Introduction to
Mythology
Background of Greek Mythology
Why study
mythology?
•Myths symbolize
human experience and
embody the spiritual
values of a culture.
Myths are an important way
to understand ourselves and
our connection to other people
at a time when the welfare of
each culture depends on the
attitudes and actions of other
cultures.
•Although most of the myths
were created by people who lived
in societies that were much less
complex than our own, they
address fundamental questions
that each thinking person
continues to ask:
• Who am I?
• What is the nature of the universe in which I
live?
• How much control do I have over my own life?
• What must I do in order to survive?
• How can I lead a satisfying life?
• How can I balance my own desires with my
responsibilities to my family and my
community?
• How can I reconcile myself to the inevitability
of death?
Purpose of
Myths
A myth’s serious purpose is
to either:
• To explain the nature of the
universe;
• To instruct the members of the
community in the attitudes and
behavior necessary to function
successfully in that particular
culture.
• On the other hand, some cultures
are interested in the creation
• The Heroic myths and epics of a
society teach its members the
appropriate attitudes, behavior
and values of that culture.
Characteristics
of Mythology
• Myths usually originate
in an ancient oral
tradition.
• Some explain origins,
natural phenomena,
and death.
•Others describe the nature
and function of divinities;
while still others provide
models of virtuous behavior
by relating the adventures
of heroes or the misfortunes
of arrogant humans.
•Many myths believe in
one or more divine powers
who create life and
control the direction of
the universe.
• The hero myths examine the
relationship between the individual’s
desires and his responsibilities to the
society.
• Often the choice is crucial but
uncomplicated: whether or not to risk
death to save the community.
• In spite of their extraordinary
abilities no hero is perfect.
Introduction: Greek
Art and Literature
• The Greeks are recognized as
an exceptional people because
of their attainments in
literature, sculpture,
architecture and philosophy.
• No epic poet to compare with
Homer, no lyric poet to equal
Pindar; no prose aside from the
Bible, more poetic than that
Plato.
• Of the 4 great tragic poets
the world has produced, 3 are
Greek; the fourth is
Shakespeare.
• The history of Greek
literature is divided into
three periods: Pre-Homeric
Age and Homeric Age,
Athenian Period and the
Period of Decline.
• The Greeks made their
gods in their own image.
• Greek artists and poets
realized how splendid a
man could be, straight
and swift and strong.
• Man was the fulfillment
of their search for
beauty.
• The Greeks had no wish
to create some fantasy
shaped in their own minds.
• Between deities and humans
there were many differences.
• The first was that the deities
never suffered from old age or
death.
• The deities was based not so
much on their goodness as on the
feeling of deep respect for their
incorruptible beauty and
unfailing strength.
• The Greeks asked their deities
for help in routine prayers and
they asked advice and counsel
through omens.
• The Greeks had shrines, called
oracles, where the priests and
priestesses interpreted the
words of the deities to the
people who came to pray for
help.
• To the Greeks, prayers
followed a formula.
• A prayer generally had 3
parts: the Invocation, the
Sanction and the Entreaty.
• Invocation - the deity was
invoked and addressed with
titles in the most respectful
way
• Sanction – asserts the
credentials and services to
the deity that make the one
praying worthy of the favor
of the deity.
• Entreaty – the deity is asked
to do something or to grant
something, an urgent need of
the one praying.
• Four Cardinal Virtues:
Courage, Temperance,
Justice and Wisdom.
• These 4 virtues
represented the 4 aspects
of the human being –
physical, moral, aesthetic
and intellectual.
Qualities of Greek
Literature
1. Permanence and
Universality
• It is read and admired by
all nations of the world
regardless of race, religion
or culture.
2. Essentially Full of Artistry
• Greek art is the highest form of
classic art.
• The Greek mind became the
foundation of the literature of the
Western world and its
masterpieces afford the most
splendid examples of artistic
beauty and excellence that the
world has ever known.
3. Originality
• The Greek mind had the
supreme power of modifying
and improving all that it
touched.
4. Diversity of Talent
• It was fond of diversity of
application.
• The Greek mind never rested
complacently on any subject;
it was ever searching, ever
seeking.
5. Intellectual Quality
• The Greek mind challenges
one to think for some
purpose – to bring about
some inner transformation.
Homer and His
Writings
Homer: The Epic
Iliad
• The dominant figure of the
early age was Homer
• Homeric scholars think that
homer lived and worked in
about 760 B.C. and later
• He was called the blind poet
of Greece and was also known
as “the Poet”
The Homeric
Age
• Greek mythology begins
with Homer, generally
believed to be not
earlier than a thousand
years before Christ.
• The Iliad is the oldest
Greek literature and is
written by Homer.
Homer & his Writings
•760 B.C.
•The Iliad and The
Odyssey
• In Homer’s time, the Greeks
possessed an elaborate oral
tradition.
• Successive generations of
professionally trained poets,
called rhapsodes, learned,
taught, and performed a
wealth of literary material
orally.
• A rhapsode chanted his
entertainment to the
accompaniment of his
lyre.
• Rhapsodes served a far
more important purpose as
well.
• In a culture that had no
code of ethics or body of
laws, their tales presented
standards and goals for
living one’s daily life.
Principal Goals
• Honor
• Glory
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Prime Values
Courage
Strength
Skill
Intelligence
Loyalty
Respect for all forms of
life
• Moral responsibility
• Hospitality
•Performing The Iliad
must have taken between
six and ten three-hour
sessions and, therefore,
was a form of would
continue for a three – to
four-day period.
Conventions of the
Homeric Epics
Recognizable Characteristics of the Epic
Genre
In Medias Res
• A Latin term meaning “into the
midst of things”
• The epic plunges us into the
middle of the action.
Flashbacks
• Are used to inform the
audience of events that took
place before the narratives
current time setting.
Stock Epithets
• A descriptive adjective or phrase
that is repeatedly used with – or in
place of – a noun or proper name.
• “Andromache of the ivory-white
arms”
• “the pale-gold goddess Aphrodite”
The Homeric
Hero
•The Homeric Hero –
The Greek nobility in the
Mycenaean Age valued
strength & skill, courage &
determination.
• The Homeric hero’s goal is
to achieve the greatest
glory in order to earn the
highest honor from his
peers, his commander, and
from his warrior society.
• In addition, he also knows
that his ultimate fate is
death.
• How well the Homeric hero
fights, how heroic his
adversary is, and how well he
faces death all combine to
determine how well he will be
remembered and honored.
•Given that suffering & death
are inevitable part of the
human condition, honor, glory,
and lasting fame compensate
the Homeric hero for his
mortality.
• The highest and most honored prize is
called the prize of honor, and in the
Iliad this prize is the most attractive,
intelligent, and skilled female captive.
• Fame is the ultimate honor, for it is
the only form of immortality that any
mortal can acquire.
• Lasting fame places the Homeric hero
lower than the gods but higher than
ordinary men.
• Public approval is crucial to the
Homeric hero’s self – esteem.
• Thus the greatest insult one can
confer upon the Homeric hero is to
withhold the honor he has earned.
• The Homeric hero feels dishonored if
he does not receive enough wealth or
appropriately impressive prizes for
his contributions in battle, or he is
judged the loser in a competition he
thinks he deserve to win.
• Ultimately, every Greek warrior must
choose between dying as a hero and
dying an obscure or disgraceful
death.
• Sometimes he must choose between
his loyalty and responsibility to the
individuals he loves most and the
loyalty and responsibility he owes to
the larger community.
• The Homeric hero feels
the presence or absence of
gods.
• He often attributes all of
his success on the
battlefield to them or
blames them for his
failures.
•However, he accepts the fact
that the gods cannot prevent
his death when it is his time
(fate) to die.
•Either way, the Homeric hero
brought his fate, which was
often death upon himself.
The Genealogy of the
Greek Gods &
Goddesses
Titans and Olympians
Principal Gods
• The First Generation
• Gaea
• Uranus
Second Generation of Gods
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Briares
Hecatonchieres
Cyclops
Titans
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Cronus
Rhea
Hyperion
Themis
Iapetus
Atlas
Epimetheus
Prometheus
Coeus
Phoebe
Ocean
Tethys
Mnemosyne
The Third Generation
The Olympians
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Zeus
Poseidon
Hades
Hera
Demeter
Hestia
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Apollo
Artemis
Athena
Aphrodite
Ares
Hephaestus
Hermes
Dionysus
Uranus = Gaea
(Heaven) (Earth)
Cronus = Rhea
Hestia
Pluto
Hera =
Zeus
Zeus
Hephaestus
(Hera’s son
alone)
Ares &
Hebe
Demeter =
Zeus
Athena
Coeus = Phoebe
Ocean = Tethys
Leto =
Zeus
Iapetus
Poseidon
persephone
Apollo &
Artemis
Prometheus
Atlas
Epimetheus
Maia =
Zeus
Dione =
Zeus
Hermes
Aprhodite
Homeric Gods
Characteristics and Roles
Role of the Greek Gods
• The Homeric gods are ageless
& immortal, can possess great
knowledge of the future, and
are influenced by the pleas of
one another & prayer of
mortals.
• They do not give nor have
any moral codes.
• They are not all-powerful;
thus, mortals can be
dignified, morally
responsible, and important.
• The Greeks believed that their
gods and goddesses played an
active role in the affairs of
human beings.
• Although people are the actual
combatants of the war, the gods
take sides in the conflict and
have a profound effect on its
outcome.
• The Homeric gods are not all powerful.
• However, the gods may participate in
their lives by giving advice, by supplying
thoughts and ideas, strength, skill,
courage and determination, by causing
weapons to hit or miss their mark.
• They may appear as their divine selves
or they may disguise themselves,
depending on the purpose they have in
mind.
• The Homeric gods clearly have their
favorites among mortals and make an
effort to help them.
• However, a mortal must earn divine
esteem and goodwill by the way he
treats both the gods and other mortals.
• Their help enhances the heroic stature
of those warriors who receive it.
• The Homeric gods do not change a
mortals personality or fate.
The Iliad
• A long narrative poem which tells the
tales of partly human, partly
superhuman heroes who embody the
highest values of a society and carry
a culture’s history, values and
traditions.
The Principal Characters
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The Greeks
Achilles
Agamemnon
Menelaus
Helen
Nestor
Patroclus
Ajax
Odysseus
Calchas
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The Trojans
Priam
Hector
Andromache
Astyanax
Paris
Deiphobus
Cassandra
Aeneas
Pandarus
Briseis
Chryseis
Prologue
Before the war…
The Birth of Paris
• When Queen Hecuba was about to
give birth, she dreamed that instead
of a baby, she gave birth to a flaming
torch crawling with snakes.
• The prophets told her the baby will
cause the destruction of Troy.
• The baby was left in the wild to die of
starvation but was saved and raised
by a shepherd couple.
• Many years later, the young man
went to the funeral games
commemorating Paris’ death and
won all the contests.
• Priam’s daughter, Cassandra
announced that this young man was
the son they thought had died.
Judgment of Paris
• It started at the wedding of sea
goddess Thetis and King Peleus
• All the gods and goddesses were
invited except Eris.
• Eris threw a golden apple.
• The goddesses Hera, Athena, and
Aphrodite were chosen for the honor
of the apple.
• Zeus was asked to be
the judge.
• Paris was chosen as
substitute for Zeus.
• Bribes were presented
to Paris.
The Marriage of Helen
• The greatest kings of Greece wanted
Helen as their wife.
• Odysseus made a bargain with King
Tyndareus.
• All suitors swore an oath before
Helen’s husband was chosen.
Paris and Helen
• Paris went to Sparta as a guest to
claim Helen.
• He broke the sacred bond between
guest and owner.
• Paris and Helen sailed for Troy after
9 days.
Preparation for War
• 2 Greek nobles missing before the
war: Odysseus and Achilles.
• Odysseus pretended to be insane by
harnessing an ox and horse and sowed
salt instead of grain.
• Achilles was dressed as a girl living in
the household of a king who was
Thetis’ friend.
Guide Questions:
• Who are the mortals in Iliad and
what are their roles in the
Trojan War?
• Identify the gods and goddesses
in the Trojan War, the sides
they took and their reasons for
taking that particular side.
• Characterize the heroes in the
war. What are their similarities
and differences?
• How did the heroes embody the
characteristics of the Homeric
Hero? Justify your by citing
examples of their actions during
the war.
Sources:
Hamilton, Edith.Mythology.USA: Warner Books,
Inc. pp.14-36,185-200
Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology.USA. Pp.411,
Serrano, Josephine B.English Communication Arts
and Skills IV. Philippines: SIBS Publishing House.
Pp2-9
Enjoy Greek
Mythology!
The End