The Olympic Gods and Myths

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The Olympic Gods and Myths
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Prometheus

• The story of fire
• Main elements- fire, revenge, seeing into the
  future
• Why did Prometheus do it?
• Was he a hero or a villain or both?
• Does he know Man will one day not need Gods?
• What would you do?

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Origin of the Seasons

• Demeter, Persephone, Hades
• Explains what phenomena besides cycle of seasons
  and famines?
• PersephoneKore word for corn. In Europe means
  any grain.
• 7 months/5 months

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Arachne

• Arachne, Athena (Minerva)
• Themes
• - Hubris
• -Spiders, webs
• -Metamorphosis
• What scenes did Arachne weave and why was that
  not smart?

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Arachne

• She tried to hang herself but Minerva got her
  down. Why?
• Why did Minerva change her into a spider?
• Where does a spider sit on its web?
• Why do we think of most spiders as female?

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Pandoras Box

• Gift from Hermes
• Greed, Slander, Envy, other miseries
• Pandora as a gift from Zeus to Epimetheus
• Epimetheus-brother to Prometheus
• (second part read to you)

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Pandoras Box-cont.

• Includes a story of a flood by Zeus
• Deucalion resembles Noah as he builds an ark.
• Idea of casting stones over shoulder to make new
  mortals

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Baucis and Philemon

• Baucis, Philemon, Jupiter(Zeus), Mercury(Hermes)
• Virtues emphasized
• Hospitality, humility, deference
• What is the metamorphosis and is a reward or
  curse?

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Atalanta

• Atalanta, King of Arcadia
• Her previous love was killed for defending her
  against various evil men
• She did not want to marry anyone thinking it
  would be a betrayal to her lost love.
• She devised the race as a way to appease her
  father.
• Losers of a race against her were executed

• She found Hippomenes attractive and asked him not
  to race her. She was afraid for him to lose.
• Why did Aphrodite help Hippomenes trick Atalanta?
• What does this myth say about women and men?

see additional handout on Atalanta
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Phaethon

• Helios, Phaethon
• Have you ever made a promise in haste and
  regretted it?
• Wisdom of father loses to foolishness of son
• Themes
• - Youthful over-enthusiasm
• Artic regions
• Desert regions
• Dark skin of Africans

See additional handout on Phaethon myth
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Orpheus

• Orpheus, Calliope, Apollo, Eurydice, Hades,
  Cerberus, Persephone, Zeus,Contellation Lyra
• What lessons might be gained from this myth?
• What other stories do you know that have a lesson
  about looking back?

See additional handout on Orpheus
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Icarus and Daedalus

• Icarus, Daedalus, King Minos
• Lesson to youth
• -Listen the advice of your elders.
• -What is there to admire about Icarus?
• -What lesson is learned about obedience to the
  laws of nature?

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Echo and Narcissus

• Echo, Zeus, Hera, Narcissus, Nemesis,
• Explains what natural phenomenon?
• What is a narcissus?
• Narcissist

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King Midas

• Midas, Dionysus, Midas daughter
• The Midas Touch
• What is the lesson to be learned from this myth?

-The desire for riches should not rule your life.
Family, friendship, love are more golden traits
to have in life.
The Midas Touch
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Hercules

• What are the labors he had to do? List them.
• Which labors had to do with using his smarts?
• Compare and Contrast Hercules with Prometheus.
• What would be a list of labors given to a modern
  day Hercules?

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Hercules -labors 1 and 2
1st Labor
2nd Labor
Hydra
Nemean lion
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Hercules third labor
Stag of Artemis
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Hercules- labors 4 and 5
5th Labor
4th Labor
Killing the great boar
Cleaning the Augean stables
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Hercules 6th labor
Battling the Stymphalian birds
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Hercules labors 7 and 8
7th Labor
8th Labor
Man eating mares of Diomedes
Bull of Poseidon
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Hercules labors 9 and 10
9th Labor
10th Labor
Battling Geryon
Girdle of Hippolyta
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Hercules labors 11 and 12
11th Labor
12th Labor
Cerberus
Apples of Hesperides
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More Hercules adventures
Wrestling the giant Antaeus
Fighting Acheolus ( in the form of a bull)
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Hercules frees Prometheus
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The death of Hercules
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Modern Day Hercules
Modern Day Hercules- Joe Flynn with a big dog !
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Other classical myth monsters
Cyclops dealing with Ulysses
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Homer's brief description in the Iliad of the
Chimera is the earliest surviving literary
reference "a thing of immortal make, not human,
lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the
middle, and snorting out the breath of the
terrible flame of bright fire".
The Chimera
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Other Greek mythology monsters

• The Furies

• In Greek and Roman mythology, the Furies were
  female spirits of justice and vengeance. They
  especially went after people who had murdered
  family members.Tthe Furies punished their victims
  by driving them mad. When not punishing
  wrongdoers on earth, they lived in the Underworld
  and tortured those punished souls down there.
• Read more Furies - Myth Encyclopedia -
  mythology, Greek, god, names, ancient, Roman,
  king, people, children, evil, culture
  http//www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Furies.html
  ixzz0gUZ6Ho0v

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MEDUSA

• Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but
  when she was seduced by Poseidon in Athena's
  temple, she became furious and changed her
  beautiful hair into serpents and made her face so
  terrible to look at that the sight of it would
  turn a man to stone. She was beheaded by the hero
  Perseus.
• (www.flickr.com/photos/mypixbox/3770599178)

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HARPIES

• Razor-clawed, smelly birds with the faces of
  women, who messed up the food of King Phineus of
  Salmydessus. The king was so grateful to the
  Argonauts for ridding him of these pests that he
  suggested a way that Jason and his shipmates
  might avoid being crushed to death by the
  Clashing Rocks.
• http//www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/harpies.html

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The Python

• In some myths the infant Apollo slew Python at
  the oracle of Gaea in Delphi in others Apollo
  killed the serpent in order to claim the oracle
  for himself. http//answers.encyclopedia.com/ques
  tion/greek-mythology-killed-python-401734.html

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The Sphinx

• THE SPHINX (or Phix) was a female monster with
  the body of a lion, the breast and head of a
  woman, eagle's wings and, according to some, a
  serpent-headed tail.
• She was sent by the gods to terrorize the town of
  Thebes as punishment for some ancient crime.
  There she ate all the young people who could not
  solve her. Kreon, the then leader of Thebes,
  offered the kingship of Thebes to any man who
  could destroy her. Oedipus accepted the
  challenge, and when he solved the Sphinx's
  riddle, she threw herself off a mountainside in
  despair. http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlht
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  http//www.theoi.com/Ther/Sphinx.htmlusg__7rSJns
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Riddle of the Sphinx

• In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of
  Thebes and asked a riddle of all travelers who
  passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the
  riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if
  the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then
  the Sphinx would destroy herself.
• The riddle
• What goes on four legs in the morning, on two
  legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?
• Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx
  destroyed herself.
• The solution
• A man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks
  on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane
  in old age.
• Of course morning, noon, and night are metaphors
  for the times in a man's (person's) life. Such
  metaphors are common in riddles. There were two
  Thebes, apparently this Thebes was the one in
  Greece. And this Sphinx was apparently not the
  one at Giza, in Egypt.

http//www.jimloy.com/puzz/sphinx0.htm
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Typhon

• TYPHOEUS (or Typhon) was a monstrous immortal
  storm-giant who was defeated and imprisoned by
  Zeus in the pit of Tartaros. He created terrible
  storms. Typhoeus s head touched the stars. He
  appeared man-shaped down to the thighs, with two
  coiled vipers in place of legs. Attached to his
  hands in place of fingers were a hundred serpent
  heads, fifty per hand. He had wings, with dirty
  matted hair and a beard, pointed ears, and eyes
  flashing fire.
• Some myths say he had two hundred hands each with
  fifty serpents for fingers and a hundred heads,
  one in human form with the rest being heads of
  bulls, boars, serpents, lions and leopards. He
  hurled red-hot rocks at the sky and storms of
  fire boiled from his mouth. He scared the Gods
  but Zeus defeated him.

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Achilles Heel

• Achilles Heel incident
• Achilles in the Trojan War
• -How did he die?
• -What is the tibial vein?

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Test Review

• Know the basic story lines of myths in our book,
  handouts, and the information from our
  independent projects given in class.

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Classical mythology report

• What