CLASSICAL GREEK MYTHOLOGY BACKGROUND Ancient Greece & Greek Society Sources of Greek Mythology Period of Greek Mythology Characteristics of Greek Mythology Greek & Roman Mythology

ANCIENT GREECE AND THE GREEK SOCIETY Human History Society Culture Politics Economy

HUMAN HISTORY IN GREECE  45,000-40,000 BC: Homo sapiens sapiens first moves out of Africa into southwestern Asia and Europe  20,000 BC: Human habitation begins in southeastern Greece  10,000-8,000 BC: Beginning of agriculture and permanent settlements  4,500-2,000 BC: Indo-European peoples move into Europe  1,500 BC: Greeks (Mycenaeans) are a linguistically identifiable group

CULTURE IN ANCIENT GREECE  BC: Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet  BC: Writing down of oral literature such as Odyssey and Iliad  776 BC: First Olympic Games, to be held every four years, in honour of Zeus  700 BC: Greeks began to write down the myths  Religion as the core of all community activities

ANCIENT GREEK SOCIETY  A patriarchal society  Social stratification  The rich elite  Free people  Slaves  Rulers, priests, soldiers, craftsmen, farmers  Monogamy was a rule  Nuclear family structure the most common form

POLITICS IN ANCIENT GREECE  750 BC: Greek city-states (polis) beginning to organise (Athens, Sparta etc.)  BC: Greek colonies formed all around the Mediterranean Sea region  Polis included fortified urban centre + the small settlements in the countryside  A protector or patron god/goddess for each polis (Athena for Athens)  Only free men had political rights  Forms of oligarchy, tyranny and democracy observed

ECONOMY IN ANCIENT GREECE  An agricultural society  OliveLivestock  WineFishing  Grains  A trading society  Trade colonies in Spain, N. Africa, Black Sea Coast  Advanced handicrafts  Metallurgy  Pottery  Textile

SOURCES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Apollodoros: Author of The Library the earliest collection of myths. Homer: Author of the epic poems Odyssey and Iliad. Stories that originate in the Trojan War. Hesiod: Author of Theogony, Works and Days, the Catalogue of Women. Ovid: Roman author of Metamorphoses. Virgil: Roman author of the epic work Aeneid.

PERIOD OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY “The times before recorded history began and beyond reliable oral tradition, in the para-history (Dowden, 1992).” Trojan War (circa BC) is the only link between Greek mythology and factual “history.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Includes gods, goddesses, demi-gods, and mortals Explains natural phenomena Includes magic and superhuman powers Gods and goddesses often appear in disguise and interfere with the lives of the mortals Gods and goddesses are anthropomorphic (human- shaped) and they have human emotions Very often gods and goddesses are involved in incest and adultery, almost to the point of moral corruption Adapted from

GREEK & ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Romans were also a pagan society with a polytheistic religion, but their beliefs were not as systematised as those of the Greek. No definite personification of gods. Gods were hardly more than a “those that are above” (Hamilton, 1940). Romans were influenced by Greek culture and changed their deities to resemble their Greek counterparts. Romans also changed the characters of some Greek deities in their own version.