GREEK AND ROMAN MYTH

1
GREEK AND ROMAN MYTH
2
Background Greek Civilization

• Minoan (Crete) 2200-1450 BC
• Mycenean 1450-1100 BC (good old days)
• Dark Ages (no record) 1100-700 BC
• Homer, Hesiod 800-700 (beg. of writing)
• Greek Drama 500-400 (height of Gr. Civ.)

3
Background -Roman Civilization

• Roman Civilization - 200 BC-300 AD
• Christianity - 300 AD

4
Greek Cosmogony/Cosmology
5
Greek Mythology

• Begins Orally
• Heavily borrowed from earlier nearby
  culturesesp. Sumerian and Egyptian
• Separate City-States, Islands, geography leads to
  fragmentary, overlapping stories
• First written in Homer, Hesiod 800-700BC
• Most Important Characteristic HUMANISM
• The Greek Miracle
• Anthropomorphic

6
Greek Creation Stories

• Hesiod, Theogony
• Greek Deity Family Tree (handout)

7
Botticelli Birth of Venus
8
The Original Dysfunctional Family Goya -
Saturn Devouring His Son
9
Zeus The Ultimate Pick-up Artist?
Da Vinci, Leda and the Swan
10
Rape of Europa - Titian
11
Greek Gods and Their Human Characteristics

• What are the primary attributes/personality
  traits of the major gods?
• How many of these could be seen as human
  failures/fallible behavior?
• Discuss compare Greek creation story and Greek
  Gods with their fallible, human characteristics
  to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Monotheism and
  notion of Gods perfection
• How does one worship a fallible god?
• What different attitudes of worship and
  religious belief might result from such different
  Deities?

12
Rubens - The Judgment of Paris
13
Breughels The Fall of Icarus