GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

To the Glory that Was GreeceAnd the Grandeur that Was

Rome

WHAT ARE MYTHS?

What is MYTH?• FICTION FROM FACT1. Cosmological Phenomenon (e.g. lightning,

floods, earthquakes, etc.)2. Explanation of a Fact or Custom3. Traditions of Religion and Ritual4. Metaphorical/psychological – catharsis

(Oedipus complex)5. Archetypes of father, mother, love, hate, etc.

WHY DO THEY ENDURE?

1. Source of Customs and Morals

2. Goldmine of Inspirations for the Arts (e.g., literature, painting, music, etc.)

3. Entertainment: Gods are an extension of both positive and negative human qualities.

MYTHS TODAY?

• Advertisements! • Company names and images!• Bring in examples for extra credit.

AN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Greece750 BCE “Homer” is composing….508 Democracy begins in Athens…490-80 Greeks defeat Persians at Marathon and Salamis450 Athens controls an empire, Pericles is in power…430s The War between Athens and Sparta – “The Peloponnesian War”…330s Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great conquer Greece and the “world” . . .146 BCE Rome conquers Greece . . .

Rome753 BCE “Romulus and Remus”/The Monarchy509 Expulsion of the Kings508 The Republic - Senatus Populusque Romanus264-241 1st Punic War (Rome takes Sicily from Carthage)218-201 2nd Punic War (Hannibal defeated/Spain becomes Rome’s)149-146 3rd Punic War (Carthage destroyed)44 Julius Caesar killed

OUR PRIMARY SOURCESGREEK• Hesiod, Works and Days

and Theogony• Homer The Illiad and

The Odyssey• Playwrights of Tragedy:

Aeschylus (Orestia), Euripides (Medea/Electra), Sophocles (Antigone / Oedipus Tyrranus)

• Historians: Thucydides and Herodotus

LATIN• Ovid Metamorphoses• Vergil The Aeneid• Livy Ab Urbe Conditas

IN THE BEGINNING… Primordial Gods and the Stages of Creation

CHAOS (void) produces the following

1. NUX (darkness)

2. EROS (love, the uniting deity)

3. TARTARUS (death, underworld)

4. EREBOS (gloom)

5. GAEA (the great mother; mother earth)

6. HEMERA (light, day)

7. AETHER (the upper atmosphere)

REMEMBER THE TITANS