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  • Define and discuss the significance of Aphrodite and The Adonia. Your response should be at least one-two complete paragraphs.
  • Define and discuss the significance of Haphaestus.. Your response needs to be at least one - two complete paragraphs.
  • Define and discuss the significance of Dionysius. Your response needs to be at least one – two complete paragraphs.
  • Discuss the elements of Hades' interactions with the dead in the underworld. Consider the geography of the underworld and the true role of Hades. How are concepts of Tartarus (for the ancient Greeks) equivalent to contemporary notions of hell in YOUR opinion? Your response must contain at least 3-4 well-developed paragraphs. All work must be in complete sentences and properly cited.
  • Examine how Hermes attained the many attributes he was given over a long period of time. In your response consider how he became associated with messengers, travel, protector, medicine and TRICKSTER. What role does Apollo play in Hermes story line? Your response must be at least 3-4 well developed paragraphs. All work must contain full sentences and proper citations.

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JOURNEY OF THE HERO Defining a Quest Hero • Odysseus exemplifies the quest hero • A quest is defined by • The search for a precious object or person • A long journey undertaken by a hero • A hero with trials and tribulations • Guardians who test the hero • Helpers who offer necessary assistance • A hero is a quest hero when his life is defined by the quest 12.1 Odysseus listens to the Sirens. Detail from a red-figure stamnos. Siren Painter. Fifth century BCE. British Museum, London, United Kingdom. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY, ART14704. Odysseus’s Quest Map 12.1 Odysseus and Other Quest Heroes Villains and Helpers • The categories of villains and helpers overlap in a quest story, providing drama and suspense • Villains in many cases are not human, they represent uncivilized or frightening behaviors, in contrast to the idealized hero • Villains can also be non-Greeks who don’t have the Greek requirement to provide hospitality • Female helpers, especially princesses, tend to embody ideal feminine traits • They can be just as likely as villains to pose a threat to the hero, as in the case of Medea • This emphasizes the Greek fear of the uncontrolled female Perseus • Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae, who was imprisoned by his grandfather Acrisius after he received an oracle that her son would kill him • Acrisius tries to get rid of Perseus and Danae by setting them afloat in a large trunk • They are rescued and Perseus is sent on a quest for the head of Medusa by the king who sheltered them, who wants to marry Danae • Medusa is a Gorgon, and any man who looks at her is turned to stone 12.2 Perseus chases a monstrous Medusa. Black-figure kyathos. Theseus Painter. 510–500 BCE. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California, 86.AE.146. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. Medusa as Villain • In order to kill Medusa, Perseus has to gain help from the Graeae and three nymphs • Perseus manages to decapitate Medusa without looking at her • He then uses Medusa’s head as a weapon throughout his adventures • Medusa is most commonly depicted as a winged monster with snaky hair, but sometimes as a beautiful maiden who is vulnerable to Perseus’s attack 12.3 Perseus beheads sleeping Medusa. Detail from a red-figure pelike. Polygnotus. 450 BCE. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY, ART500333. Medusa and the Feminine • When Perseus decapitates her, Medusa gives birth to Chrysaor, a man, and Pegasus, a winged horse, from her neck • Even though she is dead, Medusa’s fertility still holds danger for the world • Her head is still capable of killing, even when detached from her body • Her female powers of procreation and magic threaten to transform men and the world in ways they cannot control 12.4 Medusa, Perseus, and the birth of Chrysaor and Pegasus. Limestone sarcophagus. 475–460 BCE. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY, ART500334. Bellerophon • Bellerophon is best known for his taming of the winged horse Pegasus and defeat of the Chimera • The Chimera was a hybrid female monster • Bellerophon was a successful hero, slaying several monsters, but he was punished by Zeus when he tried to ride Pegasus to Olympus • He had far fewer adventures than 12.5 Bellerophon and Pegasus confront the Chimera. Odysseus or Perseus, but their Spartan black-figure kylix. Boreads Painter. 565 BCE. J. memorable nature means that he was Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California, 85.AE.121. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content worshiped at a cult site in Corinth Program. The Voyages of Jason and the Argonauts Jason was sent by his uncle to retrieve the Golden Fleece His journeys are typical for a questing hero in that he found or earned help in many places along the way Map 12.2 The Voyages of Jason, the Argonauts, and Medea. Although some of these sites (such as Iolcus) actually existed, many other places are mythical. Their locations are speculative; this map reflects the conjectures of scholars and commentators over the centuries. Jason • Jason completes all the tasks demanded of him to earn to Golden Fleece, with the help of Medea • Medea leaves with Jason and they have another set of adventures • In many places Medea’s story eclipses Jason because her boldness and her skills make his victories possible • Jason’s attempt to leave Medea for the Corinthian princess Creusa results in her becoming the villain who overcomes him 12.6 The death of Talos (detail). Detail from a red-figure Attic krater. 420–390 BCE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale Jatta Archaeological, Ruvo Di Puglia, Italy. Scala / Art Resource, NY, ART88902. Odysseus • In the Iliad, Odysseus is often contrasted with Achilles, the best of the Greek warriors • Odysseus is known for his diplomacy and his cunning • He was a descendent of Hermes, and his stories depict him as a trickster figure as well as a quest hero • He is a master of disguise like Hermes, and crafty and talented like Athena, whose favorite he is 12.7 Achilles (sitting) welcomes Odysseus, followed by Ajax. Red-figure Attic skyphos. Macron. Circa 480 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART150157. Cunning Intelligence and Passive Heroics • Odysseus’s cunning is considered deceitful in many cases by the Greeks, but h • He devised the Trojan horse which won the war for the Greeks • The tragedians who wrote plays about his adventures explore the ambiguity o • Odysseus’s heroics are described as passive by modern scholars because of his Polyphemus the Cyclops • Odysseus and his men end up trapped in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus on their journey home from Troy • Odysseus blinds Polyphemus and then he and his men escape by clinging to the bellies of sheep • Odysseus’s actions are presented with a certain amount of ambiguity • The uncivilized nature of the Cyclopes is emphasized, however, making Odysseus the representative of civilized Greek culture 12.8 Odysseus escapes from Polyphemus’s cave. Athenian black-figure column krater. 550–500 BCE. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California. Villa Collection 96.AE.303. Scylla • Scylla was a hybrid female monster who lived in the cliffs opposite Charybdis, a female whirlpool that swallows ships whole • She presents a danger that is a magnification of the dangers of all female creatures • Odysseus is tempted and delayed in several places in his travels by women 12.9 Scylla. Terracotta plaque. Fifth century BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART427580. • At the end of the Odyssey, even his wife, Penelope, has the potential to delay the end of his quest The Odyssey Map 12.3 The Odyssey. Although some of these sites (such as Ithaca) actually existed, many other places are mythical. Their locations are speculative; this map reflects the conjectures of scholars and commentators over the centuries. Classical Mythology in Context Odysseus and Quest Heroes THEORY The Quest Hero • In “Ithaca”, C.P. Cavafy encourages the reader to see life as a long adventure, like Odysseus’s journey • The hero’s journey as metaphor for life explains the timelessness of the quest myth • American mythologist Joseph Campbell argues that the hero’s quest is similar to the initiation ritual as defined by van Gennep • He labeled the hero’s journey as a “monomyth”-one that occurs in all places and all times • He used the work of Carl Jung to compare the hero’s engagement with helpers and villains with psychological processes 12.10 Polyphemus. Terracotta head from Smyrna, Turkey. Fourth century BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY, ART63124. The Quest Hero • We can interact with Myth on another level that is more personal. • W. H. Auden’s definition in “The Quest Hero” is less academic, by aligning myth to our own life’ events. • The hero’s quest resonates with the reader’s subjective experience, rather than the hero’s experience • The journey reflects how individuals experience their own lives • Some of the trials encountered are fleeting, and some are significant • The villains and helpers encountered by heroes remind us of the people in our own lives Gilgamesh and Odysseus What do Share? • A journey to the Underworld is a common feature in the heros quest.. • Gilgamesh wanted to understand why his friend, Enkidu had to die. • He journeys through the waters of death in this attempt, but fails all the tests set him, and eventually accepts that death is inevitable • Odysseus travels to the Underworld in order to find out how to return home to Ithaca. • His rejection of immortality illustrates the Greek perception of the life lived with honor is more valuable. 12.11 Odyssey greets Teresias, rising from the ground, in the Underworld. Detail from red-figure calyx krater. Dolon Painter. 380 BCE. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris France. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY, ART13902. Odysseus in the Mediterranean World Map 12.4 Odysseus from Mesopotamia to Rome • Troy’s fall sends both Odysseus and Aeneas on long quests. • Aeneas’s quest is far less fantastical than Odysseus' • His quest is pointed at its mission: to found Rome • The process of understanding this mission leads Aeneas o the Underworld, Avernus. He must find his father to reveal to him his fate: • This is where he finds out about the history of the land and the people where he is fated to found a new kingdom • The trip to the Underworld transforms him into Rome’s founder African American Odysseus • Odysseus is a trickster figure in that he frequently relies on his wits to overcome challenges • He is also a sorrowful figure, burdened by suffering • Artists of the African diaspora have found Odysseus as compelling as Medea in describing their experiences • Journeys have especially defined the African American experience, from its origins in the slave trade to the Great Migration of the 20th century 12.12 The Sirens’ Song (1977). Collage of various papers with paint and graphite in the series Black Odysseus. Romare Bearden (1911–1988). Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. The Sirens’ Song ©Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York. African American Odysseus • Toni Morrison describes this as the “Ulysses theme” • Romare Bearden’s collage series “A Black Odyssey” recasts Homer’s epic in the landscape of Africa, America, and the Caribbean • Odysseus is an African American hero who makes a number of journeys, beginning with the one from Africa to America • Sterling A. Brown’s poem, “Odyssey of Big Boy”, is narrated by Calvin “Big Boy” Davis, and recounts his journey through the American South in search of work • His story represents the ability to root a life in action rather than place • Janie Crawford, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God also embarks on a quest, and like Odysseus, is a trickster figure • Odysseus, Big Boy, and Janie all narrate their own tales, making sense of their experience both for themselves and their audience • The Greeks believed that Orpheus was a real person, perhaps a poet of old maybe even an inventor of Poetry • He is known to use through the earliest literary sources (Homer and Hesiod) an even in archaeological records from 600 BCE a fragment of a poem by Ibycus (6th) where we hear of the ‘renowned Orpheus’. • Pindar makes reference to him as a member of the Argonauts. • Three elements of his life • musician • descent to Hades for Eurydice • His tragic death • Orpheus the Musician • Born in Thrace, the son of Oeagrus, a Thracian river god and one of the Muses (Calliope); or the son of Apollo and Calliope • Calliope, the most dignified of the Muses is commonly given as his mother; but sometimes Polyhymnia or Clio is named as is mother. • Other stories are sure that Apollo is his father because of his outstanding play with the lyre. • Many consider him to be the inventor or the lyre, or cithara, and to have augmented its number of strings from 7 to 9 to honor is mother and aunts, the nine muses. • As early as the playwright Aeschylus we hear that he captivated all who heard him, wild beasts would follow him, plants and trees would bend in the direction of his voice, and the could calm the wild men of the world. • Ovid also found the story to his liking for his used Orpheus’ quest for the beginning of the 10th book of the Metamorphoses, and developed incidents involving the singer’s death for the introduction of his 11th book. • Plato: several centuries earlier he cited a unique version of the quest in the Symposium as part of a discussion on love. In fact he also used Alcestis’ sacrifice for her husband as an illustration of a lover willing to die for love. But not so for Orpheus; unlike Alcestis he did not dare to die for love. Instead, according to Plato he contrived to enter Hades alive, as a mere lyre player – so the Gods punished him by causing his death at the hand of women. Behind Plato’s account lies the doctrine of punishment for the mortal who presumes to transgress the limits of his human condition • Ovid and Vergil: Their story begins with the death of Eurydice, a Dryad or Tree Nymph. Hotly pursued by Aristaeus, she ran before him, and in her haste to escape him she stepped on a poisonous snake and received the fatal bite to her ankle. Her Dryad companions made Mount Rhodope and Pagaeum echo with their cries. Orpheus was grief-stricken at the lost of his wife and determined to bring her back from the underworld. He descended to the land of the bodiless dead through the hell mouth of Taenarum and made his plea in song before Hades and Persephone. In the name of love he asked that his wife be allowed to return to the world of the living on loan, so to speak, until natural death claimed her. What was the effect Orpheus had on those who listed to him? Ovid tells it like this: • It was said that the jaws of Cerberus remained agape as Orpheus sang. • Hades and Persephone did not have the heart to refuse such a touching plea. • They brought Eurydice to Orpheus – she still limped a bit from the snakebite- and gave her to Orpheus only if would not look back until they had passed from the world of darkness into daylight. • Orpheus readily agreed and the two climbed up to the world of the living. But at the moment as they reached the place that separated the two realms, Orpheus out eagerness, anticipation, (or some say anxiety) looked back. In an instant Eurydice vanished, lost forever leaving Orpheus stunned and inconsolable at the double death of his love. • • And with his words, the music • Made pale phantoms weep: Ixion’s wheel was still, Tityus’s vultures left the liver • Tantalus tried no more to reach for the water • And Belus daughters ‘the Daiaids’ rested from their urns, • And Sisyphus climbed on his rock to listen • This was the first time in all the world that the Furies wept. • Notice how Shakespeare used him in Henry VIII • And Orpheus with his lute made trees • And the mountain tops that freeze • Bow themselves when he did sing • To his music plants and flowers • Ever sprung, as sun and showers • There had made a lasting spring • Everything that heard him play • Even the billows of the sea, • Hung their heads and then lay by • In The Two Gentlemen of Verona • For Orpheus’s lute was strung with poets’ sinews, • Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones • Make tiger tame, and huge leviathans • Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sand • Orpheus and Eurydice • The quest for a lost spouse/love is a standard motif that is not limited to European culture; it is found as far east as Japan, Native North America,. • Ovid and Vergil are our Roman sources for much of the events in Orpheus’ life. They derived much of their material from the accents of pathos and romance of the Alexandrian poets • In the 4th book of Vergil’s Georgics, which is really a treatise on beekeeping in highly polished poetic form, the poet introduces the death of Eurydice by way of a literary digression as he tells the story of Aristaeus, a rustic deity who had some connection to beekeeping. Orpheus looks back Russell 1920 Orpheus with Lyre Attic Pottery 5th BCE With the Argonauts Orpheus tames the underworld with Song • Traumatized at this experience he vowed to remain celibate and to have nothing else to do with women, even if they offered themselves to him. • • According to Ovid – he rejected the advances of women and gave his love only to young men in the bloom of youth. • • One day as he was singing drawing the trees, beasts and stones after him, a group of Thracian women, came upon him. They remembered him as one who had spurned him, they tore Orpheus limb from limb and flung his head and lyre into the Hebrus river. Both head and lyre were carried to the island of Lesbos, the home of Sappho and other famed lyric poets. • When a serpent dared to bite the head Apollo turned it into stone. • Dionysius then demanded vengeance upon the women who dared to kill his singer. The women were rooted to the ground and were transformed into oak trees. Giorgio Lazzarini “Orpheus and the Bacchae • His one adventure beyond the borders of the Hellenic world took place when he was invited to become a member of the Argonauts on their voyage to Colchis to gain the golden fleece. His most outstanding feat was to outplay the sirens and thereby prevent the Argonauts from being lured to their deaths. • The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have been transported to Lesbos, where it was enshrined and visited as an oracle. The 2nd-century geographer Pausanius reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion his place of death and a major religious center. These too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual. The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon the town of Libretha whence the people of Dion had transferred the relics to their own keeping. • The life of Orpheus and his visit to the underworld captures the basic tenets of Creation, Death, Resurrection • Zeus Swallows Creation and becomes the beginning and the end • • • • • • Purity of Soul Corruption of the Body Original Sin (breaking away from oneness) Transmigration of the Soul (Pythagoras) Purification Apotheosis (element of the heroes journey – realizing ones weaknesses and strengths, humility, underworld) • • • • • Cult of Cult of Cult of Cult of Cult of 3/15/2018 Demeter / Ancient Greece Cybele / Asia Minor Isis / Ancient Egypt Dionysius / Asia Minor and Ancient Greece Mithras / Ancient Persia 20 • • • • • Dionysius worship and symbolism Male god who is the master of animals God of vegetation and wild-life See his name on major materials beginning in 1300 BCE His home is often considered to be Thrace on the link between civilized Greece and the ‘east’. • Myths of future life and reincarnation • Identified with Zagreus who was devoured by the Titans to be born again amid the flames of Semele's death; and it was from this take, incorporated into the Orphic literature that there emanated themes of future life and reincarnation. • • • • • Demeter/Cybele (Agriculture Deities) Dionysius/Osiris/Mithras (Suffering,Dying,Resurrected) Adoption of other deities into the larger Pantheon Spiritual Awakening by many in the Ancient Near East Mithras : Persian god of light and truth, associated with tauroctony (slay of the bull. Very popular with Roman Military 3/15/2018 22 1. Rich Religious Life Religious life of the empire was rich with spiritual variety; the growth of empire encompassed a plethora of religious beliefs with Eastern flavors that were still to be discovered. 2. Traditional Roman practices remained ritualistic with the emphasis on propitiation of the gods through ceremonies carried out with precision Lead by Lay-person/not state appointed priests/priestess • Communal Meal – familiar concept of eating and socializing • Forgiveness/Redemption of Sin • Uplifting and powerful ceremonies • Suffering, dying, resurrected deity • Pattern fit the rise of lay prophets, mystics and healers • Afterlife 3/15/2018 26 • Orphism as a Mystery Religion taught that after death the human soul might obtain eternal bliss • Or perhaps eternal torment depending on behavior on Earth. • Religious practices included a sacramental meal of bread and wine which represented the eating of the god’s flesh and the drinking of his blood. • The priest/magician changed approved food and wine into the god’s flesh and blood. • Good shepherd – identified with caring for the most vulnerable. O Orpheus –Christ 4th Century Catacomb of Domitilla Rome. Christ-Orpheus holding a panpipe – Aquileia Floor Mosaic 4th century Cathedral of Bishop Theodore • Personality and legend of Orpheus is deeply imbedded in Western Culture • In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the iconographical affinities between the Thracian singer and Biblical figures did not go unnoticed. • Orpheus represents the person of David playing a harp to charm the sheep and wild beasts. • Lion and the lamb – reputed to have laid down together to listen to Orpheus play • In the Catacombs of Rome he is shown as the good shepherd caring for his flocks • Middle Ages • Greek realm of Hades is turned into a Celtic land of enchanting and beautiful fairies; Hades himself is the king surrounded by knights and ladies dressed in white and mounted on white horses – Heurodis, the medieval counterpart of Eurydice is won over not by death but by a spell under a fairy tree. • Epitomizes the medieval strategy for dealing with a pagan story • Three main strands - What are they? • Shaman – Religious teacher – as I mentioned earlier – David the Sheppard and psalmist and musician - Christ like as well whose ‘new song’ harmonizes the world and makes men of stones etc. – going to the underworld to save Eurydice as Christ descent to earth and hell. • Boethius – SOUL wrote that Orpheus represents the human soul, seeking to rise out of darkness to philosophical (Christian) enlightenment, BUT in danger of backsliding if the soul is tempted to look back at the worldly things it is leaving behind. • MUSIC – Orpheus with Eloquence and Eurydice with wisdom – a good musician must have Orpheus’ technical skill but also a deeper understanding of the musical theory represented by Eurydice • Late Middle Ages • A different story emerges – to reflect the popular lit of the time – Chivalry and courtly love. • Ideal courtly lovers – the minstrel knight and his lady • Renaissance • In England Eurydice fades a bit in this period – Orpheus is for the most part what?? • Musician and Poet • Mathematics and Orpheus - Pythagoras and the Music of the Spheres. – Heavenly aspects • Architect of civilized society • Orpheus as failure • Milton sees the death of Orpheus at the hands of the Bacchantes as a symbol of the dangers that threaten a poet in a world hostile to poetry • Translations and travesties • Misogynistic humor • Romantics • Shelly’s Defense of Poetry – places him in a bleak purgatory – and not a public civilizer but a man singing of pain in the wilderness. • One of my favorite pieces is the entry by Browning where she pleads Orpheus to look at her – • Dowden’s formidable Eurydice regrets that she did not lead them out of hell and in some versions she is less than eager to be resurrected The Heroine’s Quest Justice And Tragedy The Heroine’s Quest • Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope described the heroine’s quest as understanding, rather than conquering, the world • Heroines resemble heroes who are lauded for their actions on behalf of their community • Heroes and heroines were celebrated because they were believed to be still powerful after death • Some were fictional, like Homer’s heroes, but some were historical figures • Worship of historical heroes at their tombs increased during the 4th century BCE, and was eventually modified into Christian veneration of satins and martyrs 13.1 Iphigenia in Tauris. Fresco from the House of L. Caecilio Giocondo in Pompeii. First century CE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY, ART71656. Heroes in the Classical Period • Harmodius and Aristogeiton are examples of the increasing popularity of historical heroes in classical Athens • They killed the Athenian tyrant Hipparchus, which is considered a foundational moment in the establishment of democracy • They were praised as liberators, yearly sacrifices were offered to them, and gradually they gained the status of heroes • Greek soldiers who died in the Persian Wars were given 13.2 Harmodius and similar treatment Aristogeiton, the tyrant slayers. copy. Museo • The difference between historical and mythical heroes Roman Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, was that historical figures died for a cause that was Italy. Alfredo Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY, recognized as good and necessary AA356070. Heroines in the Classical Period • Historical female figures frequently appeared in tragedies, and several of them were worshiped as heroines • Unlike epics, tragedies were set in the home, and therefore required female characters Map 13.1 Iphigenia and Other Quest Heroines • Tragic heroines often addressed social concerns by acting publicly and against the wishes of their guardians to right wrongs The New Heroine • Classicist Christopher Jones describes historical heroes worshiped for the social and civic acts as “new heroes” • Heroines like Clytemnestra, Medea, and Hecuba took actions that were cruel and violent, but each acts out of a sense of betrayal, either of a person or a principle • Antigone fits more neatly into the category of new heroine because she saw it as her duty to defy King Creon to bury her brother • Her choice of suicide highlights Creon’s abuse of power • In Euripides’s Hecuba, her daughter Polyxena chooses to die willingly, providing a contrast to the Greeks who have sunk to the level of human sacrifice in their pride Iphigenia • Euripides used the story of Iphigenia to question Athenian leadership and actions during the Peloponnesian War • She was sacrificed by her father, Agamemnon, to appease Artemis so that the Greek fleet could sail to Troy • Iphigenia chooses to die willingly • In one version of Euripides’s Iphigenia at Aulis, Artemis swapped Iphigenia for a deer, and then sent her to be a priestess at Tauris • Despite their social powerlessness, the new heroines embodied the willingness to act on behalf of others 13.3 Artemis saves Iphigenia at the altar. “Diana of Versailles,” Roman marble copy after the original from the end of the fourth century to the early third century BCE. Artemis and Ifigenia, IN 0482. Courtesy of Ny Carsberg Glyptotek. Classical Mythology in Context Iphigenia and Quest Heroines THEORY A Paradigm for the New Heroine • Classicist Edith Hall defines Iphigenia as a quest heroine • A quest heroine must • Be the protagonist of a story that does not revolve around romance, sex, marriage, or parenthood • Travel far • Have a relationship with a god or goddess • Have moral and intellectual authority • Be courageous and lead others • Be a role model • Very few ancient Greek heroines fit this model other than Iphigenia Amor and Psyche • Feminist scholar Lee R. Edwards develops a definition of the heroine that emphasizes love and connection as motivation • Psyche was the daughter of a king, and so beautiful that Venus sent Amor to punish her • Amor falls in love with her instead, and takes her away to a palace to be his wife in secret • Psyche breaks a promise not to look on her husband, and goes on a journey to find him when he leaves her 13.4 Amor and Psyche embrace. • She the has to perform tasks to win him back Terracotta statuette from • She easily fits the definition of a quest heroine Myrina. First century BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA / Bridgeman Images, BST1762526. Defining the New Heroine • Edwards’s definition of a heroine is derived from the work of van Gennep and Turner • Turner expanded van Gennep’s liminal stage to include non-initiates who occupy an in between position • Their outsider status is temporary, and so while they usually challenge society, they also seek to return to it • Marginals live on the outskirts of society permanently, and do not seek to accept its values • Edwards defines heroes as liminal, but heroines as marginal • Women in patriarchal societies will never gain the same status as men, so they are uniquely suited to challenge its beliefs • Heroines are better suited to finding strength in love and connection than in opposition or conquest, thereby making those connections the defining factor in their heroism Classical Mythology in Context Iphigenia and Quest Heroines COMPARISON Thecla • Thecla was a young woman who lived in Turkey during the 2nd century • She rejected her fiancé to become a Christian and a missionary • She may or may not have been historical, but there are parallels between her stories and those of the new heroines Map 13.2 Thecla from Iconium to Rome Saints and Martyrs • Christians who were martyred by the Romans and those who pursued lives of virtue were often worshiped after their deaths • Their miraculous powers remained with their bodies after death • In contrast to heroes, they were thought to have a close connection with God • Greek heroes were celebrated for their power in life, Christian saints were celebrated for their suffering • Their worship was also increasingly controlled by the Christian church as it grew more centralized 13.5 Thecla with two wild beasts. Terracotta ampulla (flask). Sixth to seventh century CE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMNGrand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART167305. New Heroines and Martyrs • Martyrs served as witnesses to their beliefs during their deaths, which were frequently public spectacles • Martyrs became empowered by their public deaths, which criticized the power of the Roman state • This was similar to the deaths of new heroines like Iphigenia, Polyxena, and Antigone • Stories of Thecla most likely come from oral stories told at her tomb • They were carried home by pilgrims and retold and reshaped in the process • Tales of Thecla and other saints therefore came to resemble early romances, full of harrowing adventures in search of true love-in the case of saints, the true love of Jesus Paul and Thecla The African church father Tertullian (160-230) complained that some Christians were using the example of Thecla to legitimate women's roles of teaching and baptizing in the church (On Baptism 17). Acts of Paul and Thecla are considered to be Apocryphal (not a part of approved church doctrine/text) Ten Years of Iphigenia in New York City • Euripides’s plays about Iphigenia have been reinterpreted by scholars and artists alike • Iphigenia at Aulis is more popular, especially in times of war because of the questions it asks • Iphigenia among the Taurians has provoked less interest • Both deal with the issue of human sacrifice, not a contemporary issue • Charles L. Mee’s Iphigenia 2.0 uses human sacrifice as a key plot device 13.6 Playbill from the premier of Michi Barall’s Rescue Me. • Mee follows Euripides’s plot, but adds modern http://www.broadwayworld.com/off-offbroadway/article/MaYi-Theatre-Companyreferences Presents-RESCUE-ME-by-Michi-Barall20100322#.U6nE6Rnt214. ©Another Limited Rebellion, Courtesy of the Ma Yi Theater Company. Ten Years of Iphigenia in New York City • Mee’s Iphigenia has the Greek soldiers rather than Artemis demand the death, using the event to question morality and leadership in times of war • It also questions Iphigenia’s status as heroine: is she deluded by the values of a militaristic culture, or is she using death as an escape from that culture? • Michi Barall’s Rescue Me is an adaptation of Iphigenia among the Taurians • Iphigenia works in an immigration agency, sacrificing all Greek visitors to Artemis • Barall asks the audience to consider whether there is an unbridgeable gap between Euripides’s theme of human sacrifice and the present, where immigration policies divide families and deny refuge to those whose lives are threatened Chapter 10 Classical Mythology in Context Achilles: The Making of a Hero HISTORY Five Traits of Greek Heroes • Heroes were men who had died • They performed extraordinary deeds that may or may not be moral • They die prematurely, violently, or mysteriously • They were worshiped at their gravesites • They obtained a form of immortality through song and cult 10.1 Heroic banquet. A hero reclines on a couch and dines while a servant stands nearby. Such reliefs were often used as grave markers for mortals who were worshipped as heroes. Marble relief. Unknown, Greek, eastern Mediterranean, 150–100 BCE. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection 96.AA.167: Malibu, California. Greek Heroes Map 10.1 Achilles and Other Greek Heroes Heroes in Cult • Shrines to heroes were located in a variety of places, wherever their bodies were believed to rest • Sometimes their spaces of worship were simple gravesites or tombs, sometimes they were temples or cult statues • Precious objects were dedicated to them and annual festivals sometimes took place at hero shrines 10.2 Model of a hero shrine dedicated to a local ruler in Trysa, Lycia, Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The shrine’s nine-foot walls enclosed monumental tombs and were decorated with limestone reliefs depicting heroes such as Odysseus, Perseus, and Bellerophon. Early fourth century BCE. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY, ART204768. Heroes in Myth • Stories and images ensured that heroes would be remembered after their death • Very few of these stories give exactly the same account, and very few tell the whole story of any hero • Vertical traditions refer to incidents that are detailed in many places • Horizontal tradition describes the life story of a figure gathered from multiple sources • Horizontal traditions tend to smooth out the contradictions inherent in vertical traditions 10.3 Jason is disgorged by the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece as Athena watches. Kylix, from Cerveteri. Douris Painter, fifth century BCE. Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican Museums, Vatican. Universal Images Group / Art Resource, NY, ART424807. Heroes in Myth • Epics about heroes emphasize their exploits-they are rarely showed in domestic spaces • Lyric poetry celebrates athletes as heroes in similar terms • In the Classical period, epic heroes became the protagonists of tragedies • Their exploits become secondary to their relationships, which were easier to depict onstage 10.4 Heracles, wearing the skin of the Nemean lion, leashes Cerberus. Detail from a red-figure amphora. Andokides Painter, 530–510 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART497632. • Heracles had the most adventures, therefore his story is the most complex to The Labors of Heracles (1) Heracles sits, weary from his struggle with the Nemean lion, while Athena watches. Heracles skins the Nemean lion with its own claws, and he is often depicted wearing the lion’s skin, which makes his body invulnerable. (2) Heracles kills the Lernaean hydra with the help of Iolaus, who cauterizes its necks to prevent them from growing back. (3) Heracles kills the Stymphalian birds by using castanets manufactured for him by Athena to rouse the birds from their nests. (4) Heracles captures the Cretan bull, bringing it to Marathon, in mainland Greece. (5) Heracles devotes a year to chasing the swift, golden-horned Cerynaean hind that is dear to Artemis. (6) Heracles defeats an Amazon, named Hippolyte, in an attempt to gain possession of her belt. The Amazons were a warlike race of women who dwelled in Scythia, shunned men, and fought on horses using a bow. (7) Heracles displays the Erymanthian boar to Eurystheus, who hides in a pot from fright. (8) Heracles defeats the man-eating, firebreathing mares of Diomedes. (9) Heracles captures the cattle of Geryon, a three-headed, three-bodied monster who guards them. (10) Heracles obtains golden apples, which are guarded by three females called Hesperides along with a snake. To gain help from Atlas in accomplishing this task, Heracles carries the world that had been resting on Atlas’s shoulders. (11) Heracles leads Cerberus, a three-headed dog in the Underworld, to the light of day. (12) Heracles cleans the Augean stables, by rerouting a river through them with Athena’s assistance. 10.5 Sketches of metopes depicting Heracles’s labors on Zeus’s temple in Olympia. Using the surviving pieces of these metopes and a description by Pausanias (5.10.9), the order of the metopes has been reconstructed as follows. Heracles • Heracles was persecuted by Hera because he was the son of Zeus and a mortal, Alcmene • He became famous for his twelve labors in penance for killing his wife and sons • By surviving Hera’s trials, Heracles earned the right to enter Olympus and marry the goddess Hebe • This made him unusual among heroes, and he had more cult shrines than any other • In the Alcestis Euripides depicts Heracles as a drunken buffoon, but also a loyal friend • In Heracles Maenomenus he is shown as a broken man after the death of his wife and sons • Sophocles’s Trachiniae shows Heracles, at the end of his life, as both suffering and causing his family to suffer through his actions The Adventures of Theseus 10.6 Adventures of Theseus from Troezen to Athens. Red-figured cup, Athens. Codrus Painter, c. 440–430 bce. British Museum, London. From the top center and reading to the right, Theseus defeats (1) Cercyon, a wrestler in the Eleusis, who would kill all those he defeated; (2) Procrustes, who would place travelers on a bed and would stretch them, if they were short, or cut off their feet, if they were tall, to make them fit his bed; (3) Sciron, a highway robber renowned for kicking travelers off a cliff and into the sea, where they would be devoured by a large sea turtle; (4) the Marathonian bull, formerly called the Cretan bull because Heracles captured it in Crete and deposited it Marathon; (5) Sinis, a bandit who tied travelers to two pine trees that, when sprung loose, tore them apart; and (6) an enormous sow in Crommyon. In the center of the vase, Theseus kills the Minotaur on Crete. The Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource, NY, ART177596. Theseus • As a hero, Theseus resembled Heracles, with a canonical list of adventures • The Athenians shaped him into a civic hero who embodied the greatness of Athens • After killing the Minotaur, Theseus becomes king of Athens and is credited with accomplishments that help develop democracy in Athens, including expanding the worship of Athena • Euripides’s Hippolytus shows Theseus making amends for his mistaken punishment of his son Hippolytus, in opposition to Heracles’s 10.7 Theseus and Ariadne on Naxos. Detail behavior in Trachiniae from a red-figure lekythos (oil flask). Circa , 460 BCE. Museo Nazionale Taranto, Taranto, Italy. Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY, AA389189. Oedipus • Oedipus is famous thanks to Sophocles’s trilogy of plays depicting his tragic life • Oedipus is depicted as being heroic and worthy of veneration, despite his tragic fate • He, like Heracles, was indifferent to his sons, and both represent that the Greeks saw heroes as being capable of both great help and great harm to ordinary mortals 10.8 Oedipus and the Sphinx. Detail from a red-figure krater. Attributed to the Painter of the Birth of Dionysus. Fifth century BCE. Museo Nazionale Taranto, Taranto, Italy. Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY, AA389194. Tragedy’s Role • Central role in the spiritual and intellectual life of the polis. • Wealthy citizens vied for the honor and acclaim by undertaking the production costs of a play during the Dionysia. • Actors performed three dramas a day, and spectators had to follow the intricate poetry of the chorus and return the next day to compare the work of each playwright. Achilles • Achilles is known primarily though the Iliad of Homer • Achilles’s part in the Iliad is defined by his anger at Agamemnon • Achilles refuses to fight with the Greeks, then relents when his friend Patroclus is killed • Even though he knows he will die, Achilles helps the Greeks to victory by killing the Trojan warrior Hector 10.9 Achilles and his mother, Thetis, in a chariot are approached by worshippers. Fragmentary marble relief. Unknown. 350 BCE. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 78.AA.264, Malibu, California. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. Gilgamesh and the Burden of Mortality • The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a Sumerian king who ruled around 2800 BCE • Gilgamesh is presented as a great king, but cruel, so the gods create a rival for him, Enkidu • He and Enkidu become companions, and when Enkidu is killed, Gilgamesh grieves, but also begins to fear mortality • He sets out to find a way to become immortal, and has adventures in the process • At the end, Gilgamesh finds his immortality in the splendor of his city of Uruk 10.12 A hero (possibly Gilgamesh) • The tales of Gilgamesh and Achilles have many overpowering a lion. Relief from the Palace of Sargon II at similarities, despite the fact that they are seeking Khorsabada. Assyrian, c. 725 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © opposite goals RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART156553. Aeneas and the Founding of Rome • The Roman poet Vergil modeled his Aeneid on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey • Aeneas is a hero of Troy who escapes the destruction of the city with his family • Their journey is defined by the anger of Juno against Trojans • The poem follows Aeneas’s journey to Italy and his establishment of a kingdom • It reflects Vergil’s thoughts on the values of the Roman Empire and the government under the rule of Augustus • The question it finally asks is, can men restrain their 10.13 Aeneas carries his father, Anchises, from Troy. Etruscan terracotta appetite for revenge in order to govern wisely? statuette. Fifth century BCE. Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy. Scala / Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY, ART300543. Achilles and War Poetry • Dying Achilles was commissioned by a 19th century empress of Austria to commemorate her dead son • The estate where it is located, the Achilleion, was used by the military in both WWI and WWII • The upper and middle class soldiers of WWI were familiar with the stories of Achilles • Many used his experiences as a touchstone to make sense of their experiences of war • Patrick Shaw-Stewart wrote Stand in the Trench, Achilles, a poem which questions the purpose of war rather than looking forward to its glory 10.14 Dying Achilles. Ernst Gustav Herter, 1884. Achilleion, Corfu, Greece. Brian Hoffman/Alamy, A1BJ70. Achilles and War Poetry • Achilles Triumphant was commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to replace the earlier statue with a more martial Achilles • The American poet Randall Jarrell imagines the differences between modern warfare and the emotions it generates and the emotions that the Greeks felt at the death of Achilles • Northern Irish poet Michael Longley used Achilles to reflect on the Irish “Troubles” and the way that war shapes identity • Achilles remains useful as a method of understanding the experience of soldiers even in modern wars 10.15 Achilles Triumphant. Johannes Götz, 1909. Achilleion, Corfu, Greece. Brenda Kean/Alamy, CBW920. The Odyssey Kansas City Academy 9/23/2015 Dr. Cynthia Jones Born to Sail • To reach Ithaca Odysseus must travel by sea. • At every turn it has been his ally and his foil. • The cry of the unknown and the adventure are key elements in his journey. • OCEAN is a deity in and of itself. Even mighty Achilles must fact OCEAN in the Iliad. • Thus, our hero must again take to the sea to enter the Underworld. • Every great hero is destined to journey there. • Odysseus purpose is to speak with Tiresias and learn his fate. Only certain of the Dead can offer this knowledge. You will find it in the Aeneid as well when Aeneas seeks his father’s shade and learns of his fate. Bronze Age Greece and the Aegean Themes we explore in The Odyssey • Women in Myth and Literature • Telemachus: Lone Hero among the suitors • What was life like for them in Bronze Age Greece? Women in the Odyssey • Perfect Wife: Penelope: wife of Odysseus – keeper of the home and hearth • Perfect Maiden Nausikka: princess of Phaeacia – civilizing factor • Opposite of Penelope and Nausikka • • • Circe: goddess, seductress, magician Calypso: goddess, seductress Represent, lonely, unmarried, sexually rapacious women Women in Homer – Epic Lives – ‘Geras’ Wars fought for WOMEN? • Geras – plooty or ‘stuff’ as rewards for war lords measurement of their prowess and status • Helen – the treasure of Greece and wife Menelaus Sparta – • Briseis – treasure of Achilles (awarded to him by his men for sacking an ally of Troy). • Chrysies – symbolic treasure of Agamemnon (Priestess of Apollo) Documentary Evidence: Women’s Voices • “We run households and protect that which is carried across the sea. We women play the most important part, because women are oracles, and at the holy site of Delphi and Sacred Oaks of Thebes we reveal the prophecy of Apollo and Zeus. As for the sacred rituals for the Fates and the Nameless goddesses [furies] all these would not be holy if performed by men, but prosper in a woman’s hands. In this way women have a rightful share in the service of the gods and the polis” • Written by Melanippe, a female colonist sent out to found a new Greek colony from Athens in 506 BCE Dante Gabriel Rossetti Helen of Troy (1863) Images of Women in Domestic Work: Weaving and Collecting Water Max Klinger Penelope brooding over her loom (1895) 450 BCE Telemachus and Penelope Cup Side B – British Museum Vase 500 BCE Homeric Men and Seduction • Homeric Men vs. Seductress: Homeric Greek men consider women valuable but only to satisfy their physical needs. Zeus eventually sends Hermes as a messenger to command Calypso to allow Odysseus to return home. Calypso complains that the gods are allowed to take mortal lovers while someone always interferes with the affairs of the goddesses. Calypso complains about this double standard but eventually meets Zeus' request. This is an excellent example of the male biased Homeric Greek society JW Waterhouse 1891 “Circe Offer the Cup” 450 BCE , “Odysseus and Calypso” Louvre Seduction • Excess: His the stay with Calypso on her island lasts 7 years. When Odysseus tells the story of he changes the story slightly to give the perception that he was held prisoner and lamented the entire time he was there. However, Homer gives us some insight when he says; "the nymph was no longer pleasing to him," (Book V, Line 153) which implies that at some point Odysseus did enjoy himself with the goddess on the island. Calypso offered him immortality and a life of ease. • Calypso and Penelope (one in the same)?? She compares herself to Odysseus' wife Penelope saying, "I think I can claim that I am not her inferior either in build or stature, since it is not likely that mortal women can challenge the goddesses for build and beauty."(Book V, Line 211) When Odysseus still longs to return home, Calypso forces him to stay on the island. This is against the ideals of Homeric Greek women • Calypso displays a dominant and manipulative side, which is another threat against male dominance. Calypso's ability to impede Odysseus' voyage for seven years, signifies the belief that powerful women can create danger. In this situation, Homer tells us, if a woman does not accept her place as an impuissant being, she is likely to slow down or prevent a man from reaching his goals. Odyssey Book 11-12 • Zeus must honor Helios and sends another storm, which destroys the ship and sends the entire crew to its death beneath the waves. As had been predicted, only Odysseus survives, and he just barely. The storm sweeps him all the way back to Charybdis, which he narrowly escapes for the second time. Afloat on the broken timbers of his ship, he eventually reaches Ogygia, Calypso’s island. Odysseus here breaks from his story, stating to the Phaeacians that he sees no reason to bore them further (470) Female Monsters Book XII Treacherous Journey • The myth has Charybdis lying on one side of a narrow channel of water. On the other side of the strait was Scylla, another sea-monster. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other, so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis will pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. The phrase between Scylla and Charybdis has come to mean being in a state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to be in danger of the other. Between Scylla and Charybdis is the origin of the phrase "between the rock and the whirlpool" (the rock upon which Scylla dwelt and the whirlpool of Charybdis) and may be the genesis of the phrase "between a rock and a hard place" Book XII Treacherous Journey • The myth has Charybdis lying on one side of a narrow channel of water. On the other side of the strait was Scylla, another sea-monster. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other, so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis will pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. The phrase between Scylla and Charybdis has come to mean being in a state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to be in danger of the other. Between Scylla and Charybdis is the origin of the phrase "between the rock and the whirlpool" (the rock upon which Scylla dwelt and the whirlpool of Charybdis) and may be the genesis of the phrase "between a rock and a hard place" Between ‘A Rock and a Hard Place’ Satellite image of the straits Of Messenia Monsters in Art Scylla – Minoan Museum Crete Sirens - Scylla – Louvre Waterhouse Sirens Jean Charles Cazin (18411901) Odysseus Weeps When he finds himself alone on the beach in Phaecia Valentin Serov Odysseus and Nausicaa (1910) Following Nausicaa to the palace Two Sides of Women Daily Life in Ancient Greece Nature of ‘Otherness’ What is woman? “The specific virtues of women with respect to their body are beauty and height, and with respect to their soul prudence {sophrosyne] and love of labor [philegia] without servility Rhet. 1361a On one hand valuations of good and bad in respect to women and the behavior expected of them is determined by the male ethic. Within their own communities, women are regarded with great respect by men. In Homer, women are not reviled or treated contemptuously, and also appear to have more social freedom than those of later periods. Women go freely about the countryside and participate in festive and religious events. And although they have no political voice, women are nevertheless part of pubic opinion. In the house of the wanax or paramount chief, his wife is held in high esteem, and may even partake of her husband’s authority. The qualities of a good woman in Homer are narrowly circumscribed by their domestic assignment as housewife and mother. They are honored for their beauty, skill and diligence in weaving, household management, and good practical sense. They are expected to be modest in public and in the company of men, and above all chaste. • Telemachus and Penelope • ...my mother is like that, perverse for all her cleverness: she'd entertain some riff-raff, and turn out a solid man... Telemachus Book II • As you have read in Book II the suitors desired to force Penelope to marry one of them, essentially declaring Odysseus dead. • Status of Penelope J.W. Waterhouse Penelope and the Suitors (1912) Tragedy Origins • Tragedy was born in Greece around 700 BCE • Originally choral presentations done to celebrate the gods in hymn. • Dionysius and Apollo were worshipped with music played on the lyre and sung in verse. • Dramatic lines were added as one ‘actor’ named Thespis stepped out of the chorus and spoke specific lines. Sophocles 496-406 BCE ▪ Most Homeric of the playwrights. ▪ He cared about the individual, their struggles and trials. ▪ His heroes and heroines endure their lot in life, with heroic dignity. ▪ Oedipus goes through the three stages of tragedy, blinds himself and achieves divine grace. ▪ Antigone will pit the higher purpose against the tyrannical state. ▪ Ajax’ madness and suicide become the triumph of reason and humanity over hate. Rules/Patterns of Greek Drama • Focused on a person of noble birth who in some cases had risen to greats heights and then fell precipitately. • Humans were at the mercy of fate – moira • Audiences were to experience catharsis which Aristotle describes as a purging of purifying of emotions of pity and fear. Founding of Thebes • Cadmus asks the Oracle to direct him and the Pythia has him follow a certain cow to Boetia and there found a city. • Upon founding the city he wanted to sacrifice to Athena but the only spring was guarded by a dragon loyal to Ares. • The dragon killed his men and he in turn killed the dragon. He sowed the teeth in the ground and they turned into warriors. Monsters and Men • After a great battle on five of the great warriors were left; Echion (snake man); Udaeus (Ground man) Chthonian (Earth man); Hyperenor ( Superman) and Pelorus (Monster) all helped Cadmus build the city. • The were called Spartoi, the Sown Men, and legend says they were the ancestors of the leading families of Thebes. Cadmus and Harmonia ▪ After serving Area for 8 years Cadmus is married to Harmonia (the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite) ▪ First wedding in Greece ▪ Attended by the Olympians, the Muses and Graces sang ▪ Hephaestus crafted a beautiful necklace. ▪ Cadmus gave his bride a peplos, (cloak or robe). ▪ These two gifts will later become the subject of tragedy. Daughters of Cadmus ▪ Semele and Zeus will be the parents of Dionysius. ▪ Agave marries Echion (a Spartoi), rejects Dionysius and in a Bacchaic trance kills her own son Pentheus ▪ Autonoё was the mother of Acteon, who upon seeing Artemis bathing was turned into a dear and torn apart by his dogs. ▪ Ino and Athamas, while protecting Dionysius from Hera, murdered their own children in madness. Dysfunctional Family ▪ Amphion and Zethus fall from power in Thebes ▪ Laius, grandson of Polydorus returns ▪ Laius had been fostered in the Peloponnese, but breaks the rules of hospitality by falling in love with the King Pelop’s son, Chrysippus. He kidnaps the young man and sets into motion his tragic fate. ▪ Pelops curse: he might never have an heir and if he did he would die at the hands of that son, to compensate for Pelops’ loss. Tragedy’s Role • Central role in the spiritual and intellectual life of the polis. • Wealthy citizens vied for the honor and acclaim by undertaking the production costs of a play during the Dionysia. • Actors performed three dramas a day, and spectators had to follow the intricate poetry of the chorus and return the next day to compare the work of each playwright. Laius and Jocasta • Laius marries his cousin Jocasta. She is also a direct descendant of the Theban Spartoi • Laius receives a message from the Oracle at Delphi, if a son was born to him, he would lose his life. • Either drunk or mad he lays with Jocasta and she has a son • He orders the son’s ankles pierced and pinned, and orders him exposed. Oedipus and Road Rage ▪ The shepherd did not kill the boy but gave him to the king and queen of Corinth. They named him Oedipus (Greed for swollen foot) ▪ Oedipus hears that he is not their son, they deny it, but he consults the Oracle who hears his fate: he would commit incest with his mother and kill his father. ▪ He flees fearing he might hurt his beloved parents and on the road between Delphi and Daulis, he encounters Laius. The old man and his retinue try to run him off the road and he kills them in anger. ▪ He fulfills part one of the oracle’s pronouncement and only one of Laius’ retainers escape. Oedipus and The Sphinx Lament of Oedipus Rex • Relationship between human and divine must be reconciled for Sophocles • Oedipus fate is determined, but how he handles it is the grit of the play • His blinding begins the next part of Oedipus’ story – accepting the will of the gods while still asserting his own dignity. Recognizing that both the futility of avoiding the will of the gods – and accepting that he had responsibilities – he committed the crimes. • “What man who lives his life like this [disregarding the divine law] can protect his soul from the shafts [of Zeus]? (Lines 893-895) Note that Creon will do just that in Antigone Oedipus and Freud • In the story Oedipus the King, the protagonist, Oedipus, fulfills a prophecy by murdering King Laius, his true father. Coincidentally, Oedipus was unaware that Laius was his father. Once the prophecy was fulfilled (thus removing a curse from Thebes), he was given the hand of Queen Jocasta, his (also unbeknownst to him) biological mother. In the story, none of the characters were aware of the relation between the three, therefore providing a sort of naturalistic environment where inner desires were not affected by this knowledge. Hermes and Hestia Essential Slides Chapter 7 Hermes and Hestia • Walter F. Otto asked what distinguishes the Greek gods from humans? • Even though they are anthropomorphic, they are not affected by circumstances like humans are • Each deity is distinguished by one essential and unchanging trait • Hermes’ trait is joy • He is associated with travel and acquisition of goods 7.1 Three herms. Red-figure pelike. Pan Painter, c. 470 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART194441. Capricious Child, Messenger, Healer Cap, Winged Shoes and the Staff of Asclepius For Herms to Hermes • Hermes was sometimes represented as a fully human man, but also as a statue • The Herms were square stone pillars featuring a bearded head and a phallus • They were thought to derive from piles of rocks called ‘Hermes’s hills’ • Hermes was honored by the Greeks for making roads safe for travelers • Hermes is also frequently depicted as the messenger of the gods 7.2 Hermes with winged sandals, cap, and wand. Redfigured lekythos (oil flask). Attributed to the Tithonus Painter, c. 480–470 BCE. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY, ART414543. Hermes and Hestia • Hermes was venerated by travelers and messengers • He also escorted the dead to the Underworld • The Anthesteria was primarily a drinking festival, but also honored Hermes and the opening of the Underworld in the spring Map 7.1 Hermes and Hestia in Greece Ithyphallic Herms • Scholars believe that Hermes’s hills were replaced with herms • They are most frequently found outdoors • The erect phallus suggests his connection to the fertility of herd animals • He is also connected to luck, particularly with possessions • Ancient Greeks used the phallus as an apotropaic symbol, suggesting that Hermes played a role as a protector, especially of shepherds 7.3 Ithyphallic herm. Marble relief from Siphnos. 510 BCE. National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. Bridgeman-Giraudon / Art Resource, NY, ART99250. Hermoi Hermes and Pan • Hermes protected certain communities • Tanagra celebrated him for saving them from a plague by carrying a ram around the city walls • Pan, Hermes’ son, is also represented as ithyphallic • He is associated with satyrs and the company of Dionysos • A young, beardless Hermes is associated with the transition of young men into adulthood • A traditional part of this process for Greek7.4 Hermes Criophorus (Hermes carrying a ram). Parian marble statue. Imperial Roman copy of an youths was cattle raiding early fifth-century BCE classical Greek original by Kalamis. Museo Barracco, Rome, Italy. © Vanni Archive / Art Resource, NY, ART405260. Hestia • In many ways, Hestia was Hermes’s opposite • She was the firstborn child of Cronus and Rhea, but has almost no temples, rituals, or cult shrines in her honor • She is an eternal virgin, associated with the hearth and fire, and therefore worshiped in the home • Her name means hearth • She represented the fixed center of home and family, in opposition to Hermes’s constant 7.5 traveling Hestia, Greek goddess of the hearth. Detail from a red-figure kylix. Circa sixth century BCE. Archaeological Museum, Tarquinia, Italy. Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY, AA389250. • Theft of the cattle: Hermes escaped his mother and stole the cattle of Apollo • He put boots on their feet and led them to Pylos. He kept all but two, sacrificing them (one for Zeus) and (one to himself – as a son of Zeus)/ He’s a baby how could he take your cattle?? Ooops The Mind Structures Myths in Archetypes • ‘Trickster’ is a designation for a certain kind of character found in myths and folktales • It is linked to Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes, which, he argued, were generated by a “collective unconscious”-shared mental models that all people use to make meaning out of their experiences • The shadow has socially unacceptable responses to social demands, and often has characteristics that society does not value • The shadow can either be frightening, or it can be a benign figure who expresses antisocial behavior with humor 7.6 Hermes Trismegistus. Detail of a marble pavement. Giovanni di Stefano da Siena, 1488. Duomo, Sienna, Italy. Scala / Art Resource, NY, ART22288. The Mind Structures Myths in Archetypes • Most scholars no longer accept Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious • When they study archetypes, they catalogue the traits they exhibit • Traits of trickster figures include: • Mockery of social, religious, or political laws or institutions • They disrupt situations, sometimes for their benefit but sometimes to their detriment • They have the ability to change form • They exhibit creativity and boundless energy • They are often cultural heroes to humans • Because of their role in questioning social customs and laws, they are often also the heroes of marginalized or powerless groups within society Classical Mythology in Context Comparison Hermes and Hestia Thoth and Hermes Map 7.2 Egypt: Thoth and Hermes Trismegistus Thoth and Hermes Trismegistus • The Greeks liked to draw connections between their deities and those of their neighbors, as with Athena and Neith • Hermes was frequently identified with the Egyptian god Thoth • Over time, they fused the two and developed a new deity, Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-Blessed) • Hermes Trismegistus became a vehicle through which pagans articulated abstract, philosophical arguments about the nature of divinity Thoth • Thoth was depicted either as a baboon or as a man with the head of an ibis • Originally Thoth was a creator god, but later Egyptians began to associate him with law, language, medicine, mathematics, and magic, and also with advocating for the dead • Both Thoth and Hermes can be described as cultural heroes as well as tricksters • Thoth played a vital role in the myth of Osiris and Isis • He is credited with inventing language and writing • Hermes Trismegistus was believed the be the author of the Hermetica • His followers in late antiquity believed he was a wise man who became a god 7.7 Thoth with ibis head. Gilded wood and bronze. Circa 600 BCE. Werner Forman Archive / Schultz Collection, New York, New York. Location: 47. HIP / Art Resource, NY, AR9150290. Classical Mythology in Context Reception Hermes and Hestia Hermaphroditus in Pre-Raphaelite Art • Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, was also a trickster figure • He was both male and female • Associated with fertility and sexual abundance • In Ovid’s Metamorphosis he is described as having merged with the nymph Salmacis, and therefore has both male and female sexual organs 7.8 Sleeping Hermaphroditus. Marble. Roman copy of a Greek original, second half of the second century BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART434602. • The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of artists in Victorian England who questioned existing artistic con • Poet Charles Algernon Swinburne uses a fascination with the Sleeping Hermaphroditus to question normal ideas of sexual difference and identity Hermaphroditus in Pre-Raphaelite Art • Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones paintings depicted androgynous human figures • They challenged Victorian norms of masculinity • Both Phyllis and Demophoon and The Tree of Forgiveness illustrate the similarities between lovers • In The Tree of Forgiveness the two figures are nearly mirror images in physical appearance and pose • Demophoon’s pose also emphasizes his confusion and resistance: he is passive while Phyllis is active 7.9 Edward Burne-Jones, The Tree of Forgiveness (1881–1882). Oil on canvas. © Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool / Bridgeman Images, WGL110282. Hermaphroditus in Pre-Raphaelite Art • Aubrey Beardsley is associated with art nouveau • He used the figure of the hermaphrodite to question the Victorian sexual code, which demanded purity of women and promiscuity of men • The artistic use of Hermaphroditus to question social conventions recall the original role of Hermaphroditus and Hermes as tricksters 7.10 Aubrey Beardsley, Hermaphrodite amongst the Roses (1894). Black ink lithograph. Private collection. Private Collection/Prismatic Pictures/Bridgeman Images, DGC747049. Chapter 4 Demeter and Hades • Demeter was the goddess of fertility • Her mysteries, rites practiced in her honor at Eleusis, linked her to death • Hades was the god of the underworld, brother of Zeus • They are bound by the myth of the rape of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, by Hades 4.1 Demeter (right) accompanied by a young boy, Eniautus (Year). Detail from an Apulian red-figure loutrophoros. Painter of Louvre M NB1148, c. 350–340 BCE. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California. 86.AE.680. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. Website © 2000–2011 Aaron Atsma. Hades • The other gods have an aversion to Hades because of his association with death • He was not the judge or punisher of the dead, so not feared by humans • Hades was associated with caves, but there are no temples or festivals in his honor 4.2 Hades (right) and Persephone in a temple-like building. Detail from a red-figure krater. Circa 350 BCE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, ART200836. Hades • The other gods have an aversion to Hades because of his association with death • He was not the judge or punisher of the dead, so not feared by humans • Hades was associated with caves, but there are no temples or festivals in his honor 4.2 Hades (right) and Persephone in a temple-like building. Detail from a red-figure krater. Circa 350 BCE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, ART200836. The Changing World of the Dead • The archaeological remains of the human dead can tell us much about their lives, but how do see their views of the afterlife? • During most of the Dark Ages (1200-800BCE) adults were cremated and their bones gathered from the pyre and placed in a pottery vessel. The pot was deposited, along with the rest of the pyre refuse, other pottery, gifts and metal objects, in a hole and then filled and pot marker was placed above. • By 800 BCE inhumation replaces cremation. • Necropolis on the outskirts of settlements. • What does this tell us about the Greek’s view of their afterlife? Is it found in the mythology, the poetry, the art? • Three elements of Hades and his relationship to dead mortals are developed. • The Geography of the Underworld. A generally inconsistent outline of the geography of the Underworld, detailing its various rivers and dwellingplaces, can be found in Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. • Souls in the Underworld. As Hades’ “subjects” in the Underworld, human souls there were believed to retain the appearance and personality that they had at the moment of death. They were also thought to exist in a sort of suspended animation, devoid of pleasure and meaning, as they wander aimlessly over a dank landscape. • Funerary Rituals. Funeral rituals in Greece served to help the soul of the dead reach the Underworld, and women played an essential and intimate role in many of these rituals. The Underworld • The Underworld was divided from the lands of the living by five rivers • Charon, the boatman, escorted souls across them and into Hades • Cerberus, the many-headed guard dog, also prevents souls from leaving • After death, souls wander eternally throughout the Underworld • Punishments are reserved for special cases; as are rewards 4.3 (left) and 4.4 (right) Charon (left) waits as Hermes (right) leads the soul of a deceased person to his boat. White-ground lekythos (oil jug). Sabouroff Painter, c. fifth century BCE. bpk, Berlin/Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museum, Berlin/Johannes Laurentius/Art Resource, NY, ART301136 and ART301171. Funerary Rituals • In Greece they served to help the soul of the dead reach the Underworld • Women prepared the body for burial • Burials were accompanied by mourning songs and a feast • Offerings continued to be made to the dead for a month afterward 4.5 Plaque of a funerary ritual (prosthesis). Black-figure plaque. Attributed to the Burgon Group, c. 560–550 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, ART147733. Demeter • Rituals tied Demeter to the annual agricultural cycle • The Proerosia was a ritual plowing of the fields • The Haloa used fertility symbols to ensure the safety of the planted seeds • Both were performed solely by women 4.6 Triptolemus on a winged chariot with Demeter. Detail of an Attic red-figure krater. The Niobids Painter, c. 460 BCE. Archaeological Museum Ferrara, Italy. Alfredo Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY, AA356430. Historical Overview • Eleusis first inhabited in the Middle Helladic period (1900-1600 BCE). • Built between 1500-1425 BCE during the reign of legendary King Celeus according to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. • Strategically placed on the route from Athens to the Peloponnese, Boeotia and Northern Greece. • Continually occupied through modern times. • In 760 BCE at the year of the 5th Olympiad records show that a festival and sacrifice were held to Eleusis to propitiate Demeter and end a famine. • When Athens was ruled by Pisistratus (550-510 BCE) the Sanctuary was given new fortification walls, and a hall for the faithful to watch the initiation. • In 479 BCE the sanctuary was sacked by Xerxes soldiers. • During the time of Pericles (459-432 BCE) the temple was enlarged. • During Macedonian control the site was protected by Alexander’s guards • In Roman times the initiation was opened to Romans (170AD) • In 379 AD the mysteries were forbidden by Theodosius I • Evacuations of the site were put in the hands of the Greek Archaeological Society in 1882. Thesmophoria: A Fertility Ritual • Another all-female rituality used similar symbols to the Haloa • For three days, women worshiped Demeter and Persephone • Fertility symbols used sympathetic magic to associate agricultural fertility with human fertility 4.7 Baubo (also called Iambe) on the back of a pig. Terracotta. Circa first century BCE. Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. bpk, Berlin/Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museum, Berlin/Johannes Laurentius/Art Resource, NY, ART450592. Initiation Rites • First Day of the Mysteries the initiates made sacrifices at the alters of the goddesses (the 14th of Boedromion) September • Afterwards they formed a procession with the priestess of Demeter holding the sacred symbols she carried along the “Sacred Way’ from the ancient Agora in Athens. Beginning of the path. Public Procession / Private Ritual • On the 15th of the month in Athens the festivities were officially opened. Anyone guilty of murder or desecration or was not Greek-speaking was excluded. • On the 17th the initiates purification ceremony took place in the sea at Phaleron with the sacrifice of piglets What we know/what is speculation • On the 17th of Boedromion the sacrifices were made attended by many important personalities of the day. • On the 19th day of the month the initiates and others processed from Pharleron on the Sacred Way back to Eleusis. At different points along the road there were altars and shrines, the participants burnt incense and changed hymns. The procession ended at the outer court of the Sanctuary where they were greeted by priests and priestesses and dances were performed throughout the night. • Telesterion: this the most secret part of the rites. All that we know is some kind of rites were performed that were a reenactment of the dromena (abduction of Kore); mystic utterances were spoken and sacred objects displayed. • On the 21st of the month the epopteia took place called the “ear of corn in silence reaped” • On the 22nd initiates honored the dead with libations. • On the 23rd they returned home nobler in spirit, contented, less fearful of death, and with raised hopes for life Hymn to Demeter • Goddess Demeter disguised as an old woman, searching for her daughter came to Eleusis and sat down in despair near the Well of Parthenos to rest. • The daughter of King Celeus found her there and offered her hospitality in the palace. • The Goddess lonely and sad became the nurse of Damophon, the son of Celeus; she anointed him with ambrosia and held him over the flame to make him immortal – when his mother saw this she drove the old woman from the palace. • Demeter revealed herself and ordered Celeus to build a temple for her by the well • Angry and sad she shut herself up in the temple bringing drought and famine until Zeus relented, told her where Persephone was an allowed her to emerge from the underworld at the cave opening in the previous photo. • Demeter made the land fertile again and taught the Eleusinians rites to elevate their knowledge and improve their prosperity. The Eleusinian Mysteries • Homer describes Demeter as wandering to Eleusis in search of Persephone • She demands that a temple be built for her, and Persephone’s return from the Underworld symbolizes the benefits that initiates in Demeter’s mysteries will gain after death • New members are initiated into the mysteries yearly in a weeklong festival 4.8 The temple called the Telesterion at Eleusis, Greece. The Solonic Telesterion was erected about 600 BCE. HIP/Art Resource, NY, AR9146068. • Once initiated, they were able to take part in the secret rituals within the temple itself Myths Reinforce Social Norms • ‘Goddess feminists’ are individuals who study the spiritual dimensions of feminism • ‘Matriarchy studies’ is the study of societies where women held power • Marija Gimbutas imagined a Neolithic Europe of female-led egalitarian societies • Classicist Helen P. Foley considers how women were empowered by the worship of goddesses like Demeter • To Foley, myths like Demeter’s teach Greek women to accept patriarchal rule 4.9 Demeter, Triptolemus, and Persephone. Marble votive relief from Eleusis. Circa 440–430 BCE. Museum of Archaeology, Athens, Greece. Nimatallah / Art Resource, NY, ART18. Dying and Rising Gods • Both the Sumerians and Akkadians have myths that describe a goddess going to the Underworld in search of her lover • Other gods like the Greek Adonis and the Phrygian Attis are believed to annually descend to the Underworld and return • Persephone is unique as the only female 4.10 Dumuzi the Shepherd. A clay impression or “printout” from a marble cylinder seal. 3200–3000 BCE. bpk, Berlin/Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany/Olaf M.Teßmern/Art Resource, NY, ART497597. Demeter’s Roman Counterpart is Ceres and (Persephone) Proserpina • Practiced the same in Rome as in Greece. • Reenactment of the Quasi Death and Return. • Symbolism of the Mother/Daughter relationship is expounded by Denzey as she uses Proba as the model for a transitional time in Rome. • Ceres Feast Day is April 19th – Part of the Roman calendar for planting. • The popular practice of recognizing the loss and reunion was common on grave markings and often used in the catacombs. • What we have in the transition period is insight into the syncretism of symbols. Proserpina “Proba And The Piglet” • Via Latina – lined with tombs – all burials must take place outside the walls of Rome • Res religiosa – sacred space • Both pagan and Christian Romans used the ‘funerary burial guilds’ to secure such space • Challenge: honor Christian daughter, yet insure they are together in the afterlife as ‘Proba’ believes they will. Proba as Ceres Peacock and Cross Ceres next To Christ Raising Lazarus Persephone in Contemporary Women’s Poetry • Contemporary poets have pursued the question of Persephone’s agency • Rita Frances Dove turns the story of Persephone into a modern narrative of rape • Rachel Zucker describes a Persephone who goes with Hades willingly • Alison Townsend focuses on Persephone’s experience of the loss of her mother 4.11 Persephone. Gouache on paper. Janet Gorzegno, 2010. Resembling a fresco (a painting on plaster), this painting introduces the idea of Persephone’ death: she seems to be decomposing before the viewer’s eyes. Persephone, though, is serene and seemingly unaware of her own dissolution. As such, she is an icon for our relationship to our own mortality as much as she is the lost daughter of Demeter. Janet Gorzegno. Mesopotamia Universal Theme: Mother’s Searching for Lost Children: Comparisons • Demeter and Persephone: • • • • Mourning Anger Pursuit/Capture Return • Dutter and Damu (Dumzi) • • • • Mourning Anger Pursuit/Capture Return 1. Cerberus. The watchdog, who is frequently depicted with two or three heads (and even up to fifty heads) who guarded the entrance to the Underworld. (p. 157) 1. Charon. A boatman who demanded a payment of a coin or a cake from those who have recently died and wished to reach the Underworld. (p. 157) 1. Demeter. A daughter of Cronus and Rhea and the mother of Persephone. (p. 154) 1. Demophoon. The young son of King Celeus and Queen Metaneira of Eleusis, whom Demeter tries (and fails) to render immortal. (p. 165) 1. Eleusinian Mysteries. A week-long initiation ceremony that began in Athens and concluded in Demeter’s sanctuary in Eleusis, where initiates received secret knowledge. (p. 154) 1. Eleusis. A site fourteen miles from Athens that housed a significant shrine to Demeter. (p. 166) 1. Elysian Plain. Also called the Islands of the Blessed, a place of perpetual springtime for the souls of the virtuous and worthy dead within the Underworld. (p. 158) 1. Funerary rituals. These consisted of three parts: a laying out of the corpse (prosthesis), a procession to the gravesite (ecphora), and subsequent feasts at the gravesite for a brief period of time. (p. 154) 1. Hades. A son of Cronus and Rhea who abducted and married his niece Persephone. (p. 154) 1. Persephone. The “slim-ankled” daughter of Demeter and Zeus, who was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the Underworld to be his bride. (p. 169) 1. Tartarus. A deep and dark region within, or below, the Underworld that is the site of many gruesome eternal punishments. (p. 159) 1. Thanatos. Although his name is the Greek word for “death”, he seemed a gentle, rather than a rapacious, figure who was given the task of stalking humankind and gathering the dead for transport to the Underworld. (p. 155) 1. Thesmophoria. A three-day celebration, for women, to ensure successful marriage and childbirth. (p. 154) 1. Triptolemus. An adolescent boy who rides a winged chariot and to whom Demeter gives the knowledge of agriculture to share with humanity. (p. 162) Chapter 9 Dionysus • Dionysus was the son of Zeus and a mortal, Semele • He is more closely associated with mortals than the rest of the Olympians • The infant Dionysus is torn apart and then is reconstituted, associating him with death • Many of Dionysus’ myths feature mortals who suffer, go mad, and are torn apart by his worshipers, echoing the suffering of the god 9.1 Birth of Dionysus from Zeus’s thigh as Hermes watches. After Zeus inadvertently immolates Semele while pregnant, Zeus removes Dionysus from her womb, stitches him in his thigh, and gives birth to the infant himself. Detail from a red-figure lekythos. Alkimachos Painter, c. 470–460 BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA / Catharine Page Perkins Fund / Bridgeman Images, BST1762525. Classical Mythology in Context Dionysus HISTORY Viticulture, Wine, and Fertility • Dionysus was responsible for both agricultural and human fertility • His main festival at Athens was the Anthesteria, which celebrated his gift of wine to humanity, and linked wine with human fertility • The first day opened the city to both the god and the dead, who were believed to wander the city during the festival • The second day of the festival involved a drinking contest; talking 9.2 Dionysus (center) accompanied by satyrs and maenads. Black-figure column krater. Painter of Munich, c. 520 BCE. The was not allowed John P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California. 75.AE.106. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. Dionysus in Greece Map 9.1 Dionysus in Greece The Anthesteria • The third day of the festival was joyful • A queen was married to Dionysus in a sacred marriage symbolizing the marriage between the god and the city, ensuring the reproduction of the next generation • Celebrations of Dionysus represent his destabilizing effect on communities 9.3 Satyr pushing a young woman on a swing on the last day of the Anthesteria. Attic red-figure skyphos from Chiusi. Penelope Painter, c. fifth century BCE. bpk, Berlin / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / Eva-Maria Borgwaldt / Art Resource, NY, ART189509. The Symposium • Symposia were gatherings of elite men • They were framed as discussions, but fueled by wine • Dionysus was accompanied by satyrs, mythical hybrids who engaged in humorous and sexual activities and were frequently drunk • Symposia are frequently depicted as leading to satyrlike behavior 9.4 Men dance and flirt at a symposium. Red-figure wine cup. Briseis Painter, c. 480–470 BCE. The John P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California. 86.AE.293. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. Theater and Masks • Dionysus was the patron god of theater • The Country Dionysia were local festivals in his honor that consisted of a parade followed by performances • The Dionysia included parading a large wooden phallus through the city or town • The City Dionysia was a more formal, grander version held in the city of Athens which commemorated the beginning of Dionysus’ worship 9.5 The Theater of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Fifth century BCE. Album / Art Resource, NY, alb1462719. Theater and Masks • In most communities, Dionysus begins to be worshiped only after he punishes the community with suffering • Theater was an emotional release in ancient Greece, and so Dionysus represents freedom, similar to the liberating experience of wine 9.6 Phallophoria. Attic black-figured kylix. Circa 550 Archeology Authority of Tuscany, Florence. BCE. Courtesy of the Mystery Cults • Dionysus was worshiped in mystery cults throughout the Mediterranean • Unlike the mystery cult of Demeter, Dionysus’s was informal and scattered • Women held prominent roles in Dionysus’s cult • There is little evidence of initiation rites, except that they were much more individualized than most Greek religious events 9.7 Villa of the Mysteries. Pompeii, Italy. First century BCE. Scala / Art Resource, NY, ART70620. The Orgia • Dionysian religious practices were called orgia • His worshipers, the Bacchae, danced and shouted in his honor • Euripides’s Bacchae depicted them tearing apart sacrificial victims with their hands • The Bacchae suggests that Dionysus’s worship was joyful, until it became violent 9.8 Pentheus with maenads. Red-figure Attic kylix. Dourisca, c. 480 BCE. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas / Art Resource, NY, ART334333. • The violence may have been symbolic of the potential dangers of the free emotions encouraged by Dionysus Classical Mythology in Context Dionysos THEORY Initiations and Inversions • Anthropologist J. W. Turner explored theater, film, and festivals, attempting to define how they challenged ordinary social values • He expanded van Gennep’s concept of liminality from rites of passage to include other rituals and performances • He argued that performative genres displayed society’s values 9.9 Eye cup used at symposia. Red-figure drinking cup. Circa 515 BCE. Werner Forman / Art Resource, NY, AR9156943. • Like initiation rites, they also encouraged audiences to question them • Dionysian rituals included theatrical elements, which, when combined with wine, lead Classical Mythology in Context Dionysos COMPARISON The Great Mother in Greece • Euripides associates the ecstatic worship of Cybele, the Great Mother, with the worship of Dionysus • Her companion in Greece was Attis, but he has no counterpart in Phrygian worship • The Romans dedicated a temple to the Great Mother in the third century BCE • She was associated with fertility • The ecstatic worship that her priests were known for was not popular among Romans 9.10 The goddess Cybele rides a chariot pulled by lions and Attis leans on a pine tree. Relief on a marble altar dedicated to Cybele and Attis. 295 CE. The portions of the inscription visible in this image include the name of the dedicator (L. Cornelius Scipio Oreitus), a priest (augur) who accomplished a bull-killing (taurobolium) and dedicated this altar to Cybele and Attis. Archaeological Museum, Ferrara, Italy. De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images, DGA501455. • They were tolerated because they were eunuchs, and therefore outside the norms of Dionysus in the Mediterranean World Map 9.2 Dionysus from Phrygia to Rome Classical Mythology in Context Dionysos RECEPTION Dionysus as a God of the 1960s • Modern artists have used Dionysus to comment on and challenge the social order • The themes of the Bacchae were particularly suited to the radical social transformation of the 60s • Dionysus in ’69 was an adaptation of the Bacchae which encouraged audience participation by not dividing the audience space from the performance space • The play uses nudity, homosexuality, and political commentary to question social conformism 9.11 Birth of Dionysus. From The Performance Group-Dionysus in ’69, published in Oscar Brockett’s History of the Theatre.© Photograph by Max Waldman, Archive USA / All Rights Reserved. Dionysus as a God of the 1960s • The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a movie adaptation of a stage play • It used sexual idiom to question conformity and authority • The development of audience participation rituals in the 1970s broke down barriers between audience and performance • The film emphasized sexual liberation and critiques American gender and family roles • In The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite, Wole Soyinka uses similarities between ancient Greek and African religion to address questions of political freedom and religious community • At the end of Soyinka’s play, the performers drink the blood of the dead Pentheus, which they are told is wine • This communion unites all the performers as equals and abolishes political tyranny  Who is Semele?  Daughter of Harmonia, wife of Cadmus. She is a goddess of earth and corn also known as Alcmene.  Disguised Zeus, seduces Semele who then is slain by lightening stolen from Zeus by Hera out of jealousy.  The child Semele carries is recued by Zeus and sewn into his thigh and after his birth he is named Dionysius.  We can assume that these are links between the ancient ritual patterns of Dionysus’ worship reflecting Attic or Greek origins of Dionysius and the devotion to the yearly festival in Athens in his honor.  Dionysius, as the Master of Illusions, was seen as the one who was indeed the spirit of the theatre itself.      Dionysius worship and symbolism Male god who is the master of animals God of vegetation and wild-life See his name on major materials beginning in 1300 BCE His home is often considered to be Thrace on the link between civilized Greece and the ‘east’.  Myths of future life and reincarnation  Identified with Zagreus who was devoured by the Titans to be born again amid the flames of Semele's death; and it was from this take, incorporated into the Orphic literature that there emanated themes of future life and reincarnation.  The worshiper who performed the rite was at one with the god entheos, suggesting an idea of mystic communion.  Associated with the eating of raw flesh as late as 276BCE at the Dionysius cult at Miletus. Eating this war, bleeding gobbets was an eating of the god himself, the ‘noble bull,’ as he was called in an ancient hymn.  So this early Dionysian ritual was a cathartic that took man outside of himself and purged his irrational impulses, or directed them into this special channel.  There are references to snake handling which is shown on vases recorded in the 4th century Macedonia, mentioned in the Gospel of Mark which still form parts of the ecstatic rattlesnake cult of the Holiness Church in Kentucky.  The Greeks, choosing to turn ecstatic tendencies into institutional channels, officially recognized them at the wine-religion cults at Delphi, Corinth, Sparta and Athens. Thus in the more civilized areas at least, cannibalism and ritual murder, had probably come to and end before the fifth century began- BUT coming to life when during the Persian wars 489-479BCE) when at Athens itself Themistocles sacrificed three Persian youths to Dionysius Omestes (flesh eater).  The myth of Dionysius sums up the whole theme of emotionalism as a factor in social as well as individual life: “those things utterly non-human and non-moral’ in the words of Gilbert Murray “which brings man bliss or tear his life to shreds without a break in their own serenity.”  Dionysius is the spirit of the unthinking physical enjoyment, of the instinctive group personality, of anti-intellectual energy.  In Dionysius, are mingled joy and horror, insight and madness, innocent gaiety and dark cruelty?  Faced with the imperative – ignore at our peril the demand of the human spirit for a Dionysian experience and pay the price.  Curse of Thebes  Dionysius returns to Thebes to punish those who had not supported     his divine birth. His mother’s sisters. Once he has secured worship in Thebes and greater Greece he becomes part of the Olympian pantheon. As wine becomes part of the greater trade network of Attica, celebrations such as the Dionysia in Greece are commonplace by 500 BCE. The house of Cadmus was also plagued by the tragedy of the curse placed upon it by Pelops (remember Laius raped his daughter). Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocasta and tragedy of the highest order follows. Chapter 5 Classical Mythology in Context History Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Ares Love and Strife • There are two stories of Aphrodite’s birth: she is either the daughter of Zeus and Dione, or produced when Uranus was castrated by Cronus • Her title of Philommedes represents her association with sexual desire unmitigated by social consideration • It can also be translated as ‘laughter-loving’ 5.2 Birth of Aphrodite. Detail of the Ludovisi Throne. Greek marble relief. Circa 460–450 BCE. Museo Nazionale Romano (Palazzo Altemps), Rome, Italy. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY, ART58590. Duality of Aphrodite: Two natures • Aphrodite Urania (celestial Aphrodite): sprung from Uranus alone – with only heavenly attributes: aka Celestial • Aphrodite Pandemos (of the people – common) Aphrodite and Eros • Aphrodite and Eros are associated with desire and romance • Eros is either Aphrodite’s son or companion • Their behavior is fickle, representing the nature of desire • They are also associated with conflict and violence, as in Sophocles’ Antigone 5.1 Eros playfully blindfolds a woman. Attic red-figure skyphos. Workshop of the Ilioupersis Painter, c. 375–350 BCE. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. RISD Museum Appropriation Fund, 25.089. Marriage and Love • Brides prayed to Aphrodite before their wedding day • Aphrodite is often depicted with Harmonia (Harmony), Peitho (Persuasion), and the Erotes (Eros, Longing, and Desire) • Their winged nature indicates that the emotions Aphrodite inspires are impossible to restrain • In Greek myths, the desire inspired by Aphrodite disrupts marriage more often than it sustains it 5.3 Aphrodite surrounded by Erotes and an attendant holding a swan. Detail from a red-figure lekythos (oil flask). Circa late fifth century BCE. Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY, AA393928. Humor and Laughter • Among the gods, Aphrodite is often connected with humor • Aphrodite’s adulterous relationship with Ares gets her laughed at, but also represents the dangerous consequences of infidelity • The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis furthered her association with laughter, as represented in the Adonia, a festival celebrated only by women 5.4 Paris leads Helen by the wrist, while Aphrodite adjusts her hair. Red-figured skyphos. Circa fifth century BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA / Francis Bartlett Donation / Bridgeman Images, BST487717. Civic Harmony • Aphrodite, with Peitho (Persuasion)played a traditional role in the establishment and governance of cities • Governance of cities required persuasion in courts and assemblies • Aristotle compared the bonds of husbands and wives with the bonds among citizens • She was worshiped as Aphrodite Pandemos in Athens for her role as a unifier • She was frequently worshiped in ports and harbors, anywhere where cooperation was necessary Hephaestus • Aphrodite’s husband was Hephaestus, the god of metallurgy • He has few sanctuaries and festivals and was rarely worshiped • Hephaestus was unique among the gods because of his lameness • He was associated with fire and volcanoes, and manufacturing and technology • Hephaestus is an unlikely husband for Aphrodite, the most beautiful of the gods, and was frequently laughed at 5.5 The Return of Hephaestus to Olympus. Red-figured stamnos. Group of Polygnotus, c. 440 BCE. bpk, Berlin / Antikensammlung, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Kassel, Germany/ Art Resource, NY, ART497600. Ares • Ares is a war god, the son of Zeus and Hera • He and Aphrodite have three children: Deimos (Terror), Phobos (Fear) and Harmonia (Harmony) • He represents aggression and destruction rather than courage or strategy • His affair with Aphrodite represents the dangers of powerful emotions like lust and aggression 5.6 Ares and Aphrodite. Marble votive relief. Circa late fifth century BCE. bpk, Berlin/Museo Archeologico, Venice, Italy/Alfredo Dagli Orti/Art Resource, NY, ART332617. Eros • Eros was either Aphrodite’s son or her companion • He is the animating force that propels all creatures to reproduce and thrive • He is shown with arrows which were believed to induce love • Aphrodite and Eros attracted the attention of many philosophers, who treated them as metaphors to explain passion, love, and lust 5.7 Eros in the role of archer. Red-figure lekythos, c. 500–480 BCE. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas / Art Resource, NY, ART334291. Eros: • Symbolism: male counterpart of Aphrodite • Of course he has a dual aspect to his birth: He is referred to as an early cosmic deity in Hesiod or his parents could be Ares and Aphrodite • Often depicted as an attendant of Aphrodite • Attributes: May represent all aspects of desire and love, also the god of male homosexuality. • Shown often as a very handsome young man – the model for masculine beauty in the Classical Period (500-400BCE) From Eros to Cupid • In Classical Athens, Eros was depicted as an adolescent boy • He represented a social practice wherein older men developed sexual relationships with younger men, which was thought to benefit their development into mature citizens • Later he was transformed into a group of infants • By Roman times, infant Cupids had little association with Eros’ role as a god of desire 5.8 Eros chases Atalanta. Detail from a red-figure lekythos. Attributed to Douris, c. 500 BCE. Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, USA / Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund / Bridgeman Images, CVL1761955. Classical Mythology in Context Theory Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Ares Priapus: Son of Aphrodite • Parentage unknown: Pan, Hermes, Dionysus, Adonis or even Zeus • Male fertility symbol, in Archaic to Classical Period (700-400BCE) • Later Roman Empire often referred to in comedy and used for sign of fertility Symposia • Symposia were u...
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1. the significance of Aphrodite and The Adonia

Aphrodite and the Adonia is one of the most popular myths of the Greeks since it
directly correlates with Eros and love. Not even the deities and the gods could escape
god Eros’s powerful arrow and fell in love with the mortals leading to catastrophic
results.

The Aphrodite and Adonis myths are classical since it revolves around love and lust
with some spicy details on the goddess of love and lust and the beautiful mortal
Adonis. Essentially, Adonis is a personification of masculine beauty which
significantly relates to his fate as the Greek myths explain. Significantly, there are two
myths about the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite. The first is about the early years of
Adonis while the second is about the death and role of Aphrodite in its death. As a
result, two stories explain the birth of Aphrodite; the first is either she was the daughter
of Zeus and Dionne or the second is that she w...


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