The Olympic Gods and Myths

Prometheus• The story of fire • Main elements- fire,

revenge, seeing into the future

• Why did Prometheus do it?

• Was he a hero or a villain or both?

• Does he know Man will one day not need Gods?

• What would you do?

Origin of the Seasons

• Demeter, Persephone, Hades

• Explains what phenomena besides cycle of seasons and famines?

• Persephone=“Kore”= word for corn. In Europe means any grain.

• 7 months/5 months

Arachne

• Arachne, Athena (Minerva)

• Themes –- “Hubris”-Spiders, webs-MetamorphosisWhat scenes did Arachne

weave and why was that not “smart”?

Arachne• She tried to hang

herself but Minerva got her down. Why?

• Why did Minerva change her into a spider?

• Where does a spider sit on its web?

• Why do we think of most spiders as female?

Pandora’s Box

• Gift from Hermes• Greed, Slander, Envy,

other miseries• Pandora as a gift from

Zeus to Epimetheus• Epimetheus-brother to

Prometheus• (second part read to

you)

Pandora’s Box-cont.

• Includes a story of a flood by Zeus

• Deucalion resembles Noah as he builds an ark.

• Idea of casting stones over shoulder to make new mortals

Baucis and Philemon

• Baucis, Philemon, Jupiter(Zeus), Mercury(Hermes)

• Virtues emphasized• Hospitality, humility,

deference• What is the

metamorphosis and is a reward or curse?

Atalanta• Atalanta, King of Arcadia• Her previous love was killed for

defending her against various evil men

• She did not want to marry anyone thinking it would be a betrayal to her lost love.

• She devised the race as a way to appease her father.

• Losers of a race against her were executed

• She found Hippomenes attractive and asked him not to race her. She was afraid for him to lose.

• Why did Aphrodite help Hippomenes trick Atalanta?

• What does this myth say about women and men?

*see additional handout on Atalanta

Phaethon• Helios, Phaethon• Have you ever made a

promise in haste and regretted it?

• Wisdom of father loses to foolishness of son

• Themes:- Youthful over-enthusiasm- Artic regions- Desert regions- Dark skin of Africans

*See additional handout on Phaethon myth

Orpheus• Orpheus, Calliope, Apollo,

Eurydice, Hades, Cerberus, Persephone, Zeus,Contellation Lyra

• What lessons might be gained from this myth?

• What other stories do you know that have a lesson about “looking back”?

**See additional handout on Orpheus

Icarus and Daedalus• Icarus, Daedalus, King

Minos• Lesson to youth= -Listen the advice of your

elders.-What is there to admire

about Icarus?-What lesson is learned

about obedience to the laws of nature?

Echo and Narcissus

• Echo, Zeus, Hera, Narcissus, Nemesis,

• Explains what natural phenomenon?

• What is a “narcissus”?• “Narcissist”

King Midas

• Midas, Dionysus, Midas’ daughter

• The “Midas Touch”• What is the lesson to be

learned from this myth?

The “Midas Touch”

-The desire for riches should not rule your life. Family, friendship, love are more “golden” traits to have in life.

Hercules

• What are the labors he had to do? List them.

• Which labors had to do with using his “smarts”?

• Compare and Contrast Hercules with Prometheus.

• What would be a list of labors given to a “modern day” Hercules?

Hercules -labors 1 and 2

Nemean lion Hydra

1st Labor2nd Labor

Hercules’ third labor

Stag of Artemis

Hercules- labors 4 and 5

Cleaning the Augean stables

4th Labor5th Labor

Killing the great boar

Hercules’ 6th labor

Battling the Stymphalian birds

Hercules labors 7 and 8

Man eating mares of DiomedesBull of Poseidon

8th Labor7th Labor

Hercules labors 9 and 109th Labor 10th Labor

Battling GeryonGirdle of Hippolyta

Hercules labors 11 and 1212th Labor

CerberusApples of Hesperides

11th Labor

More Hercules adventures

Wrestling the giant Antaeus

Fighting Acheolus ( in the form of a bull)

Hercules frees Prometheus

The death of Hercules

Modern Day Hercules- Joe Flynn with a “big” dog !

Modern Day Hercules

Other classical myth monsters

Cyclops dealing with Ulysses

Homer's brief description in the Iliad of the Chimera is the earliest surviving literary reference:

"a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire".

The Chimera

Other Greek mythology “monsters”

The Furies• “In Greek and Roman mythology, the

Furies were female spirits of justice and vengeance. They especially went after people who had murdered family members.Tthe Furies punished their victims by driving them mad. When not punishing wrongdoers on earth, they lived in the Underworld and tortured those punished souls down there. “

• Read more: Furies - Myth Encyclopedia - mythology, Greek, god, names, ancient, Roman, king, people, children, evil, culture http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Furies.html#ixzz0gUZ6Ho0v

MEDUSA“Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but when she was seduced by Poseidon in Athena's temple, she became furious and changed her beautiful hair into serpents and made her face so terrible to look at that the sight of it would turn a man to stone. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus.”

(www.flickr.com/photos/mypixbox/3770599178)

HARPIESRazor-clawed, smelly birds with the faces of women, who messed up the food of King Phineus of Salmydessus. The king was so grateful to the Argonauts for ridding him of these pests that he suggested a way that Jason and his shipmates might avoid being crushed to death by the “Clashing Rocks. “

http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/harpies.html

The Python“In some myths the infant Apollo slew Python at the oracle of Gaea in Delphi; in others Apollo killed the serpent in order to claim the oracle for himself.” http://answers.encyclopedia.com/question/greek-mythology-killed-python-401734.html

The Sphinx“THE SPHINX (or Phix) was a female monster with the body of a lion, the breast and head of a woman, eagle's wings and, according to some, a serpent-headed tail.She was sent by the gods to terrorize the town of Thebes as punishment for some ancient crime. There she ate all the young people who could not solve her. Kreon, the then leader of Thebes, offered the kingship of Thebes to any man who could destroy her. Oedipus accepted the challenge, and when he solved the Sphinx's riddle, she threw herself off a mountainside in despair. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theoi.com/image/img_sphinx.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Sphinx.html&usg=__7rSJnsXSs8dvbHUZ6yfY8DHni74=&h=329&w=280&sz=23&hl=en&start=4&sig2=LRdldovCjy--ZmVK2PVjeQ&itbs=1&tbnid=gNruZfJnBNuZAM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bsphinx%2B%252B%2Bgreek%2Bmythology%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=YaGFS5rSHYSuNdmyiTQ

Riddle of the Sphinx“In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked a riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself.

The riddle:What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.

The solution: A man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.

Of course morning, noon, and night are metaphors for the times in a man's (person's) life. Such metaphors are common in riddles. There were two Thebes, apparently this Thebes was the one in Greece. And this Sphinx was apparently not the one at Giza, in Egypt.”

http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/sphinx0.htm

Typhon“TYPHOEUS (or Typhon) was a monstrous immortal storm-giant who was defeated and imprisoned by Zeus in the pit of Tartaros. He created terrible storms. Typhoeus ‘s head touched the stars. He appeared man-shaped down to the thighs, with two coiled vipers in place of legs. Attached to his hands in place of fingers were a hundred serpent heads, fifty per hand. He had wings, with dirty matted hair and a beard, pointed ears, and eyes flashing fire. Some myths say he had two hundred hands each with fifty serpents for fingers and a hundred heads, one in human form with the rest being heads of bulls, boars, serpents, lions and leopards. He hurled red-hot rocks at the sky and storms of fire boiled from his mouth. He scared the Gods but Zeus defeated him.”

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theoi.com/image/img_typhon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/Typhoeus.html&usg=__1oxdYhX8naDKFgmemA1fIbHWaBk=&h=262&w=356&sz=36&hl=en&start=7&sig2=xRlfcZY4-zcWBRijLGB2BQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=_AjaRJ6X9ChN8M:&tbnh=89&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtyphon%2Band%2Bzeus%2Band%2Bgreek%2Bmythology%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=vaOFS_P1CqDMNNzk1TQ

Achilles Heel

• Achilles Heel incident- Achilles in the Trojan

War- -How did he die?

-What is the tibial vein?

Test Review

• Know the basic story lines of myths in our book, handouts, and the information from our independent projects given in class.

Classical mythology report

• What