1. Intro to Greek Mythology
The Elements
and Purposes of Myth
Our focus will be on Greek myth but we will be talking today about myth in general as well as characteristics of Greek mythology.

2. Myth Defined Greek Mythos=“discourse” or “speech”
Dictionary: A traditional story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that informs or shapes the world view of a people, by explaining aspects of the natural world or the customs and ideals of that society.

3. Myth vs. Legend vs. Folktale
Legend = has a validated historical basis unlike a myth or folktale
Folktale = a tale told for entertainment; does NOT try to explain/describe human behavior
Legends- King Author, Robin Hood, Trojan War
Folktales – Paul Bunyon – giant lumberjack and his blue ox, Babe, Brothers Grimm (Germany)

4. Elements of Greek Myth Interaction between gods and humans
Gods as large and beautiful humans
Gods as flawed beings
Supernatural beings and monsters
Larger than life, godly “superheroes”

5. Best-known writers of Greek and Roman mythology .
Homer – One of the oldest known Greek literary sources, Homer's epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events surrounding the aftermath of the Trojan War. He is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet.
Hesiod- Was a poor farmer and a near contemporary of Homer. His two poems, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices.
Ovid - His poetry influenced European art and literature and remains as one of the most important sources of classical poetry. One of his most famous epic poems is Metamorphoses. He is a Roman poet that did not really believe in the Gods, but used the myths as subjects for his writing.
Homer – oral story telling, Iliad is first known example of western literature.
Metamorphoses – 250 myths, creation to Julius Caesar.

6. Continued.
Pindar- Greatest lyric poet, many versions of his poems still exists today.
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides- All tragic poets, Aeschylus was the oldest and Euripides was the youngest. The famous play, Oedipus Rex, came from Sophocles.
Aristophanes- Great writer of comedy.
Plato- Famous philosopher .
Virgil- Found human nature in the myths, and he brought mythological personages to life as no one had since the tragedians.

7. Purposes of Myth
Hercules and the 9-headed hydra
Hercules

8. Myths Explain Natural Occurrences
Examples?
Gaea and Ouranos
Thunder and lightning (Zeus)
Earthquakes (Poseidon)
Seasons (Persephone & Demeter)
The sun rises (Greece: Helios’ chariot, Egypt: Ra and Semektet)
Can you think of examples?
Why do we see thunder and lightning? Because Zeus is on Mt. Olympus throwing them at someone—he’s probably angry
Why are there seasons? Demeter is saddened by the imprisonment of her daughter Persephone in the underworld.
Poseidon – earth shaker

9. Myths Explain Fundamental Philosophical Questions
Early Greeks as proto philosophers
Attempting to answer fundamental questions
Where did we come from?
Who created the universe?
Is there life after death?
To explain is to control
Comfort in knowing
Story of Orpheus and Eurydice explains where Greeks believed they went after they died—and that once there, one could not return.
Depiction of Underworld as an actual place is one example of the Greeks attempting to explain and show the order of the universe
An order centered on Greece
So, there is power in explaining, comfort in knowing answers, we control our culture, our identities, our very lives by explaining and answering certain questions

10. Myths Explain Culture and Institutions
Why women
couldn’t vote
To explain is to control
Athena and Poseidon both want to rule and protect Athens
Gift contest
Poseidon=saltwater well (useless)
Athena=olive tree (olive, wood, oil)
Men vote for Poseidon, women for Athena
Athena wins
Poseidon floods the Attic plain (region in Greece)
Athenians blame the women, take away vote
Another purpose of mythology.
Again, to explain is to control—this myth reinforces male control, patriarchal systems of power

11. Myths as Means to Instruct
Myths often relay a message or moral
Teach cultural traditions, values
Icarus—life has limits
Narcissus and the dangers of pride and self love
Icarus - Son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. But the great craftsman's genius would not suffer captivity. He made two pairs of wings by adhering feathers to a wooden frame with wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned him that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became ecstatic with the ability to fly and forgot his father's warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea.
Narcissus - He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis saw this and attracted Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus died. Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, a fixation with oneself.

12. Myths to Explain History
A biased version of history
Reinforce Greek culture and power
Trojan War
Crete and King Minos
Founding of Rome
Founded by sons of Mars
Gave tellers sense of identity, sense of place
Minos was believed to have been the son of Zeus and Europa and became the first king of Crete
Rome was believed in some stories to have been founded by Romulus and Remus, the sons of the Roman war god Mars
Not all cities were founded by sons of gods but…
If you believe your city or state was founded by a god or son of a god, it gives you pride

13. Myths to Entertain People were illiterate in early Greece
Couldn’t read or write
Entertainment in an oral culture
Blood, shock, sex, exciting tales
The Heroes
Herakles, Odysseus, Theseus, Jason, Perseus
Stronger, smarter, more handsome than mere mortals
Nobility in humanity
Humans are better than gods
Actually, the earliest Greeks could write during the Bronze age (from about 1700 BC to around 1200) but then somehow loss that ability during what is called the Dark Age in Greece
They would relearn how to write around 800 or 700 BC
The heroes were the Brad Pitts, or more appropriately Harry Potters of their day—but bigger because there was less competition

14. Cultural Supremacy and Civil Order
Persuasion
Greek superiority over non-Greeks
Other as “barbarians”
Religion: Cult & Ritual
Maintained order
Gave people reason to be loyal to a city
Temples and sacrifices
Feared retribution of the gods
The word barbarian is basically an onomatopoetic word
The Greeks thought everyone who didn’t speak Greek sounded like “ba ba ba”
Apollo’s Temple at Delphi

15. Why Study Myth?

17. To Understand Literature and Art
Mythical allusions and references
Keats and the Romantics
Shakespeare and many others
“Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit with Cupid's arrow” (Romeo and Juliet)
If you want to be a really good student of Western literature, you must know your Greek and Roman myths and your Bible
Knowing them enhances the meaning and enriches the experience
Keats – English romantic poet

18. Archetypes and Mythic Patterns
Greek characters, places, themes have influenced (consciously or not) Western literature and art
Femme fatale, the trickster, the great mother and father, mentor, the monster
Great floods, virgin births, creation, paradise, the underworld
Finding connecting patterns T
Virgin birth – Lida (Helen of Troy), Hera - Hephaestus, Danae – Perseus.

19. Myth and Language Word origins
Think of some words that come from Greek mythology
Are there any of these you don’t know?

20. Myth and Language Word origins Volcano Herculean aphrodisiac music
atlas
tantalize
Erotic
Narcissism
Are there any of these you don’t know?

21. Myth and Cultural Literacy
E.D. Hirsch
Knowledge of myths makes us literate
Enriches our understanding of the Western world
Empowering
Shared culture

22. This is not a “G” rated class
Mythology is …
- violence - death
- war - hideous injuries
- love - sex
- power - deceit
- ambrosia - and much more
- pride
- hate
- jealousy
- impossible feats
So please be mature!!!

23. Journal #1—Intro to Myth Summary
What is mythology?
Why should we study Greek mythology in High School?
What are some of the purposes of myth?
½ page minimum

24. Phaeton
Phaeton was the son of Klymene and Helios, the sun god. Helios job was to bring the sun across the sky from the east to the west. He used a chariot drawn by four fiery-winged steeds. Phaeton begged his father to let him drive the chariot to prove his parentage. Helios finally relented. Phaeton quickly got out-of-control because the horses sensed there was an inexperienced and weaker hand. As a result much of the earth was scorched including the African desserts and plains. Zeus killed Phaeton with a thunderbolt and he was placed in the sky amongst the stars after his death. In this painting by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, the butterfly–winged female figures, personifying the seasons and hours, react in terror as the earth below bursts into flame. Even the great astrological bands that arch through the heavens are disrupted. To save the universe from destruction, Zeus, king of the gods, throws a thunderbolt, represented here by a blinding shaft of light. As the chariot disintegrates, Phaeton plunges to his death.

25. Brueghel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1555)
Now look at the painting below by Peter Brueghel, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" (1558). Notice how he takes details of ordinary life from Ovid's language: the farmer at his plow, the shepherd leaning on his staff, the fisherman down by the water. However, in Brueghel's version of the story, these men are oblivious to Icarus' plight. (If you haven't found him yet, look in the water in the lower right corner.) Why do you think Icarus's tragedy is reduced to a minor detail in the painting? In "Musee des Beaux Arts," a poem inspired by this painting (which was inspired by Ovid), W. H. Auden explains:
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters: how well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along ... In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure. The sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Not sure anyone could really understand this painting if they didn’t understand, at least partially, the myth of Icarus
Brueghel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1555)

26. How do the stories of Phaeton and Icarus help shape the worldview of the Greeks?