Clsc 101 Sugars Csulb Study
Questions
Why was the first woman, whom the gods made to be a wife for Epimetheus, named "Pandora"?
ANS✔✔ The gods gave her many traits including beauty, curiosity, charm, and cleverness. Hence
her name "Pandora," meaning "all gifted" or, alternately, "a gift to all.""
Who released Prometheus from his hideous punishment? ANS✔✔ Heracles
What warning had Prometheus given Epimetheus before the gods brought Pandora to him?
ANS✔✔ Prometheus warned Epimetheus to not accept any gift from Zeus, which turned out to be
Pandora
Why do I say that that the myth of Pandora is not, at any level, about female curiosity? ANS✔✔
Hesiod didn't say anything about curiosity, she just opened the jar because Zeus told her too.
What does Pandora's jar signify or symbolize? Why did Pandora let the miseries out of the jar? What
does Hesiod mean by saying that Hope is still in the jar? ANS✔✔ Pandora's jar symbolizes a
woman's womb. She opened the jar to carry out Zeus's order for punishing mankind. Hesiod meant
that while all of the other miseries were released, Hope remained to symbolize the hope a developing
child in a woman's womb (symbolized by the jar) brings to its parents. -lecture
If Pandora had a jar, why do we speak of "Pandora's box"? ANS✔✔ Pandora's jar and Pscyhe's box
became conflated, leading to the idea of Pandora's box. lecture
When was the Golden Generation of "people" around on the earth? What happened to them?
ANS✔✔ During Cronos's reign as king. When they disappeared, they turned into holy spirits that
roam the land, dealing out justice and wealth to humanity. -Hesiod, Works & Days
When was the Silver Generation of "people" around on the earth? What happened to them?
ANS✔✔ During the Olympians' reign. They became blessed underground mortals, a secondary
status. Hesiod, Works & Days
,What happened to the Bronze Generation? What happened to the Ἥρωες, the Hērōes? ANS✔✔
The Bronze Generation killed each other off and descended to the underworld with no honors. The
Heroes died fighting in great wars and were granted carefree lives separate from other men at the
ends of the Earth. -Hesiod, Works & Days
We are members of the Iron Generation; according to Hesiod, how will we know that Zeus is
planning to destroy this generation? What will that destruction look like? ANS✔✔ When Iron
Generation members are born with gray hair at their temples. This destruction entails friends and
family not getting along with each other anymore, and people committing injustices, shifting respect
from good people to wrongdoers. -Hesiod, Works & Days
According to Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium, what did human beings look like originally? Why
did the gods want to limit or restrict the power of these original humans? How did they do this? How
did the gods' "division" of people result in our current situation regarding affection, love, lust and
sexual orientation? ANS✔✔ Humans originally came in three types: male, female, and
androgynous. Humans were completely round, had four hands, four legs, two faces on one head, and
two sets of genitalia, depending on what type they are. Humans were troublesome and attempted to
battle the gods; however, since the gods could not eradicate humanity without also forsaking human
worship of the gods, the deities instead cut each human in half, so that each human would only have
two legs and, thus, become less powerful and troublesome. This division of people led to humans'
longing, loving, and lusting for their other halves; each human's sexual orientation depended on
which sex was their other half. -Plato, Symposium
Where was Prometheus confined and tortured, according to the fragment of the Latin version of
Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound preserved in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations? ANS✔✔ Steep
rocks in the Caucasus. - Aeschylus 193
In a mythological context, what is a "culture-bringer" or "culture hero"? ANS✔✔ A hero who gave
humanity a useful skill
In the context of folklore, what is a "trickster figure"? ANS✔✔ A trickster figure is a character who
does mischievous acts and often disobeys rules.
,What information does Prometheus give Zeus that leads to Prometheus' release from bondage?
ANS✔✔ Prometheus convinces Zeus that by meeting with Thetis, Zeus risks getting her pregnant
and bearing a child who would overthrow Zeus. -Lucian 5
How does the character Sisyphus, in the fragment from Critias' play, explain the origin of human
ideas about the gods? ANS✔✔ Sisyhus explains that when human civilization passed laws to
establish order, people were prevented from openly committing violence, but they still did so
discreetly. So someone invented the idea of gods and divine punishment so that people would fear
committing crimes that gods would know about. -Critias, Sisyphos
In Plato's Protagoras, how does Protagoras explain why animals and human beings have different
strengths and abilities? How does he explain the presence of Shame and Justice in human society?
ANS✔✔ He explains that when Epimetheus distributed abilities to mortal creatures, he
inadvertently gave all of the abilities to various animals and had none left for humans. So
Prometheus stole fire and technical wisdom from Olympus to give to humanity. With technical
wisdom, humans could survive by themselves, but they could not live among themselves since they
did not have the political wisdom to run orderly civilizations in which they didn't hurt each other; so
Zeus ordered for Shame and Justice to be brought to humans to fix this issue and prevent the human
extinction. -Plato, Protagoras
How did Deucalion and Pyrrha escape the flood that drowned everybody else in the world?
ANS✔✔ Deucalion and Pyrrha survived the flood by building a boat/chest on the advice of
Prometheus, Deucalion's father. -Apollodorus E2
According to the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, why is the word λαός (laos, "people") similar to the
word λας
ᾶ (lāas, "stone")? ANS✔✔ After the flood that wiped out the bronze generation, Zeus gave
them stones. The stones
Deucalion threw became men, and the ones thrown by Pyrrha became women. - Apollodorus E2
According to the Greek myths, from whom did the Hellēnes (Ἕλληνες, the Greeks collectively), the
Achaeans, the Dorians, the Ionians and the Aeolians (various Greek tribes) get their names?
According to the myths, are they all descended from Deucalion and Pyrrha? ANS✔✔ Hellen.
Achaios. Doros. Ion. Aiolos. Yes. -Apollodorus E3
How did Melanthus, son of Andropompus of Messene, become a king of Attica with the help of a bit
of battlefield trickery? ANS✔✔ When he was meeting Xanthios for a duel to decide over who
, would control some territory, he exclaimed that Xanthios was being unfair because he brought a
companion instead of coming alone; Xanthios turned around to see if he was followed, then
Melanthos killed him and became king of Attica after King Thymoites handed over his kingdom, as
promised. - Hellanicus 125
According to Diodorus of Sicily, where did the Amazons live? ANS✔✔ The Amazons lived near
the Thermodon River. -Diodorus of Sicily 2.45-2.46
How exactly did some Greeks connect the name Ἀμαζών (Amazōn) with the word μαζός (mazos,
"breast," in the Ionic dialect)? ANS✔✔ The connection is that Amazon came from a ("without")
and mazos ("breast"), referring to the Amazonian practice of cauterizing the right breast of the girls
so that it would not grow during puberty. -Diodorus of Sicily 2.45-2.46
Why did Heracles visit the Amazons, and what did he do to them in the course of his visit?
ANS✔✔ He needed Hippolyta's girdle for his 9th Labor. The Amazons thought that he came to
kidnap her, so they attacked, then he killed them all. -
Which Amazon fought in the Trojan War and was killed by Achilles? ANS✔✔ Queen Penthesilea
Achilles tells Priam (Iliad 24.527-533) that there are two jars in the palace of Zeus, filled with gifts
that he gives, one jar full of bad ones, one jar full of good ones; what does Zeus do with them?
ANS✔✔ He mixes them, and whomever he gives the mixture to would receive good and bad gifts.
Achilles's father Peleus was given this; he married the goddess Thetis and had a son, but this son
would die young
According to me, how can you tell almost for sure that you are looking at a statue of Heracles?
of Artemis? of Persephone? ANS✔✔ Heracles—lion skin. Artemis—bow and arrows. Persephone
—pomegranates.
Who was Hephaestus' father, according to Homer? ANS✔✔ Zeus and Hera
Who was Hephaestus' father, according to Lucian, Apollodorus, and Hesiod? ANS✔✔ Nobody,
Hera bore him without any sexual intercourse
