The Olympic Gods and Myths
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?
Origin of the Seasons
• Demeter, Persephone,
Hades
• Explains what
phenomena besides cycle
of seasons and famines?
• Persephone=“Kore”=
word for corn. In Europe
means any grain.
• 7 months/5 months
Arachne
• Arachne, Athena
(Minerva)
• Themes –
- “Hubris”
-Spiders, webs
-Metamorphosis
What scenes did Arachne
weave and why was
that not “smart”?
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?
Pandora’s 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)
Pandora’s 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
Baucis and Philemon
• Baucis, Philemon,
Jupiter(Zeus),
Mercury(Hermes)
• Virtues emphasized
• Hospitality, humility,
deference
• What is the
metamorphosis and
is a reward or curse?
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
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
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
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?
Echo and Narcissus
• Echo, Zeus, Hera,
Narcissus, Nemesis,
• Explains what natural
phenomenon?
• What is a “narcissus”?
• “Narcissist”
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”
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?
Hercules -labors 1 and 2
1st Labor
Nemean lion
2nd Labor
Hydra
Hercules’ third labor
Stag of Artemis
Hercules- labors 4 and 5
4th
Labor
Killing the great boar
5th Labor
Cleaning the
Augean stables
Hercules’ 6th labor
Battling the Stymphalian birds
Hercules labors 7 and 8
7th Labor
Bull of Poseidon
8th Labor
Man eating mares of
Diomedes
Hercules labors 9 and 10
9th Labor
Girdle of Hippolyta
10th Labor
Battling Geryon
Hercules labors 11 and 12
11th Labor
12th Labor
Cerberus
Apples of Hesperides
More Hercules adventures
Wrestling the giant
Antaeus
Fighting Acheolus ( in the form of a bull)
Hercules frees Prometheus
The death of Hercules
Modern Day Hercules
Modern Day HerculesJoe Flynn with a “big”
dog !
Other classical myth monsters
Cyclops dealing with Ulysses
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
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/FiGo/Furies.html#ixzz0gUZ6Ho0v
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)
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/entri
es/harpies.html
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/question/greek-mythology-killed-python-401734.html
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 serpentheaded 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.
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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
“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 manshaped 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.”
Typhon
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theoi.com/image/img_typhon.jp
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Achilles Heel
• Achilles Heel incident
- Achilles in the Trojan
War
- -How did he die?
-What is the tibial vein?
Test Review
• Know the basic story
lines of myths in our
book, handouts, and
the information from
our independent
projects given in class.
Classical mythology report
• What