CLA204: Midterm Notes
1) Pandora
Hesoid, Works and Days (42-104)
first woman given to the human race by the gods
o Hermes gave her the mind of a trickster, Ares gave her the ability to
lie
o Aphrodite gave her beauty
o good on outside, bad on inside similar to story of Mecone sacrifice
offered to Euripedes by Zeus and he accepts human race is stuck with
women
Pandora’s box: contains all the bad things in the world
2) Metis (94, 100, 116, 151)
first wife of Zeus
wisest among gods and men
Metis was pregnant with Athena when Zeus learned from Uranus and Gaea
that his wife’s next child, after Athena, would depose him
swallowed by Zeus when pregnant with Athena
Metis’ cleverness became a part of his own being
3) Nietzsche (298-299, 684)
German classicist/philosopher
Dionysus played a prominent role in his writings
The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music Nietzsche sharply criticized
the prevailing view of Greek art and civilization
his analysis of the Greek origin of tragedy led to the view that the creative
spirit of the Greeks was Dionysus
4) Golden Age (32, 96, 134, 142)
The Classical Period (golden age)
o epicenter is Athens
o the most influential thinkers, artists and politicians worked during the
classical period
Hesiod, Theogony
Ovid/Hesiod’s Golden Age
o men were almost like gods
o lived in a state of bliss without having to work
o food magically grew from the ground
o no aging
5) Erinyes (83, 89, 177, 306, 434, 596)
Hesiod ,Theogony
when Cronus cut off the genitals of Uranus, the blood from the wound gave
birth to Erinyes
ferocious female spirits who haunt anyone who sheds kindred blood
furies
follow Orestes after he murdered his mother Clytemnestra 6) Autochthony (415, 706)
Ovid, Ars amatoria
refers to the concept of things being born out of the ground spontaneously
implies connection to goddess Gaia
no genetic determinism
if you are born from the ground you have a strong connection to that place
and the other people from that place (leads to certain amount of xenophobia)
Cecrops
7) Ovid
aristocrat whose father wanted him to be a politician
was provided with a superb education and was therefore exposed to a great
number of myths which he used to inform the Metamorphoses and his other
works
saw something prejudicial against Augustus and was banished to the edge of
the Roman empire for it; he died there 8/9 years later
over 250 myths in the Metamorphoses, with most containing a
transformation (could be either central to the story or incidental) offers
etiologies to a number of natural and cultural phenomena
8) Orphism (323)
Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus
Vergil, Georgics
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