Hoorcollege 1A Myths
Kadmos and Harmonia: Graves 58 and 59 = myth foundation of ancient city phoebes (thebe) -)
transliterate greek names to latin, nonsense, in this course greek spelling = dragon slayer in greek
mythology, kadmos is not originally greek person ( classic greek means the greek and romans myth as
rome appropriated the greek myths) Kadmos sister (europe) abducted by greek god Zeus, kijg of dogs, in
country in Phoenicia (lebanon) approached by bull , friendly bull, gets on bull and bull fly aways to kreta,
zues transform into an eagle and impregnates europe with 3 children ( abduction myth, euphemism)
Europe becomes ancestor of kings oping greece.
Cadmos (brother europe) leaves tyre in search of Europa, he travels and build temples on rhodes and
thera ( important island in ancient mediterranean because there phoenicians and greeks meet) then
goes to mainland greece and goes to Oracle at Delphi = they are told to give up their quest ( gods cant
change future but they know everything and follow a cow) follow a coe instead, and found a city = buys
a cow, walk and walk until cow dies, where he dies it indicates where city must be founded, he sacrifices
cow to athena = you need altar, sanctuary, sacred area you have to purify yourself, they need warer for
purification from the nearby sacred spring of Kastalia, a serpant belonging to Ares protects the well,
serpant kills all his companions amd kathmos smashes its skull with a stone, he sows the dragon teeth
according to athena, from it spring the Spartoi, the sow men, who kill each other ( only 5 survive)
Together with 5 spartoi kadmos founds the fortress Kadmeia, later the acropolis of the city of Thebes,
the acropolis is where thr main cults of a greek polis are located, Kadmos marries Harmonia, goddes of
harmony, a daughter of aphrodote (love) and ares (war) the 12 olympian gods celebrate
tuirnweddijgnand gives them gifts , including flutes which is important in greek mythology, their
daughter agave marries echion, one of spartoi, they abdicate as king and wueen of thebes in favor of
Pentheus ( continue powerpoint)
There is not a canon greek mythology, we have a lot of different greek myths, when you see images they
can be used as sources ( facepaintings, oadmos fighting dragon, every tree is a nymph which is a divine
place, spring indicates nymph, there is a vase to grab water and purify, athena can be seen as woman
with helmet, another pic middle one fighting dragon with spear, apparently different versions were
visible for andient greeks ( stone vs spear) there is no canons dor myths because they change -) third pic
spartoi fighting each other -)
,This myth shows phoebe ancentry, for example ordipoes who marries jocaste, explains divine ancestry
of thebian kings
Was is this? Good dragon soayer story, myth about culture hero ( first perseus but second kadmos) ,
foundatioj myths ( foundations of Thebes), an etiological myths ( introcing playing and music, music is
from the god and used to worship gods) geneologicsl myths, both a myth of migration
Culture hero= hero who is defeating monsters in order to create culture, opposite in chaos, monsters
symbolise chaos, greek city states where center of culture, opolis, every polis non civic socienty is always
centered around cult, religion is at hart of greek culture, in order to build religion, you need to get rid of
chaos, killing momsters, chaos is removed from landscape, humans control wildernis, then they can
create civilization.
Foundation myths= always building altars and cities, things are invented and introduced (etiological
myth)
2 types of myths where show where greeks comes from= migration and authochtony, that means that
the people that they always lived there, sprung from the earths phoebans are decendants from shit that
sprung from ground ( spartoi) they can claim to be real phoebians, typical story shows to migrate and
show where they come from
Ephiphany myth; when kadmos are celebrating wedding, gods appear, present of gods among humans is
called ephiphany ( are hardly no myths of no ephiphany), greeks myths showing their divine power and
there is where greek build altars and sanctuaries, but omgekeerd , they build temples and then explain
why they buikd it, they explain why certain places are sacred
A story explaining religious rituals ( cow sacrifice, sacred water, purification), to found a city you must
kill cows and then keep sacrificing cows to athena, how to purify yourself
A weird story= go to oracle and follow a cow, difficult to explain
,Problem myths= difficult to recomstruct greek myths
Main sources= pausanias, belangrijk because show link between religion and myths, ovid who wrote all
the metamorphoses in greek mythology etc
, Hoorcollege 1B Myths
Wat is mythology? Genre, defenition, meaning
Classical mythology means the mythology of the Greeks and the Romans since the Romans appropiated
most Greek myths. Mythology in general is something really important, it is one defining aspect of what
it means to be human as humans tend to tell each other stories. Myths ( mythology) is something that
you will find in all periods of history in all human cultures around the globe: you could say that
mythology defines all human cultures, the premodern cultures as the modern cultures as well.
Cultures are often connected. The multifarious cultures of the Ancient Near East – including Greece and
Egypt – were to a high degree entangled, and constantly influenced each other. This is why we find
many similarities between Ancient Greece, ancient Babylonia and Ancient Egypt for example: they took
good stories from each other. There is almost a universal aspect to mythology as scholars have found
remarkable coincidences of peoples living in the America’s, in Afrika, in East- Asia, in Western Eurasia:
there are a lot of theories that try to explain this, the most common one is that humans have the same
psychology around the world.
Fairy tales are important because they are the other type of folktale or traditional tale that is most
unlike mythology and at the same time is the one other type of folktale genre that is most like
mythology. Myths have ambiguity.
Why does classical mythology matter and what is it’s place in European culture (western popular culture
or even global popular culture) Greek mythology has been part of European culture for many centuries:
it’s omnipresent in Art ( before 1800 European art was about the bible, the royal court and Greek
mythology.
This art is from J.M.W Turner where Odysseus is mocking the cyclops Polyphemus (1829)
