The Mediterranean World, 600 BC The Birth of Athena.

The Mediterranean World, 600 BC

The Birth of Athena

Athena and attributes

Myths of Athena

Basic roles• War, wisdom, women’s work• Patroness of Athens• Guardian of young male heroes

Myths• Eating of Metis and birth from Zeus’s head in full armor • Contest with Uncle Poseidon for patronage of Athens • Invented double flute-threw it away (Marsyas found it)• Fight with Pallas - Palladium• Weaving competition with Arachne – aetiology of the spider

Hermes (vase painting)

Apollo and his lyre

Hermes• god of thieves, businesspeople, travelers• son of Zeus and Maia• invents lyre in his first morning on earth• steals Apollo’s cattle in the afternoon and then vomits on him• guides people to underworld (Psychopompos) holding the

Caduceus• messenger and errand boy of Zeus• Animism to Anthropomorphism - Herm• expedition to Syracuse 417 BC

Artemis and Apollo

Apollo• Delphic Oracle -center of world, founded by Apollo after killing

snake Python. Cleansed of miasma and now can cleanse others. Appears as dolphin to Cretan sailors who become priests of temple. He communicates through Pythia, who is ALWAYS RIGHT

• Hyacinthus (Spartan boyfriend)• Croesus King threatened by Persians - arti manthano!• Admetus and Alcestis• Daphne – original laurel tree• Coronis -affair-white raven sees en flagrante delicto. Has

Asclepius, God of medicine, raised by Hippolytus from dead. Zeus throws thunderbolt for disrupting nature.

• Cassandra: prophetess who is never believed

Apollo = GET A GRIP• CURB THY SPIRIT• OBSERVE THE LIMIT• HATE HUBRIS• GLORY NOT IN STRENGTH• FEAR AUTHORITY• KEEP A REVERENT TONGUE• BOW BEFORE THE DIVINE• KEEP WOMAN UNDER RULE

Marsyas vs. Apollo

Apollo and Daphne

Artemis

Myths of Artemis• Niobe - thought of herself greater than Leto (hubris). Punished by

having her 14 children killed in front of her-becomes weeping rock

• Orion - he and his dog were turned into constellation at attempted

rape

• Actaeon - saw Artemis in the buff-turns him into deer

• Jupiter, Callisto and Arcas (Ursa Major)

Venus on the Half Shell

Ares and Aphrodite

Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

Aphrodite• Born from Uranus’ blood foaming in water = Aphrodite Urania• Daughter of Zeus and Dione = Aphrodite Pandemos• Married to Hephaestus (metal shop)• Caught with Ares in flagrante delicto• Anchises - shepherd-bore Aeneas• Judgment of Paris, with Eris and Trojan War• Pygmalion - sculpts perfect statue of woman. Falls in love w/ it,

prays, comes to life as Galatea=bore Paphos• Cybele’s autocastration; Nana picks up lemon blossom and has

Attis• Dying boyfriends Attis and Adonis• Plato’s Symposium and taxonomy of loovve

Allegories of Love

Aristophanes’s Speech from Plato’s Symposium• Original human form = M/F, M/M, F/F• Split due to hubris, search for other half to be complete• Want to melt together; sex = close as it gets

Socrates’s Speech from Plato’s Symposium• Told to him by wise woman Diotima• Eros is son of Poverty and Resourcefulness• Always gets what he wants, always wants more than he gets

Cupid and Psyche (Apuleius, The Golden Ass)• Psyche = fairytale princess; Cupid = hunky stud• Venus makes Psyche perform labors• Cupid and Psyche have a daughter, Voluptas

KATABASIS

Concept of katabasis• Oldest plot device in literature• Hero descends to underworld, checks it out, returns• Regards the afterlife as centered in a particular space

Sources for ancient views of the afterlife• Homer, Odyssey (750 BC)• Plato, Myth of Er (375 BC)• Vergil, Aeneid (25 BC)

Insight into ancient Greco-Roman Weltanschauung• Hope for a positive afterlife? • Body or soul more important? • Personal responsibility for actions?

Who’s Who in the Underworld

Divine and semi-divine figures• Hades (Pluto) - rich in souls • Persephone (Proserpina) - unwilling underworld queen • Charon - ferryman • Cerberus - 3 headed hound of hell, keeps people in• Furies: Allecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone

Human (or originally human) figures• Judges: Aeacus, Minos, Rhadamanthus• 53 Top Sinners of Ancient Greek Afterlife• Famous Visitors: Odysseus, Er, Aeneas

Mr. and Mrs. Hades

Hot Spots of the Underworld

Five rivers of the Underworld• Phlegethon - fire • Cocytus - wailing • Acheron - woe • Lethe - forgetfulness• Styx - hatred

Other famous locations• Elysian Fields: demigods, friends of gods, Trojan war heroes• Tartarus: exceptionally bad sinners• Butte, Montana

The Top 53 Sinners

• Ixion - tried to rape cloud form of Hera, burns in turning ring of fire

• Tantalus - chopped son in soup for god’s and goddesses dinner (gods saved him). Stands in receding water when stoops to drink, branch pulls away when tries to eat fruit or donut J --Tantalyzing

• Sisyphus - cheats death by having wife not sacrifice, going up to live. Forever pushing boulder up mountain

• Tityus - tries to rape Leto. Staked down for bird to eat liver daily.

• 49 Danaids - Egyptian wives who killed husbands. Carrying leaky buckets; object lesson for “uppity” women

Homer, Odyssey (750 BC)

Hell is in Portugal• Odysseus sails west from Mediterranean, thru pillars of Heracles,

then right to land on shore. • Odysseus digs trench, pours blood for ghosts to feast but not until

he gets to see him.

People Odysseus talks to• Achilles - rather be slave alive than be king of underworld. • Anticleia - tells relationship of body to soul after death• Mortal part of Heracles – what a whiner

Weltanschauung rating• body perishes, soul condemned to dull body-less afterlife• No point in trying to lead a mortal life

Socrates and Plato

Socrates (d. 399 BC)• Genius stonemason who couldn’t make a living• Drove his wife Xanthippe nuts• Hung around streets talking to rich young men• Tied people in knots with his “Socratic Method”• Put to death for corrupting youth of Athens

Plato• Actual name was “Ariston”• Broad-shouldered, hence nickname• Wrote down the dialogues of Socrates as he remembered them• Quite a bit of Socrates; quite a bit of Plato too.

Plato, Myth of Er (350 BC)

Plato’s Republic- PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEXTPUBLIC AFFAIRS TEXT• Ten-book dialogue on how to create the ideal government• Ends in the tenth book with a massive riff from Socrates• But why should people feel compelled to lead a moral life?

Myth of Er (10th book of Plato's Republic) • Er, died in battle, lay on funeral pyre, came back from dead• Announces that you are rewarded/punished 10 times over 1000

years. • You then have an opportunity to pick new life

Weltanschauung rating• Hope for human life, and chance at reunion with divinity• Still no reason to jump up and yell AMEN!

Vergil, Aeneid (25 BC)

Physical features • Mostly recall Homer's version (Olympian view) • Entry is a cave in modern day Italy• Lots of sinners and rivers, all that

Details of afterlife• punishments and rebirths recall Plato's version• Also suggest the “Orphic” viewpoint• Suggests that the greatest good is serving Rome

Vergil’s special interpretation = PUBLIC AFFAIRS PUBLIC AFFAIRS • Aeneas goes to see his father for advice on founding Rome• Sees a parade of great future Romans = PUBLIC AFFAIRS PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Patriotically uplifting, but again, no reason to yell AMEN

Comparing “traditional” accounts

Homer Plato Vergil

Hope for a positive afterlife? None Some Some

Body or soul more important? Body Soul Soul

Personal responsibility for actions? No Yes Yes

Comparing mystery religions Eleus. Bacch. Orph.

Established ritual yes no no

High emotional content yes yes no

Standards of morality optional amoral high

Rebirth/katabasis myth yes yes yes

Acceptable to govt? yes no yes

Hope for happy afterlife? yes yes? yes

Mystery Religions

Shortcomings of Olympian view of afterlife• Provide hope for eternal afterlife and suggest some reconciliation

with divinity • Emotional satisfaction • Reason for human existence

Why so popular• Provide hope for eternal afterlife and suggest some reconciliation

with divinity • Emotional satisfaction • Reason for human existence

Three major Greek mystery religions• Eleusinian Mysteries (Demeter in the town of Eleusis) • Bacchic Mysteries (Dionysus, God of wine) • Orphic Mysteries (Orpheus, famous musician)

Eleusinian Mysteries: background

Why “Eleusinian?”• Ritual held in Eleusis (suburb of Athens) and Athens. • Demeter supposedly stopped at the city of Eleusis• Brought profit and positive publicity to city of Athens

Basis of Eleusinian mystery religion• “Rape of Persephone” story• Homeric Hymn to Demeter• Aetiology of seasons becomes explanation of eternal life• Complicated, secret, beautiful ritual• Anyone can join: once initiated, one is always a part of the religion.

Demeter as “Doso”

“Homeric” Hymn to Demeter

• Zeus allowed Hades to “marry” Persephone, daughter of Demeter/Ceres (Grain/Earth Goddess).

• Two divinities see, Hecate hears screams(goddess of underworld) and Helios sees act.

• After 10 days Demeter is still morning and Hecate tells what she heard and Demeter confronts Helios.

• Disguised as bag lady Doso, offered babysitting job by princesses of Celeus and Metaneira.

• They offer her wine, but she asks for mint, barley and water mixture called kykeon.

• Doso secretly dips baby Demophoon into fire to make immortal, but caught by Metaneira. Doso reveals herself as Demeter

• Demeter establishes Eleusinian religion; still will not let crops go. • Finally to save humans Zeus has Hades give Persephone back • Persephone eats pomegranate seed, causing aetiology of season

Eleusinian Mysteries

Day 1 “Holy Objects” brought to Eleusis

Day 2 All pure Greek speakers invited to join

Day 3 Buy A Scape Pig Day; sacrifices

Day 4 More sacrifices

Day 5 Day in honor of Asclepius, god of medicine

Day 6 March back to Athens; dirty jokes

Day 7 Kykeon (barley, mint, water) drunk; more fasting and ritual

Day 8 Pageant (things shown, things enacted, things said)

Day 9 Initiates return home

Dionysus

Birth of Dionysus• Semele tricked by Hera into making Zeus blast her into ashes• Zeus pulls child out of ashes, sews up in thigh, and carries to term. • Dionysus born and raised by satyrs and nymphs.

Zagreus (the chthonic Dionysus)• child of Zeus and Persephone torn apart by Titans and Hera • Athena feeds heart to Zeus, causing Zagreus to live in Dionysus• Figures in Orphic “mystery” religion

Function of Dionysus• God of wine-he is the feeling of when you are drunk . • God of going crazzzaaay

Baby Dionysus

Dionysus’s Posse

Teams of Followers• Satyrs - horny semi-divine male party animals• Nymphs - horny semi-divine female party animals• Maenads - (Bacchantes): mortal women gone craaaazy

Pan• Cloven-hoofed inventor of pan flute; chaser of Syrinx

Echo• Version 1: chased by Pan (panic) and fades away• Version 2: punished for diverting Hera while Zeus was cheating

Silenus• Ugly old drunk

Bacchic ritual

Components of Bacchic worship• enthousiasmos - having the god inside you (drunkenness) • ekstasis - standing outside of your body (drunkenness) • sparagmos - tearing apart live animals • omophagia - eating the animals' raw flesh

Positive interpretation• “communion” with deity who cares about humans• Satisfactory ritual and sense of community

Negative interpretation• Bunch of losers getting wasted• Bunch of losers fornicating in the fields

Dionysus as “rejected god”

• Dolphin aetiology-pirates kidnap Dionysus from beach. All but one pirate took him. Mass turns into vine, bowl appears, Dio turns into a lion, pirates jump ship and turn to dolphins

• Argos- daughters of king Proetus women denied belief, driven mad and follow Dionysus as Maenads

• Orchomenus - daughters of king Minyas deny, driven mad, join line

• Thrace - King Lycurgus denies god, Zeus strikes down

• Midas - King of Phrygia, original golden boy

• Thebes – Home town of Dionysus

The Bacchae of Euripides

Dramatis Personae• Young King Pentheus does not like religion. • Dio, stranger, put in jail. Tricks him into seeomg what religion is like.

Dramatic Action• Stranger convinces Pentheus to “check it out”• Pentheus attends a worship service in drag• Killed by women and subjected to sparagmos

Moral of the Story (Dionysus vs. Apollo)• If you grasp life too strongly, can make you go crazy• If you go too crazy you will get out of control.

Orpheus

Life of Orpheus• Right after wedding snake bites Eurydice and she dies. • Orpheus goes to underworld and plays lyre for Hades. • He can have her back as long as he does not look back – blows it• Invents pederasty; torn to shreds by Maenads

The Orphic religion• Orphic bible are collected teachings on how to live by him. • No ritual or emotional satisfaction; much closer to philosophy • Myth of Zagreus supplies the katabasis requirement

Orpheus jamming out

Apollo vs. DionysusApollo = the reasonable god• Dependence upon law and order• Beauty, clarity, painstaking artistry• Self-control: knowing one’s proper place in the cosmos• Acceptance: dealing with one’s human limitation• Perfection: making the most of one’s life through reason

Dionysus = the emotional god• Chaos, intoxication, celebration of nature; • Focus on the senses• Let yourself go: complete union with the god• Punching a higher floor: enjoying human existence• Reunion: hopes of a happier afterlife

Myths of HermesBasic roles• God of thieves, businessmen, shepherds• Psychopompus – guides souls to underworld • Messenger of Zeus

Myths• Birth – Homeric Hymn• Herm - pile of rocks used to guide travelers • Hermes known as pebble god• Evolved to anthro by Hermes being on trial for killing Argus

The Delphic Oracle

• Omphalos (center of world)• Apollo establishes after killing dragon/ snake Python. Cleansed of

miasma and now can cleanse others. • Miasma = “eye for an eye” blood guilt or pollution• Appears as dolphin to Cretan sailors who become priests of temple. • He communicates through Pythia, prophetess who sits in tripod.

Travelers sacrifice/bring gifts, have priests write down question• Pythia goes into trance, priest translates and records the message• ALWAYS RIGHT

Myths of Dionysus

Basic roles• God of wine and partying• Leader of his own mystery religion• Externalization of drunkenness

Myths• Death of Semele and birth out of Zeus’s thigh• Kidnapping and Dolphin story• Other “rejected god” myths: Thrace, Argos, Orchomenus• King Midas (original golden boy)

Young Dionysus

Dionysus’s Posse

Group Divinities• Satyrs – terminally horny male demigods• Nymphs – terminally horny female demigoddesses• Maenads – formerly decent women gone craaazaaay• Bacchae – same as Maenads, more or less

Individual Members• Pan – shaggy-legged, cloven-hoofed dude• Syrinx – nymph who spurned Pan’s embraces, became reeds• Echo (1) – thought she would distract Hera• Echo (2) – fell in love with Narcissus• Silenus – old, drunk, and uuuuggggllly• Priapus – upstanding young fertility god

Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute

The handsome Silenus

The Hippolytus of Euripides

Dramatis Personae• Artemis and Aphrodite, squabbling sisters• Hippolytus, son of Theseus and stepson of Phaedra• Phaedra, forced (?) to fall in love with Hippolytus

Dramatic Action• Hippolytus disrespects Aphrodite by being chaste• Aphrodite retaliates by making Phaedra fall in love with Hippo• Phaedra makes her move, is rejected, hangs herself• Hippo wrongly blamed for rape, killed by Theseus’ order

Moral of the Story (Dionysus vs. Apollo)• If you grasp life too strongly, can make you go crazy• If you go too crazy you will get out of control.• The Greek deities are not very nice people.

Misogynist’s OdeO Zeus, why have you settled women in the light of the sun, women, this bane mankind find counterfeit? If you wished to propagate the human race, it was not from women that you should have given us this. Rather, men should have put down in the temples either bronze or iron or a mass of gold and have bought offspring…

But the man with a nullity for a wife -- he has it easy, although a woman who sits in a house and is a fool is a trouble. But a clever woman -- 5hat I loathe! May there never be in my house a woman with more intelligence than befits a woman! For Aphrodite engenders more mischief in the clever. The woman without ability is kept from indiscretion by the slenderness of her wit…

A curse on you all! I shall never take my fill of hating women, not even if someone says that I am always talking of it. For they too are always in some way evil. Let a man accordingly either teach them to be chaste or allow me to tread upon them forever.