Greek mythology

Greek

Mythology

Family Tree

How things started out…

Mother Earth (Gaea) Father Heaven (Uranus)

Titan Children Monster Children

Rhea Cronus

Zeus Hades Poseidon Hestia Demeter Hera

Chaos

Hestia Hades Poseidon Zeus

Zeus

Athena Ares Hebe Hephaestus

Hera

Demeter

Zeus

Persephone

Demeter

Hera

CronusRhea

Cronus kills his father (Uranus) and becomes supreme

Titan

Cronus and Rhea have children.

Cronus eats all the children, fearing one of them will

grow up and overthrow him as king.

Rhea tricks Cronus with the sixth Child-Zeus

Rhea tricks Cronus by giving him a rock wrapped in a ba

by blanket, allowing Zeus to escape.

Zeus grows up to be a very strong god

Zeus goes back to Mt. Olympus, gives Cronus a poisono

us drink that makes him vomit up all the children he swall

owed.

Zeus defeats Cronus and becomes ruler of all the gods.

The Monster Children

• Cyclopes

Monster Children

•Giants

•Centaur

Monster Children

•Medusa

Monster Children

• Pegasus

Monster Children

•Sirens

Monster Children

•Gorgons

Monster Children

•Cerberus

Monster Children

-Ruler of all Gods

-God of the Sky

-His weapon is lightning

-His shield is called Aegis

-His symbol is the lightning bolt and eagle

-goddess of grain, and the

harvest. (agriculture, fertility

and season)

-makes the crops grow each

year.

-Made Winter and Spring

-Symbol is Sheaf and Barley

-God of Sea and protector

of all waters.

-His weapon is a trident,

which can shake the earth,

and shatter any object.

-He is second only to Zeus in

power amongst the gods.

-Tried to impress Demeter by

making her a beautiful animal

—the first Horse.

-Sister of Zeus

-Goddess of Hearth (home)

-One of the three virgin

Goddesses

-Symbol: Hearth

-Wife of Zeus

-Queen of the Gods

-goddess of marriage and chil

dbirth

-Symbol: cow and peacock

-Lord of the underworld, ruling

over the dead but NOT dead

himself.

-3rd Brother of Zeus

-He is also the god of wealth

-He rarely leaves the underworld.

-Did NOT live on Mt. Olympus

-He has a cap that whoever wore

became invisible.

• Ares is the son of Zeus

and Hera.

• He is the god of war.

• He is considered murder

ous and bloodstained

but, also a coward.

• Referred by some as Ap

hrodite's lover

• Symbol: vulture

• Animal: dog

• Goddess of wisdom, warfare, craft and industry.

• Athena is the daughter of

Zeus. She sprang full grown

in armor from his forehead,

thus has no mother. .

• She was Zeus's favorite child and was allowed to use his

weapons including his thunderbolt

• One of the three virgin Goddesses

• Created by Zeus lone.

• Symbol: oak tree and owl.

• Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto

• Twin brother of Artemis.

• He is the god of music, playing a golden lyre. The Archer,

far shooting with a silver bow. The god of healing who taught man medicine. The god of

light. The god of truth, who

can not speak a lie.

• One of Apollo's more important

daily tasks is to harness his

chariot with four horses an

drive the Sun across the sky.

• God of Fire

• Hephaestus is the son of Zeus and Hera. It is said that Hera alone produced him and

that he has no father.

• He is the only god to be physically ugly.

• He is lame. (Can not walk)

• He is the god of fire and the

forge.

• He is the smith and armorerof the gods. He uses a volcano as his forge.

• He is kind and peace loving

• She was goddess of the hunt

and the young. Artemis is the

daughter of Zeus and Leto.

• Twin of Apollo

• She is the lady of the wild

things

• One of the three virgin

Goddesses

• She is the huntsman of the

gods.

• Symbols: deer and moon

• He was the cleverest of the

Olympian gods, and messen-ger t

o all the other gods.

• He is Zeus messenger.

• He is the fastest of the gods.

• He wears winged sandals, a wing

ed hat, and carries a magic wand.

• Son of Zeus and Maius (daughter

of the titan Atlas)

• Goddess of love and

beauty

• Married to Hephaestus

• Symbol: dove, swan and s

parrow

Who was Hesiod?

• Wrote in ARCHAIC period, c. 750-650 BCE (same period as Homer)

• He provides a few details of his life in his poems. For example, he mentions a lawsuit against his brother.

• He was a poet who crafted traditional stories about the gods into an organized pattern.

Theogony

• Means “origin or generations of the

gods.”

• A cosmogony (= how the universe came to be) and cosmology (= how its parts are arranged)

• Names over 300 gods, etc. Delights in catalogs (= folkloric technique).

• Figures in the poem range from fully developed characters to allegorical names.

Why did Hesiod write it?

• Possibly to show off his skill as a poet in a poetry competition. Oral-formulaic composition, memorization, etc.

• Gods from different parts of Greece are organized into a family.

• Main theme: the ascent of Zeus as chief god

Overall Structure

• Invocation of the Muses inspiration

• 1st generation: primordial gods: Chaos Gaia Gaia and Ouranos.

• 2nd generation: Titans, Kronos, etc.

• Interlude: story of Prometheus

• 3rd generation: Titanomachy and Zeus’ rise to power.

Invocation

• Hesiod is a shepherd who seeks inspiration from the Muses (= daughters of Zeus):

And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while

he was

shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this wo

rd first the

goddesses said to me -- the Muses of Olympus, daught

ers of Zeus

who holds the aegis:

First Generation

• What is Chaos?

• Gaia (= Earth) is spontaneously generated. Pay attention to patterns of reproduction!!

• Produces children through parthenogenesis, then via sexual intercourse with son/husband Ouranos (= Sky)

– Pairing of Earth and Sky a motif in earlier myths of Egypt and the near east.

First Generation

• Patterns to watch for:

– Unusual methods of reproduction

– Confused kinship relations

– Frustrated reproduction (Ouranos and Kronos)

– Monsters dominate here.

– Conflict between female and male gods (reflects ascent of patriarchy over matriarchy??)

Gaia and Cronos

• Separation of Earth and Sky when Kronos castrates Ouranos = cosmogony

– Sparagmos= an ancient Dionysian ritual in which a living animal, or sometimes even a human being, would be sacrificed by being dismembered, by the tearing apart of limbs from the body.

• Primal taboo: killing the father

• Birth of Aphrodite.

Kronos/Cronos

• Meaning of name is disputed. Possibly from Indo-European root meaning “the cutter.”

• After he becomes chief god, he swallows his children to prevent them from killing him. Inverts pattern of Ouranos preventing birth by refusing to pull out of Gaia.

• Rhea and Gaia conspire to preserve baby Zeus through a scheme to fool Kronos.

Kronos

• Zeus is taken away and raised in secret (a common motif in mythology. Compare Dionysus, Moses, Jesus, etc.)

Prometheus

• Does this story really interrupt the genealogical pattern?

• It offers an etiology: why Greeks burned bones as a sacrificial offering to the gods.

• Says men already existed but doesn’t explain how or why they were created.

• Says women were created as a punishment for mankind. Story of Pandora. (See also Works & Days)

Analysis of Prometheus Story

• Prometheus punished. On the rig

ht, Prometheus Is tied to a colum

n while Zeus' eagle eats his liver.

On the left, Prometheus' brother

Atlas holds up the sky. Laconian

cup, c. 555 BC.

Etruscan museum, the Vatican.

For a larger (152 K) version, clic

k on the picture.

Rise of 3rd Generation

• Titanomachy: “Olympians” versus Titans = 3rd generation vs. 2nd generation with help from outcasts from 1st generation.

• How does Zeus seek to avoid the fate

of Ouranos and Kronos?

• Management skills of the Greek gods!!

• New regularities: methods of reproduction and kinship relations.

Triumph of Zeus

• Battle with Typhoios (Typhon), described as the last born child of Gaia.

– Circular pattern: 3rd generation defeated 2nd, now defeats 1st.

• Assertion of patriarchal order: gods defined in terms of their relationship to Zeus.

• Zeus and the Fates.