CLST 101 Lecture Notes - Gaea Trilogy, Elpis, Hephaestus
1 Feb 2013
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Document Summary
Polytheism: greeks believed in more than one god. Each major god is active in many diff. spheres. Some gods had a local associations with places e. g. athena associated with city of athens. Anything unusual or anomalous could be due to intervention of a divinity. Gods behave like human beings: e. g. human emotions, empathy, rage, can seem sometimes evil. Greeks believed that anything unexpected/unusual was because of the gods. Myths were not revealed scriptures of the truth -> different versions of the same myths. Bible, quran couldn"t be rewritten while myths could be. Gods helped humans, choosing sides with their preferred heroes in war and battles. Apollo in iliad supports the trojans, as he is the one who sends the plague on the greeks. Hesiod and homer were ones who made theogany (birth of gods) for the greeks and gave gods their names and distinguished their honours and skills and indicated their forms.
