Introduction to Classical Mythology
1.
Greek mythology begins with __________ by __________ which is the __________ Greek literature.
2. __________, __________ and__________ are essentially nonexistent in Greek mythology
3. A __________ is an explanation of something in nature
Chapter One: The Gods
1. __________dethroned his father__________ who was a __________.
2. The Roman name for Zeus is __________.
3. The twelve great Olympian gods lived on __________.
4. __________: Lord of __________, the __________ god, the __________ gatherer (Jupiter) he was not
omnipotent or omniscient.
5. He cheats on his wife________________.
6. His will was interpreted through the rustling _________ leaves.
7. Hera (Juno) – Zeus’s wife and ____________.
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Protector of _____________ women.
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Poseidon (Neptune) – ruler of the __________.
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________________ most powerful god
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He gave the first __________ to man.
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He was commonly called ______________.
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He carried a ____________, a three pronged spear.
8. Hades (Pluto) – ruled the _______________.
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He was called the ruler of the __________ or God of ______________.
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His helmet made whoever wore it _________________.
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His wife, ___________________, was Queen of the Loves World.
9. Minerva – daughter of __________, with no mother.
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She sprang from his ___________ fully grown and armored.
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She is the goddess of the ________ and civilization.
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She carried Zeus’s __________________________.
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She was the chief of the three _____________ goddesses.
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She was called the Maiden of __________________.
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The ___________ tree was her tree.
10. Apollo – Son of Zeus and _________.
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Master Musician plays the golden __________.
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His weapon is a silver _______.
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He is called the ____________.
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He is the God of ____________ and _______________.
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He provided a link between gods and men and purity.
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He ____________ was his tree.
11. Artemis (Diana) – Apollo’s _________ sister.
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Lady of ____________________, and huntsman, and ________________________________.
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Called ______________ and Saleone, ______________ connection to the moon.
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Also identified as _____________.
12. Aphrodite (Venus) – Goddess of _______ and ________________.
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The daughter of Zeus and Diane of sprang from _________________.
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Married to _______________.
13. Hermes (Mercury) – Son of Zeus and _____________.
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Wore winged sandals and was the messenger.
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He was cunning and known as the Master ___________.
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God of ________________.
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Led souls to the dead.
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He appears more often than any other god.
14. Ares (Mars) – Son of Zeus and ____________.
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God of _________.
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He was ruthless, hateful, and treacherous.
15. Hephaestus (Vulcan) – The God of _________.
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Parents: Zeus and Hera of just Hera.
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He was ugly and __________.
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He made the gods’ __________ and weapons.
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Hestia (Vesta) – goddess of the ___________ and home.
The lesser Gods of Olympus
1. Eros (Cupid) – “Love – Eros – makes his home in men’s hearts, but not in every heart, for where there is
hardness he departs. His greatest glory is that he cannot do wrong nor allow it; force never comes near him.
For all men serve him of their own free will, and he whom love touches not walks in darkness. – Plato
2. The Grace
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Aglaia – Splendor
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Euphros Syne – Mirth
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Thalia – Good Cheer
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The three are known as the queens of songs that gave life its bloom.
3. The Muses – daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, nine of them, companions of Apollo
The Underworld
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Often referred to as Hades, Erebus, or Taturus
Five rivers:
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Acheron – river of woe
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Cacytus – river of lamentation
1. _____________ - an aged boatman that ferries souls of dead across
2. _____________ - the three headed dog who doesn’t let anyone leave
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Phlegation – river of fire
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Styx – river of undesirable oath
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Lethe – river of forgetfulness
3. _________________ - a ghostly flower in Hades
4. The Erinyes (the furies) punished evil doers
Lesser gods of Earth
1. Demeter – goddess of ________.
2. Bionyses (Bachus) – god of the __________.
3. Pan – Hermes’ son, _______ horns and legs, shepherd’s god.
a. __________- were goat men
b. ________- nymphs of mountain
c. _________- nymphs of tores
4. Aeolus- king of winds
5. Centaurs- man/horse
6. Sirens- lived on and island in the sea. Their singing lured men to death
7. The Fates- give men good and evil at birth
-Numina- Roman gods
Part IV- The Heroes of the Trojan War
-most info on Trojan War comes from Homer’s __________.
__________ sent a golden apple to be given to the fairest between __________, __________, and __________.
Zeus refused to choose so Paris chose bared on the gifts they offered.
Paris chose __________’s gift, to have the fairest woman be his.
And then Austin dies.
King Tyndareus was Helen’s step-father, mother is Leda and father Zeus. He chose ________ to be Helen’s husband and
king of ______.
The Greek Army launched 1000 ships along with Odysseus and Achilles.
King and Queen of Troy
Student 1: Part I ii and iii
The Two Great gods of Earth
Demeter
Demeter (in Latin Ceres) was the Goddess of Corn.
Her parents were Cronus and Rhea, so she was Zeus full-brother.
Demeter had one daughter named Persephone.
Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the underworld.
Demeter was very upset and refused to allow the earth to bear fruit until Zeus made Hades give Persephone back.
Persephone would stay in Hades for four months of the year which would be winter on earth.
Dionysus
Dionysus (in Latin Bachus) was the God of Wine
His parents were Zeus and Semele.
Semele died because she wished to see Zeus in all his glory.
Dionysus was raised by nymphs and brought to Greece by pirates.
Dionysus descended into the underworld and brought back his mother to live in Olympus.
Dionysus was accompanied by The Maenads or Bacchantes, women frenzied with wine.
Each spring there was a festival for Dionysus where plays were acted out.
He died and rose again like a vine being pruned thus becoming the center of belief in immortality for Greeks.
How the World and Mankind Were Created
Before anything Choas ruled the formless darkness.
Then Choas had two children, Night and Erebus.
Night and Erebus gave birth to Love who then created Light and Day, then Mother Earth and Father Heaven.
Earth and Heaven had three types of children: 100 hands and 50 head, Cyclops, and Titans.
After Heaven banished 100/50, Cronus, a Titan, attacked Heaven and the blood from Heaven’s wounds created The
Giants and Erinyes, The Furies.
Cronus ruled with his sister-queen Rhea until Zeus attacked him and the other Titans.
Man was created by two Titans who sided with Zeus. First by Epimetheus, Afterthought, who gave the best gifts to all
the animals. Then his brother, Prometheus, Forethought, fixed their deficient by creating them upright like the gods and
giving them fire.
Women were created as a punishment to men because Zeus was mad at Prometheus for allowing men to have the good
sacrifices. Zeus created Pandora and all women came from her. \
Zeus cursed Prometheus to be bound to a rock and tormented by an eagle.
Another story of mankind was they became so wicked that Zeus flooded the earth and the only two survivors were
Prometheus’s son and niece, Deucalion and Pyrrha.
Student 2: Part II I and ii
Cupid and Psyche
Psyche was a beautiful princess who everyone praised. Venus/Aphrodite became jealous and send Cupid to trick her
into marrying an ugly man.
Instead, Cupid fell in love and took her to a palace and married her, but she could never see him.
Psyche betrayed him and slipped into their bedroom with a lamp and saw him but spilt hot oil on him.
Cupid fled to Venus being betrayed and saying, “Love cannot live where there is not trust.”
After succeeding at a number of impossible tasks, Cupid forgave Psyche and married her.
Psyche means Soul.
Eight Brief Tales of Lovers
Pyramus and Thisbe grew up next to each other in Babylon and fell in love, but their parents forbade marriage.
They decided to meet under a mulberry tree, but Pyramus thought Thisbe was killed by a lion and killed himself. Then
Thisbe took her own life too.
Orpheus and Eurydice were to be married and while Eurydice was walking down the isle a viper bit her.
Orpheus was the best musician and played for Jason and his crew louder than the Sirens, so they escaped.
Orpheus journeyed to the Underworld to get his wife back, and the gods would allowed it under the condition that he
not look back at her. He did, and she was left in the Underworld.
Ceyx and Alcyone were happily married. Ceyx decided to seek an oracle across the sea and died in a storm,.
Alcyone warned him not to go and was told by Morpheus that her husband died.
She ran to the shore and Ceyx body was washing up and when she ran out to it, they were both transformed into birds.
Pygmalion was a sculptor who created Galatea and fell in love with his art.
Venus took notice and transformed her into a real person.
Baucis and Philemon were old, poor, hospitable people.
Zeus and Hermes visited them disguised, and they were very hospitable towards them. They became the gods’ priests
until they were transformed into the linden and the oak.
Endymion was a handsome shepherd who Selene, Moon Goddess, fell in love with and visits.
Daphne decided never to marry. Apollo fell in love with her and chased after her, and as she was running away,
she turned into a laurel tree.
Alpheus, God of the River, fell in love with Arethusa who wanted nothing to do with him. She ran away from
him, and Artemis transformed her into a spring of water.
Student 3: Part III I and ii
……. Missing
Student 4: Part V I and ii
The House of Atreus
Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra had Iphigenia, Orestes, and Electra.
Agamemnon’s brother, Menalaus, was Helen’s husband and started the Trojan war.
Afamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to make it to Troy safely because Artemis was mad .
When he returned with his captive, Cassandra, his wife, Clytemnestra, had been cheating on him with, Aegisthus, and
was mad at him for killing their daughter, so she killed him.
Orestes returned after growing up in a different country with his best friend, Pylades, to kill his mother and Aegisthus.
Their family was cursed because t heir ancestor, Tantalas, was Zeus’s mortal son, and the gods allowed him to eat with
them.
One day Tantalas tried to embarrass the gods by killing his son and feeding him to the gods.
The gods knew and cursed him to forever be thirsty and hungry with food and drink within his reach.
The family was cursed forever because of him.
The Royal House of Thebes
Cadmus and Harmonia had four daughters and one son ,and they all died tragically.
King Laius of Thebes married Jocata and they had a son named Oedipus.
The oracle at Delphi prophesied that Laius would be killed by his son, so when Oedipus was born he tied him up and left
him on a mountain.
Oedipus was rescued and raised by King Polybus. When he found out about the Oracle he swore never to see Polybus
again and set out and came upon Laius and killed him.
He answered a Sphynx’s riddle and married Jocasta and had children.
When they found out, Jocasta killed herself and Oedipus put out his eyes.
Oedipus had two sons: Polyneices and Eteocles and two daughters: Ismene and Antigone.
The sons killed each other fighting for the throne. Antigone was put to death for burying Polyneices.
Student 1: Part I iv and Part IV iv
The Earliest Heroes
Io was turned into a _________________ by Zeus who was trying to hide his affair from Hera. Hera tricked him and
cursed Io to run from a fly forever. She ran to the sea (Ionian) and then to the Nile and was turned back into a human.
________________________ was a Cyclops who tried to eat Odysseus but was tricked and blinded. Many years later,
his eye was healed, and he fell in love with the sea nymph Galetea.
Flower Myths
Narcissus was a purple and silver flower named because the man, Narcissus, scorned ___________ because he was
obsessed with himself and drowned himself in a reflecting pool.
The _________________ was named for Apollo’s friend who was killed because Apollo accidentally hit him with a discus.
The Adventures of Aeneas
1. ___________– wrote the Aenead to provide a political hero for Rome
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Odysseus is name in Latin is ____________
2. Aeneas was a _______________ who escaped after the war
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He was held to be the founder of Rome
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Italy was called ____________.
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Aeneas landed on Sicily which was occupied by _____________.
3. _____________ (Hera) – stirred up a storm because she hated Aeneas because he was Trojan and destined to
conquer ____________
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Carthridge was founded by a woman, ___________.
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Aeneas’s mother was Venus/ Aphrodite.
4. Aeneas visited the underworld led by Sibyl
5. Aeneas had to find the ___________ ______________ before being admitted to Hades.
6. Aeneas married ______________ and founded the Roman Race.
Student 2: Part II iii and iv
The Quest of the Golden Fleece
Jason set sail to find the Golden Fleece from King Aetes on his boat ___________________.
______________ were called the Hounds of Zeus.
King Aetes daughter, Medea, fell in love with Jason and gave him a magic ointment that would keep him safe while
completing the tasks Aetes desired.
Even though Jason fought off the terrible bulls, the king refused to give him the fleece, so Medea and Jason stole it by
singing to put the snake who guarded it asleep. They escaped together.
In the end, Jason married the Princess of Corinth and banished Medea.
Medea was so upset by Jason’s betrayal. She killed the Princess and her two children and escaped from Jason.
Four Great Adventures
Phathon is the son of Clymene and the sun-god, ___________________.
He wished that he could drive ____________________ chariot but couldn’t control it and died.
Pegasus and Bellerophon
Athena gave Bellerophon ________________________ to tame Pegasus.
Bellerophon was sent to slay the ________________________, who was lion, serpent, and goat.
Pegasus retired to __________________________ when Bellerophon died.
Otus and Ephialtes were twin Giants.
Their father was Poseidon.
They tried proving they were the gods superiors and finally Artemis tricked them into killing each other.
Daedalus was the architect of the _________________________ and was imprisoned with his son Icarus.
Daedalus made wings to fly out, but Icarus flew too high and died.
Student 3: Part III iii and iv
Hercules was the strongest man.
He is the son of Alcena and __________________________.
He was rash and not the brightest guy, but he was always repentant when he did wrong.
____________________ made Hercules go mad and kill his wife and children.
Eventually, he killed himself because he was being tortured from a cursed robe because he loved another woman more
than his wife.
Atalanta was raised by a she-bear and then hunters because her father abandoned her.
She never wanted to marry so agreed only to marry if a man could beat her in a ______________________.
Hesperides won the _____________________ because he distracted her with golden apples.
Student 4: Part V iii
The Royal House of Athens
Procne and Philomela were sisters.
Procne’s husband, Tereus, went to pick up Phlomena for a visit and tricked her into a fake marriage by telling her that
Procne had died.
When Philomena found out her sister was still alive, she was furious, so Tereus cut out her tongue.
For revenge, Procne killed her son and fed him to Tereus.
As Procne and Philomena were running from Tereus they were transformed into birds.