Classics 430 C Greek and Roman Mythology Alexander Hollmann https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1039206 Leda and the Swan. Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (or follower of) c. 1512-1517

Greek and Roman Mythology What are the aims of this course? Why study Greek myth? (What about the Roman stuff, btw?) What can I expect to get from this course? What do I have to do for this course? How will I be tested?

What is myth? Term comes from ancient Greek muthos: 1. “an utterance”: e.g. Homer, Iliad 1.25 Agamemnon to Chryseus: “and Agamemnon addressed a mighty muthos to him: ‘Let me not find you among the hollow ships, old man…’ 2. more specifically “a narrative, account”: e.g. Homer, Odyssey 3.94 Telemachus asks Nestor “…if perhaps you have heard a muthos [about Odysseus] from another wanderer” 3. A tale from or of the past: e.g. Plato, Republic 330d “You know well, Socrates, when someone thinks he is close to death, fear and concern about things he has not thought about before come to him. The muthoi told about things in Hades (the underworld) … now torment his soul, lest they perhaps be true..” 4. A tale from or of the past that is not literally true: e.g. Plato, Republic 377a: “So one should educate a child with both types of speech [the true and the false], but first with the false?” “I don’t know what you mean.” “Don’t you know that we first tell children muthoi? And this is, so to say, generally falsehood, but there is some truth in them too.”

Myth distinguished from other tales/stories? Saga and legend (historical core?) Folk tale (magical element?) Fairy tale (Märchen) Ultimate impossibility of determining what is myth on the basis of content Note that the Greeks had many words for myth besides muthos: logos We have to use context

How do we get myth? Idea of Greek song culture, local traditions vs panhellenic [found and known in the entire Greek world] versions Poetry (epic [e.g. Homer, Hesiod], lyric, choral) Drama (e.g. Aeschylus, Euripides) Prose (including ancient mythographers, travel writers [e.g. Pausanias]) Images (sculpture, painting)

Jason and the Dragon, with Athena This particular version of the myth, where Jason is swallowed by the dragon that guards the Golden Fleece and then regurgitated with the help of Athena, is not found in any written version known to us. 5th c. BCE Athenian red-figure kylix (wine cup) found in Etruria (Italy)

No one myth of X Why can’t we say there is just one myth of X? Variants (e.g. children of Medea: killed by citizens of Corinth, killed by Medea herself: both acceptable variants, what seems important is that they are killed) What’s in common between them? What makes it still a myth of X? Who determines whether it is part of the myth or not?

Myth is a traditional tale/story What does “tradition” mean? Can you make up a myth? Is new myth possible? Is there a “wrong” version of a myth? Myth needs community

Myth and tradition cont’d Is myth “true”? Does myth have to be “true”? Does myth have to be “untrue”? How does “muthos, myth” end up meaning “an untrue story”? See the Muppet Movie (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fMICrBHs34, scene starting at 1 min 30 sec

An attempt at a definition W. Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology. Berkeley 1979. "Myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance." (23)

Another: from G. Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics "Myth, in societies where it exists as a living tradition, must not be confused with fiction, which is a matter of individual and personal creativity. Rather, myth represents a collective expression of society, an expression that society itself deems to be true and valid. From the standpoint of a given society that it articulates, myth is the primary reality. … myth can be defined as a 'traditional narrative that is used as a designation of reality.' Myth is an applied narrative. Myth describes a meaningful and important reality that applies to the aggregate, going beyond the individual." (8)

Back to muthos as “utterance” R. Martin, The Language of Heroes. muthos (in Homer and Hesiod) = an authoritative speech act. A public discourse of authority, which may (but does not have to) involve an imaginative traditional narrative.

What do myths mean? Can we interpret them? How do they mean? "Myths are multivalent: the same myth may be applied to nature or history, to metaphysics or psychology, and make some sense in each field, sometimes even striking sense, according to the predilections of the interpreter; but the very plurality of applications must caution us; a myth, qua tale, cannot be pinned down as referring specifically and immediately to any kind of reality, to one 'origin' outside the tale." (Burkert,5)

More on the meaning of myth Ken Dowden, The Uses of Greek Mythology, 22 "What are Greek myths for? Not to tell history, only to masquerade as history. Not just to entertain: they have too much cultural significance for that."   "...Greeks did not turn to mythology for guidance on what to believe and how to live." "Myth is not there to state what must be believed: myth is not dogmatic."

What’s different about Greek myth? Actors are mortal men and women or gods or heroes (a special category of mortals worshipped after their death) Everyone is named (no anonymous characters) Every myth is located in a named place (local) Mortals shown in myth tend to be from aristocratic families Mostly set in a time that is in the far past (heroic age) or beyond time (timeless) Like all myth, it reflects the cultural values, concerns, and anxieties of its own culture.