Sources

Homer Iliad Odyssey “Homeric Hymns” “Epic cycle” Oral poetry Central role 7 th c. BCE (first written poetry)

Hesiod Works and Days Theogony Farming life Conventional creation? 7 th century BCE

Playwrights Athenian Individual Interpretations 5 th c. BCE Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides

Apollodorus Library Many versions Became “standard” for many lesser-known myths Source for knowing earlier sources 100’s CE

Pausanias Travel writer c. 150 CE Attention to local cults and customs, present and past Descriptions of art

Ovid Metamorphoses Roman Early 1 st c. CE Writes of stories not of his culture Writes for an educated audience

Art Art sometimes presents variations of myth that don’t exist elsewhere Or confirms popular knowledge of stories from written sources Or shows how stories were important in civic or personal ways Shows overall impact rather than narrative – a different way of understanding myth