CLASS102 Lecture 2: Classics 102 Lecture January 13th.docx
21 Feb 2014
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End of mycenaean age: widespread destruction, evidence of siege and fire, possible causes, dorian invasion. Now discounted: invasion of sea peoples. Egyptian inscription 12th century: the dark age , aka the iron age, 1100-invention of alphabet. The iliad and the odyssey: oral tradition, homer . He didn"t write them down, memorized his works: homeric poems. Invincible immortals spawned: homer came chronologically first, not talking about beginning of the world. Theo = god; gon = birth: cosmogony. Cosmos = order, arrangement: principal themes: Hymn to zeus (greatest of olympian deities) Zeus doesn"t come to power until several generations down the road. In the beginning : first things first, calls upon the muses first, they"re the daughters of memory, would call on them to make sure he remembers his poem, according to hesiod"s theogony. Chaos = chasm, gap, yawning void , yawn derived from this word: erebus, tartarus, and night. Gaia (gaea, ge) = earth: tartarus = deep within gaia (not hades)
