Monday, January 9th

Creation of universe - nothing into something

 Hesiod
 Cosmogony – birth of universe
 Theogony – birth of Gods
 The nine muses: inspiration for Hesiod
o Young, beautiful women
o Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, nymphs
o Memory (Mnemosyne)
o Calliope (muse of epic poetry)
 “The one with the beautiful voice”
 Hesiod claims she walked among the Gods
 Mother of Orpheus, mythical bard
 Meets Linus, centaur
 Prop - scroll, writing tablet
o Give Hesiod a staff
o Often pictured with Apollo
o Represent liberal arts
 Beginnings of the World
o Chaos (‘void’ or ‘chasm’), Born of:
o Gaia/Ge (Earth)
o Tartarus (depths of Earth)
o Erebus (darkness of Tartarus)
o Eros (Sexual love)
o Children of Gaia (fatherless, via parthenogenesis)
 Uranus (the Sky)
 Mountains
 Pontus (the Sea)
 The First Generation
o Heiros gamos (sacred marriage) between Gaia and Uranus
 Archetypal mother and father
 Children are 12 Titans, 5 important ones
 The Cyclopes - forgers, blacksmiths, one eye, Brontes, Steropes, Arges
 The Hecatonchires (“100-Handers”), Cottus, Briareus, Gyes, strong men
of primordial world, allies and aids for Zeus
 The Castration of Uranus
o Matriarchal vs. Patriarchal religion
o Gaia overturns power play by Uranus with help of Cronus, Rhea tricks Cronus
 The Age of Cronus
o Prophecy of succession (overturned by children), Uranus shoves all birthed
children back into body
o Crafts sickle from flint, Cronus sliced off Uranus genitals leaving him powerless
o Four creatures born from castration (from blood, except Aphrodite):
 Erinyes (Furies,) henchwomen of Zeus
 Live in Tartarus
 Harass victims to point of insanity, suicide
 Iconography: snakes and torches
 Giants
 Ash-tree nymphs (Meliae)
 Aphrodite (from genitals mixes in with foam of sea)
 Cytherea, Cyprogenes, Philpmmedes
 Born in Cypress
 Iconography: naked, hair to cover privates and breasts sometimes
 Attended by the Graces (Charites) or the Seasons (Horae)
o Oceanos and Tythys > Oceanids
 3000 girls, 3000 boys
 All personifications
 Oceanos
 Before personification, encircles disk of world, extremity of Earth
 River God iconography
 Old man reclining with jug
o Hyperion and Theia:
 Children: Hellius, Selene, Eos
 Helius, sun god
 Selene, moon goddess
 Drove 4 horse chariot from east to west dragging sun every day
 Helius and Clymene
 Child: Phaëthon
o Questions if Helius is father, asks to drive his chariot to
prove this, Helius allows to prove he is father, protects son
from heat
o Cannot control horses, plummets to Earth and dies, Gaia
doesn’t want this, so Zeus strikes down Phaëthon with
lightning
o “Know thyself”, he shows arrogance, hubris
 Selene and Endymion
 Moon goddess, draws moon behind with 2 horse chariot
 Zeus grants Endymion eternal youth and sleep in response to
Selene’s request, unclear if this is a punishment
 Iconography: crescent moon upon head descending upon sleeping
young shepherd, Endymion
 Eos and Tithonus
 Epithets: “rosy-fingered” or “saffron-robed”
 Aphrodite caused Eos to desire mortal because she caught him in
bed with lover
  Eos requested immortality for Tithonus, granted immortality but
he still aged
 This a moment of abduction
o Not a natural true love
o Iconography
o Female abductor
 Major theme:
o Old age
o Eos cared for Tithonus in old age until he becomes a
Cicada
o Prominence of Gaia:
 Mother Earth
 Iconography: legs underground, danced among with Satyrs, symbolic of
fertility
 Existence worshipped and honoured by Greeks for role in creation
 Producer of all life and physical space
 First antagonist , she is deceitful

Wednesday, January 11th

The rise of the supremacy of Zeus:

 Themes:
o Prophecy of Doom: enacts succession tales to continue
 Uranus and Cronus cannot maintain power and order through force alone
 Hades and Hestia are replaced with from 12 Olympians second generation of Olympian
Gods
 Prophecy of Doom causes Cronus to swallow children
 Rhea and Cronus: heiros gamos
 Amalthea is goat that nurses Zeus, he is fed by bees
 Corybantes/Curetes are soldiers that tend to and protect Zeus, band swords and shields
together to mask sounds of baby Zeus
 Omphalos (“navel-stone”) at Delphi - stone given by Rhea to Cronus as trick
 Zeus released eagles to east and west from Mt. Olympus, wherever they met was the
center of the religious world, Delphi
 In alternate version of birth account, Zeus born in Arcadia on Mt. Lycaeum
o Ongoing excavations of Arcadia at Mt. Lykaion
 Gaia suggests freeing Cyclopes, who create his thunderbolts
 Hecantonchires also released, prophesied by Gaia that they would need their help to
win
 Starting to see actions of more civilized character and ruler rather than brute force. Zeus
sees value in down-trodden, not dismissing monsters but accepting as ally and treating
them as equals to solidify binds of friendship. Building skills in art of diplomacy
 Zeus feeds hecatonchires ambrosia and nectar
  Prophecy of Doom met again by second generation: Cronus is imprisoned, Zeus reigns
supreme
 Gaia was angered by Zeus’ victory, she births giants
 Gaia had another prophecy, Zeus will need mortal aid to be able to win, hero Heracles.
o Cannot think of linear chronology, doesn’t make sense
 Gaia births Typhon with Tartarus, dragon, causing Typhonomachy in anger over defeat
of her children
 Mt. Aetna thrown on top of Typhon, creating volcano on Sicily
o Every once in a while when Typhon seethes in anger, mountain erupts
 Prometheus, “met” means intelligence, meaning “forward thinking”
 Civilization vs. savagery common theme
 Folktale motif of Prophecy of Doom continues with Zeus
 Gaia and Uranus warn that a son by. Metis will defeat him
 Zeus swallows Metis, along with child Athena inside Metis
 Thus, Metis cannot outwit him, and creates a child that is 100% devoted to him as she is
born of Zeus alone, no mother
 Athena born from the head of Zeus fully armed, everyone bows to her
 Goddess of war, though not spiteful, she is cunning and strategy
 Zeus has now swallowed the personification of intelligence so he cen be a successful
ruler without the advising of a female
 Second generation of Olympians:
o See powerpoint
 Hera produces Hephaestus on her own in anger of Athena’s birth
 Until Zeus swallows Metis, a crafty female propels him through story using wit (Gaia)
 Cultures religion officially turned from matriarchy to patriarchy
 Zeus is also a hero tale

Monday, January 16th

The Twelve Olympians and Extended Family

 Hestia
o Eternal flame
o Virgin goddess along with Athena and Artemis
o They can fend off Aphrodite
o Fire important for warmth and health, and religious function
o Center of household and larger political units
o Divine Fixity:
 Oikos (house) in myth it is fixed axis for the mobility of women, she is
always in relation to it
 Hestia: often paired with Hermes as her male opposite, both bring house
wealth and prosperity, Hermes has extreme mobility, but Hestia is tied to
hearth/center of community
  These women act on their own outside of household, e.g. Artemis runs
freely hunting
 See slides for genealogy of Olympian 12
 Zeus (Jupiter, Jove)
o Nature:
 Kingship, Law (themis), Justice (dike)
 Patron of guests and strangers
 Protects suppliants
 Defender of all that is right and just
 Important sanctuary at Olympia in the Peloponnese
 Hera (Roman: Juno)
o Ox-eyed, White-armed
o Matronly
o Nature:
 Goddess of marriage
 Morality in marriage
 Childbirth
 Women’s fertility
o Temple at Olympia
 Torch lighting ceremony
 Zeus and Europa
o Phoenician women from Tyre
o Zeus comes in form of bull; she hops on bull, and he takes her to Crete
 Abduction scene
 She becomes pregnant
o Descended from Io
o Children:
 Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon
 Zeus and Leda
o Queen of Sparta
o Zeus comes in form of swan, gives birth in form of eggs
 Helen and Polydeuces (Pollux)
o Leda = Tyndareus
 Clytemnestra and Castor
o Polydeuces shares immortality with Castor
 Satellite characters:
o Thetis
o Hephaestus, Hera’s son
 Abusive family dynamic

Wednesday, January 19th

  Ares, god of war
o Feared, celebrated, and respected
o Seems to desire death
o Bloodthirsty, likes gore
o Foot soldier’s god
o Boys would have to swear an oath to Ares when entering military service
o Find courage
o Existence out of necessity
o Athena and Ares commonly at odds with one another
o Son of Zeus and Hera
o God of combat, lust, violence
o Children with Aphrodite (> Harmonia, “Concordia”)
o Sacred animal boar
o Only love can disarm war, giving peach (Harmonia result of their relationship)
o Origins in Thrace
o Aphrodite common cult partner
 Child: Eros (another birth account)
o Does not have many temples for him

Nature and Monotheism of Zeus

 Motifs:
o The nature of the gods
o More on the justice of Zeus
o What entails the monotheism of Zeus
o Greek humanism
 Death of Sarpedon: Zeus cannot obstruct the fates in saving his son, he accepts his
death to not transgress the natural order of the universe, would cause chaos amongst
other immortals
o Zeus was considered all-powerful by many
 The Divine Hierarchy
o Fantastic, strange, scary creatures (gorgons (Medusa), harpies)
o Divine spirits who animate nature (nymphs, river gods, satyrs, centaurs, etc)
o Demigods/heroes
o Other gods/goddesses
o The Olympians
o Zeus
 Polytheistic religion
 The nature of the gods
o Anthropomorphism
 Gods as humans in appearance and character (extremes of humans),
idealized
 Nothing moderate about gods
  Can show worst attributes as well
 Vain, thieves, liars
o Mt. Olympus
 “Olympians”
o The Underworld
 “chthonian”
o Ambrosia
o Nectar
o Ichor
o Xenophanes and argument against anthropomorphism
 Why make gods in image of humans, giving them our worst traits
 Want the gods to be the best and without fault
 Pure light, not polluted by out characteristics
 Should be limit or halt to our portrayal of the gods as anthropomorphic
 Monotheism and polytheism not mutually exclusive
o Epicurus
 Gods as celestial distant beings
 No effect on individual human lives
 “Folly for man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to
obtain by himself”
 Divine is detached morally perfect beings with no care in human affairs
 Pokes holes in omnipotent being
o Xenophanes monotheism
 God is unlike human
 Perceives everything
 Sets everything in motion
 Motionless
 Abstract
o Cleanthes
 Myth simply as teaching tools
 Stoic logos (“reason”)
 Predetermined divine providence
o Why anthropomorphism?
 A product of Greek humanism?
 “a sense of idealistic optimism in the face of realistic pessimism
 Fate vs. free will vs. chance
 Protagoras:
 “Man is the measure of all things”

Monday, January 23rd

Poseidon and Athena continued..
 Cecrops (founder of Attica), era of of contest between Athena and Poseidon
o Snakey King
 o Monogamous marriage
o “civilized” the tribes in the area
o How to worship Zeus and stop human sacrifice
o How to build cities
o How to bury the dead
o First king of Athens
 Erechthion
o Sacred religious objects
 Olive tree: sustenance and fortune
 Athenians = autochthonous
 Athena Promachos : “Who fights in the frontline”
 Nike Apteros (“wingless”)
o Wingless because victory would never leave the sides of the Athenians

Aphrodite
 Playful
 Goddess of frills, good times goddess
 Not taken seriously
 Constantly objectified
 Earliest feminist models
 Only reveals as much as she is willing
 Highly respected in ancient world
 Sense of voyeurism and objectification of Aphrodite
o Ares
o Hephaestus
o Attending male Gods
 Sappho’s Aphrodite
 Feminism and the ancient tradition
o Sapphic Gaze
 Not objectified
 Not hierarchical

Wednesday, January 25th

Aphrodite and Eros continued…

 Source of Power for Aphrodite

 Powerful in sexual, intellectual, and nature aspects of life
 Able to manipulate
 Henchmen is personification of manipulation: Persuasion
 Inspires all-consuming and destructive love
 Ability to dominate
 Her weapon: “Grievous Love” (Eros)
  Phaedra in love with Hippolytus
 Love as festering wound/disease that start inside and begin to manifest outwards
 Only love can disarm war and bring peace: daughter Harmonia with Ares
 Eros
o Erotic love or desire
o More like lust
o Aphrodite’s henchman
 Priapus: son with Hermes
o Known for giant phallus
o Rustic god of fertility
 Hermaphroditus:
o Both genders, and neither at the same time
o Body meant to manifest all forms of love and identity
 Anchises associated with seasons
 Adonis
o Mother: Myrrha
 In love with father, she runs off and turns into tree
o Something beautiful being born from something horrific
o Nickname Adonis: supposed to be beautiful, fought over by Gods
o Father: Cinyras (son of Paphos)
o Comparisons with Cybele and Attis, Rhea/Cronus, patterns of ritual practice
o Annual ritual borne from his death
o Blood becomes a flower, red like blood, very frail, Anemone
o Yearly flower is born, and dies just as easily as he
o Frail in the fact that he is not immortal
o Seasonal/vegetation God
o Festival Adonia: private, attended only by women
 Platos Symposium
o Party at house of Agathon in Athenas after he has won his first tragedy
o Speech of Aristophanes:
 The desire for companionship, one’s soul mate
 Children of Sun: male-male
 Children of earth: female-female
 Children of moon: male-female
o Speech of Socrates (stems from conversation with Diotima)
 Spiritual “Platonic” love
 Child of Resourcefulness and Poverty
 Love starts out as desire for something beautiful

Wednesday, February 1st: Apollo

 Portrayed as beardless young man
  Second generation of Olympians
 Symbology: laurel tree and laurel wreath, cithara (lyre), the bow
 Twin of Artemis
 God of poetry, music, prophecy, disease
 Asteria means star, her name before she became Delos, the floating island
 Delos, manifestation of a nymph
 Zeus chased Asteria
 No other location wanted to allow Leto to give birth in fear of Hera’s wrath
 “Delos” means seen, conspicuous
 Palm tree associated with his birth story because Leto holds onto a palm tree in
depiction of his birth
 Cyclades islands: all dance around in a circle around Delos
 Delian myth:
o Anius, son of Apollo
 Daughters: Elais (olive), Spermo (seed), Oeno (wine)
 Stops at spring called Telphusa
o Intends to build a temple and oracle there
o Colonizing God
o Founding a new city as part of civilizing character
o Civilizing god
o Similar to pattern of those of the heroes
o Telphusa lies, saying no one will worship him. There will be heavy foot traffic, it
will be busy, loud. Suggests to go to Crisa instead
o When he arrives at Crisa, which is Delphi, he begins to measure the size of his
sanctuary
o Saves population from dragoness, linked to earlier mother goddess cult that was
at Delphi prior to Apollo
o Theory that this could be Apollo replacing mother goddess religion with a male,
patriarchal head of religion. Reminder of story in Theogony, Gaia being replaced
by Zeus.
o Dragon was bringing panic and fear to all humans before Apollo arrived, as a
hero would.
o Follows hero pattern, emphasises his excellence/prowess
o Lets dragon rot under son – “Python”
o Realizes trickery of Telphusa, he covers her over with rocks and builds an altar to
himself, receiving cult title Telphusian
o Apollo and the Cretan merchants

February 6th
Hermes
 Usually younger man
 Petasus: travellers cap
  Caduceus: herald’s wand, two snakes wrapped around
o Associations with fertility
 Talaria: winged sandals
 Daphnis
o Child of Hermes
o Sicilian hero
o Oxherd
o Bucolic song (pastoral = Roman)
o Piper
o When he hangs up his panpipes, he gives up on life because of his love for
nymph/or Aphrodite
o Drowns in water
o Association with Aphrodite, mother goddess
o Connected with rejuvenation of nature and seasons
o Blinded by nymph in Sicily
o Weakened state of male consort
 Herms
o Blocks of stone
o Known for fertility and luck
o Boundary marker, placed outside of houses, guides for travellers
o Considered sacred
o Giant pillar of stone with head of Hermes, and large erect phallus in the center
o In 415 BC, mutilated herms were found all around Athens
 Alcibiades was charged and punished
 Athenians cared more about Herms than the war going on
 Hermes Argeiphontes
o Slayer of Argus

Wednesday, February 8th

 The nature of Dionysus
o Roman: Bacchus or Liber (“the free one”)
o Etymology of name from Zeus (Dios) and Mt. Nysa
o The ‘male principle of fertility’
o God of wine and grape, madness, theatre
o Symbology: ivy, grapes, figs, leopard skin, phallus, bulls’ horns, chariots drawn
by leopards, animals
o Musical instruments
o Thyrsus: staff
o Iconography:
 Leopard skin, cantharus (large drinking vessel), ivy vines, thyrsus
o Story of Ino
 Turned into Leucothea (white goddess)
  And son Melicertes turned into Palaemon
o Hermes takes Dionysus (form of goat) to be raised by nymphs on Mt. Nysa
 Daughters of titan Atlas
 Turned into constellation Hyades as thanks for caring for baby
o Dionysus wanders in a state of madness in early life because of Hera
 The Youth of Dionysus
o Unusual birth story
o Childhood obstacles
o Extraordinary abilities
 Perform miracles, shapeshift
o Protector of people
o Cross-dressing
 Aspects of his character
o Cross-dressing
o Shapeshifting
o Miracles
o Human sacrifice
 The Minyades
o Daughters of Minyas
o Dionysus infiltrates, dressed as a female, and tries to warn them to worship him
but they did not listen
o He transformed himself into a bull, then a lion, then a panther
o The sisters were seized with madness, and wanted to honour Dionysus
o One sister offered her own son to be torn to pieces in spiritual sacrifice
o They wander in madness until Hermes turns them into birds
o Sparagmos: “tearing apart of flesh”
o Omophagia: “eating raw meat”
 Part of ritual worship of Dionysus
o God transformation and possession
o Causes people to act outside of their own nature
 Dionysus can bring great happiness to those who worship him, as well as great pain and
suffering
 God of duality
 Quest: to demonstrate his divinity and bring honour to his mother Semele
 Trickster and lethal god
 God of magic, death, torture, and happiness
 The nature of Dionysus
o Four stages of drunkenness:
 Intoxication (Ino)
 Loss of awareness (Autonoë)
 Sexual appetite (Semele)
 Madness (Agave)
o Ecstasy: “standing outside of oneself”
  Drunkenness, madness, prophetic trance
o Enthusiasm: “possessed by the god” (he’s in you)
 Attendants:
o Maenads or Bacchae, or Bacchants (female)
o Satyrs (male, part goat)
o Silenus (old satyr, tutor of Silenus)
 Socrates & Alcibiades = Silenus & Midas
o (= Solon & Croesus)
o Portrayed as lustrous old man who lusted after younger women he tutored
o Apologists for Socrates, such as Plato
o Alcibiades explains true nature of man he wanted to enter into relationship with
(Socrates) through story of Silenus and Midas
o Pessimistic type of wisdom
 Thiasus
o Bacchanalia or an orgion (“orgy”)
o Mystery religion
o Male leaders placed with each group of female acting as maenads, taking on roll
of producer and director

Wednesday, February 15th : Demeter

 Symbology: wheatsheaf, red poppy, matronly, hair tied up, seen veiled, seen with a
crown, regal, enthroned, cornucopia
 Persephone
o Daughter of Demeter and Zeus
 Shares mom’s symbology
 Often enthrones, queen of the dead
 Holding wheat shaft, cornucopia
 Separated by hair worn down
 Often seen collecting flowers
 Alcibiades dressed up as hierophant and showed sacred objects to uninitiated at Athens,
he got in trouble
 Rites at Eleusis and Eleusinian Mysteries
o Interest in fertility of earth and with continuing life of a soul after death
o Elective cult (not part of civic religion); secrets forbidden to be revealed in public
o Sponsored by Athens
 Sacred truce proclaimed for performance (55 days)
 Open to all
 Celebrated annually in Autumn
 After initiation, initiate no longer feared death
 o Lesser mysteries held in spring, purified initiates and prepared them for the
greater mysteries
 Homeric Hymn to Demeter
o The abduction of Persephone
 Witnesses: Hecate, Helius
 Kyrios: Zeus, head of household, owner of Persephone, gave his daughter
away to male of his chosing
 He promises her to Hades who snatches her away
 “The rape of Persephone”
 Demeter goes into mourning, ranges the earth for 9 days holding burning
torches
 She did not eat or drink or bathe
 On 10th day, Hecate told her what she heard
 We see aspects of the rites of Demeter’s worship
 Suffers, and makes her body suffer as well
 Dresses in dark clothing
 Helius tells Demeter what Zeus did
 Real-life experiences held by girls in ancient world
o The founding of Eleusis
 King Celeus, king of Eleusis
 Mataneira
 Demophoön
 Dodo, “I will give”
 Offers services as maiden nurse to daughters of king Celeus to their
household
 Three generations in house: each important stage of a woman’s life
represented
 Servant Iambe recognizes humility and generosity, gives her a smaller
stool to sit on
 Iambe makes her happy, tells her jokes and makes her laugh
 Mataneira offers wine, but she refuses and instead asks for kykeon, more
like beer
 Demeter as Doso nurses baby, can be seen asx metaphor for a true
initiate
 Feeds him nectar and ambrosia, dips him in fire at night, initiation to
immortality
 Mataneira saw this and shrieks, in anger she throws Demophoön to the
ground and demands temple be built
o The Restoration of Persephone
 Demeter makes it so land would not produce any agriculture
 Zeus notices and sends Iris to tell Demeter to return to Olympus
 She refuses, and would not let anything grow until Persephone is
returned
  Hermes is sent to underworld to retrieve her
 Hades tricks her into eating a pomegranate seed, metaphor for Hades
putting his own seed in Persephone
 She at first willingly accepted this seed (?) but she tells Demeter she was
forced to eat it against her will. It is unclear
 She is now tied to him eternally as his bride, she must spend 1/3 of the
year with him, this is when the crops die in the winter
 Triptolemus: early king of Eleusis taught sacred rites of Demeter and now
flies all around the world on a chariot drawn by dragons
 Rites conjectured to be instructions for mortals on how to
produce grain
 Persephone and Hades became very happy in their marriage
 Rooster is animal associated with Hades
o Seem to be analogous to stages of a woman’s life
o Possible interpretations:
 Mother goddess stories
 Social reinforcement: Promotes marriage
o Treatment of girls/women in antiquity
o Fear of girl moving on in life to new stage
o Motif: abduction scene and fear (of women)
o Ambivalent of female cause or seen as assault?
o Strong women: Demeter says no to Zeus, strong bond between mother and
daughter