1. Chapter Seven, Lecture One
Myths of the Olympians

2. Male Deities
Reflect range of activities consistent with the roles Greek men played in their society

3. Poseidon, Lord of the Deep
Husband (posis)
An Indo-european male fertility god
This explains the tangle of his competencies
original: springs, horses, earthquakes
acquired: sea
Married to “Amphitrite”
Father of Triton

4. Poseidon, Lord of the Deep
The competition in Athens
He offers the Athenians salt water??
Lost also in Argos
Impregnated Medusa
Pegasus born when Medusa killed by Perseus

5. Hades, King of the Dead the invisible” (Helmet from the Cyclops)
“Pluto” (wealth)
Lord of the dead who inhabit the top layer of soil
Abduction and Marriage to Persephone (daughter of Demeter), discussed in Chapter 11

6. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
One of the most complex
His competencies are a tangle of different areas
His history is complex and inconsistent
His role at Delphi makes him, next to Zeus, the most important Olympian

7. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
His epithet shows his origin
Lycia or Lycus
Delian (Twin of Artemis)
Other stories associate him with the north – swans carried him to the land of the Hyperboreans – and thereafter he spent the winters there.

8. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
Looking for a place for his shrine, he is misled by Telephusa away from Boeotia – goes to Parnassus
Originally Delphi was the site for Ge-Themis
Must slay a dangerous dragon, eventually named Typhon
Goes back and punishes Telephusa

9. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
Pan-Hellenic, even world site 800 BC – AD 394
Center of the world, marked by the omphalos
Apollo spoke through a prophetess, the Pythia, seated on a tripod in the temple
Obscurity: e.g., Croesus; “the wooden walls”

10. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
Sender of plagues
God of mice
Healing
Asclepius and the story of Coronis

11. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
Acquired features of a sun god
The god of male beauty
Apollo’s list of failed romances

12. Apollo, the Far-Darter, God of Prophecy
Cassandra
Sibyl of Cumae (like Tithonus): “As many years as grains of sand she could scoop up in her hands.”
Daphnê (laurel tree)
Marpessa
Hyacinth

13. Hephaestus Ares Hermes
Next Time
Hephaestus
Ares
Hermes