Ancient Graeco-Roman Mythology
Introduction to Graeco-Roman Mythology (Dr Masters)
• Looking at the examples of Atlantis
o It probably wasn’t real, and Plato made it up for political reasons
o Could have been a story to warn Athens about being a big powerful city and the
consequences
Echo and Narcissus, 1903
o Oil canvas by John William Waterhouse
o English painter, pre-Raphaelite
o Famous for depictions of women from ancient Greek mythology
o ‘Femme fatale’
o Ovid Metamorphoses
▪ Echo sees Narcissus: 3.339-358
▪ How Juno altered Echo’s speech: 3.359-380 and 3.381-401
• Cured Echo because she would distract Hera when Zeus was off sleeping
with other Nymphs so she could only repeat what other people said to
her
▪ Narcissus sees himself and falls in love: 3.402-417 and 3.418-436
• Looks at himself and can't look away
▪ Narcissus laments the pain of unrequited love: 3.437-453 and 3.454-473
▪ Narcissus is changed into a flower: 3.474-493 and 3.494-510
• Why are these stories interesting
o Look at how they are used
o And why a particular audience become so interested in a particular story
General characteristics of myth
1. Myths are stories
o Muthos = story or narrative. Something that is delivered by word of mouth
▪ Myth, saga, legend, fable, folktale
o Preferred terms used interchangeably: myths/myths/mythology
, o “An integral component of ancient Greek religious, political, and social culture, Greek
myth originated with anonymous storytellers who created tales about gods and heroes
that were transmitted orally for many generations before being crystallized in written
form.”
2. Myths originated orally
o Myths are as old as human speech; myth predates writing
o Rhapsodes travelled reciting myths
▪ From of story telling therefore a form of entertainment
• People would gather together and stories are told
o The oldest surviving myths, from the Archaic period, are preserved in the epic poems of
Homer [the Odyssey week 4] and Hesiod (8th/7th B.C.) [myths of origin week 1], who
portray the gods as resembling idealized human beings in appearance, psychology, and
behavior
o Myths were not only transmitted orally, they were also constantly visible
▪ On pottery
▪ In statutes
▪ In mosaics on floors or walls
▪ In relief sculpture on building e.g. Parthenon
▪ In wall paintings
The Education of Achilles by Chiron, fresco from Hercu!aneum
3. Myths are universal
o Like dreams (present in all nations and cultures)
o Express experiences common to all people (recurring motifs)
o A function of the human mind?
o Examples of common motifs
▪ The creation
▪ Flood myths
▪ The making of humans
▪ Founding myths
▪ Succession wars
▪ Human cannibalism
▪ The Underworld/Afterlife
, • Journing to and returning to the underworld: common motif that there is
a creature or entity that transports a person
• E.g., Anubis, Hermes and Vanth
▪ The end of the world
o Why are there universal themes
▪ Psychological theories: both dreams and myths are an expression of man’s
unconscious and the values of society
▪ Complex connection with ‘external reality’
▪ A mixture of reality and fantasy (time, place and ability)
o Oedipus
▪ Kills his father
▪ Marries his mother
• This fulfills an unconscious desire (Freud) – but actually?
▪ And is punished
▪ incest is censured by the community
▪ (a social value is confirmed)
4. Myths are ‘true’?
o Some myths may have a historical core
o Labryth
▪ Mannone palaces were extremely complicated
o Some myths may have a historical core
▪ “Myth has a truth of its own that transcends mere fact. Conveying realities that
cannot be verified empirically, ancient tales typically articulate a culture’s world
view.”
5. Variable/fluid nature of myth
o Metamorphic
o Oral veriosn vary
▪ Each person telling their own story
o One the one hand- reinforced by isolation, lack of regular cotact between different city
states (topography of Greece was difficult)
▪ Local myths eventually spread and become national, e.g. Herakles as pan-
Hellenic hero
▪ Regional versions merged
▪ But once again new variants develop
• Would the advent of writing in greece have an influence on the standardized myth
o Yes and no
o Writing eventually determines which myths (or variations of myths) are transmitted
o But artists adapt myths (different points/ messages to be made) [Euripides and Medea’s
children]
o There is no “standard version” of any myth - metamorphic
o Core mythemes? Scope?
o The Athenian dramas [Agamemnon week 2] of the Classical period (fifth century B.C.), a
second major source of myth, … emphasize the distinctive qualities of
anthropomorphism, humanism, competitiveness, and individuality
▪ Zoomorphism
, ▪ Theriomosphism
Myth vs Literary text
• A myth is distinct from a literary text based on myth
• Myth
o The Trojan war
o The origins of the Greek Gods
o The story of Pandora
• Text
o Theogony by Hesoid
o The Iliad by Homer
• “There is no doubt that we access Greek Mythology above all through texts and that even in
ancient times texts, read or performed, were instrumental in forming the Greeks’ own sense of
mythology. But texts were not the only medium for mythology (unless you have a very broad
definition of ‘text’)”
• “A myth is not a specific poetic text. It transcends the text: it is the subject matter, a plot fixed in
broad outline and with characters no less fixed, which the individual poet is free to alter only
within limits …”
• “Throughout this work, I will argue that a myth is not bounded by a single text and will use the
word myth to refer not to any single version (which I would call a text or a telling) but to the
narrative that underlies the whole series of telling's, encompassing them all.”
What are myths and what do they do?
• 1. Stories
• 2. Originated orally
• 3. Univeral
• 4. True?
• 5. Variable/fluid
• 6. Portray contact between the human and divine provides avenues or contact (rituals etc.)
• 7. Closely related to religion: a source of information on the Gods
• 8. Gids/myths help create a meaning in a bewildering physical environment in a ‘pre-scientific’
society
o Thunder is Zeus speaking
o Lighting is a bolt of fire flung by Zeus
• 9. Gods/myths help create meaning in a metaphysical sphere
o Calamity: Gods are angry – need to do something to atone/rectify the situation which
does not guarantee success
o Gods represent justice, cosmic harmony and wisdom – even if it often seems otherwise
o Themis: Goddess of justice, law, divine order and custom
• 10. Fulfill social and political ‘charters’
o Athenas birth from Zeus; head: female intellect is subject to male control
o Pandora and womenkind
▪ Pandora is a figure from Greek mythology who was not only the first woman, but
—as an instrument of the wrath of Zeus— was held responsible for releasing the
ills of humanity into the world
o Athena inning the contest with Poseidon and becomes the patron goddess of Athens
