MYTH
• Myth emerged at the childhood of
human being ,when they were in a
society of primitive clan system.
• Character：pre-logic; anti-reason
• Essence：
• the spiritual produce of gregarious
living of human being at childhood.
Background of Greek Myth
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一 The period of ancient Greek
The five ancient civilization
1 Egypt ; China
2 India; 两河流域 3 Greek
Because the Greek civilization emerged
at latest，it is the most mature and its
myth is the most glorious.
二 The environment of Greek
• Geographic condition：including 巴尔
干 peninsula、western coast of 小亚细
亚、islands and islets in Aegean Sea.
• Weather condition: comfortable
mediterranean sea weather，which
facilitates many singing poets.
• Social condition: at first it was a
primitive commune society，and
afterwards turned into numerous little
kingdoms，which all were slavery
states and seek for democratic politics
of noblemen.
• culture and art had been developed
sufficiently due to the liberal and cosy
atmosphere.
the four periods of Greek history
• The first phase ：named as “heroic(or
Homeric) period”（12th century bc——
8th century bc），the interim period
between primitive commune society
and slavery society, main achievement
of literature are myth and epic.
ancient Greek myth includes
stories of immortals and legends
of heroes.
• stories of immortals( include
Preolympus gods and olympus gods) ：
narrates the births of gods, the
relationship and genealogy of gods, the
origin of heaven and earth and all
things on earth ,the birth of men and
the activities and exploits of gods in
man’s world。
Legends of heroes
• narrates the sons of immortals, who
were ordinary men, achieved exploits
and created miracles. Actually “ heroes”
were the embodiment of leaders of
tribes and the power of groups。
• As the stories of gods，the legends
generally move aroud a main hero，
and constitute their systems
automatically.
The clue of Preolympus gods
• 大地之母盖亚生乌拉诺斯(被儿子克洛诺斯
阉割，生殖器掉入大海，诞生美神)，两人
生提坦神六男六女，包括瑞亚与克洛诺斯，
克洛诺斯夺权生出六个新俄林普斯神，包
括宙斯、赫拉、波赛东、哈得斯、得墨忒
尔、赫斯提亚 。
Aphrodite
• Aphrodite is the goddess of love and
beauty. The goddess known as Venus in
Roman mythology. Aphrodite also
appeared in many literary and painting in
the West. The most influential works of art
is the statue of Venus found in the cave in
the Island of Milo in 1820.
• The goddess of love,desire, beauty
sex,and attaction.
• The wife of Hephaistos. In addition to her
natural gifts. she has a magical girdle 腰带
that compels anyone she wishes to desire
her.
• She represented sex, affection and
attraction that binds people together
Zeus
• Zeus is the King of the Gods in Greek
Mythology. Zeus was viewed as a king
who oversaw the universe. In Hesiod‘s
Theology , he assigns the various gods
their roles. In the Homeric Hymns, he is
referred to as the chieftain of the gods. He
is also called the “Father of Gods and
men”.He ruled the Olympians of Mount
Olympus in ways representative as both a
father as head of the family and a king.
• Zeus was the god of sky and thunder in
Greek mythology. His symbols are the
thunderbolt , eagle , bull bul, and oak .
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek
artists in one of two poses（身份）:
standing, striding forward, with a
thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand,
or seated in majesty（王权）.
• The ruler of all the Olympian Gods.
• The god of the sky, rains, and thunders
雷
• He has unbreakable aegis 保护and his
weapon are thunderbolts,
• He is married to Hera, but is famous for
his many affairs.
• He is also known to punish those that lie
or break oaths
Hera goddess
• Zues's wife and sister. She is the supreme
goddess, godess of marriage and
childbrith,and takes care of married
women. Many stories concerning Hera
have to do with her jealous revenge for
Zeus's infidelities.
Poseidon
• The brother of Zeus, the god of seas and
all the waters.
• His weapon is a trident which can shake
the earth.
• He is second only to Zeus in power
amongst the gods.
• He is also the creater of all the horeses--even the sea horeses.
Hades
• The brother of Zeus,the god of
wealth(mines),earth and death.
• He has an ungerground palace to rule the
dead.
• He has a speacial helmet that could made
him invisible .
• He is cruel but keep faith to others.
• Demeter: Zues's sister ；goddess of
agriculture.
• Hestia： Zues‘s sister; virgin goddess;
she has no interest in politics and is in
charge of family affairs. She is goddess
of health and cooking.
Demeter
Athena
• Athena is the Greek virgin goddess of
logic,intellegent activity,arts and
literature.Athena is the dauter of Zeus.
She sprang full grown in armour from his
forehead, thus has no mother. And she's
also Zeus's favorite child.
• Athena is the goddess of war, civilization,
wisdom, strength , strategy , crafts ,
justice and skill.
• She is the virgin patron of Athens雅典.
The Athenians built the Parthenon （帕台
农神庙）on the Acropolis（雅典卫城） of
her namesake（同名的） city, Athens, in
her honour (Athena Parthenos).
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three virgin
goddess:
Athena ;
Artemis ;
Hestia
Apollo
• Son of Zeus, brother of Artemis. The most
handsome god, and he is the god of bow
shooting, healing, light, music, poem,the
truth and the prophecy.
• Apollo's most important daily task is to
harness 治理 his chariot with four horeses
and drive the Sun across the sky.
• Ares：the son of zeus and hero ；god
of war；
• cruel and barbarian ，but not a brave
man.
• 的就是丘比特
Artemis
• The daughter of Zeus, the sister of Apollo.
Artemis is the goddess of chastity, virginity,
the hunt, the moon, and the natural. She is
also the protector of the young.
Hepheastus
• He is the son of Zeus and Hera.
• Hepheastus is the god of fire and the forge.
• He is the smith and the amrorer of the
gods.
• Hepheastus is the only god to be phsically
ugly ,and also lame.
• But he is kind and peace loving.
• Aphrodite
• goddess of love, beauty and desire,she
is born from foam in sea。
• Eros
• son of Aphrodite ；little god of love .
His weapon is a bow which make the
shot people fall in love with the first
opposite sex.
Feature of Greek Myth
• Its form：
• Gods and worldly people have the
similar appearance and character.
• It is full of fancy and unreal material
and has many abundant and integrated
stories，which compose a large myth
system。
Its content：
• 1 it is full of human nature and liberal
ideal.
• 2 it emphasizes expression of vital
force，meanwhile, reflects the disorder
of social regime and the deficiency of
moral standard.
• 3 it symbolizes the truth of real life
through unreal image, which is
philosophic and symbolism.
Homeric Epic
• refers to The Iliad and The Odyssey
• Written possibly by the mythical ancient
Greek author Homer.
• in dactylic hexameters(长短格六部格诗)
• Reflects Mycenaean civilization
• about the Trojan War and its aftermath
The Iliad
• Describes concentratedly the affairs in
the last 51 days of Trojan War which
lasted 10 years.
• The backgrouds：the love and
marriage of 珀琉斯和忒提斯 and the b
irth of Achilles ；
The story
• The goddess of conflict threw a gold
apple in the marriage banquet ，three
goddess contended for it .The prince of
Troy Paris who had been banished in
field got the change to judge its owner，
and he give it to Aphrodite who gave
him a promised and help him induced
Hellen from King Menelaus of
Sparta ,which enraged the greek.
• The unit army appointed Agamemnon as commander，
Achilles as general，and started to assault Troy ；
• Achilles quit from the war because Agamemnon
grabed his female capture，which lead to the defeat
and retreat of the unit army. His good friend join in
war and was killed by 阿波罗和赫克托尔.
• Achilles entered into war in indignation. He killed 赫
克托尔，and shot by Paris and died due to his
prophesy；
• Paris was shot by poison arrow and died；
• Finally ,Odysseus designed the strategy of wood
horse and attacked and occupied Troy .
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the king of troy
trust his the prophesy
of his dream and
abandoned his son
Paris, Who judged
the gold apple to
Aphrodite when he
was herding in
remote hills.
Achilles who pretended to a
woman
Achilles in angry and agony
The odyssey
• It describes the story of odyssey’s
course of his going home of 10 years in
the last 42 days after the Troy war.
• Two clues：1 The son went out to find
scheme when his mother was tangled
and persecuted by suitors，and was
help by Athena ，and encountered his
father when he came back。
• 2 odyssey passed the kingdom of 菲爱克斯人
and told his experience to the king:
• Run into the giant of single eye 吕斐摩斯 、
evil goddess 喀尔克、塞壬; escaped from
monster卡律布狄斯和斯库拉; traveled in hell，
lived with仙女卡吕浦索 in 7 years.
• At last he went home in the order of Zeus
and the help of Athena, and pretended to a
beggar, killed all the suitors。
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The giant
who only
has a eye
Cultural connotation of Homeric
Epic
• 1 the idea about vita of Greek
• Emphasize desires, beauty, force, glory;
• Ardently love life, but further love the
glory and value of life.
• The value of life exceed the life itself in
Greek thoughts.
• 2 individualism
• Emphasize individual value and power,
meanwhile , praise the heroes who
sacrifice himself respectively to
achieve the profit and harmony of
groups.
• The independent individuals compose
the groups.
• 3 the relation of gods , men and destiny
• Gods surpass men, and destiny surpass and
control gods and men.
• Gods can precognize and influence the
destiny of men ,but they can’t substitute for
it.
• Gods surpass men in term of force，they
are equal in term of life qualification.（ God
surpass men in Christian）。