CLAS 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Greek Mythology, Pederasty, Common Era
12 Jul 2016
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Ce=ad: common era/ anno domini (year of our. Myths often contain difficult subject matter, such as rape, alcohol abuse, murder etc. Although there is no single definition of myth (those who study mythology always argue regarding this), however for our purposes: Muthos (greek word) for myth: means tale, story. Logos (greek word): rational account, verifiable account of what happened (as op- posed to beautiful story) The greeks didn"t have a word for what we would define as mythology. There was no concept of religious sin attached to sexual practice. They had a different social and cultural understanding of sex, they didn"t have classifications like we do now (straight, gay, queer, etc) Homosexuality was socially accepted, if it followed certain social customs. Examples of what would be deemed unacceptable: effeminacy ( unmanly behav- iour), having a male lover without having a wife (lack of procreation). In our society this is wrong, but with greeks it was accepted.
