Mythology Gods Goddesses and Mortals The Greek Miracle

Mythology Gods, Goddesses and Mortals

The “Greek Miracle” • Mankind became the center of the universe

• Greeks made gods in their own image – No bestial shapes like the sphinx

Gods were beautiful and strong • New idea of humankind • Gods looked and acted human

The Greeks Humanized the world • Mythology freed human from the unknown • Greeks had risen from the fierceness of their time • Use of real places gave sense of reality to mythical beings

Mt. Olympus • Home of the Gods and Goddesses

Oracle at Delphi

Thebes (Home of Hercules)

The Greeks transformed a world of fear into a world of beauty The Parthenon (Greek: Παρθενών) is the most famous surviving building of Ancient Greece and one of the most famous buildings in the world. The building has stood atop the Acropolis of Athens for nearly 2, 500 years and was built to give thanks to Athena, the city's patron goddess, for the salvation of Athens and Greece in the Persian Wars. The building was officially called the Temple of Athena the Virgin, and its popular name derives from the Greek word παρθένος (parthenos), a virgin.

Gods • • • Beautiful and immortal Limited sense of justice Could act cruelly In Iliad the gods are jealous and vengeful Idea of justice – Came later in Odyssey – Strangers and those in need were protected by Zeus – Grew as humans became more conscious of their world

Mythology • Begins with Homer 1000 B. C. • Explains something in nature – Doesn’t have anything to do with religion, but rather how natural phenomenon came into existence. – Form of early entertainment

Writers • Homer

Homer • Wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey • Iliad is the first written record of Greece • Homer was an Ionian of the 8 th or 9 th century B. C. E. , which would place his writings also more than 3 centuries after the Trojan War,

Homeric Period • The time period around 1400 B. C. was an era where Mycenae, the traditional home of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and leader of the Greek warriors in Troy, dominated the mainland, and his island of Crete assumed the political and military status of master of the eastern Mediterranean. A golden age of splendor arouse during this period, as shown by excavations of the royal graves at Mycenae, and the cultural and religious traditions of the eminent classical Greece began to take form. This is the Homeric, or Heroic, Age - also called Mycenaean, or Late Minoan -for the culture and values of the latter part of this period are those permanently embodied in the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Hesiod • Hesiod (Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around the year 700 BCE. From the 5 th century BCE, literary historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer. Most modern scholars now agree that Homer lived before Hesiod. • Hesiod serves as a major source for knowledge of Greek mythology, of farming techniques, of archaic Greek astronomy and of ancient timekeeping

Creation In the beginning there was … Chaos

From Chaos came Gaia

And the two darknessess § Erebos – Darkness under the earth • Night Darkness over the earth

The First Romance Night mated with Erebos and. .

Light was Born Light was born

Light was Born Two types of light Aither: light of heaven Day: light of earth

Uranus not happy with 3 Giants Locks them up in Gaia’s womb (OUCH!) Gaia asks sons for help….

Cronus to the rescue • Cuts off his father’s genitals • From his blood sprung the furies

The 3 furies Alecto Tisiphone Megara Avenge parricide And other crimes

Aphrodite was also born from The blood of Uranus

Prophecy of Uranus • A son of Cronus’s will klll him • And so as the Olympians were born guess what Dad did? • A) He sent them to boarding school? • B) He tied them up and made them listen to Frank Sinatra music • C) He…. .

ATE THEM! • But when Zeus was born, his mother Rhea sent him to Crete where he was raised by his Aunt. • Rhea then gave her husband a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he ate for dinner thinking it was another son.

The Return • When he was older Zeus returned to the palace disguised as a cup bearer. He gave his father a special drink known as….

The Barf Cocktail • Take a little Mustard • Mix with salt • Sweeten with honey • Serve with a sly smile and move out of the way…

The stone that Cronus spits up becomes part of the oracle at Delphi

The Battle Begins • Zeus released giants with 100 hands • 7 Titans aligned with Zeus against Cronus • But his brother Atlas was the general for Cronus • Battle lasted 10 years

Zeus wins • The giants with 100 hands give him the ligntning bolt for releasing them from the earth. • Hades is given helmet of invisibility • Poseidon receives the trident

Atlas (brother of Prometheus and Epimetheus) was punished by Zeus • He was given the task of holding up the sky and the earth

Cronus and the rest of the Titans were banished to Tartarus (underworld). • In some stories Cronus escapes to Italy • After the battle, Zeus’s Grandmother, Gaia, turns against him and unleases Typhon. • Zeus imprisoned him under volcano.

Typhon – Early science: • Typhon imprisoned under Mt. Etna

Zeus on Mt. Olympus • Zeus becomes the ruler of the world • He marries his sister Hera • Their children were Hebe, Ares and Haephastus

Oy what a headache • Zeus, ruler of the gods on Mount Olympus. It is told that he swallowed his pregnant first wife, Metis, meaning wisdom, so that she would not bear a child stronger than he. In some versions of the story, Athena's birth was assisted by the blacksmith, Hephaestus, who opened Zeus's head with a stroke of his axe.

The Olympian Gods on Mt. Olympus