CLAS 305 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Petasos, Odysseus, Pan Flute
20 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
After a period of drought and famine, salmoneus, a king of elis, rode out from his palace in his chariot, proclaiming that he was zeus. He dragged bronze kettles behind his chariot (mock thunder) and threw torches through the streets (mock lightening). Storm clouds rolled in and he was struck dead by thunderbolt. Apparently, the king was preforming a kind of imitative weather magic (rain dance of sorts)- the rite worked and returned the fertility to the land. So perhaps the myth is a reminiscence of a ritual where the king could be sacrificed to bring back prosperity to the community. Human sacrifice, many almost human sacrifices in myths. Laphystain zeus, branch of religious cult which sacrifices humans for zeus. Prominent myths with zeus as a philandering god. Io (daughter if unachus, a river-god, and a mortal mother) is raped by zeus.
