CLASS 40 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Pessimism, Eastern Philosophy, Anthropomorphism
Classics 40 Mythology
4/9/18
●Works and days on human life
○Two kinds of eris (strife)
○“One of them favors war and fighting”
○The other is the spirit of competition
○Work and food
○Advising perses not to quarrel, engage in lawsuits
○Because he doesn’t work the land, store up surplus
○Transition to the golden age, where men don’t have to work
○Justice as Division
○“We had our inheritance all divided up, than you made off with most of it
○Playing up to those bribe eating lords who love cases like this
○Damn fools, don’t know the half from the whole, or the real goodness in mallows
and asphodel
○Zeus, by contrast, is seen as straight judging (52)
●Pandora and Epimetheus
○When the piece of irresistible bait was finished
○Zeus sends hermes to take her to epimetheus as a present
○Epimetheus didn't think on what prometheus has told not, not t o accept presents
from olympians zeus but to send any right back, in case trouble should come of it
to mortals
○No, epimetheus took it, and after he had to trouble than he thought on it
○Epimetheus = a stand in for a mortal
●Pandora and her jar
○Before pandora, no hard work, sickness, or pain
○She opens jar and scatters all miseries except hope
●Hesiod’s wisdom literature themes
○The difficulty of life
○Competition
○Works and surplus
○Straight and cooked justice division
○Gender relations
○Hope
■Is hope a good thing?
■What was it doing in the jar with monsters?
■Maybe it’s the worst monster of all
■Keeping you expecting good when only disasters await
●Five ages of mankind
○1: gold
■Lived like gods
Document Summary
One of them favors war and fighting . The other is the spirit of competition. Advising perses not to quarrel, engage in lawsuits. Because he doesn"t work the land, store up surplus. Transition to the golden age, where men don"t have to work. We had our inheritance all divided up, than you made off with most of it. Playing up to those bribe eating lords who love cases like this. Damn fools, don"t know the half from the whole, or the real goodness in mallows and asphodel. Zeus, by contrast, is seen as straight judging (52) When the piece of irresistible bait was finished. Zeus sends hermes to take her to epimetheus as a present. Epimetheus didn"t think on what prometheus has told not, not t o accept presents from olympians zeus but to send any right back, in case trouble should come of it to mortals.
