CH. 8 Female Deities

Chapter 8: The Female Deities

1. Demeter: is there a persuasive etymology, or partial etymology, of her name?
2. Hestia isp the hearth goddess: what is the name of her Roman equivalent?
3. Aphrodite (___________ in Rome): her  “constant companion”, _________ (in Latin ___________)  is her son by __________.
4. She was first worshipped in the Late Bronze Age (the ______ century BC to be preceise) in the form of a conical ___________ on the island of _________.
5. Why is she sometimes called by the epithet  C___________?
6. What “striking feature” does Powell mention in the cult practice of Aphrodite and Inanna /________ /Astrate?
7. What do you suppose “fecundating power” might mean?
8. Sappho, from the island of ________, was a poet who wrote / performed personal (lyric) poems about the ___________ appeal of young _______.
9. What promsises does Aphrodite make to Sappho in the poem (197-98):
   1. if she runs, (I, Aphrodite) will make her ________;
   2. if she will not take your gifts, (I, Aphrodite) will make her ________;
   3. if she does not love you, (I, Aphrodite) will make her _______ you even ________ her will.
   4. Hermaphroditus was “unified” with the nymph _________ who loved him, to become the first intersex person.
   5. Priapism, one of those things they warn about in viagra commercials, is derived from the god __________, whose image was used to ward of the _______ ______.
   6. “Pygmalion … started living a celibate life.  … he presently carved himself a ______ … of ________, pure and white.
   7. “Venus’ feast day arrived, be;oved by the people of _________ . / Victims with _________ _______s bowed snowy necks and were slaughtered.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

1. or “The day came / For the festival of Venus—an uproar / of processions through all _________. / Snowy heifers, horns ________, kneeled / Under the axe, at the altars.” Ted Hughes, “Pygmalion” in Tales from Ovid.
2. The penultimate stanza of the Ted Hughes version is this (what part of the myth does it describe/)
   1. “And there / (sc Pygmalion) pressed his lips / On lips that were alive. / She woke to his kisses and blushed / To find herself kissing / The one who kissed her / And opened her eyes for the first time / To the light and her lover together.”
   2. What two events that conclude the myth do you think the last stanza describes?
   3. What was the statue named?
   4. What was the child named?
   5. “No wonder that Aphrodite was smitten as soon as she saw him.” Hymn to Aphrodite, 50. Who is “him”? Who cast the spell that smote her?
   6. Make a list of the descriptors used for Aphrodite and the other gods in the poem, Hymn to Aphrodite:
      1. Aphrodite:

i.     line 1

ii.     line 2

iii.     line 58

iv.     line 73

v.     line 83

vi.     line 97

vii.     line 143

viii.     line 175

ix.     line 291

1. Athena

i.     line 7

1. Artemis

i.     line 14

ii.     line 108

1. Hestia

i.     line 20

ii.     line 29

1. Zeus

i.     line 24

ii.     line 32

iii.     line 172

iv.     line 185

1. Hera

i.     line 35

1. the temple of Aphrodite on Cyprus

i.     line 52

1. Thetis

i.     line 84

1. Hermes

i.     line 107

ii.     line 111

iii.     line 118

iv.     line 137

v.     line 194 (2)

vi.     line 271

1. Apollo

i.     line 140

1. Tros (father of Ganymede)

i.     line 197

1. Mountain nymphs

i.     line 265

ii.     line 289

1. Cyprus

i.     line 294

1. Who was Aeneas?
2. The name _________ is not Greek. … Homer calls her P________ T________ “Mistress of _________”.
3. What drove St Paul from Ephesus?
4. Artemis, paradoxically, is the pre-eminent _________ goddess.
5. When a woman died suddenly, without explanation, she was “_____________________”.
6. Who tells the story of Niobe in the Iliad, and why?
7. How many children did she have?
8. Why were they shot? How long did they lie unburied?
9. What happened to Niobe?
10. Orion was in love with the daughter of ___________, (wine-face); he impatiently _______ her, whereupon Wine-face (_____________) blinded him. He sets off with a boy on his shoulders (why?) and evetually gets together with Eos, the _________ goddeess. Artemis kills him by putting a __________ on his head. In the end both are catasterized (turned into stars).
11. How many nymphs help Artemis with her bath?
12. What happens to Actaeon and why?
13. Athena’s name is mentioned in ___________ tablets from the Late Bronze age, more precisely, the _________ century BC.
14. What is the Parthenon?
15. Figure 8.6 What was portrayed in sculpture on the Parthenon’s west pediment?
16. Who was Lord Elgin?
17. Athena’s emblem is the ____________, and the ___________ tree.
18. Her common epithet is ______________eyed.
19. She was protectress of all __________; and of  _______ and _________.
20. She protects ________ing and __________try.
21. She directed the building of the ___________, the first ship, and the Trojan ________.
22. Where does the aegis come from __________ a __________ in the _________machy.
23. Figure 8.7 the ______________ vase, filled with _____________, was given to winners at the ________________________.
24. Describe the scene dipicted on the vase.
25. How many tassels does the aegis have? How much is each worth?
26. Athena represents ____________ control over elemental force; she teaches strategy and __________________ in war.
27. She established ___________, as opposed to vengence.
28. She was associated with wisdom only in the __________________.
29. The inner relief of the Parthenon shows the _________________ of high born _________s and ___________s carrying sacred _____________.
30. Sacrificial _______________s were led to the __________ where a new __________  (called the Peplos) was presented to her cult statue.

CH. 9 Demeter (esp. The Hymn to Demeter)

Chapter Nine: Myths of Fertility

Demeter

1. Soil fertitlity, reproductivity of wild animals, human sexual attraction are all attibuted to ________ divine beings,
2. Line 6 ff.             Perspehone was gathering: roses, violets, crocuses, hyacinths, irises, and _________.
3. Earth (Gaia) produced this flower as a favor to _____________, according to the counsel of __________.
4. Line 14 ff.             When she picks it, her uncle _________ rides out and budles her off. How many names does this uncle _______ have?
5. Line 23 ff.             The only one to hear her scream was ________, who in later Greek religion, had power over _________s and __________. (note 23)
6. Who else heard her? (I know the poem says only _______ [line 23] heard her, but he forgot about _________ [line 25].
7. Zeus maintains deniability for his ________ (line 28).by remaining _________________ (line 26 ff.)
8. How does Demeter find out about the rape? (line 36 ff.)
9. How long does Demeter (aka ___), wander in search of Persephone (line 44)?
10. Line 52 f.             “Which of the gods immortal, or who of mankind / has carried Persephone off”.
    1. Who speaks these lines, and to whom are they spoken?
    2. Does it seem odd to you that the poet waits 52 lines before mentioning  Demeter’s daughter by name?
    3. line 56 ff.            She and “the daughter of Rhea” (i.e. _____________) go to ask _________ if he knows anything.
       1. You can find the answer to “who is the daughter of Rhea” in line 71.
       2.  Lines 71-82             In his speech, Helius spills the beans about who done it, and with whose collusion; what advice does he give her?
       3. line 89 ff.            She wanders the earth in mourning until she comes to the house of __________ in __________.
       4. line 102 There she meets Celeus’ _______ daughters when they come to fetch ___________________  at the well where she sitting.
       5. Under the pseudonym Doso (“I shall give”), she tells her cover story:
          1. She was born in __________
          2. she was captured by  ___________s
          3. she flees her captors when they make land at __________
          4. because they want to __________ her.
          5. She promises to pray to the gods on _________ (of whom she is one)
          6. that these daughters should all find __________ husbands
          7. and have lots of fine children (is this just a trope? or does it have somethine to do with Demeter’s status as a fertility goddess?)
          8. and asks for a job as a ___________. (130 f).
          9. Callidice responds with a typically Greek description of the relationship between gods and men: “Mankind must ____________ whatever ______ the _________ may give; they are __________ than _______.
          10. Line 145-6: why does Callidice say eminent households in Eleusis would    ,mm                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       mmmn employ her?
          11. What two female bodyparts (among many) does the poet emphasize as obscured by Demeter’s mourning dress? (line 163)
          12. Why does Demeter “stop by the door”?
          13. Demter is going through what psychologists call “complicated grief”: which of the following apply to Demeter?

i.     Problems accepting the death

ii.     Numbness or detachment

iii.     Preoccupation with your sorrow

iv.     Bitterness about your loss

v.     Inability to enjoy life

vi.     Depression or deep sadness

vii.     Trouble carrying out normal routines

viii.     Withdrawing from social activities

ix.     Feeling that life holds no meaning or purpose

x.      Irritability or agitation

xi.      Lack of trust in others

1. Which of the above does she overcome to begin her recovery, i.e. her acceptance of Persephpone’s death?
2. What does Iambe do for Demeter?
3. What is the kykeon, and why does it come up?
4. There is something quite striking about Demeter’s willingness to accept a menial taks from mortals. What does she promise to defend the child against specifically?
5. How does she feed Demophoön? (line 208 ff)
6. What does Metaneira catch Demeter doing that frightens her?
7. What is Demeter’s angry reply?
8. Why do you suppose it was important to her to make Demophön immortal?
9. How does Demeter reveal herself to be a goddess?

i.     she says:

ii.     she demands that all the people:

iii.     she loses the symptoms of mortality that were her disguise:

1. (line 246) her __________
2. line 247: _______________
3. she is surrounded by a radiant _______
4. her ___________ hair covers her _________s
5. and ____________________ illuminate the palace,
6. and then she _______________s.
7. after a mournful, fearful night of prayer to Demeter, identified only as the ____________ goddess,
8. they begin the process of myth with the words: they ______ (the Greek word here is myth-ēsanto) the whole _________ to Celeus.
9. Once the temple and altar are completed, Demeter rewards them with the following:

i.     “she sent men a _________  for the earth and its ________.”

ii.      she forbdae the land to foster _________;

iii.     plowing the fields with ______________ did no good;

iv.     the grains of ___________ fell on the ground without _______.

1. Zeus stops her from killing off mankind by sending _________ and the other gods offering her __________s, all of which she refuses until she can see __________ again
2. Zeus then sends ________________ the slayer of ____________ to persuade ____________ to send Persephone back to the world of light.
3. Hades appears to relent, but secretly gives Persephone a ________ to eat.
4. line 349 And what is the first thing Demeter asks her daughter?
5. What is the consequence of the seed she has eaten?
6.  line 436 Demter accepts the judgment fo Zeus, and tells ____________ ,_________ , ____________ and ____________ the rituals of growing grain.
7. Does this become common knowledge?
8. What is the quid pro quo the poet proposes at the end of the hymn?

Chapter Six b-Seven, Reader’s Guide

1. Poseidon, Lord of the Deep

1. ________, who ruled the sea, lacked Zeus’ goodwill towards humans.
2. Homer called him “shaker of Earth”.
3. Wherever he struck his __________, a spring same forth.
4. … he demonstrated his power by striking the ____________.  From the rock sprang a well, although in this case, on eof seawater. …
5. It is not hard to see the Athenians chose Athena (rather than __________) as their patron.
6. 6.     By whose curse (and to whom) was Odysseus condemned to wander the seas for 10 years.
7. _______ travelled the sea in a chariot drawn by __________ or __________.
8. The Greeks associated _______ with earthquakes, “because the pounding of a herd of horses reminded the early Greeks of earthquakes.”
9. 9.     Explain why what do earthqaukes and horses have to do with __________?

2. Hades, god of the dead

1.  Why is Hades called Pluto?
2. What did the Cyclopes make him?
3. Whom did he marry?

3. apollo

1. Although represented as an archer god, he was not a god of hunters.
2. “Hear me O god of the silver bow … who rules over Tenedos with your power, Lord of Mice!”
3. 15.  Who is addressed in this prayer, who speaks and why, and why is the ivocation “Lord of Mice”  appropriate?
4. Hera decreed that no land that sees the light of day should receive ______to give birth.
5. But she did give birth: where, and why was this place exempt?
6. 18.  _______, daughter of ________ mediated the birth.

4. Apollo at Delphi

1. _______ won the lyre contest easily, and flayed Marsyas alive.
2. …right down to this day she bears the name Python (rotten), and men gave _________ the title Pythian.
3. 21.  Where is this?
4. 22.  Why did he have to undergo ritual purification following the death of Python?

5. The Delphic Oracle

1. 23.  Figure 7.5 What is the omphalos?
2. 24.  Why does Orsetes hold a sword?
3. 25.  Who hold the piglet over his head, and why?
4. 26.  Whom does Clytemnestra awaken and why?
5. 27.  According to legend, there was an earlier oracle at _______, which functioned under Gaea or __________.
6. 28.  The prophetess of Delphi was called __________.
7. 29.  The oracular protocol: put the following in the correct order
   1. a.     She responds, in a state of enthusiasmos,  and gives a reply.
   2. b.     Sacrifices were made; both the _______ and meat were donated to the priests.
   3. c.      And it is given to the suppliant.
   4. d.     A male priest put the suppliant’s question to the Pythia.
   5. e.      A male priest converts this repsonse into poetry,
   6. f.      _______ weas seated on a bronze _________ in the inner _______ of the temple.
   7. 30.  Who  received the following oracular response, (29.a below)
   8. 31.   what did he think it meant,
   9. 32.  and what does it seem to have meant instead, in hindsight?
      1. a.     “If you make war on the Persians, you will destroy a mighty empire.”
      2. 33.  What do the following mean, and why are they connected with Delphi?
         1. a.     “Know thyself, that thou art mortal”
         2. b.     “Nothing to excess.”

6. Apollo’s unhappy loves

1. __________ was condemned to always tell the truth, but not to be believed.
2. __________ received preternatural long life, but forgot to ask for ________.
3. “If you will not be my girl, yet you will be my tree.”
   1. What kind of tree did she become?
   2. To whom is it sacred?
   3. Are its leave hallucinogenic?
   4.  Why does the Hyacinth have a flower named after him?
   5. Who is Ascelpius the sone of, and why does a crow make the story sad?
   6. 39.   Figure 7.7
      1. a.          How is Apollo identified?
      2. What is Hermes doing?
      3. The fleeing nymph is perhaps ________. Why does Powell say her body is sending mixed signals to Apollo?
      4. The wise and viruous centaur __________, the tutor of many heroes … raised Asclepius and taught him __________.
      5. What do snakes have to do with Greek medicine?

7. Apollo, god of shamans

1. In what respects is shamanism similar to the cult of Apollo?
2. Who was the wisest man, according the Pythian oracle, and why?
3. Why did the Delphic oracle lose some of its prestige, and when was it officilay closed?

8. Hephaestus, god of smiths

1. What is the connection between Hepaestus and the island of Lemnos (Iliad 1.597 ff.)
2. What type of fire does Hephaestus represent?
3. Does Hephaestus low level of respect on Olympus correspond to the low-class trades he represents?
4. What role did he play in the myth of Pandora? And in the myth of Prometheus?
5. Whom did he marry? Was it a happy match?

9. Ares, incarnation of blood lust

1. Who tells the story of Ares’ sexual liaison with Aphrodite in the Odyssey?
2. The following gods have a role in his telling of this story. Explain briefly what role each plays: Helius, Hermes, Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, the Graces, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus. What names are used to describe them?
3. Who is “the beautiful crowned Cythera”?

10. Hermes, trickster

1. Hermes protects travellers, thieves, merchants, heralds (who carried a __________). IS there any common reason he protected these?
2. As the god that conveys the dead to the underworld, he is called ____________.
3. He killed the hundred eyed Argus, earning the epithet _______________.
4. Hours after his birth, Hermes did three notable things:
   4. Herms (Figure 7.13) seem lewd to us, but Greeks used them _________ markers and apotropaically, to ward off _________.  What does “apotropaic” mean?
   5. Summarize the mythic events described in Hymn to Hermes:

11. Pan, the goatherds’ god.

1. ________ was the greatest liar; what other talents did he have?
2. What is Pan’s connection to “panic”?
3. Where did he live?
4. What did he look like?
5. Who is Echo, and how did Hera punish her and why?

 

Chapter Five, Other sources

Question 1: Plato, Protagoras 320 ff. (speaking about whether virtue can be taught)

What do you conclude from this story about the human condition, according to myth?

1.  Once upon a time there were gods only, and no mortal creatures.  2.  But when the time came that these also should be created, the gods fashioned them out of earth and fire and various mixtures of both elements in the interior of the earth;  3.  and when they were about to bring them into the light of day, they ordered Prometheus and Epimetheus to equip them, and to distribute to them severally their proper qualities.

4.  Epimetheus said to Prometheus: “Let me distribute, and do you inspect.” 5.  This was agreed, and Epimetheus made the distribution.  6.  There were some to whom he gave strength without swiftness, while he equipped the weaker with swiftness;  7.  some he armed, and others he left unarmed;  8.  and devised for the latter some other means of preservation, making some large, and having their size as a protection, and others small, whose nature was to fly in the air or burrow in the ground; this was to be their way of escape.  9.  Thus did he compensate them with the view of preventing any race from becoming extinct.  10.  And when he had provided against their destruction by one another, he contrived also a means of protecting them against the seasons of heaven;  11.  clothing them with close hair and thick skins sufficient to defend them against the winter cold and able to resist the summer heat, so that they might have a natural bed of their own when they wanted to rest;  12.  also he furnished them with hoofs and hair and hard and callous skins under their feet. 13.  Then he gave them varieties of food-herb of the soil to some, to others fruits of trees, and to others roots, and to some again he gave other animals as food. 14.  And some he made to have few young ones, while those who were their prey were very prolific; and in this manner the race was preserved.

15.  Thus did Epimetheus, who, not being very wise, forgot that he had distributed among the brute animals all the qualities which he had to give-and when he came to man, who was still unprovided, he was terribly perplexed.  16.  Now while he was in this perplexity, Prometheus came to inspect the distribution, and he found that the other animals were suitably furnished, but that man alone was naked and shoeless, and had neither bed nor arms of defence.

17. The appointed hour was approaching when man in his turn was to go forth into the light of day;  18. and Prometheus, not knowing how he could devise his salvation, stole the mechanical arts of Hephaestus and Athene, and fire with them (they could neither have been acquired nor used without fire), and gave them to man.  19.  Thus man had the wisdom necessary to the support of life, but political wisdom he had not; for that was in the keeping of Zeus, and the power of Prometheus did not extend to entering into the citadel of heaven, where Zeus dwelt, who moreover had terrible sentinels;  20. but he did enter by stealth into the common workshop of Athene and Hephaestus, in which they used to practise their favourite arts, and carried off Hephaestus’ art of working by fire, and also the art of Athene, and gave them to man.  21. And in this way man was supplied with the means of life.  22. But Prometheus is said to have been afterwards prosecuted for theft, owing to the blunder of Epimetheus.

Question 2: Aesop 247  The Lion and the Elephant

Once again, what does this story have to do with the human condition?

The lion often found fault with the way he had been designed by Prometheus. Admittedly, Prometheus had made the lion very large and handsome, supplying him with sharp fangs in his jaw and arming him with claws on his feet; in short he had made the lion more powerful than all the other animals. “Yet great though I may be,” said the lion, “I am terribly afraid of roosters!” Prometheus replied, “Why waste your time blaming me? You have every good quality that I was able to create, and you are afraid of absolutely nothing, except for roosters.” The lion kept on lamenting his condition, criticizing himself for being a coward until finally he just wanted to die.

It was when he was in this frame of mind that the lion ran into the elephant. The lion greeted the elephant, and stopped to converse with him. When he saw that the elephant kept on flapping his ears, the lion inquired, “What’s the matter with you? Why do you keep on flapping your ears like that?” As the elephant began to speak, a gnat came whizzing by and the elephant said, “Do you see this little thing, this little buzzing thing? If it gets inside my ear, I’m doomed.” “Well then,” the lion concluded, “why should I die of shame? I am an excellent creature indeed, and in much better shape than this elephant: roosters are more formidable than gnats, after all!”

Question 3: Pandora

How does the following complicate your view of Pandora?

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 24. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :“On the pedestal [of the statue of Athena on the Akropolis in Athens] is the birth of Pandora in relief. Hesiod and others have sung how this Pandora was the first woman; before Pandora was born there was as yet no womankind.

Question 4: Homer, Iliad 24

How can the stories below be reconciled with Hesiod’s account of how evil came into the world?

“There are two urns that stand on the floor of Zeus. They are unlike for the gifts they bestow: an urn of evils, an urn of blessings. If Zeus who delights in thunder mixes his gifts and bestows them on man, he meets now with evil fortune, again now with good. But when Zeus gives from the urn of evils only, he brings a man to degradation, and the evil hunger drives him over the shining earth, and he wanders without honor from neither gods nor mortals.

Question 5: Aesop 526

“Zeus gathered all the useful things together in a jar and put a lid on it. He then left the jar in human hands. But man had no self-control and he wanted to know what was in that jar, so he pushed the lid aside, letting those things go back to the abode of the gods. So all the good things flew away, soaring high above the earth, and Hope was the only thing left. When the lid was put back on the jar, Hope was kept inside. That is why Hope alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away.”

 

 

6 : Match the characteristics with the race of man.

The Ages of Man

1. The Golden race

2. Silver race

3. Bronze race

4. Demigods & heroes (don’t forget to say what a demigod is)

5. Iron race

1. a.     committed crimes against each other
2. b.     long lived
3. c.      mixed good with evil
4. d.     only interested in warfare
5. e.      quarrelsome, hateful
6. f.      refused to sacrifice to the gods
7. g.     some died, some live in the Isles of the blessed.
8. h.     warriors at Thebes and Troy
9. i.      will end when they abuse their parents and mock the gods 

Chapter Eight reader’s guide

CHAPTER EIGHT

Chapter 8: The Female Deities

1. Demeter: is there a persuasive etymology, or partial etymology, of her name?
2. Hestia, the hearth goddess: what is the name of her Roman equivalent?
3. Aphrodite (___________ in Rome): her  “constant companion”, _________ (in Latin ___________)  is her son by __________.
4. She was first worshipped in the Late Bronze Age (the ______ century BC to be preceise) in the form of a conical ___________ on the island of _________.
5. Why is she sometimes called by the epithet  C___________?
6. What “striking feature” does Powell mention in the cult practice of Aphrodite and Inanna /________ /Astrate?
7. What do you suppose “fecundating power” might mean?
8. Sappho, from the island of ________, was a poet who wrote / performed personal (lyric) poems about the ___________ appeal of young _______.
9. What promsises does Aphrodite make to Sappho in the poem (197-98):
   1. if she runs, (I, Aphrodite) will make her ________;
   2. if she will not take your gifts, (I, Aphrodite) will make her ________;
   3. if she does not love you, (I, Aphrodite) will make her _______ you even ________ her will.
   4. Hermaphroditus was “unified” with the nymph _________ who loved him, to become the first intersex person.
   5. Priapism, one of those things they warn about in viagra commercials, is derived from the god __________, whose image was used to ward of the _______ ______.
   6. “Pygmalion … started living a celibate life.  … he presently carved himself a ______ … of ________, pure and white.
   7. “Venus’ feast day arrived, be;oved by the people of _________ . / Victims with _________ _______s bowed snowy necks and were slaughtered.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

1. or “The day came / For the festival of Venus—an uproar / of processions through all _________. / Snowy heifers, horns ________, kneeled / Under the axe, at the altars.” Ted Hughes, “Pygmalion” in Tales from Ovid.
2. The penultimate stanza of the Ted Hughes version is this (what part of the myth does it describe/)
   1. “And there / (sc Pygmalion) pressed his lips / On lips that were alive. / She woke to his kisses and blushed / To find herself kissing / The one who kissed her / And opened her eyes for the first time / To the light and her lover together.”
   2. What two events that conclude the myth do you think the last stanza describes?
   3. What was the statue named?
   4. What was the child named?
   5. “No wonder that Aphrodite was smitten as soon as she saw him.” Hymn to Aphrodite, 50. Who is “him”? Who cast the spell that smote her?
   6. Make a list of the descriptors used for Aphrodite and the other gods in the poem, Hymn to Aphrodite:
      1. Aphrodite:

i.     line 1

ii.     line 2

iii.     line 58

iv.     line 73

v.     line 83

vi.     line 97

vii.     line 143

viii.     line 175

ix.     line 291

1. Athena

i.     line 7

1. Artemis

i.     line 14

ii.     line 108

1. Hestia

i.     line 20

ii.     line 29

1. Zeus

i.     line 24

ii.     line 32

iii.     line 172

iv.     line 185

1. Hera

i.     line 35

1. the temple of Aphrodite on Cyprus

i.     line 52

1. Thetis

i.     line 84

1. Hermes

i.     line 107

ii.     line 111

iii.     line 118

iv.     line 137

v.     line 194 (2)

vi.     line 271

1. Apollo

i.     line 140

1. Tros (father of Ganymede)

i.     line 197

1. Mountain nymphs

i.     line 265

ii.     line 289

1. Cyprus

i.     line 294

1. Who was Aeneas?
2. The name _________ is not Greek. … Homer calls her P________ T________ “Mistress of _________”.
3. What drove St Paul from Ephesus?
4. Artemis, paradoxically, is the pre-eminent _________ goddess.
5. When a woman died suddenly, without explanation, she was “_____________________”.
6. Who tells the story of Niobe in the Iliad, and why?
7. How many children did she have?
8. Why were they shot? How long did they lie unburied?
9. What happened to Niobe?
10. Orion was in love with the daughter of ___________, (wine-face); he impatiently _______ her, whereupon Wine-face (_____________) blinded him. He sets off with a boy on his shoulders (why?) and evetually gets together with Eos, the _________ goddeess. Artemis kills him by putting a __________ on his head. In the end both are catasterized (turned into stars).
11. How many nymphs help Artemis with her bath?
12. What happens to Actaeon and why?
13. Athena’s name is mentioned in ___________ tablets from the Late Bronze age, more precisely, the _________ century BC.
14. What is the Parthenon?
15. Figure 8.6 What was portrayed in sculpture on the Parthenon’s west pediment?
16. Who was Lord Elgin?
17. Athena’s emblem is the ____________, and the ___________ tree.
18. Her common epithet is ______________eyed.
19. She was protectress of all __________; and of  _______ and _________.
20. She protects ________ing and __________try.
21. She directed the building of the ___________, the first ship, and the Trojan ________.
22. Where does the aegis come from __________ a __________ in the _________machy.
23. Figure 8.7 the ______________ vase, filled with _____________, was given to winners at the ________________________.
24. Describe the scene dipicted on the vase.
25. How many tassels does the aegis have? How much is each worth?
26. Athena represents ____________ control over elemental force; she teaches strategy and __________________ in war.
27. She established ___________, as opposed to vengence.
28. She was associated with wisdom only in the __________________.
29. The inner relief of the Parthenon shows the _________________ of high born _________s and ___________s carrying sacred _____________.
30. Sacrificial _______________s were led to the __________ where a new __________  (called the Peplos) was presented to her cult statue.

Something about Kronos (Cronus)

Mythology textbooks, like Powell’s, typically present the mythos with as little cultural context as possible.  Therefore, in the presentation of Kronos (Cronus), the reader is told little beyond the story as Hesiod tells it.  It is the job of a textbook to simplify the story and focus the readers’ attention on it. In a workbook, at least with regard to the instruction of the “names and key terms,” the way a mythic name is used in Greek culture more widely (later than Hesiod, and outside poetry) can be very useful in applyign the three stanards for new vocabulary acquisition:

1) integration—connecting new vocabulary to prior knowledge, 2) repetition – encountering/using the word/concept many times, and 3) meaningful use– multiple opportunities to use new words in reading /writing/ discussion/ etc.” Kevin Feldman & Kate Kinsell “Narrowing the Language Gap: Strategies for Vocabulary Development,“ p. 3.

Cronus in Plato

1. Euthyphro is prosecuting his won father for murder. He resons that if Zeus is the god of Justice, but he shackled his own father (Cronus) for swallowing his (Zeus’s) siblings, and if  Cronus had castrated his father, Uranus, how do people have the nerve to condemn Euthyphro for prosecuting his father? Euthyphro 5e-6a

2. In the reign of Cronus, just men went to the Isles of the Blessed (Elysian Fields) after death, while the unjust went to the prison of vengence and punishment (Tartarus) Gorgias 523a

3. Socrates (Plato’s persona in this dialogue), advocates the censorshp of storytellers, using the example of Uranus’ treatment of Cronus, and Cronus’ revenge in turn, and how Cronus was himself treated badly by his son (Zeus). Even if these stories (myths) were true, he says, it would be wrong to repeat them to impressionable young people. Republic II. 378

4. Ovid: Conus as a mythical exemplum

Heroïdes: Phaedra, who is trying to seduce her step son, Hippolytus, writes that Cronus married his sister (Rhea), as did Zeus in turn (Hera). So what’s the big deal about sleeping with your step-mom?

“Criticism invites criticism; like the unworthy Cronus, it has its little Zeus. And like the worthy Cronus, further,  it can’t always swallow what it gives rise to.” T.S. Eliot: the contemporary reviews, By Jewel Spears Brooker,  p.252

Reviewing / Previewing Names and Key Terms

How could these sort of exemplary sentences be used in a class?  No point in filling up a work book with items for which you can envision no use. The easiest would be to refer the students to the sentences in the wkbk for “extra help” and hope for he best.

The best students will use all the helps you give them, but most will not. Where I teach, that leaves an 80% underclass. The the top 20% just about anything will work.  They do fine with my usual routine: “In class, I talk and you listen; you go home and read and take notes; you study and learn.” I am interested in writing a wkbk that will help more of the middle third of the class, the part that could do better if I change not  the level of my expectations (my academic standards) but the way I go about presenting the material I expect them to learn.

• I might assign the expanded names / key terms section of the wkbk. as homework, and quiz them on it, e.g. with a cloze ex., as below.

2. (of Greek myths that have undisputed Near eastern parallels) “Another is the ________ in Hesiod’s Theogony, where the succession of divine rulers culminates in the everlasting reign of Zeus and the stabilization of the universe.”

3. “…in the first step of his ________, Hesiod posits Chaos and then Gaia (Earth), accompanied by Tartaros and Eros.”

4. “A ___________ myth is a traditional explanation about how (and why) the world order originated.”

• I might also confront the problem directly in class, by giving  the cloze exercise in class, with a “word bank”  as a pre-quiz. Then I could talk about the sentences directly after in class.
• I could first discuss the terms in a “mini-lecture” —such is the parlance of Active Learning advocates. Classicists hate neologism, but remember the findings about lecture-length, students’ ability to focus for long periods of time, and how easy it is to overload them with too much information i discussed earlier.
• Having mini-lectured them, I could then give them the cloze ex. above (with their notes? There is an advantage there in showing them we are serious about note-taking.
• I could simply go over the sentences directly in the lecture, then give them the cloze ex.

In any event, the students will have copies of the exercise in their workbook to refer to later.

I selected example-sentences that cover a range of perspectives on myth (Roman, Neoplatonic etc.) because I quite like this approach; I realize some, perhaps many would  prefer a a selection of examples from a more tightly focussed time-frame, so I suppose I will have to find a way to accommodate this. I am really only writing for myself, and my own needs, but here is no reason for the wkbk to be so idiosyncratic that no one will else could use it.