Mythology unit 1
EIH: October 2012
Day 1 CW: Descriptive Paragraph Due; Intro to Mythology. What is myth? What are
archetypes? What are the four functions of myth?
HW: Complete vocabulary units 3 & 4. Read Interview Excerpt (p 2). Read Modern
References sheet (p 7). Bring Heroes, Gods and Monsters to class.
Day 2 CW: Review vocab. Four functions of myth. Discuss modern references and allusions.
HW: Read about the Olympians in HGM (as well as Hestia and Ares in your packet) –
and fill out packet! Find modern references for your god or goddess and bring completed
worksheet to class. (You may not use planets.)
Day 3 CW: Discuss Olympians.
HW: Study for vocab quiz. Finish reading Olympians.
Day 4 CW: Vocab quiz; finish discussing Olympians.
HW: Read creation myths (on my wiki)
Day 5 CW: Discuss creation myths – group work. Find connections.
HW: Read Ovid’s Four Ages (on my wiki)
Day 6 CW: Discuss Ovid’s Four Ages; continue discussing creation myths
HW: Read Prometheus (p. 55-58); Pandora (p. 59-62); Demeter (p. 22-29) in HGM
Day 6 CW: Discuss nature myths; literary allusions
HW: Read Dionysus (on wiki)
Day 7 CW: Discuss Dionysus. Finish nature myths discussion
HW: TBD
Day 8 CW: Allusion projects due. Wrap-up unit. Review.
HW: Study for Mythology Test
Day 9 CW: Mythology Test 1
HW: Read HGM Orpheus (p 76-85) and Bacchus and Philemon (in new packet)
** Be prepared for POP reading quizzes, as well as active reading checks**
Goals of the unit:
To learn (review) the gods and goddesses
To understand the role of myths
To recognize connections between cultures and myths
To understand and identify allusions
To practice active reading
Interview excerpt with Bill Moyers; Campbell’s Functions of Myth
CAMPBELL: The individual has to find a aspect of myth that relates to his own life. Myth
basically serves four functions. The first is the mystical function – that is the one I’ve been
speaking about, realizing what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and
experiencing awe before this mystery. Myth opens the world to the dimension of mystery, to the
realization of the mystery that underlies all forms. If you lose that, you don’t have a mythology.
If mystery is manifest through all things, the universe becomes, as it were, a holy picture. You
are always addressing the transcendent mystery through the conditions of your actual world.
The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which science is concerned—
showing you what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery
again comes through. Today we tend to think that scientists have all the answers. But the great
ones tell us, “No, we haven’t got all the answers. We’re telling you how it works—but what is
it?” You strike a match, what’s fire? You can tell me about oxidation, but that doesn’t tell me a
thing.
The third function is the sociological one—supporting and validating a certain social order.
And here’s where the myths vary enormously from place to place. You can have a whole
mythology for polygamy, a whole mythology for monogamy. Either one’s okay. It depends on
where you are. It is this sociological function of myth that has been taken over in our world—
and it is out of date.
MOYERS: What do you mean?
CAMPBELL: Ethical laws. The laws of life as it should be in the good society. All of
Yahweh’s pages and pages and pages of what kind of clothes to wear, how to behave to each
other, and so forth, in the first millennium B. C.
But there is a fourth function of myth, and this is one that I think everyone must try today to
relate to—and that is the pedagogical function, of how to live a human lifetime under any
circumstances. Myths can teach you that.
MOYERS; So the old story, so long known and transmitted through the generations, isn’t
functioning, and we have not yet learned a new one?
CAMPBELL: The story that we have in the West, so far as it is based on the Bible, is based on
a view of the universe that belongs to the first millennium B.C. It does not accord with our
concept either of the universe or of the dignity of man. It belongs entirely somewhere else.
We have today to learn to get back into accord with the wisdom of nature and realize again
our brotherhood with the animals and with the water and the sea. To say that the divinity
informs the world and all things is condemned as pantheism. But pantheism is a misleading
word. It suggests that a personal god is supposed to inhabit the world, but that is not the idea at
all. The idea is trans-theological. It is of an indefinable, inconceivable mystery, thought of as a
power, that is the source and end and supporting ground of all life and being.
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Joseph Campbell and the Four Functions of Myth
In an interview with Bill Moyers, scholar Joseph Campbell explains his concept of the functions
that myth serves in our lives. Please read the interview and use it to answer the following
questions:
List and define the four functions of myth:
1.
2.
3.
4.
According to Campbell, the most well known and the most out of date function of myth is the
_____________________ function.
Why do you think he says it is out of date?
According to Campbell, the most important function, the one we should all try to relate to today
is the ______________________ function.
Why do you think he wants us to concentrate on this function?
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Olympians: Excerpted from Hamilton Mythology
INTRODUCTION
The twelve great Olympians were supreme among the gods who succeeded to the Titans.
They were called the Olympians because Olympus was their home. What Olympus was,
however, is not easy to say. There is no doubt that at first it was held to be a mountain top, and
generally identified with Greece’s highest mountain, Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, in the northeast
of Greece. But even in the earliest Greek poem, the Iliad, this idea is beginning to give way to
the idea of an Olympus in some mysterious region far above all the mountains of the earth. In
one passage of the Iliad Zeus talks to the gods from “the topmost peak of many-ridged
Olympus,” clearly a mountain. But only a little further on he says that if he willed he could hang
earth and sea from a pinnacle of Olympus, clearly no longer a mountain. Even so, it is not
heaven. Homer makes Poseidon say that he rules the sea, Hades the dead, Zeus the heavens, but
Olympus is common to all three.
ARES (MARS)
The God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, both of whom, Homer says, detested him. Indeed, he
is hateful throughout the Iliad, poem of war thought it is. Occasionally the heroes “rejoice in the
delight of Ares’ battle,” but far oftener in having escaped “the fury of the ruthless god.” Homer
calls him murderous, bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals; and, strangely, a coward, too,
who bellows with pain and runs away when he is wounded. Yet he has a train of attendants on
the battlefield which should inspire anyone with confidence. His sister is there, Eris, which
means Discord, and Strife, her son. The Goddess of War, Enyo, ---in Latin Bellona, ---walks
beside him, and with her are Terror and Trembling and Panic. As they move, the voice of
groaning arises behind them and the earth streams with blood.
The Romans liked Mars better than the Greeks liked Ares. He never was to them the mean
whining deity of the Iliad, but magnificent in shining armor, redoubtable, invincible. The
warriors of the great Latin heroic poem, the Aeneid, far from rejoicing to escape from him,
rejoice when they see that they are to fall “on Mars’ field of renown.” They “rush on glorious
death” and find it “sweet to die in battle.”
Ares figures little in mythology. In one story he is the lover of Aphrodite and held up to the
contempt of the Olympians by Aphrodite’s husband, Hephaestus; but for the most part he is little
more than a symbol of war. He is not a distinct personality, like Hermes or Hera or Apollo.
He had no cities where he was worshiped. The Greeks said vaguely that he came from
Thrace, home of a rude, fierce people in the northeast of Greece.
Appropriately, his bird was the vulture. The dog was wronged by being chosen as his animal.
HESTIA (VESTA)
Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth fire, hence presiding over domestic life. She is
the eldest sister of Zeus and the oldest daughter of Rhea and Cronus. She was a virgin-goddess,
and when wooed by Poseidon and Apollo, swore by the head of Zeus to remain a virgin. She had
no throne, but tended the sacred fire in the hall on the Olympus and every hearth on Earth was
her altar. She is the gentlest of all the Olympians. Hestia also symbolized the alliance of the
Metropolis ("mother-city") with the smaller settlements which were founded in the colonies. The
colonists took fire from the hearth in the prytaneion and kept it burning in their new towns. The
Romans called her Vesta and build a temple for her in the Forum.
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The Olympians
Read the following pages about the Olympians. As you read, underline or highlight key passages
and answer the accompanying questions. You will be skipping some pages that we will return to
later.
ZEUS
P3-5
Son of _____________________ and ____________________________
Relationship to Gods? _________________________________________
Notable accomplishment? ______________________________________
Notable trait? ________________________________________________
HERA
P6-7
Wife of ____________________ and also his ______________________
Mother of _______________, _________________, and ______________
Notable characteristics? _________________________________________
Goddess of __________________________________________________
ATHENE
P 8-9
Daughter of ______________________ and ________________________
How was she born? ____________________________________________
Goddess of ___________________________________________________
POSEIDON
P 15-18
Brother of _____________________ and ____________________________
God of ________________________________________________________
Notable characteristics? ___________________________________________
HADES
P19-21
God of ________________________________________________________
Notable characteristics? ___________________________________________
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ARTEMIS
P 32-35
Daughter of _________________ and _______________________________
Goddess of _____________________________________________________
Notable characteristics? ___________________________________________
APOLLO
P39-42
Twin of _____________________________God of ________________________
Notable characteristics? ____________________________________________
HERMES
P 43-47
Son of _______________________ and _______________________________
Notable characteristics? ______________________________________________
HEPHAESTUS
P 48-49
Hera throws him off Olympus because he is so ____________________________
God of ___________________________________________________________
Notable characteristics? __________________________________________
APHRODITE
P 50-52
Goddess of ___________________________________________________
How was she born? _______________________________________________
Which god did she marry?____________________________________
ARES
In packet
Son of ______________________ and ______________________________
God of _______________________________________________________
Notable characteristics? ___________________________________________
HESTIA
In packet
Sister of _________________________ and Goddess of ______________
How do people Worship __________________________________________
Notable characteristics? _________________________________________
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MODERN REFERENCES TO THE GODS
The names of the gods of Olympus (along with their Roman equivalent) evoke strong
emotions and images from people who have both worshipped them and read their stories in
mythology. Because so many people know these gods, companies/businesses, musicians, artists,
etc. sometimes use these names in order to capture some of what they represent in their works.
For your assigned god, research and report on three occasions where your god is used in this
way. In two or three sentences, explain why you believe this god is being used in this reference.
What is the person using the name trying to say about their work?
e.g. Janus (The Roman god of doors, gates, new beginnings, endings).
Reference: Janus Capital Group
Explanation of Reference: There is an investment company named Janus Capital Group. I believe
since this company is about financial investments, the company uses Janus to help evoke an image of new
beginnings for your financial future. The double-faced head that usually represents Janus could show that the
company looks back at your credit history and looks to the future to your retirement. So, the company wants
its customer to trust them with the money that they made in the past and the money that they will make in the
future.
YOUR ASSIGNED GOD
___________________________________________________________________
First Reference
____________________________________________________________________________
Explanation of the reference
__________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Second Reference_______________________________________________________________
Explanation of the reference
_____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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LOOKING FOR COMMON MOTIFS
Creation Myths from Other Cultures
Directions: Create a chart below that consists of four columns, each column headed by the name of a
creation myth from a specific culture or national tradition. Analyze each of the myths as you read them
and complete the chart by considering the questions below. (Note: not every question or topic will be
covered in every column.)
Pre-Creation: What is there before creation? Why does the creator choose to create?
Creator: Is there one or many? Is the creator supreme or is power shared? Is the creator male or female?
Benign or malevolent? Concerned or indifferent? Named or unnamed? Does the creator live in the sky
or on the earth (or somewhere else?)
Creation: Is the creation accomplished by a word, or act, or both? Is it ordered or haphazard? Is the
creation a struggle or warfare, or calm and reasoned? Is it sexual or asexual? Is it fast or slow, or is time
not mentioned? Is the world divided in some way? Is there a heaven and hell created?
Created: How is man created? How is woman created?
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Literary allusion: The Pommegranate By Eavan Boland
The only legend I have ever loved is
the story of a daughter lost in hell.
And found and rescued there.
Love and blackmail are the gist of it.
Ceres and Persephone the names.
And the best thing about the legend is
I can enter it anywhere. And have.
As a child in exile in
a city of fogs and strange consonants,
I read it first and at first I was
an exiled child in the crackling dusk of
the underworld, the stars blighted. Later
I walked out in a summer twilight
searching for my daughter at bed-time.
When she came running I was ready
to make any bargain to keep her.
I carried her back past whitebeams
and wasps and honey-scented buddleias.
But I was Ceres then and I knew
winter was in store for every leaf
on every tree on that road.
Was inescapable for each one we passed.
And for me.
It is winter
The pomegranate! How did I forget it?
She could have come home and been safe
and ended the story and all
our heart-broken searching but she reached
out a hand and plucked a pomegranate.
and the stars are hidden.
I climb the stairs and stand where I can see
my child asleep beside her teen magazines,
her can of Coke, her plate of uncut fruit.
She put out her hand and pulled down
the French sound for apple and
the noise of stone and the proof
that even in the place of death,
at the heart of legend, in the midst
of rocks full of unshed tears
ready to be diamonds by the time
the story was told, a child can be
hungry. I could warn her. There is still a chance.
The rain is cold. The road is flint-coloured.
The suburb has cars and cable television.
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The veiled stars are above ground.
It is another world. But what else
can a mother give her daughter but such
beautiful rifts in time?
If I defer the grief I will diminish the gift.
The legend will be hers as well as mine.
She will enter it. As I have.
She will wake up. She will hold
the papery flushed skin in her hand.
And to her lips. I will say nothing.
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