GREEK MYTHOLOGY
WHAT ARE MYTHS?
• Traditional stories of gods,
kings, and heroes
• Show the relations between
gods and people
• Mythology was a form of
early science to Greeks
because it helped explain the
unexplainable.
• But, even after their science
was fairly sophisticated, they
still told myths. Why?
Myths seek to explain all those unexplainable or
unknowable aspects of life.
Where do we go after we die?
How was the world created?
Why can we see our reflection in water?
Why are there four separate seasons?
Why do we fall in love?
How is lightning created?
Why do our voices sometime echo?
How was fire created, and why do we have it?
BACKGROUND OF GREEK
MYTHOLOGY
• Fully developed by about 700 B.C.
• Homer and Hesiod are generally
considered the earliest Greek poets
whose work has survived
ANCIENT GREEK BELIEFS AND
CHARACTERISTICS
• Death is inevitable and final, so the goal was to become a
legend through great deeds.
• The Greeks were tough, restless, ambitious, hard-living,
and imaginative.
• Honor was extremely important, and the Greeks were
very vengeful if wronged.
• The gods mirrored human feelings and physical form.
• Their flaws were pride, cruelty, stubbornness,
impulsiveness, lust for power, and a desire to be like the
gods.
Mythology in nature and
science
Many of our planets (and many moons) are named after Roman gods
Mercury- messenger god
Mars- god of war
Venus- goddess of love
Jupiter- king of the gods
Saturn- god of agriculture
Neptune- god of the seas
Uranus- ancient Greek deity of the heavens
Pluto- god of the underworld
Using the lingo… today
Nike:
Cupid:
Son of the goddess of
Love. This winged
god can be seen to
this day, especially
during Valentine’s
day. One shot from
his bow is supposed
to make the victim
fall in love.
The Greek goddess of
victory
Cyclops:
Named after a mythological
being with only one eye.
CONSTELLATIONS
METAMORPHOSES
Publius Ovidius Naso
THE ROMAN POET
Publius Ovidus Naso
 Born: March 20, 43 B.C.
 Died: Died A.D. 16 or 17
 His father wanted Ovid to study politics
 Ovid rebelled insisting his success as a
poet (unlike Homer, Ovid was successful
and became famous throughout history
for his writings)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Invocation
Chaos and Creation
Ages of Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron
The Flood
Deucalion and Pyrrha
The New World
Apollo and Daphne
Io and Jove
The Pipes of Pan
Io and Isis
BOOK 1
Theme Stems
 Tragic Love and Lust
• Cupid, angry at Apollo* for defeating the
“great Python” in the Pythian Feast, choses
to act in anger to Apollo by shooting him
with an arrow causing him to lust for
Daphne, whom he loved before the arrow
• The god, Pan, falls in love with the wood
nymph, Syrinx. She does not love him and
senses his lust, her sisters help her by turning
her into water reeds. Pan in disappointment
turns his lover into what are called “musical
pan pipes”
*Apollo is sometimes referred to by
Ovid as Phoebus
 Divine Rape
and Lust
• The god, Jupiter, rapes Io
out of lust, sadly his wife
Juno suspects his affair
and he turns her into a
cow. Argus, the keeper of
the cow, is murdered by
Mercury, sent by Juno…
Io is transformed back
into a nymph and bears
Jupiter a son, Epaphus)
 Hubris
•
Phaethon (son of the Sun) and
Epaphus (son of Jove) get into an
argument. Phaethon claims he is the
son of the Sun but Epaphus
challenges him saying that he was
lied to by his mother about his true
father. To seek out the truth, he goes
on a quest to seek his father
•
In transition to book two, in
arrogance, Phaethon almost destroys
the Earth with his father’s chariot
from the Sun in pride proving his
word to his friend
THE CALL
“My intention is to tell of bodies changed
To different forms; the gods who made the changes,
Will help me—or I hope some—with a poem
That runs from the world’s beginning to our own days.”
(pg.31, The Metamorphoses, Gregory)
• This invocation appears at the beginning of The
Metamorphoses. Ovid is calling on the gods for help and
wisdom as he writes this epic of the history of the world.
• Based on the definition of an invocation this particular
type of calling is known as a supplication.
IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL…
The Metamorphoses begins “all Nature
as all Chaos…”. The poem begins with
the creation of the universe.
 Ovid morphs God and Nature into one
character;
 Because Ovid starts with the creation of
the universe, we know and understand
that this adds to the intensity of the epic;
 Once creation is over, the ages of Gold,
Silver, Bronze, and Iron can begin as the
world progresses toward evil.
LITERARY DEVICES…
 Metaphor:
 Imagery:
• A comparison between two
unlike things uniting them
together
• Vivid descriptive language
that appeals to one or more of
the senses
 Personification:
• An inanimate object used that
is given or endowed human
like qualities or abilities
LITERARY ELEMENTS
 Meter - the basic rhythmic structure of a verse
Dactylic hexameter
- Known as the “heroic” meter, associated with epic poetry
- Contains six feet (metrical unit), each holds a dactyl (long syllable-short syllable-short syllable)
- Line usually ends with spondee (long syllable-long syllable)
 Narrative - an account of a sequence of events
 Fluidity of chronological order
- No single storyline
- Books connected together by theme of metamorphoses (change)
- Chronological inconsistencies throughout middle part
- Framed narrative (story within a story)
 Transition – connection of two pieces of writing, relating to coherence
 Links
- Characters are followed throughout different stories
- Focus of one character is shifted to a relative
- Outcome of story influences the next one
INFLUENCE OF THE
METAMORPHOSES
“Now I have done my work. It will endure, I trust, beyond Jove’s
anger, fire and sword, beyond Times hunger. The day will come, I
know, so let it come, that day which has no power over my body, to
end my span of life whatever it may be. Still, part of me, the better
part, immortal, will be borne above the stars; my name will be
remembered wherever Roman power rules conquered lands, I shall
be read, and though all centuries, if prophecies of bards are ever
truthful, I shall be living, always.”
INFLUENCE ON OTHER
WORKS
 Ovid’s Metamorphoses influenced the works of the great William
Shakespeare including:
 Titus Andronicus
 Midsummer Night’s Dream
 Julius Caesar