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CLCV 2000 Classical Mythology

Panorama of the Olympian Gods

I. Greek Polytheism

A. Polytheism means many gods are worshipped not only at the same place and

time, but by the same community and by the same individual.

B. Greeks worshipped three categories of deities: gods, daimones, and heroes; each

has subcategories.

C. The study of the gods is sometimes conceived of as the study of a system or

structure, whose various functions, interrelations and internal logic need to be

brought to the foreground.

1. The study of individual deities in isolation from one another tells us nothing

about the divinity’s place in the whole. It is impossible to understand gods or

a religious system without studying how the various gods relate to each

other.

2. Vernant, “It is the structures of the pantheon that are the subject of research,

not the deities in isolation.”

3. Vernant and the structuralist approach.

“. . . their religion and their pantheon can be seen to be a system of

classification, a particular way of ordering and conceptualising the universe,

distinguishing between multiple types of force and power operating within

it. So in this sense I would suggest that a pantheon, as an organised system

implying definite relations between the various gods, is a kind of language, a

particular way of apprehending reality and expressing it in symbolic terms.”

4. The system is structured like a language. Gods have specific forms of

knowledge and power between which certain oppositions may arise.

5. The danger in this approach is that historical realities may be overlooked in

favour of the system and its supposedly logical structure: The Greek

pantheon is not a closed and harmonized system.

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II. The Gods

A. Conceptions of deity

1. athanatoi ‘immortals’, makares ‘blessed ones’

2. On the one hand, “The gods do not hold the world in a close maternal

embrace; they stand at a distance . . .”(Burkert), on the other, among the

Greeks there is “. . . a deep feeling of the divine presence in almost

everything that happens in human life . . .” (Vernant).

3. Greek distinctions in religious thought are not necessarily the same as ours.

a. Gods immortal, not eternal, not omnipresent, not omniscient, do have

elements of corporeality.

b. Gods unbound by the morality that binds humans.

4. The notion of collection of anthropomorphic gods who interact with one

another and with humans, who show sometimes extreme emotions, and are

related familialy, and who come together in assembly (as paralleled in the

Near East).

5. Anthropomorphic characteristics:

a. corporeal features

b. not always visible

c. assume various forms

d. can have physical encounter with humans

e. veins flow with ichor rather than blood

f. food and drink are nectar and ambrosia rather than normal food

g. experience pain and can suffer

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h. also experience full range of emotions

i. limited in knowledge

j. all human limitations regarding sexuality are gone for male gods

B. Identification of the deities

1. By name; panhellenic, strangely opaque

2. By epithet

a. Area of efficacy, domain of influence

b. Important in hymnody, epic and ritual

c. Some epithets clear and taken from sanctuaries, festivals or rituals, some

opaque and lent and air of mystery.

d. “. . . in the cult is the task of the officiant who speaks the prayer to encircle

the god as it were with epithets and to discover the just and fitting name,”

Burkert. Name-magic.

3. Place; as associated with local tradition and cult

4. Myth (family, functions, deeds, appearance)

5. Iconic representations of the gods with their attributes

6. Cult (time, place, mode of worship)

C. Homerization

1. Herodotus, ca. 490-425 BCE

Part of section 2.53 from John Marincola. 2003. Herodotus. The Histories. Rev.

ed. Penguin.

But it was only—if I may so put it—the day before yesterday that the Greeks came to

know the origin and form of the various gods, and whether or not all of them had

always existed; for Homer and Hesiod are the poets who composed theogonies and

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described the gods for the Greeks, giving them all their appropriate titles, offices, and

powers, and they lived, as I believe, no more than four hundred years ago.

2. Xenophanes of Colophon, ca. 570-475 BCE

Translated fragments from Kirk, G. S. and J. E. Raven. 1960. The Presocratic

Philosophers. Cambridge.

a. Homer and Hesiod have attributed to the gods everything that is a shame

and reproach among men, stealing and committing adultery and

deceiving each other.

b. But mortals consider that the gods are born, and that they have clothes

and speech and bodies like their own.

c. The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, the

Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.

d. But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their

hands and do the works that men can do, horses would draw the forms of

the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their

bodies such as they each had themselves.

e. No man knows, or ever will know, the truth about the gods and about

everything I speak of: for even if one chanced to say the complete truth,

yet oneself knows it not; but seeming is wrought over all things.

f. Yet the gods have not revealed all things to men from the beginning; but

by seeking men find out better in time.

III. The Olympian gods

A. Establishing the identity of a god/goddess.

1. epithets

2. myths: family, functions, deeds, appearance

3. iconic representations of the gods with their attributes

4. cult (time, place, mode of worship)

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B. Zeus (Jupiter)

1. Only etymologically transparent name, cf. Skt. Dyaus pitar, Lat.

Diespiter/Juppiter, Germanic Tues-day.

2. Name means ‘luminous day sky’; god of storms and the clear sky

3. Connected to weather gods of Near East

4. Family affairs:

a. Zeus overthrew father Kronos and Titans

b. Fated to be overthrown by a son, swallows Metis, avoids Thetis

c. Battles monsters like Typhoeus

d. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades cast lots to divide rule of the universe.

5. Zeus is strongest of the gods

a. Appears as lightning, his weapon which he alone commands; no remedy

against it

b. Zeus is only god who has powerful gods as children (Apollo, Artemis,

Hermes, Persephone, Dionysos, Athena, Ares)

c. Children born to mortal women usually mortal but all very powerful

(Heracles, Helen, Dioskouroi, Perseus, Minos, Rhadamanthys, etc.)

6. Protector of the social and moral order

a. Zeus has a special concern for relations between strangers: guests,

suppliants, and those bound by oaths Zeus Xenios, Hikesios, Horkios.

b. Human sovereignty comes from Zeus. Kings are under his protection.

c. Order, law, and justice come from Zeus

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8. Father by many wives of various heroes

a. Burkert, “The power of the strongest of gods is manifest not only in battle

and victory, but also in inexhaustible sexual potency.”

b. Famously long list of liaisons in multiple shapes (Europe and the bull,

Leda and the swan, Danae and the golden rain, Io and the cow, Kallisto

and a she-bear)

9. Epithets: cloud gatherer, dark clouded, thunderer on high, hurler of

thunderbolts.

10. Connected to the eagle and the bull

11. Dwells on a few different mountains besides Olympus

12. Considered the father of gods and mortals Zeus alone the all-embracing god

of the universe, the cause of all; Aeschylus “Zeus is aether, Zeus is earth, Zeus

is sky, Zeus is everything and what is still higher than this.”

C. Hera (Juno)

1. The great goddess, consort of Zeus

2. Daughter of Cronus and Rhea

3. Sister and wife of Zeus

4. goddess of marriage and fertility

5. the cow and the peacock were her special animals

6. Wears the polos, a high crown

7. Homeric epithet is boopis ‘cow-eyed’: fertile plains with grazing cattle and

cattle sacrifices are her special domain

8. Special connection to the temple; some of the earliest known temples are

dedicated to her.

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9. Goddess of weddings and marriage—as part of her role as wife of Zeus.

10. Frequently cast in role of jealous and argumentative wife of Zeus who often

subverts his authority

11. Opposed to Aphrodite, whose sphere is seduction and carnal pleasure.

12. Only notable children are Ares and Hephaistos (unfathered), not traditionally

conceived of as a mother, rather persecutes Zeus’s other children (Herakles,

Dionysos).

D. Poseidon (Neptune)

1. potei- ‘lord’, second half unclear.

2. Defined as god of the sea in epic, but seems to have had other association in

earlier tradition.

3. Lord of the sea; master and patron of fishermen.

a. Carried the trident harpoon used in the tuna hunt.

b. First fruit offering were taken to the sanctuary of Poseidon for a festal

meal.

4. Not only connected with the sea but also with the earth: earthshaker, god of

the earthquake.

5. Also associated with horses: cult of Poseidon Hippios, with horses in his

sanctuary, represented as a horseman, honored with chariot races.

a. Traces of myth telling how he fathered the first horse, sometimes with a

rock, mated with a gorgon, such as Medusa, from whose body sprung

Pegasus when slain by Perseus.

b. The connection with water and horses is mysterious, some drowning

sacrifices for Poseidon in which horses were drowned.

c. Springs also powered by Poseidon.

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6. Principal god of Pylos according to Linear B tablets; memory of this

preserved in Odyssey

7. Usually represented as mature and bearded.

8. epithets ‘Earth-holder,’ ‘Earth-shaker’.

E. Athena (Minerva)

1. Born from Zeus’ head

a. Her mother is Metis, Wisdom, a kind of wisdom featuring deviousness,

scheming, and tricks

b. Gruesome myth in which on Kos Athene slew and skinned a human

creature, a giant, called Pallas. How she got her name. Some claim Pallas

was her father.

2. Pallas Athene, probably originally Pallas of Athens. Name ‘Pallas’ unclear.

3. Goddess of war, (women’s) skills/crafts, wisdom

4. Protectress of cities (esp. Athens) and their rules

a. Goddess belongs most intimately to Athens, which is dominated by her

Parthenon ‘Maidens’ Apartment’.

b. Goddess associated with the city, temple frequently the central temple of

the city on the citadel.

c. The image made by Pheidias in the parthenon.

5. Civilizing role

a. Goddess of peaceful handicrafts, esp. women’s spinning and wool-

working but also of carpenters, inventor of chariot and bridle, first ship,

and Wooden Horse at Troy.

b. Olive tree sacred to her, esp. the one on the Athenian Acropolis; watches

over olive trees in general.

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c. More than other deities she maintains contact with her devotees;

“Goddess of Nearness”

6. Virgin; initiation rites for young women.

7. Epithet ‘grey-eyed’

8. Usually portrayed in full armor

a. Hesiod, “dread rouser of battle-strife, unwearied leader of the host, a

mistress who delights in the clamours cry of war and battle and

slaughter’.

b. Emblem is the aegis, which causes panic in foes. The aegis is a goat skin,

from a gorgon that Athene killed and skinned. A special goat sacrifice is

part of the Athene cult in Athens.

c. Pictorial art turned the animal head into a Gorgo and bordered the aigis

with snakes, Iliad speaks of golden tassels.

9. Special animal is the owl, snake

F. Apollo (Phoebus)

1. Prehistory of the god fuzzy.

a. Seems correct to associate the god with apellai, annual gatherings of tribal

organizations.

b. On such occasions new members were admitted who had come of age,

ephebes.

c. The ephebe, like Apollo, was akersekomas ‘with unshorn hair’.

d. No clear evidence for him in Linear B

2. Son of Zeus and Leto

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3. Often paired with his twin sister Artemis, contrasted with half-brother

Dionysus.

4. God of prophecy and healing (son Asclepius), music and poetry, archery.

5. Phoebus ‘shiner,’ later associated with the sun.

6. Always portrayed as young and beautiful, flowing hair and laurel wreath.

Burkert, “. . . the sculpted ideal of the treasured akme of physical

development may stand for Apollo above all other gods . . . . that the you, the

kouros, was raised to its ideal, gives Greek culture as a whole its peculiar

character; purified and elevated, this ideal is manifest in the divine; the god of

this culture is Apollo.”

7. Associated with initiatory rites of young men.

8. Associated with a bow or lyre.

9. Two main cult centers, Delphi (with its oracle) and Delos (site of his birth).

10. Cult hymn is the paean. Linear B paiawon, paieon healing hymn which

appeases Apollo’s wrath.

11. Other side of Apollo with bow and arrow and god of the plague; seems to be

a Near Eastern influence.

12. Apollo a god of cryptic oracles.

a. Disease interpreted as pollution; the person must discover the action that

has brought about the pollution and eliminate it through renewed action.

b. This requires super-human knowledge; thus the oracles.

c. The oracles are always oblique, thus Apollo Loxias ‘the oblique’

G. Artemis (Diana)

1. Name obscure

a. Her worship dates back to the Bronze Age

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b. Close connections to Asia Minor, among Lydians, and Lycians.

2. Daughter of Zeus and Leto

3. Twin sister of Apollo

4. Potnia theron ‘Mistress of the Animals’; virgin goddess of the hunt, protectress

of wild animals

a. The motif from archaic art usually associated with her.

b. Both goddess of all wild beasts and at the same time the huntress who

uses bow and arrow. An archer, like her brother

c. The idea of the huntress, honored with hung horns and skins on a tree or

pillar goes back to the paleolithic.

5. Usually pictured as a youthful maiden with short chiton and girl’s hairstyle,

carrying bow and quiver, often accompanied by animals, usually a stag or

doe.

6. Sometimes called Phoebe, mistress of the animals

7. the unique Ephesian Artemis retains more ancient traits of goddess

H. Aphrodite (Venus)

1. born from the castrated genitals of Heaven (Uranus)

2. goddess of love, sexual attraction

3. epithets: Cyprian, Paphian

4. originally a Near Eastern goddess

5. temple prostitution?

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I. Hermes (Mercury)

1. Herald and messenger god

2. Equipped with a caduceus, petasus, winged ankles

3. trickster, god of lucky finds, patron of thieves and travelers

4. Argiphontes (traditionally: slayer of Argus)

5. Invented the lyre

J. Demeter (Ceres)

1. daughter of Kronos and Rhea

2. goddess of grain and crop growth

3. her daughter Persephone abducted by Hades

4. Patron of the Thesmophoria, largest women’s festival

K. Dionysus (Bacchus)

1. son of Zeus and Semele (ripped from Semele’s womb and sewn into Zeus’

thigh)

2. god of wine, animal impulses

3. patron of music, arts, esp. drama

4. often appears as an effeminate youth, holding a thyrsus, surrounded by the

thiasus (maenads, nymphs, satyrs and sileni)

L. Hephaestus (Vulcan)

1. Son of Hera or Zeus and Hera

2. god of fire and the forge, of craftsmen

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3. Often shown as workman or smith with hammer and tongs

4. Associated with volcanoes

5. Lame

M. Ares (Mars)

1. son of Zeus and Hera

2. god of war

3. not a major deity

4. had a notable affair with Aphrodite; both trapped by Hephaestus in

unbreakable chains

IV. Associated Gods

A. Hestia (Vesta)

1. daughter of Kronos and Rhea

2. goddess of the hearth fire; name means ‘hearth’

3. associated with the internal domestic sphere of women

4. protectress of the city

5. eternally a virgin

6. represented by an undying flame

O. Hades (Pluto, Dis, Orcus)

1. son of Kronos and Rhea

2. ruler of the underworld (neither a devil or a place!), wealth

3. name means ‘The unseen one’

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4. served by numerous minions of the underworld

5. abducted Persephone, daughter of Demeter

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CLCV2000 Classical Mythology

Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, Homeric hymn to Dionysus

I. Introduction to the Hymns

A. 33 poems of varying length.

B. All written in dactylic hexameter.

C. Composed from the 8th century to the Hellenistic period; most date to the Archaic

period.

D. Called Homeric because their language, style and subject matter are close to the

Iliad and Odyssey.

Not called Homeric because they were written by Homer, though in antiquity it

was often thought so and part of the Hymn to Dionysos is sometimes attributed

to Homer.

In fact we know very little about any of the authors of these hymns.

E. hymnos: song celebrating a god or goddess

F. Form of the longer hymns regular

1. opening invocation of the god or goddess being celebrated with mention of

parentage or place of birth and epithets describing his/her domain.

2. middle portion gives myth or narrative portion describing past events in the

life of the deity.

3. close is abrupt, bidding deity farewell and promising to remember him/her as

singer moves on to another song.

For example, Hymn to the Dioskouroi (17, p. 152)

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Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Kastor and Polydeukes

the Tyndaridai who were born from Olympian Zeus.

Beneath the peak of Taygetos queenly Leda bore them

having yielded in secret to the dark-clouded son of Kronos.

Farewell, Tyndaridai, riders of swift horses.

G. The shorter hymns probably served as companion pieces to larger epic works.

Several of them appear to be introductions or preludes to longer narrative

poems.

H. The longer hymns appear to be main events in their own right.

They may have been performed at private occasions, in public contests, and

perhaps religious festivals.

I. Some recurring themes in the hymns:

1. The birth of the deity, parentage, upbringing

2. The attributes and offices of the deity, his/her role in the pantheon of

Olympians, relation to humans

3. The longer hymns develop the mythical exploits of the deity

4. The worship of the deity, his/her sanctuaries and the honors which humans

give him/her

5. etiologies of various customs, rituals, etc.

II. Hymns to Dionysos (3 different poems)

A. Poem #1

1. Incomplete, fragmentary

2. First nine lines supposedly composed by Homer himself

3. Semele asked to see Zeus in all her glory, consumed immediately by his fiery

glory, son snatched and sewed into Zeus’ thigh.

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4. Reference to Orphic myth of Dionysus being torn to pieces by the Titans, then

reborn

B. Poem # 7

1. The pirate story.

2. The Tyrrhenians are Etruscans.

3. The myth may be an aetion for a ritual procession in which the arrival of the

god was celebrated by men carrying or rolling a ship wreathed in ivy in

which sat the god and his priest/helmsman.

4. The hymn follows a common theme in which the gods are unrecognizable to

mortals.

5. Dionysos is both a cause of joy and of danger to those who refuse to

recognize him.

C. Poem #26

1. Short, 13 lines

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CLCV 2000 Classical Mythology

Homeric hymn to Apollo

I. Hymn to Apollo

A. Clearly two distinct parts to this hymn.

1. The first, called the hymn to Delian Apollo, tells how Apollo was born on the

island of Delos

2. The second, called the hymn to Pythian Apollo, tells how Apollo killed the

monster Pytho at the site of his oracle at Delphi.

B. Later tradition regarded Homer as the composer of the Delian hymn, due to the

closing statement that identifies the poet as a blind bard from Chios (as was

Homer).

The Homeridae, a guild that claimed descent from Homer, were also based on

Chios.

C. Another tradition attributes the poem to a man named Kynthaios of Chios.

II. Hymn to Delian Apollo (1-178)

A. Appearance on Olympos with bow; fearsome god

B. Leto gives birth: searches for a welcoming place, finds Delos

This list of places actually a sly enumeration of where cult was established, a way

of showing how widespread Apollo’s worship was

C. Leto in labor:

Iris sent to retrieve Eileithyia, who is held back by Hera

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D. Apollo’s infancy, claims the bow, lyre and prophecy as his own

E. Ionian festival of Apollo and the Delian maidens

Annual festival as early as 8th century held by Ionians of Asia Minor, open to

women and children and men

Included musical and athletic contests.

The focus here is on Delian maidens whose songs praise Apollo especially

F. Close: the blind man from Chios

III. Hymn to Pythian Apollo (179-546)

A. Olympian god of lyre and song

B. Apollo’s search for a site for his oracle

Telphousa refuses

Krisa near Delphi accepts

C. Apollo kills Pytho as Zeus killed Typhaon

D. Apollo revenges Telphousa, creates the Telphousian altar

E. Apollo’s Cretan priests and Delphinian Apollo

F. Some aetions:

Importance of Delos to Apollo

Origin of temple on Delos

Origin of Delphic oracle

Origin of the Telphousian altar

Origin and removal of the Cretan priests

Origin of the title Delphinian

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IV. The Cult of Apollo Pythios of Delphi

A. Some major elements

1. Establishment of oracle at Delphi

2. Defeat of Python

3. Cretan priests

4. Origin of Pythian and Delphinious/Delphi

5. Oracle’s international appeal

6. Delphi as center for purification

7. The Pythia

a. Local woman, served for life

b. Spoke the words of Apollo in the inner sanctum (adyton ‘not to be

entered’) of the temple

c. The omphalos was located in the adyton.

d. Pythia’s inspiration came from subterranean vapours.

e. The “goat test”

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CLCV 2000 Classical Mythology

Class 11

Homeric hymn to Demeter

I. Review idea of Homeric Hymns

A. In generic terms a hymn, Greek hymnos, is a song celebrating a god or goddess

a. Plato categorizes a hymn as a type of prayer, sung to a deity

b. Hymns were an element of ritual observance

i. Sung in ritual processions, sometimes by guilds of choristers.

ii. Sung in chorus to the accompaniment of the cithara, while participants

stood around the altar.

iii. Also sung in contests at religious festivals

B. The longer hymns appear to be main events in their own right. They may have

been performed at private occasions, in public contests, and perhaps religious

festivals.

II. The Hymn to Demeter

A. Background information on genealogy

1. Demeter is the daughter of Kronos and Rhea, who are Titans, a generation of

gods who lived before the more familiar Olympians.

2. The offspring of Kronos and Rhea include Demeter’s brothers, Zeus and

Hades.

3. The daughter of Demeter and Zeus is Persephone.

B. Demeter

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1. Her name indicates she is a mother, but not clear what she is a mother of.

Some suggest Δα- equals ‘earth’, others ‘grain’

2. Closely associated with grain, the food of men

The farmer prays to her at seed-time, and celebrates the harvest festival in her

honour.

3. Closely associated with Kore ‘the Maiden’ or ‘Girl’

a. Her daughter, sometimes known as Persephone

b. The meaning of the name Persephone is unclear

C. Outline of the hymn:

1. Rape of Persephone while picking spring flowers (1-32)

Persephone is carried off by Hades as she was gathering flowers with certain

nymphs on the plain of Nysa. The earth gapes open, Hades springs out in his

chariot, and takes her away. This was done with the consent of Zeus.

2. Demeter’s search for Persephone; aided by Hekate and Helios (33-90)

Demeter heard Persephone’s cry for help. She is stricken with grief and

wanders the earth in search of Persephone for 9 days with burning

torches, fasting, and without bathing. On day 10 she is joined by Hekate,

who also heard the cry, and the learn from all-seeing Helios what has

happened.

3. Demeter abandons Olympus and wanders the earth searching for Persephone

(91-300)

In her anger Demeter abandons the other gods and wanders the earth

disguised as an old woman. She eventually comes to Eleusis, and sits by a

well called Parthenion.

a. Demeter, disguised as Cretan Doso, meets the daughters of Keleos (91-

170)

At the well she is met by the daughters of Keleos, the king of Eleusis,

who ask her who she is. Demeter tells a false story, claiming she was

captured by Cretan pirates and brought to a nearby region, where she

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escaped her captors and made her way to Eleusis. She asks for work as

a nurse or housekeeper. The girls name the rulers of the town and

suggest she work as nurse to Keleos’ infant son, Demophoön.

b. Demeter/Doso meets Metaneira and becomes Demophoön’s nurse (171-

232)

Demeter is led to the palace where she meets Metaneira, Demophoön’s

mother. She is offered a chair, but refuses, until the maid Iambe gives

her a stool.

i. Iambe’s jesting cheers up Demeter/Doso (192-205)

Demeter sits is silent sorrow until Iambe makes her laugh.

ii. Demeter/Doso drinks the kykeon (206-211)

Demeter is offered wine but refuses and instead drinks a mixture of

barley and water.

c. Demeter/Doso tries to make Demophoon immortal but is thwarted (233-

267)

Metaneira asks Demeter to nurse the child. Demeter promises to take

care of him, anoints him with ambrosia and places him in the fire at

night in order to make him immortal. The child grows at a suspicious

rate and Metaneira spies on Demeter. He cries out when she finds

Demeter putting the child in the fire and Demeter is enraged. She

condemns humans for their folly, denies Demophoön immortality.

d. Demeter establishes her rites and a temple in her honor (268-300)

Demeter reveals her true identity to the house of Keleos and orders a

temple and altar to be dedicated to her with a promise to teach the city

her rites. The goddess leaves and the mortal women spend the entire

night attempting to comfort the child and propitiate the goddess. The

next day Keleos is told what happened. He summons the people and a

temple and an altar are built. Demeter resides in the temple and

grieves there.

4. Demeter halts vegetative growth, refuses to return to Olympos when Zeus

requests her presence (301-333).

Demeter causes a famine that threatens humans and denies sacrifices and

honours to the gods. Zeus send the messenger Iris and then all of the gods

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in turn to ask her to relent but she refuses. Zeus then sends Hermes to

Hades to ask for the return of Persephone.

5. Hades agrees to release Persephone but tricks her by getting her to eat a

pomegranate seed (334-374)

Hades consents, telling Persephone that if she returns she will have great

honours as his wife. Before she goes he secretly gets her to eat a

pomegranate-seed, which binds here to return to him.

6. Persephone returns to Demeter but learns she must live 2/3 of year with

Demeter on Olympos, 1/3 with Hades (375-440).

Hermes leads Persephone back to earth and she is reunited with her

mother, to whom she tells all that has happened. They spend a happy day

together and are joined by Hekate, who becomes Persephone’s’ attendant.

7. Demeter agrees to return to Olympos; teaches the Eleusinians her mysteries

(441-495).

Zeus sends message to Demeter that she and Persephone may live two-

thirds of the year on Olympos, the remaining third Persephone is to spend

in the underworld with Hades. Demeter consents. Growth returns to the

fields and Demeter teaches her secret rites to the Eleusinians. The

goddesses depart for Olympus. The hymn closes with the customary

invocation and prayer for divine favour.

III. Interpretations

A. On one level the poem is a nature allegory

1. The descent of Persephone represents the seed which descends into the earth

so that from its death new fruit may germinate.

2. Her return to earth represents the spring bloom.

B. Ritual interpretation of myth

1. This is the theoretical approach to myth called Myth and Ritual Theory or

Myth-Ritualist theory.

2. This theory works with the following premises:

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a. Myth is not simply a story, something read or heard, but it is connected in

some way to the ritual practice of the community.

b. The extreme version of this view is that all myths have accompanying

rituals and that all rituals have their accompanying myths.

C. Ritual interpretation of the Hymn to Demeter

1. Most scholars think that the hymn reflects the practice of the rites of the cult

of Demeter at Eleusis, the so-called Eleusinian Mysteries. This hymn provides

the earliest evidence for the cult of Demeter at Eleusis, west of Athens.

2. Greek religion was largely a very public religion, visibly displayed before

everyone, but there were also secret cults, accessible only through individual

initiation, the so-called mysteries.

3. Scholarship is not able to reconstruct entirely what occurred in these

mysteries, because it was forbidden to reveal them (supposedly punishable

by death). The best known of these in the ancient world are those of Eleusis.

4. We do know the following:

a. The Eleusinian mysteries were held in Athens and Eleusis, 23 kilometers

west of Athens, every year in the fall.

b. These mysteries, which were open to all Greeks, promised a special

relationship with the goddess through secret initiation. The mysteries

promised both a better life now, and the promise of a better afterlife.

c. The main ritual actions can be divided into 4 parts:

i. A procession from Athens to the sea coast

where the initiates, perh. as many as 2000, bathed piglets in the sea.

ii. Sacrifice of the piglets, at the altar of the Eleusinion in Athens.

This may have been followed by a purification ceremony; fasting

iii. A barefoot procession on the Sacred Road from Athens to Eleusis.

Procession included initiates in myrtle carrying their lunches,

dancing and shouting ‘Iacche, Iacche’.

26

With their sponsors, priests and others, they numbered perhaps

30,000 altogether.

From a bridge between Athens and Eleusis masked figures taunted

the initiates with mockery and obscene gestures.

Upon arrival the women held a private night-long ceremony of

song, dance that featured aischrologia.

iv. Public and secret rituals at Eleusis on the following two days.

There may have been ritual sacrifices of animals

We can’t reconstruct the actual initiation, but we do have some

information

Password of the initiates: “I fasted, I drank from the kykeon, I took

out of the chest, worked, placed back in the basket and from the

basket into the chest.”

The object may have been genitalia, but more likely they were a

mortar and pestle.

Persephone was summoned by strokes of a gong

The birth of a child was announced. The child may have been

Ploutos ‘wealth’, a personification of earth’s bountiful produce.

Something was shown at a culminating moment in the secret ritual.

The object may have been an ear of wheat, cut in complete silence.

Finally, the rites were concluded by dancing and the sacrifice of

bulls.

d. Many of the rituals were performed at night and involved torches. Most

were held in the Telesterion (Initiation Hall).

e. What is described in the Hymn is probably only those things that were

open to public view, outside of the Telesterion, not the rites held inside

the Hall.

IV. Connections between the ritual and the poem

A. Some general shared elements

1. The opening scene involving the picking of flowers. There is some evidence

that the gathering of flowers played a part in the rites.

2. Hekate, who helps Demeter locate Persephone, is said to be an attendant of

Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian cult.

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3. The nine day period in which Demeter searches for Persephone is usually

thought to have some relevance to the ritual.

a. During these 9 days Demeter is said to carry torches and initiates were

often shown carrying torches in iconographic representations of the

Mysteries. A number of the rites took place at night.

b. The initiates probably imitated Demeter, including a mock search for

Persephone by torchlight.

c. 9 days is one third of a lunar cycle and Hekate, who accompanies Demeter

during the search is a moon goddess.

d. Demeter is said to refuse food at this time (47ff.) and the ritual likewise

included fasting and a prohibition against bathing.

4. At the house of Keleos

a. 98ff. The Parthenion well may be the site where Eleusinian women danced

and sang in honor of the goddess.

b. Demeter’s role as a nurse may correlate to her roles in the Mysteries,

where goddesses adopted initiates and served as their nurses.

c. 153f. . . . these are the leaders of the people who defend the towers

of the city by their counsels and straight judgments.

They are Triptolemos, shrewd in counsel, and Dioklos,

Polyxeinos and Eumolpos, untainted by blame,

Dolichos and our manly father,

and everyone has a wife managing his mansion.

The men of authority at Eleusis played some role in the legendary

founding of the rites.

i. Triptolemos is said to have received the gift of grain/agriculture from

Demeter.

ii. Eumolpos is the father of a family of priests who spoke the sacred

words of the rite.

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d. 191-200 ritual purification sitting veiled in silence on a fleece; the initiate

set on a skin covered stool.

e. 200, 206-8, fasting and abstention

f. 202-205 ritual jesting, Iambe and iambic genre

From a bridge between Athens and Eleusis masked figures taunted the

initiates with mockery and obscene gestures.

Baubo revealing herself

Ritual aischrologia

g. kykeon drink

parasitized by a fungus ergot, from which LSA derived

h. 265ff. But in due time and as the years revolve for him,

the sons of the Eleusinians will join in war

and dreadful battle against each other forever.

Demeter prophesies Eleusinians will wage a civil war; during the ritual a

mock battle was performed at Eleusis in honor of Demophoön.

i. 270ff. ‘But come now, let all the people build me

a great temple and beneath it an altar under the steep walls

of the city . . .

I myself shall introduce rites so that later

you may propitiate my mind by their right performance.’

temple remains of Telesterion at Eleusis.

http://www.stoa.org/metis/

j. 292ff. the night of prayer by daughter of Keleos

All night long they propitiated the glorious goddess,

quaking with fear, and as soon as dawn appeared

they told the truth to Keleos . . .

At Eleusis the women celebrated all-night dances by themselves before the

final secret rites in the Telesterion.

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V. Conclusion

One of the goals of today’s class was to make sure everyone has a grasp on what

happens in the poem and understands what happens in the story of the Rape of

Persephone and Demeter’s search for her. The poem is in fact, a long etiology, an

explanation of how Demeter and Persephone acquired their honours.

Hopefully we also all have a better appreciation on how the poem is put together

and we’ve caught a glimpse of the characteristics that make it beautiful as a work

of poetry.

But I’ve also tried to show you that there is a much larger background to the

poem than you might otherwise have recognized. The etiological element of the

poem is also concerned to show just how the mysteries were founded.

Since you are all now initiates of a sort in this knowledge, I’ll dismiss you with

the words of Sophocles, “Thrice blessed are those mortals who have seen these

rites and thus enter into Hades; for them alone there is life, for the others all is

misery.”

30

CLCV 2000 Classical Mythology

Homeric hymn to Hermes

I. Hermes

A. Boundaries

1. Name probably comes from herma ‘heap of stones’ demarcation of territory.

2. Phallic display, symbolically replaced by erected stones or stakes.

3. Phallic figures carved in stone, in wood atop cairns.

4. Hermes occasionally worshipped in the shape of a phallus

B. Transgression of boundaries

1. God of the boundary but also god of transgression of the boundary.

2. Breaking of boundaries in metaphorical sense; taboos.

3. Patron of herdsmen, thieves, graves, heralds (whence hermeneus ‘interpreter’,

Eng. hermeneutic), patron of eloquence.

C. Trickster god

II. Hymn to Hermes

A. Hymn 18 very short; useful list of attributes

B. Hymn 4

1. This hymn shows how the god, who appears as a late addition to the

pantheon of Olympic deities, wins his place among the gods and acquires his

offices and attributes.

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2. Characteristic of Hermes is his inventiveness, his trickery, thievery,

knavishness; concepts associated with him are lying, piercing and traversing

(the countryside, a door or a lock, or a hide), crossing boundaries in general.

3. Outline of Hymn

a. Birth

b. Invention of tortoise shell lyre

c. Theft of Apollo’s cattle

d. Invention of special sandals

e. Invention of firesticks and fire

f. Makes sacrifice (to Olympians?)

g. Apollo discovers missing cattle and searches for them

h. Apollo confronts Hermes and takes him before Zeus

i. Both Apollo and Hermes plead their cases before Zeus

j. Hermes leads Apollo to his cattle

k. Hermes exchanges lyre for the office of guide for the gods and master of

the cattle

l. Hermes invents pipes; Apollo grants him his caduceus and the bee

maidens of Parnassos.

m. Zeus grants Hermes additional offices and Hermes is accepted among the

Olympians.

4. Meaning of hymn

a. Notoriously difficult

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b. Sometimes seen as erratic or pointless, a simple piece of humor or

entertainment.

c. Hellenism

d. Performance setting

i. Perhaps performed at an athletic contest for younger males at which

Hermes was honoured: one of the Hermaia

ii. Cattle raiding and athletic contests

iii. Apollo as representative of older male sponsor who facilitates Hermes

membership into the family/group.

33

CLCV 2000A Classical Mythology

The Hero

Jason and the Argonauts

Perseus

I. The Hero

Adventures typically follow a pattern.

A. Lord Raglan’s 22 characteristics (from The Hero):

1. The hero’s mother is a royal virgin

2. His father is a king, and

3. Often a near relative of his mother.

4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual.

5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.

6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather,

to kill him, but

7. He is spirited away, and

8. Reared by foster-parents in a far country.

9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but

10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom.

11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,

12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and

13. Becomes king.

14. For a time he reigns uneventfully, and

15. Prescribes laws, but

16. Later he loses favour with the gods and/or his subjects, and

17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which

18. He meets with a mysterious death,

19. Often at the top of a hill.

20. His children, if any, do not succeed him.

21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless

22. He has one or more holy sepulchers.

34

B. Otto Rank (1884-1939); The Myth of the Birth of the Hero

1. The hero is the child of most distinguished parents, usually the son of a king

2. His origin is preceded by difficulties, such as continence, or prolonged

barrenness, or secret intercourse of the parents due to external prohibition or

obstacles.

3. During or before the pregnancy, there is a prophecy, in the form of a dream

or oracle, cautioning against his birth, and usually threatening danger to the

father (or his representative).

4. The son is surrendered to the water, in a box.

5. He is saved by animals, or by lowly people (shepherds), and is suckled by a

female animal or by a humble woman.

6. After he has grown up, he finds his distinguished parents, in a highly

versatile fashion.

7. He takes revenge on his father, on the one hand, and

8. Is acknowledged, on the other.

9. Finally he achieves rank and honors.

C. Joseph Campbell; The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)

1. Monomyth: the narrative structure underlying all myths.

2. The mythological adventure of the hero is related to rites of passage. There

are three parts:

a. Separation or Departure

i. Call to adventure

ii. Refusal of the Call

iii. Supernatural Aid

iv. Crossing the First Threshold

v. In the Belly of the Whale

b. Trials and Victories

i. The Road of Trials

ii. The Meeting with the Goddess

iii. Woman as the Temptress

iv. Atonement with the Father

v. Apotheosis

vi. The Ultimate Boon

c. Return

i. Refusal of the Return

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ii. The Magic Flight

iii. Rescue from Without

iv. Crossing the Return Threshold

v. Master of the Two Worlds

vi. Freedom to Live

II. Jason and the Argonauts (pp. 48-57)

A. Prometheus > Deucalion > Hellen > Aiolos > Cretheus > Aison > Jason

B. The Problem with Pelias

1. Jason lives in Iolcos, which is ruled by Pelias

2. Pelias is warned against a man with one sandal

3. Jason is sent to fetch the golden fleece

4. Argos builds him a ship

5. Travelling companions are assembled

C. Jason and the Argonauts travel

1. Lemnos and the stinky women

2. The land of the Doliones and an accidental battle

3. Mysia, where Heracles and Polyphemos left behind

4. The land of Bebryces, where the ruler Amycos is killed in a boxing match by

Polydeuces

5. Salmydessos in Thrace

a. The Argonauts rid Phineus the blind diviner from the Harpies who

torment him

b. Phineus tells the Argonauts how to pass through the Symplegades or

‘Clashing Rocks’

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6. Land of the Mariandynians under Lycos

a. Idmon the diviner killed by a boar

b. Tiphys the steersman dies

D. Argonauts arrive at Colchis ruled by Aietes

1. Aietes makes Jason yoke the bronze-footed bulls and sow dragon’s teeth

2. Medea, Aietes’ daughter, helps Jason

3. Medea steals the fleece, the Argonauts sail away with Medea and her brother

Apsyrtos

E. The return home

1. Aietes pursues Jason, Medea chops up Apsyrtos and drops pieces in the

water

2. Ausonia, where the Argonauts are purified by Circe for murder of Apsyrtos

3. The Odyssean ingredients:

a. Sirens

b. Charybdis & Scylla

c. Wandering Rocks

d. Cattle of the Sun

e. The Phaeacians (Alcinoos and Arete)

4. Anaphe and the obscene jokes of women

5. Crete, where Talos man/bull killed by Medea

6. Jason returns to Iolcos

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a. Jason’s family has been killed by Pelias

b. Medea gets revenge by tricking Pelias’ daughter into chopping up their

father

F. The Bitter end

1. Jason and Medea are banished to Corinth

2. Jason marries Glauce

3. Medea gets revenge by killing Jason’s children, flees to Athens where she

marries Aigeus and bears a son, Medos

38

CLCV 2000 Classical Mythology

Perseus and Argive myth

I. The Story of Perseus (pp. 58-68)

A. The Inachid and Belid families

1. The story of Io

2. The 50 sons of Aigyptos, 50 daughters of Danaos

3. Proitos and Acrisios, sons of Lynceus

4. The crazed daughters of Proitos

5. Story of Bellerophon

6. Acrisios and the oracle

7. Danae in the chamber

8. Zeus’ shower of gold

9. Danae and Perseus put to sea

B. What happened at Seriphos

1. Danae arrives at Seriphos, discovered by Dictys and Polydectes

2. Polydectes loves Danae but Perseus won’t allow a marriage

3. Polydectes fakes marriage to another woman

4. Perseus makes a rash promise and is sent to fetch a Gorgon’s head

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C. Perseus’s adventure

1. Perseus visits the Graiai, who show him the way to the Nymphs.

2. From the Nymphs he gets winged sandals, a kibisis, and the cap of Hades

3. From Hermes he gets an adamantine sickle

4. Perseus confronts the Gorgons, Stheno, Euryale, Medusa

a. He severs Medusa’s head

b. Pegasus and Chrysaor spring from her body

5. Perseus travels to Ethiopia, which is ruled by Cepheus

a. There he finds Andromeda being sacrificed to a sea monster because her

mother, Cassiepeia has boasted of her own beauty

b. Perseus recues Andromeda and kills her suitor Phineus

6. Perseus returns home

a. He turns Polydectes and his followers to stone

b. He returns all his magic gifts

D. The follow up

1. Perseus, Danae and Andromeda return to Argos

2. Acrisios flees to Larissa where he takes part in some athletic games but is

killed (accidentally) by a discus throw from Perseus, which hits him in the

foot

3. Perseus is ashamed to return to Argos, trades realms with Megapenthes of

Tiryns

40

CLCV 2000 Classical Mythology

Heracles

Shorter outline of Heracles

I. Some family background

A. Perseus and Andromeda > Alcaios > Amphitryon & Alcmene

B. Amphitryon kills Teumessian fox

II. Birth and early life

A. Zeus & Alcmene > Heracles and Iphicles

B. Baby Heracles and the serpents

C. Kills the lion of Cithairon

D. The 50 daughters of Thespios

III. The Minyan mutilation

IV. The Labors of Heracles

A. The Nemean Lion

B. The Lernaean Hydra (rejected)

C. The Cerynitian hind

D. The Erymantian boar

E. The cattle of Augeias (rejected)

F. The Stymphalian birds

G. The Cretan bull

H. The mares of Diomedes

I. The belt of Hippolyte

J. The cattle of Geryon

K. The apples of the Hesperides

L. The capture of Cerberos

V. The death of Iphitos

VI. Heracles sold into slavery to Omphale of Lydia

VII. Heracles as slave

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VIII. Heracles at Troy/Ilion

IX. Heracles in the Peloponnese

A. The war against Elis

B. The war against Pylos

C. The war against Lacedaimon

D. Tegea

X. Deianeira and Northern Greece

XI. The end