GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

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GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

• To the Glory that Was Greece
• And the Grandeur that Was Rome

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WHAT ARE MYTHS?

• What is MYTH?
• FICTION FROM FACT
• 1. Cosmological Phenomenon (e.g. lightning,
  floods, earthquakes, etc.)
• 2. Explanation of a Fact or Custom
• 3. Traditions of Religion and Ritual
• 4. Metaphorical/psychological catharsis
  (Oedipus complex)
• 5. Archetypes of father, mother, love, hate,
  etc.

3
WHY DO THEY ENDURE?

• 1. Source of Customs and Morals
• 2. Goldmine of Inspirations for the Arts (e.g.,
  literature, painting, music, etc.)
• Entertainment Gods are an extension of both
  positive and negative human qualities.

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MYTHS TODAY?

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

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AN HISTORICAL CONTEXT
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OUR PRIMARY SOURCES

• GREEK
• 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

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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)
• HEMERA (light, day)
• 7. AETHER (the upper atmosphere)

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REMEMBER THE TITANS