Myth, Religion & History

1. Myth, Religion & History What is myth What is history What is religion How do they relate to one another?

2. Mythellaneous All cultures have myth Babylon – Enuma Elish Vikings – sagas Native American traditions British - King Arthur Hebrew?

3. Types of Myth Etiological (or Divine) Aitia = cause What causes earthquakes? Heroic Myths (Legends) Traditional Folk Stories Moral guidance (Aesop's fables) Societal fears Rites of passage Great trials

4. What do we know about Greek myth, religion and history? Worship of the Greek gods (Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, etc.) goes back to the second millennium BC on the mainland. Sacred Bull Human Sacrifice ? (relationship to Baal?) Canaanite worship/Phoenician Bulls and human sacrifice Snake goddesses

5. Religion – Sacred Bulls (Apis)

6. Religion – Human Sacrifice Story of Minotaur eating 14 victims Sacrificial site at Knossos includes human sacrifice and indicates ritual feasting on the dead Probably rare – maybe related to Earthquakes suffered by island and attempts to appease Poseidon/Earthshaker

7. Religion – Snake Goddesses

8. Sacred War Axe

9. Is Mythology History? Heinrich Schliemann used Homers works for archaeological expeditions.

10. Heinrich Schliemann Self-financed / self-style archaeologist Married 16 year-old Greek girl who could read the original Greek accounts Where is ancient Mycenae Looking for grave of Agamemnon discovers the shaft grave inside the lions gate.

11. The Lion’s Gate

12. “I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon…”

13. Was there a Trojan War Heinrich Schliemann Calvert – American vice-consul Nine layered cities

14. “The Greeks raise a mighty army because of a woman . . . And then invaded Asia and destroyed Priam and his forces. Ever since then, the Persians have regarded the Greeks as their enemies…. They date their hostilities towards Greece from the fall of Ilium.” (Herodotus)

15. Homer Late 8th century BC Assumes knowledge of the gods.

16. Alexander the Great Saw himself as embodiment of Achilles. Where did he get such an idea?

17. Plato and Aristotle Plato – Myth vs. Logos With logos one takes responsibility for the story Platonic Myth Aristotle Fiction Romans - Fable