The Nature of Myth:

• Maurizio, Chapter 1
  • Key Names & Terms:
    • terms: legends, folktales, mythological corpus
    • Archaic Age: Homer Iliad, Odyssey, "Homeric" Hymns, Hesiod Theogony, Works & Days
    • Classical Age: The tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, & Euripides, Herodotus, Plato, Palaephatus
    • Hellenistic Age & Roman Period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Ovid, Virgil, Catullus

Creation:

• Maurizio, Chapter 2
  • Key Names & Terms:
    • authors & Works: Hesiod, The Theogony, The Works & Days; Homer (Iliad, Odyssey)
    • places: Mycenae, Ascra, Olympia
    • terms: panhellenism, cult title
    • from the Theogony:
      • ll. 1–99: Muses, music, Chasm (or Chaos), Earth (Gaia/Gaea), Tartarus, Eros ("Hymn ...")
      • ll. 126–174: Uranus (heaven), Cronus, Erinyes ("Cronus defeats ...")
      • ll. 373–416: Cronus, Rhea, Zeus, Zeus's siblings, the 3 Cyclopes, Olympus, Lightningbolt ("Zeus escapes ...")
      • ll. 417–499: Prometheus, Zeus, fire, Pandora (the "modest maiden" of ll. 467–468), women ("Zeus defeats Prometheus")
      • ll. 500–590: Cronus, Rhea, Zeus, the Titans, the Olympians, Kottos (one of the 3 100-handed ones), Tartarus ("Zeus defeats ... Cronus")
      • ll. 650–695: Zeus, Tartarus, Olympus ("Zeus defeats Typhoeus")
      • ll. 696–735: Zeus & Metis (offspring: Athena), & Leto (offspring: Apollo & Artemis) ("Zeus's marriages")
    • Hebrew selection: Genesis, God, Eden, Adam, Eve, serpent, garden of Eden, forbidden fruit, tree of knowledge of good and evil, cherubim


• Leonard & McClure
  • Key Names and terms:
    • Norse: Muspell, Niflheim, Ginnungagap, Ymir, Audumla, Buri, Bor, Odin, Vili, Ve, Asgard, Aesir, Ask & Embla
    • Mayan: Popul Vu, Sovereign Plumed Serpent (associated with Maker, Modeler, bearer, begetter, heart of earth), Hurricane (associated with heart of sky, thunderbolt hurricane, newborn thunderbolt, raw thunderbolt), Xmucane, Xpiyacoc, order of creation: animals, mud humans, wood humans--flood, beatings, monkeys, corn & water humans
    • Vietnamese: sun (day bird), moon (night bird), Au Co (goddess), Dragon Prince (Lac Dragon), humans=1/2 goddess & 1/2 dragon, earth, Long Trang mountain, stone tools (for fire), sweet rice (for food/marriage), drums (for song & dance)
    • Hindu: Vishnu Purana, Brahma, Narayan, Heri, Earth (Prithivi), boar, 4 spheres, oceans

Zeus & Hera; floods:

• Maurizio, Chapter 3
  • Key Names & Terms:
    • Zeus: Cronus, Rhea, Athena, Hera, thunderbolt, eagle, Zeus Meilichius
    • Hera: Cronus, Rhea, Hephaestus, peacock, cow-eyed, Argeia
    • terms: cult
    • Greek passage: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Zeus, Prometheus, Hephaestus, Io, Oceanids
    • Greek flood: Zeus, Race of Bronze, Pyrrha (Pandora & Epimetheus), Deucalion, Prometheus, Hermes, Parnassos, stones, laoi
    • Near Eastern flood stories: Epic of Gilgamesh, Ea, Gilgamesh, boat, flood=too many/too noisy
    • Hebrew: Genesis, God, Noah, his sons (Ham, Shem, Japeth), Canaan (Ham's son), Arc, rainbow in the clouds (covenant), wine/vineyard


• Leonard & McClure:
  • Key Names and terms:
    • Mayan: Sovereign Plumed Serpent (associated with Maker, Modeler, bearer, begetter, heart of earth), Hurricane (associated with heart of sky, thunderbolt hurricane, newborn thunderbolt, raw thunderbolt), Xmucane, Xpiyacoc, order of creation: animals, mud humans, wood humans--flood, beatings, monkeys, corn & water humans
    • Norse: Ymir, Odin, Vili, Ve, Bergelmir & wife

Possible Essay Questions:

Use only the primary material (i.e. the actual stories that we have covered in this unit) in Maurizio's Classical Mythology in Context and in Leonard & McClure's Myth & Knowing and the pdfs in Canvas for the missing lines from Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and for the poetic version of the Big Bang that the specific topic calls for (and only that material)

• Big Bang/myths of creation:
  • Source Material: Poetic version of the Big Bang (pdf in Canvas). Cultures: Hebrew (passage from Genesis in Maurizio, Ch 2); Mayan ("The Popul Vu" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 2); Greek (Hesiod's Theogony in Maurizio, Ch 2); Norse ("The Creation, from The Eddas" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 2).
  • Prompt: Compare/contrast the explanations/timing of light/darkness and stars/sun/moon, and day/night in the Big Bang with 2 of the cultures listed above. In your conclusion hypothesize about the significance of the similarities/differences.


• Human/Divine relationship:
  • Source material: Greek: lines 417–499 and 740–810 from Hesiod's Theogony, the flood passage from The Library (pp 134-135), and "Aeschylus, from Prometheus Bound" in Maurizio, Ch 2 & 3; Mayan: "The Popul Vu" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 2; Vietnamese: "A Taste of Earth" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 3
  • Prompt: Examine the relationship between humanity and the 'gods' for 3 of the cultures listed above with regard to 1-3 of the following pairs: near/far; kind/cruel; just/selfish. In your conclusion postulate what conclusions can you draw about the three societies based on your examination of each.


• Divine/Divine relationship:
  • Sources to draw from: Mayan: "The Popul Vu" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 2; Vietnamese: "A Taste of Earth" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 3; Greek: 1-2 of the dramatic tales from Hesiod's Theogony and "Aeschylus, from Prometheus Bound" in Maurizio, Ch 2 & 3; Norse: "The Creation, from The Eddas" in Leonard & McClure, Ch 2
  • Prompt: Examine the relationships of the "divine" beings for 3 of the cultures listed above. Assuming that these interactions are reflective of human interactions, in your conclusion postulate what conclusions can you draw about the three societies based on your examination of each.
  • Note: In the Norse myth, treat "giants and the like" as "divine". Similarly, in the Greek myth, Titans, and the like, are "divine."