C C 303 Lecture 3: 1/23/17 Wkst: Approaches to Greek Myth

• School: UT-Austin
• Department: Classical Civilization
• Course: C C 303
• Professor: Todd Curtis

Document Summary

Narrative elements of the rape of persephone": demeter (ceres), goddess of grain and agriculture, had a daughter, persephone (kore, Persephone"s father was zeus (jupiter): with zeus"s permission, hades (pluto, plouton) seized persephone as she was in the fields, and hades took her to the underworld to be his wife. *c. demeter wandered the world looking for her daughter. During her wanderings, she made herself like a mortal and visited the town of eleusis. While there, she attempted to make the child (demophon) of the queen of eleusis (metaneira) immortal by nursing demophon and placing him in fire at night. She ceased from this process when metaneira cried out having seen. Might have been added to add authenticity to the myth: eventually, demeter caused a famine by refusing to let grain grow. 4 general approaches to myth (historical context, theoretical, comparative, reception) Approach would be to look at the specific context in which myth is told.