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 delineating the customs or ideals of society.

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

4. 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

5. 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
Typically, when we think of the earliest philosophers we think of the pre-Socratics, the handful of Greek philosophers who lived before Socrates—around the 6th century BC
We will come back to many of these questions as the year continues and study several philosophers and how their ideas influenced literature.
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 is explaining, comfort in knowing answers, we control our culture, our identities, our very lives by explaining and answering certain questions

6. 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 flood the Attic plain
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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Myths to Entertain People were illiterate in early Greece
Couldn’t read or write
Entertainment in an oral culture
Blood, shock, exciting tales
The Heroes
Herakles, Odysseus, Theseus, Jason
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

10. 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

11. Why Study Myth?

13. To Understand Literature and Art
Mythical allusions and references
Keats and the Romantics
Shakespeare and many others
“Like Hyperion to a satyr” (Hamlet)
If you want to be a really good student of Western literature, you must know your Greek and Roman myths
Knowing them enhances the meaning and enriches the experience

14. Brueghel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1555)
Don’t need to discuss this.
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)

15. Truth in Myth Universal truths Stories about the human condition
Another reason to study myth…

16. Archetypes and Mythic Patterns
Greek characters, places, themes have influenced (consciously or not) Western literature and art
Journeys to the underworld
Serpent figures
And others…
Finding connecting patterns

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

18. Journal #1—Intro to Myth
What purpose did Mythology serve in Ancient Greece, and what purpose does it serve today? Support your answer with evidence from the slide show as well as examples of modern-day allusions to Greek Mythology.