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English I Pre-AP. INTRODUCTION TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY. I. What are Myths?. Myths : stories that use fantasy to express ideas about life that cannot easily be expressed in realistic terms. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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English I Pre-AP
Myths: stories that use fantasy to express ideas about life that cannot easily be expressed in realistic terms.
They are, at heart, religious stories. They deal with and explore the relationship between human beings and the unknown/spiritual world.
They were once believed to be true.
Scientific: explanations of things in nature
Literary: entertainment; good storytelling
Religious: give meaning to things in life; explain the role of the gods in everyday life
They depict and reveal behavior and problems common to all human beings. Remind us that human nature is the same
across time and culture. Reveal that many social, ethical, and
religious attitudes continue through time.They reflect the attitudes,
priorities, and values of the cultures that produced them.
In Greek mythology, gods “did not create the universe… the universe created the gods” (Hamilton 24).
In the beginning… there was only Chaos.
From Chaos emerged… Gaea: Mother Earth▪ In Greek culture, more
emphasis was placed on Gaea then on Ouranos, reflecting the Greeks’ reliance on the land and the Earth itself.
Ouranos: Father Heaven Gaea and Ouranos had
three types of children, all monsters, the most important of which were the Titans.
One Titan, Cronus, rebelled against Ouranos as a result of Ouranos’s treatment of some of his children.
For some time, Cronus (Saturn) and his wife/sister Rhea ruled the universe until their son, Zeus, overthrew his father and conquered the Titans, becoming supreme ruler of the universe.
It was only after Zeus took control and the Olympians and other immortals took their places that humans entered the picture.
In Greek mythology, man was not created in the image of the gods; rather, the gods were in the image of man.
Although Greek religion centered on a pantheon, separate villages worshipped separate gods in many instances.
In many cases, deities existed before the patriarchal religion of Zeus incorporated them.
The Twelve great gods who succeeded the Titans
Lived on Mt. Olympus, which could have either been The physical mountain in
Thessaly OR A mountain in a
mysterious region above the Earth.
Olympus was NOT HEAVEN.
1. Zeus (Jupiter)2. Poseidon
(Neptune)3. Hades (Pluto)4. Hestia (Vesta)5. Hera (Juno)6. Ares (Mars)
7. Athena (Minerva)
8. Apollo (Apollo)9. Aphrodite
(Venus)10. Hermes
(Mercury)11. Artemis
(Diana)12. Hephaestus
(Vulcan)
VI. The Twelve OlympiansZEUS God of the sky,
thunder, and justice
King and most powerful of the gods; Ruler of Mount Olympus
POSEIDON God of the sea and
earthquakes Brother of Zeus Odysseus’s enemy
VI. The Twelve Olympians
HADES God of the
Undeworld Zeus and
Poseidon’s brother
HESTIA Goddess of the
Hearth
VI. The Twelve Olympians
HERA Goddess of
marriage and married women
Exceptionally beautiful
Zeus’s wife
ARES God of War
VI. The Twelve Olympians
ATHENA Goddess of
wisdom and the arts of war and peace
Protector of Odysseus
Zeus’s favorite daughter
APOLLO God of archery,
poetry, music, medicine, and prophecy
VI. The Twelve Olympians
APHRODITE Goddess of Love
and Beauty
HERMES Messenger god God of commerce,
speed, and trade
VI. The Twelve Olympians
ARTEMIS Goddess of the
Wild Things, the moon, and crossways
HEPHAESTUS God of fire and the
forges – Blacksmith to the gods
According to the Greeks, all departed souls went to the Underworld.
Two Main Divisions of the Underworld: Erebus: where the
dead pass when they die
Tartarus: the main division
The dead are ferried across the point where the River Acheron (river of woe) pours into the River Cocytus (river of lamentation) by an aged boatman named Charon. Charon will ONLY ferry
into the Underworld those who have been properly buried and who have had the passage fee placed on their lips at burial.
At the gate sits Cerberus, the three-headed dog who permits all the dead to enter, but not to exit.
The Underworld is ruled by the god Hades and his queen, Persephone.