Chapter 3 Lecture Two of Two Greek Myth in the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Periods ©2012 Pearson Education Inc

Chapter 3Lecture Two of Two

Greek Myth in the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Periods

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

GREEK MYTH IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD


Archaic Period

• Though set in the Mycenaean Age, myth is first written down in the Archaic Period.

• Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.– Alphabet made writing the oral epics down

possible– A mix of Mycenaean and Dark Age materials


Archaic Period

• A generation after Homer, Hesiod (the first identifiable western author).

• He was a "poet," a maker of songs, inspired by the Muses on Mt. Helicon, near where he lived.

• Composed The Theogony, a compendium of deities and a creation account.


Archaic Period

• Other epics (now lost) are called the Epic Cycles

• Homeric Hymns survive.– Songs sung to various deities

• Personal lyric comes from this period: not in the third person.– Often refer to myth


CLASSICAL PERIOD


Classical Period

• No official version of myths, hence they had no authority, like the sacred tales of other cultures.

• Cleared the way for the development of ethics, independent of divine revelation.

• Rhapsodes performed memorized scripts (different from aoidoi).


Classical Period

• Writing made choral song possible– small groups of performers in unison

• Pindar's songs often use myth as their basic material.

• Also Bacchylides


Classical Period

• Theatrical performances our most plentiful source for Greek myth– tragedy < "goat-song?"

• Peisistratus• Dionysus• Aristotle's analysis of the effect of theatre

through pity and fear to a release of them both.


Classical Period

• Aristotle's assessment– turning around– turning down– hamartia (not a flaw)– hubris


Classical Period

• The great tragedians discussed and compared– Aeschylus– Sophocles– Euripides


Figure 3.10 Theatrical MasksPerformers on the Greek stage all wore masks.


Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples; © Bettmann/CORBIS. All Rights Reserved

HELLENISTIC PERIOD


Hellenistic Period

• All Greek literature that survives passed through the Mouseion (The Hall of the Muses), the great Library in Alexandria.

• Literature read aloud in small assemblies– Unlike the performances of the aoidoi and

rhapsodes– Learned and often obscure


Hellenistic Period

• "Alexandrian" poetry• Apollonius of Rhodes• Allegorical readings of myth in philosophical

schools– Stoics

• The Library of Apollodorus• Pausanias's travel guide


ROMAN APPROPIATION OF GREEK MYTH


Roman Appropriation

• Adopted and adapted by Roman writers.– Vergil

• Aeneid

– Ovid• Metamorphoses

– Seneca• tragedies


Roman Appropriation

• Writing freezes the oral traditions.• Do we study myth as myth per se or as a

subdivision of literary criticism?• The book does both: identifies the better

known written variants and discusses them as literature.


End


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Chapter 3 Lecture Two of Two Greek Myth in the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Periods ©2012 Pearson Education Inc