CLAS 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Maenad, Odysseus, Nekyia

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLAS 2000
• Professor: John Walsh

Document Summary

Zeus"s abduction of europa - in the form of a white bull in phoenicia, they lived in. Crete, there she gave birth to the minotaur. Cadmus takes a wife, harmonia (the daughter of ares and aphrodite) he has a number of daughters with harmonia (one named semele - who attracts. Zeus visits her in disguise (of a mortal man) and carries on an affair with semele. Hera finds out and visits her in disguise - she plants a seed of doubt in semele"s mind (that her lover is hiding his true form) Semele tricks zeus into showing her his real form. The greek"s believed for a mortal to look at zeus in his true form would be destructive. When she sees him she bursts into flames. As she burns, zeus sees that she is pregnant he reaches inside her and grabs the child, then sews him into his own leg and gestates him.