Ancient Greece

Minoan civilization(2000-1200BC)

Mycenacan civilization(1500-1200BC)

The Dark Age (1150-700BC)

Greek Archaic Age(700-600BC)(Philosophy)

Greek Golden Age(600-400BC(Classical)

Homeric Age

Creation of Myths

Greek Classical Mythology

Lecturer: Wu Shiyu

Email: shiyuw@sjtu.edu.cn

http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs

Greek Classical Mythology

The mythology of the Greeks has had a profound influence on Western thought and literature.

It offers information on the gods, goddess, and myths of the ancient time, reflecting the social life of ancient Greece.

Chronologically, it covers Minoan civilization (2000-1500B.C.) , Mycenaean civilization (1500-1200B.C.) , and The Dark Age (1150-700 B.C.).

Hesiod

Born in the 8th century B.C.; considered as the earliest Greek poets.

Known for his two poems, Theogony (神谱） and Works and Days ( 工作与时日） .

Theogony : Origins of the gods and the physical universe .

Hesiod’s Theogony First of all came CHAOS (complete nothingness); Separated itself into Uranus (sky) and Gaea

(earth); They produced many children, three Giants and

twelve Titans (six males, and six females); Among the six males, Cronus ("the wily, youngest

and most terrible of [Gaia's] children" ) castrated ( 去势的 , 阉割的 ) his father and became the ruler of the gods.

Father-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus.

Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his children would do the same, and so each time Cronus’ wife, Rhea, gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it.

Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate. When Zeus was grown, he challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods.

At last, with the help of the Cyclopes, Zeus and his siblings( 兄弟 , 姐妹 ) were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were imprisoned.

Zeus

Zeus was, however, lucky enough and was not "superseded" ( 取代 ) by a child of the next generation of gods.

In the end, Zeus had the insuperable power and became the king of the gods.

With the Zeus as the ruler, they are known as the Twelve Olympians, the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus.

The Twelve Olympians

The Twelve Olympians

Each of Zeus’ brothers and sisters was assigned different offices, e.g., Hades was in charge of the underworld, Poseidon the sea. While Apollo was god of sun, Artemis was goddess of hunting, Aphrodite the goddess of love, and Athena the goddess of wisdom. (Refer to the book)

The Twelve Olympians

The Ancient Greeks believed their gods were anthropomorphic ( 神、人同形同性 ), but far surpassed mortals in beauty, strength and grandeur. The gods had human habits, requiring daily sleep to restore their strength and energies. The food they had was ambrosia ( 仙果：神的食物 ) and the drink nectar ( 众神饮的酒 ), which enabled them to enjoy immortality.

The Twelve Olympians They intermarried and had children. Sometimes they

coupled with human beings, producing demi-gods or heroes with great strength or courage. The gods resembled human beings in their feelings, not exempt from human passions. However, they always punish the evil-doer, and would punish any mortal who was impious or showed any disrespect. They enjoyed immortality, but were not invulnerable, as we often hear of them being wounded.

Other gods There were also many other gods and goddesses. When people were trying to create some works of

art, for example, they would go to the Muses. Hesiod himself, it is said in his Theogony, was given the gift of poetic inspiration while he was tending sheep.

And those who sought revenge would pray to Nemesis.

The Origin of Man and Woman

The other work of Hesiod, works and Days, informs readers about why it is necessary to work and why life for men is so hard.

According to Hesiod, the Titan Prometheus had shaped man out of clay, and Athena had breathed a soul into him. Prometheus then tried in every way to elevate men’s minds and improve their condition.

The Origin of Man and Woman

In the beginning, however, men did not have to work and also feasted in the company of the gods.

Prometheus slay an ox and divide it between men and gods.

Prometheus put the bones in one heap, covered with the white fat, and put the edible ( 可食用的 ) parts in another, covered with the skin.

Zeus, pretending to be deceived, chose the heap of bones intentionally, and then he avenged by denying man the gift of the fire.

The Origin of Man and Woman

Prometheus, however, outwitted Zeus by stealing the fire from the chariot of the sun. Irritated, Zeus decided to punish men and Prometheus.

To punish men, he told Hephaestus to create out of clay a beautiful woman, through whom trouble and misery would be brought into the world.

Pandora (all-gifted) Hephaestus was such a skilled craftsman that his creation of

the woman was very graceful and artistic. The other gods were charmed with the creation and

determined to endow her with special gifts. Athena gave her the possession of feminine

accomplishments, Graces made her attractive, Aphrodite offered beauty and the art of pleasing, a nd Hermes bestowed on her a soft persuasive tongue. As she was all-gifted, so charming and irresistible, she was

called Pandora.

Pandora Pandora was then sent by Hermes to the house of

Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus. Though Prometheus had warned his brother to be aware of the gods’ gift, Epimetheus was so fascinated by the beautiful woman that he forgot all the warning and married Pandora.

Pandora had brought with her a box. One day, she opened the box, and out came all kinds of misery, diseases and pains.

Pandora’s box Pandora hastily shut the box and only one item was left in

the box, that was Hope:

“Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house,

she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not

fly away. Before [she could], Pandora replaced the

lid of the jar. This was the will of aegis-bearing

Zeus the Cloudgatherer.”

Man and Woman

From then on, men have to work and life became very hard because of the woman. Not only do men no longer enjoy a life of ease, dining with the gods, but also men now have an extra mouth to feed.

The presence of woman makes life especially hard for she is a drain on man’s resources, sitting around and eating all day.

Man and Woman But though evil, woman is necessary for the

production of an heir to keep those meager resources within the family:

“If a man avoids Marriage and all the troubles women bring And never takes a wife, at last he comes To a miserable old age, and does not have Anyone to care for the old man.”

The Suffering of Prometheus

Having punished men with Pandora and her box, Zeus had Prometheus caught and chained in Mount Caucasus, and sent an eagle every day to pick out his liver, which grew again every night. This torment went on for a long time, before Heracles passed by and killed the eagle, eventually releasing the sufferer.

More about Hesiod

The Theogony focuses on Zeus’ rise to power, but the Works and Days gives a description of how mortals can live justly under Zeus’ rule. Hesiod consistently incorporates justice, a communal virtue, with the personal matter of feeding oneself.

More about Hesiod Another theme of his Works and Days is the virtue of

arduous manual labor:

Through work men grow wealthy and rich in flocks,

And by working they become much dearer to the gods.

Work is no disgrace; idleness is the disgrace.

And if you work, the idle man will soon envy you

As you grow rich, became fame and renown follow

wealth.

An Introduction to Greek Philosophy This lecture will introduce Greek Philosophy by

answering three questions:

A. What are we going to study? In other words, what exactly is ancient Greek philosophy?

B. Why should we study ancient Greek philosophy?

C. How will we study it?

A. What are we going to study? Traditionally, Ancient Greek philosophy is divided into four

distinctive periods or units. A. The Pre-Socratics: thinkers who lived before and during the life of

Socrates. The first Pre-Socratics was Thales of Miletus, whose date is traditionally given as 585 B.C.

B. Socrates himself: the Athenian philosopher who lived from 469–399. C. Plato: 429–347. D. Aristotle: 384–322.

So now in a very concrete way we can identify our subject matter: The earliest period of western philosophy (from 585 to 322).

B. Why study these “dead” philosophers?

(1) Their historical influence was monumental. The first answer in a sense is easy to give: The ancient Greeks is

enormously influential in the development of western philosophy itself, all subsequent development in western tradition, can be derived from the Greeks.

(2) In addition to its historical significance, there is a

deeper reason to study Greek philosophy. Even today,

the work of the Greeks is philosophically interesting

and valuable.

(1) Their historical influence

1. Alfred North Whitehead said, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Plato asked all the fundamental questions that philosophers can

ask. Plato set the agenda, Plato put every possible philosophical question onto the table, obviously he did not answer them all, he couldn’t. But obviously no philosophical working since Plato had really broken new ground, in a sense that they all taken up the very questions that Plato himself so many years ago took up.

A. Their historical influence

2. Aristotle was perhaps even more influential. In the Middle Ages, he was simply known as “the philosopher.”

His writings became the organizing principle of European universities, and they still shape these institutions today. Jewish philosophers (particularly Maimonides), Christian (Thomas Aquinas), and Muslim (Avicenna and Averroës) tried to synthesize their religious views with Aristotle’s philosophical conception of the world.

A. Their historical influence

3. Western philosophy, indeed Western civilization as such, was fundamentally shaped by the works of Plato and Aristotle. To the extent that world culture has become “Westernized,” the entire world is in debt to the Greeks.

A. Their historical influence

4. However, Plato and Aristotle themselves were influenced by, and were responding to, earlier thinkers, namely Socrates and the Pre-socratics.

A. Their historical influence

5. One purpose of this course is to chart this historical development, which begins in 585 with the work of Thales of Miletus and ends with Aristotle. The goal is to show how the Greeks asked the most basic philosophical questions and, thereby, influenced all subsequent developments in Western philosophy.

B. A deeper reason1. “Philosophy” means “love [philia] of wisdom

[sophia].”

2. But what is wisdom? A preliminary answer: being able to answer the “perennial” or “fundamental” questions.

3 It is possible that the answers to such questions offered by the ancient Greeks are superior to the ones produced by modern thinkers.

2. What is wisdom? A preliminary answer: being able to answer the “perennial” or

“fundamental” questions. Some examples:

a. Is anything stable and permanent, or is reality always changing? b. Are human beings capable of understanding reality as it is in itself? Or is reality always seen from a human perspective, which distorts

it? Must reality remain a mystery? c. Are ethical values, such as justice and courage, relative? Do they depend

on the individual or group that holds them? Or are there some absolute values that are independent of who holds them, ones that are simply and forever right and true?

2 What is wisdom More examples:

d. What sort of political community is most just? Is any

political system better than democracy? e. Is freedom the highest and most important political

value, or are there higher ones? f. What is the proper relationship between human

beings and the natural world? Does the natural world

exist for human consumption? Should it be revered? Can it be

understood? Should it be conquered?

3 Answers of Ancient Greeksa. Of course, in the natural sciences, the ancient Greeks

were inferior. Aristotle, for example, believed that the sun revolved around the earth.

b. However, concerning questions of the value and meaning of human life, the answers of the ancient Greeks are legitimate alternatives to any produced by the modern world.

c. This is especially true of Aristotle. In this sense, he will be the “hero” of this course.

How are we going to study Greek philosophy?

A. First and foremost, these lectures will present an overview of ancient Greek philosophy from approximately 585–325.

B. The course will be divided into the four distinct units mentioned above: the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

How are we going to study Greek philosophy?

C. The course will be approached “dialectically.” 1. The history of Greek philosophy will be approached

as a conversation between thinkers who respond to each other. (“Dialectic” comes from the Greek dialegesthai, “to converse.”) These thinkers acknowledge and are dependent on their predecessors, but criticize and move beyond them. They engage in a “dialogue.”

2. Dialogue plays a significant role in Socrates and Plato.