Theories
of Myth Interpretation
- Key Names & Terms:
rationalism, Xenophanes, Theagenes, Hecataeus, Plato, Euhemerus,
allegory, symbolism, etymology, euhemerism, Neoplatonism, Sr. James
Frazer, ritual theory of myth, Malinowski, charter theory of myth,
Claude Lévi-Strauss, structural theory of myth (structuralism)
- go
to Powell's web site (Ch 24): click
here (pay attention to the terms at the back of the
chapters)
Myths
of
the Olympian gods:
Zeus and Hera
- Key Names & Terms: Zeus,
aegis, xenia, Ganymede, Hera, Eileithyia, anthropomorphism, Qo-wi-ja,
animals/powers associated with them
- go
to Powell's web site (Ch 6): click
here (pay attention to the terms at the back of the
chapters)
Myths
of the Olympian gods:
The
Male Deities
- Key Names & Terms:
Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Delphi, Delos, Pythia, Cassandra, Sibyl,
Daphne, Asclepius, Coronis, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes, caduceus,
animals/powers associated with the deities
- go
to Powell's web site (Ch 7): click
here (pay attention to the terms at the back of the
chapters)
Myths of the Olympian gods: Female Divinities:
- Powell,
Chapter 8:
- Key Names & Terms:
Hestia, Aphrodite, Cypris, Hermaphroditus, Priapus, Pygmalion, Myrrha,
Anchises, Artemis, Potnia Theron, Niobe, Orion, Actaeon, Athena, Arachne
- sample questions at
his web site: click
here
- Powell, Chapter 9:
- Key Names & Terms:
Demeter, Persephone, Kore, Eleusinian Mysteries, Inanna,
Dumuzi, Isis, Osiris, Cybele, Attis, Agdestis, Adonis
- sample questions at
his web site: click
here
- Long
Essay
Questions:
(400-600 words long)
- What are some of the things that the
first thirty lines or so of the Homeric
Hymns to Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, Aphrodite, & Demeter (all
in Powell) tell us about Greek society using Malinowski's charter
theory? Make sure you give specific examples to
back up your conclusions and that you succintly, but sufficiently,
state what Malinowski's theory is in your introduction.
- Apply Levi-Strauss's
theory to 2 of the following Homeric
Hymns:
to Apollo, to Hermes, to Aphrodite, to Demeter. Make sure you give
specific examples to back up your conclusions and that you succintly,
but sufficiently, state what Levi-Strauss's theory is in your
introduction.
- The chapter in Powell's
book on Zeus and Hera (Chapter 6) details
some of the ways that they related to each other as a couple and how
that related to what married life was like in Greek society. What do 3
of the following relationships tell us about the Greek 'married'
relationship--Aphrodite and Hephaestus, Demeter & Zeus, Hades &
Persephone (as a newly married couple), Apollo & Coronis, Aphrodite
& Anchises (their interchange prior to their 'fling')?
- Compare/contrast the Greek
view of male/female relationships, as
evidenced by Zeus & Hera's relationship (Powell, Ch 6) with the Vietnamese view, as evidenced in
the myth of Au Co &
the Dragon Prince (Leonard, 144ff), or with the Hawaiian view, as
evidenced in the myth of Pe-le (Leonard, 122ff)].