CLAS 1051 Midterm: Classics Midterm.docx
1 May 2015
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Myth: a traditional story, explaining some natural or social phenomenon; a story with a purpose, tries to explain the way the world is. Myths can derive from poets (homer), historians (herodotus), philosophers (plato), visual arts (vases, wall paintings, etc. ) and divine sources (gods). Mythos and logos - logo is a logical view of the world whereas mythos is a mythological view, logos is a rational analysis of stories and myths. Mythos and graphein - graphein is the writing down of myths/stories. Mythography: the study of stories/myths, appolodorus: historian and mythographer in alexandria, then onto athens. Euhemerism - a theory attributing the origin of gods to the deification (giving godlike qualities to) of historical heroes. Euhemerus - 4th century bc greek philosopher, creator of the euhemerism theory. Classical" - greek and roman; much of roman mythology (especially the gods) was borrowed from the greeks and adapted to fit their own ideals.
