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: Tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), Herodotus, Plato, Palaephatus
    • Hellenistic Age & Roman Period: Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica), Pausanias, Plutarch, Ovid, Virgil, Catullus

Creation:

• Maurizio, Chapter 2
  • Key Names & Terms:
    • authors & Works: Hesiod, The Theogony, The Works & Days; Homer
    • places: Mycenae, Ascra, Olympia
    • terms: panhellenism, cult title
    • Names: Earth, Night, Uranus, Cronus, Rhea, Zeus, Metis, Themis, Typhoeus, Prometheus, Pandora
    • Hebrew selection: God, Eden, Adam, Eve, Serpent


• Leonard & McClure:
  • Key Names and terms:
    • Norse: Ginnungagap, Ymir, Odin, Vili, Ve, Asgard, Yggdrasill, Ask, Embla
    • Mayan: Sovereign Plumed Serpent, Heart of Sky, Jaguar Quitze, Quiche
    • Vietnamese: Golden Crow (Sun), Swan (Moon), Au Co, Dragon Prince
    • Hindu: Brahma, kalpa, boar, Mahaprayla (end of cycle)

Zeus & Hera:

• Maurizio, Chapter 3
  • Key Names & Terms:
    • Zeus: Cronus, Rhea, Athena, Hera, thunderbolt, eagle, Zeus Meilichius, Sarpedon
    • Hera: Cronus, Rhea, Hephaestus, peacock, cow-eyed, Argeia
    • terms: cult
    • Greek passage: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Prometheus, Hephaestus, Io, Oceanids
    • Greek flood: Zeus, Deucalion, Pyrrha, chest, humans immoral, rocks (laas) = laoi (Gk for people)
    • Near Eastern flood stories: Ea, Utnapishtim, "large boat," Gilgamesh, gods angry (can't get sleep)
    • Hebrew: God, Noah, Ark, "wickedness" of humans


• Leonard & McClure:
  • Key Names and terms:
    • Mayan: Sovereign Plumed Serpent, Heart of Sky, mud, wood, corn, monkeys, flood (didn't remember the gods)
    • Norse: Ymir, Odin, Vili, Ve, flood (Ymir's blood), frost giants (evil)

Possible Essay Questions:

Use only the primary material (i.e. the actual stories) in Maurizio's Classical Mythology in Context and in Leonard & McClure's Myth & Knowing and the pdf in Moodle for the missing lines from Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound.

• The Beginning of all:
  • Source material: Hindu, Vietnamese, Mayan, Norse, Hebrew, Greek
  • Prompt: Compare and/or contrast two-three of the above with respect to at least one of the following questions: Who creates, How the "who" creates, What materials used (if any) to create? In your conclusion hypothesize on the significance of the similarities and/or differences you have found.


• The Flood:
  • Source material: Norse, Mayan, Hebrew, Greek, Near Eastern
  • Prompt: Compare and/or contrast two-three of the above with respect to at least one of the following questions: Who sends the flood, Why the flood is sent, Who is saved and how? In your conclusion hypothesize on the significance of the similarities and/or differences you have found.


• Zeus & Prometheus:
  • Source material: Hesiod's Theogony and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (both in Maurizio and the pdf in Moodle
  • Prompt: Aeschylus gives different portraits of both Zeus & Prometheus in his Prometheus Bound from what Hesiod does in his Theogony. In your essay examine how Aeschylus has changed Zeus, then how he has changed Prometheus. In your conclusion hypothesize on why he made the changes he did.