CLST 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Greek Mythology, Theogony
Origins of Humans
● The souls of the earlier gods given to new people
● Ovid suggests one god/goddess creates the universe and people
● It is possible that there is some influence on roman mythologies from the Hebrew Old
Testament
● Flood myths in other cultures as well
● Deucalion and Pyrrha - walk in a line and throw stones over your shoulder and you can
repopulate the earth
Hesiod’s Story
● 5 ages of men: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, Iron
● The ages are progressively worse
● Morally inferior to its predecessor, shorter lifespan, smaller proportion of youth
● Structured - different from other Greek Myths - almost like has taken a template and
placed into greek mythology
● In Indian tradition, it is a cycle - things are great then get worse and start over again
● Many Indo-European parallels
Works and Days
● Very structured
● Divided into 2 parts: Works, and Days
● Things get better under the reign of Zeus
● Works and Days contradicts the Theogony
● Sacrifice is the way that mortals communicate with the gods
The Golden Age
● Mortals are articulate - that what distinguishes them
● Created by olympians but under the reign of Cronos - contradictory bc Gods were not
born yet
● Recurring idea: better to die young than to live old
● They are vegetarians, become more than humans
● When they die they wander the earth becoming an invisible justice
● Common language
● Why didn’t the Golden Age sacrifice to the gods?
● This represents a time where gods and mortals communicate together - there was no
need to sacrifice when they could speak directly to each other.
● If they are so great why are they gone?
● Because they are a part of the reign of Cronos, they have to go away when Zeus arrives
Silver Age
● 100 years of childhood, short brutal adulthood
● Not very intelligent
● They didn’t sacrifice to the gods - zeus did not like them
● They were too busy fighting each other
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Document Summary
The souls of the earlier gods given to new people. Ovid suggests one god/goddess creates the universe and people. It is possible that there is some influence on roman mythologies from the hebrew old. Flood myths in other cultures as well. Deucalion and pyrrha - walk in a line and throw stones over your shoulder and you can repopulate the earth. 5 ages of men: gold, silver, bronze, heroic, iron. Morally inferior to its predecessor, shorter lifespan, smaller proportion of youth. Structured - different from other greek myths - almost like has taken a template and placed into greek mythology. In indian tradition, it is a cycle - things are great then get worse and start over again. Divided into 2 parts: works, and days. Things get better under the reign of zeus. Sacrifice is the way that mortals communicate with the gods. Mortals are articulate - that what distinguishes them.
