1 / 22

Chapter Four, Lecture One

Chapter Four, Lecture One. Myths of Creation Up to t he Birth of Aphrodite; Monsters and Sea Deities. “Sing all this to me, Muses, you who dwell on Olympus: from the beginning tell me, which of the gods first came to be.” Hesiod, Theogony (114 – 5). The cosmogony is the theogony.

alka
Download Presentation

Chapter Four, Lecture One

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Chapter Four, Lecture One Myths of Creation Up to the Birth of Aphrodite; Monsters and Sea Deities

  2. “Sing all this to me, Muses, you who dwell on Olympus: from the beginning tell me, which of the gods first came to be.”Hesiod, Theogony (114–5)

  3. The cosmogony is the theogony.

  4. The Children of Chaos • Hesiod, Theogony 116-125 • Chaos < Chasm • Gaea, Tartarus • Mythic geography • Olympus/Topmost • Earth/Middle • Tartarus/Bottommost

  5. The Children of Chaos • Eros • Force of sexual attraction • Nyx and Erebus • Features of Chaos? • Nyx • Moerae • Nemesis • Eerbus – Nyx • Aether (Radiance) • Hemera (day)

  6. The Children of Chaos • Is Gaea the mother of all things? • Homeric Myth to Gaea

  7. The Children of Gaea: The Titans and their Cousins • Many beings from the earth • Most important the • Titans • Cyclopes • Heacatonchires

  8. The Titans • Gaea = > Uranus, Mountains, Pontus • Gaea + Uranus

  9. The Titans • Uranos and Gaea in eternal sexual embrace • C.f. Egyptian Nut and Geb

  10. The Titans Thereafter Gaea was bedded with Uranus, lord of heaven, and bore deep-swirling (1)Oceanus, (2)Coeus, (3)Crius, (4)Hyperion, (5)Iapetus, (6)Theia and (7)Rhea, (8)Themis, (9)Mnemnosynê, (10)Phoebê, and fair-featured (11)Tethys. Last of all she gave birth to (12)Cronus, that scheming intriguer, cleverest child of her brood, who hated his lecherous father. Hesiod, Theogony (126–38)

  11. The Titans • Titans six male, six female • Most Titans hardly more than names • Take no role in subsequent Greek myth

  12. The Titans • Oceanus – Tethys • Homer’s alternate cosmology makes them the primordial parents of all the gods • Ancient geography • Oceanus rims the world • Sky is a dome over it • The Oceanids

  13. The Titans • Phoebê = “brilliant,” “shinning” • Themis = “settled law” • Occupied Delphi before Apollo • Zeus + Themis => Mnemosynê • Iapetus = Jepheth (?) • Cronus + Rhea • Parents or grandparents of the Olympians

  14. Cyclops, Hecatonchires • Also children of Gaea and Uranus • Cyclops • Not the Cyclops of Homer (Polyphemos) • Blacksmiths for the gods • Brontes (“Thunderer”), Steropes (“flasher”), Arges (“brightener”)

  15. Cyclops, Hecatonchires • Hecatonchires (“hundred-handers”) • Also fifty heads • Cottus, Briareus, Gyes

  16. Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Hyperion (“he who goes above”) • Father of Helius, another sun god • Selenê (moon) • Eos (dawn) • Homeric Hymn to Helius • The Story of Phaëthon in Ovid 1.750-

  17. Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Clymenê • The hasty promise • Etiology: why the Ethiopians are black • Eridanus (Po) river • Heliades = > poplar trees and golden amber • Phaethon’s fall in art

  18. Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Selenê and Endymion • Endymion placed in eternal sleep • Eos • Tithonus • Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5

  19. Cronus Against Uranus • Uranus stuffing newly born Titans back into Gaea • Cronus, the youngest, castrates Uranus with a sickle • Blood from the severed genitals becomes the Erinyes

  20. The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities • Aphrodite springs up from the “foam” at Cythera • Birth of Aphrodite in modern art • Monsters • Altered Egyptian and Mesopotamian archetypes: • Harpies, Sirens, Sphinx

  21. The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities • Combined human and animal parts • Gorgons, Geryon, Cerberus, Chimera • Natural animals, but with special powers • Ceto, Graeae, Nemaean Lion, Nereus (the Nereids – Thetis)

  22. Next Zeus’s battles | Near Eastern Creation Myths

More Related