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ENGL 392/Mythology Review and Loose Ends

ENGL 392/Mythology Review and Loose Ends. July 8, 2010.

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ENGL 392/Mythology Review and Loose Ends

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  1. ENGL 392/MythologyReview and Loose Ends July 8, 2010

  2. “Myth is a ‘traditional tale,’ a story passed on from generation to generation, that, as a secondary component, had a ‘collective importance’ to the life of the community that preserved and transmitted it.” (Walter Burkert, quoted in H&P, p. 15) • Chief characters are deities and heroes • Take place in distant past • Originate orally, however, Greek myth survives in literary texts • Many versions as different tellers, mythmakers, writers revise details in response to their audience, social-historical context • Are a part of cultural legacy; passed down from generation to generation • Myths are formative and reflective of the social order and values • Myths are explanatory: they teach, represent or explain customs, causes (natural, social, religious) ritual practices, social institutions, world-view, correct behavior, morality, etc.) • Myths are good and entertaining stories • Myths have narrative and symbolic appeal • Myths have enduring value even in cultures and time periods set apart by many centuries (and millennia) from their place and time of origin • For the Greeks, myths are a kind of pre-history, a way that they understood the distant past

  3. legends, sagas and folktales • Legends focus on human exploits or activities and usually have an historical basis • Sagas are similar to legends, but typically focus on a particular family or location • Folktales focus on “the folk”, that is commoners vs an aristocratic or privileged class • NB: these categories or genres are not fixed, but may overlap

  4. Characteristics of Greek Religion • No sacred texts that reveal truth • No creeds or doctrines regarding essential beliefs about the gods • No special priestly class or administrative group • Ordinary individuals participate in religious practice (in public ceremonies or rituals or in their homes) • Religious practicefocuses largely on honoring the gods through sacrifice and other rituals and through the recitation of literary works that recount stories about the gods (e.g., Homeric epic, the Homeric Hymns) and the performance of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

  5. Characteristics of the Greek Deities • Anthropomorphic--similar to privileged, larger than life humans • Flawed (subject to anger, revenge, erotic desire) • Relations with each other resemble a patriarchal family (parents, siblings, husbands and wives, across generations) • Do not demand exclusive worship • Demand honor and recognition • Deities have specific rolesand attributes • Immortal, but not eternal

  6. Parthenon (illustrations in H&P, pp.16-18) • Located on the acropolis (center of Athenian social, economic,religious and political life) • Dedicated to Athena and housed both her cult statue and the treasury • Constructed between 447 and 432 BCE--at the height of Athenian power--under Athenian leadership the Delian League defeated the Persians (490 and 480-479 BCE) • Rectangular floor plan with low steps on all sides • Replaced two smaller temples in honor of Athena

  7. Metopes depict struggles between order and chaos: the battle with Amazons, Lapiths and Centaurs, gods and giants, Greeks and Trojans • Pediments consist of larger relief sculptures depicting the contest between Poseidon and Athena (east), the birth of Athena (west) • Friezes depict the same subject on all 4 sides: procession of horsemen, musicians, sacrificial animals, others with apparently ritualistic functions, child handing folded cloth (peplos) to elderly man, gods and goddesses in attendance, girl carrying something=the Panathenaic procession

  8. What does the Parthenon tell us about the use and function of myth in Athenian culture and about Athenian culture itself?What does the Parthenon represent?

  9. Periods of Greek History • Minoan Age--3000-1600 BCE--pre Indo-European culture • Mycenaean--1650-1150--result of IE invasions in 3rd millennium BCE • Dark/Iron Age--1200-1100--Dorian invasions and ultimate downfall of Mycenaean culture • Archaic/Classical Age--800-400 BCE--5th C is the peak of Athenian art, architecture, literary achievement; democracy • Hellenistic Age--323-30 BCE--death of Alexander to rise of Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar

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