 78
The Theban Cycle (Oidipous and his family)......................................................................................................78
Lecture 9 – apollo and Dionysus: divine opposites........................................................................................81
Apollo.................................................................................................................................................................81
Dionysos.............................................................................................................................................................82
Greek tragedy and comedy................................................................................................................................83
Lecture 10 – classical mythology and European culture - The Thrill of the Hunt and the Art of Love: Ovid’s
Metamorphoses.......................................................................................................................................... 85
Interpretatio Romana: Virgil, Ovid and Hyginus................................................................................................85
Two latin myths: Actaeon and callisto...............................................................................................................87
Classical mythology in Versailles........................................................................................................................88
Lecture 11 - Why so serious?........................................................................................................................ 89
Tricksters: from Hermes to the joker..................................................................................................................89
Lévi-Strauss and structuralism...........................................................................................................................90
The cyclops passage: a structuralist reading of odyssey book IX.......................................................................92
lecture 12 – cosmonogy (creation of the world............................................................................................. 93
Creation and the Great Flood in Near Eastern mythologies..............................................................................93
Hesiod (hesiodos) and Greek Creation myth......................................................................................................93
Prometheus: from Classical ‘trickster’ to Romantic hero...................................................................................94
Creation is never finished...................................................................................................................................95
Conclusion and afterword (summary)................................................................................................................95
, Lecture 1 – what is mythology (genre, function,
meaning)
Myths = certain kinds of story
Important to cultures that use them
Mythology = study of myth
Classical Mythology: myths of the Ancient Greeks (and Romans)
Roman differs only in names
Much applies also to myths from other historical cultures
Ancient Greek is not an isolated culture. Cultures are always entangled.
The cultures of the ancient near east, Egypt and Greece constantly
interacted with one another and influenced each other
Other types discussed: traditional tales like folktales and fairytales
Both Greek and Roman sources are used
Why do myths matter?
All Western painting before the 19th century was concerned with: the Bible,
royal court, and the classical myths. Right now, there’s a lot of mythology
in literature. Mythology is also in video games and opera.
Foster parents. Cannibalism. Important numbers: 3 and 7. Shape
changing.
Mythology (the study of the story) / myth (the story).
Robert A. Segal: expert in hero myths.
Myth is always a story; mythos is Greek for ‘story’.
A fictional story that is true because it is meaningful. Een mythe is een
verzonnen verhaal dat waar is. Myths are stories that explain everything.
They are true, they have truth in them.
What is mythology – definitions?
Mythology
Strange and weird stories (Oedipus, Cronos (god of time) & Zeus)
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