Chapter 5 Lecture Two of Two The Five

Chapter 5 Lecture Two of Two The Five Races of Men The Universal Flood Themes in Human Origins © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Five Races • Not compatible with the Pandora stories • Different source • The descent into the wretched, modern age © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Five Races © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Five Races • Hesiod’s world “blown apart” by the alphabet • Later, the Age of Cronus was seen as a Golden Age because it fit chronologically with the Golden Race of the five races. © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Universal Flood • Mesopotamia – Sumerians – 4000– 2400 – Akkadians – Semites – 2300 – Babylonians – Hammurabi 1750 • “Terah was a man of Ur” © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah • The earliest flood (Sumerian) • Thousands of years earlier than the biblical texts • Mankind is progressing, and the gods decide to exterminate them • We’re not told why • Enki (Prometheus) decides to save one: Ziusudra © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah • Tells him to build a boat • Ziusudra survives the seven-day flood and sacrifices to Utu (the sun god) after it. © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah • The Babylonian variation of the Sumerian flood • Humankind proves too fruitful and too noisy • Various plagues and other ideas fail to check their growth, so Enlil (storm god) decides to send a flood © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah • But Ea (Enki) warns one “very wise man, ” Atrahasis ( = Ziusudra) • Instructs him to build a boat and save his family and all kinds of animals © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah • A flood of seven days and nights kills off humanity • But the gods, deprived of their smoke, begin to starve • They gather around Atrahasis’s sacrifice and breathe pleasant smoke — even Enlil (who demanded the flood) is pleased © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Ziusudra, Athrahsis, and Noah • To check population, measures are taken to increase infant mortality and decrease the fertility rate of women: – some would be barren – ritual chastity – demons to kill some of the newborn. © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Lycaon, Deucalion, and Pyrrha THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Lycaon, Deucalion, and Pyrrha • Not in Hesiod • Perhaps he didn’t know about it — i. e. , the story hadn’t made its way into the Greek world yet in 8 th/7 th c. BC • Source is the Roman Ovid (1 c. BC) © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Lycaon, Deucalion, and Pyrrha • Zeus investigates the alleged wickedness of humankind • In disguise, comes to the house of Lycaon (“wolf”), king of Arcadia • Lycaon planned to test whether the visitor was divine (as some of his people thought). © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Lycaon, Deucalion, and Pyrrha • Feed him human flesh and see whether he notices • Zeus (of course) knows, and turns Lycaon into a wolf (“lycanthropy”) • First he wants to destroy the world with fire • Changes his mind to a flood © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Lycaon, Deucalion, and Pyrrha • Only Deucalion (son of Prometheus) and Pyrrha survive on a raft • They land on Mt. Parnassus (Delphi), near a small temple to Themis • Zeus relents and Poseidon orders the rains to stop and the flood to recede © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Lycaon, Deucalion, and Pyrrha • How to repopulate the earth? • “Toss the bones of your mighty mother over your shoulders. ” • Deucalion understands the riddle • Stones are the bones of the “mother” (mother earth) • Most important of the children were eponymous heroes of the Greeks © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

© 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THEMES IN STORIES OF HUMAN ORIGINS © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Themes • No authoritative Greek account. • Men emerge like plants or are the product of a craftsman god. • There are delays and restarts: it doesn't happen all at once. • Gods and human have a common origin, but something happens to cause a break. © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Themes • There is punishment for the offense. • The Greek accounts explain where Greeks come from; it doesn't explain where people of other races come from. © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.

End © 2012 Pearson Education Inc.