Mythology: 8.20.08 Sometimes has archeological background, but sources are mostly literary Homer: Known to have written Iliad and Odyssey, but there is no proof he really existed or whether he really wrote both books; maybe was blind; composed orally in middle of the 8th century B.C. Hesiod: Farmer in late 8th/7th century; wrote down poems about farming and theogony Homeric Hymns: Definitely not written by Homer; there are 33 of them; written in iambic pentameter Leery Poets: Works come down to us in fragments, mostly unreadable One of the Leery Poets was Sappho, also called the Tenth Muse; from the island of Lesbos; A Hymn to Aphrodite Early 5th century: Pendar of Thebes wrote Epinician Odes, dedicated to athletes in the Olympics [one book for every one of the four major games] Golden Age of Athens: 5th century B.C.; tragedies written during this period Attic (?) Tragedians: Aechylus, wrote 7 (d. 456 B.C.) Sophocles, wrote 7 (d. 406 B.C.) Euripedies, wrote 18 (d. 306 B.C.) Comedies: ? What? Sorry, I completely missed this part [Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica); Apollodonus Pausanias: Loved to travel] (wrote this down, not sure what it means, hope someone else got it) 8.22.08 Roman Vergil: 70-19 B.C. Aeneid(I dont know what Aeneid means or what it relates to, but he said it) Ovid (43 B.C. 17 A.D.): Wrote Metamorphoses, collection of mythology involving changes in shapes or forms; later angered Emperor Augustus and was exiled to the Black Sea Horous (65-8 B.C.): Wrote poems in Latin in the forms of the Greeks; buddies with Vergil Statius, Valerius, Haccus, Argonautica Probably stuff he wrote
Apuleius: Wrote something called the Golden Ass
Sir Arthur Evans: Bought site of Knossos, started excavation and found ruins of enormous, maze-like palace; he called it the Palace of King Minos; probably from the Bronze Age Also did reconstructions of small parts of palace; found two early types of writing [Linear A and Linear B] Linear B deciphered (I think) by Bentries and Chadwick Bronze Age Knossos: Minoa, collapsed around 1450 B.C.; could have been a volcano that destroyed it, but the dates dont match up Mycanea: First site to be excavated; top of Lions Gate was visible [Schiliemann] 1184 B.C.: Traditional date of the fall of Troy 6 or Troy 7A Dark Ages: Skills and knowledge of Bronze Age lost; followed by Iron Age 8.25.08 According to Homer, Oceanus and Tethys began everything Hesiod [Theogony]: Took it back to Kaos, emptiness and void Kaos had 5 immortal deities: Eros (love), Ge (earth), Tartarus (undergorund), Arabus, Nix(night) [The rest of the notes for that day is a giant family tree, Ill need to do that part in something other than Word] 8.27.08 The 12 Titans paired off and mated with each other Tethys and Oceanus had 3000 girls and 3000 boys, who are the spirits of the 6000 rivers and streams of the world (Oceanities) Eos [dawn] was in love with a Trojan Prince, so she asked the gods to give him immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth; they were happy for a while, but when he got grey hair, she locked him in the bedroom and didnt do it with him anymore; hes pretty freakin old now Also had a son with Tethonus: Achilles Achilles, Inaes, and Mnemnon are all legendary heros who received holy armor from their mothers
Mnemnon was a handsome Ethiopian prince who led he troops to Troy; slain by Achilles Eos never got over it and still cries at dawn, which we see as dew in the morning Moving backwards to Selene (the moon), who was not passionate at all [identity sometimes merged with Artemis] Drives her two horsed chariot at night; one night, she was going over Mt. Latnus (sp?) and fell in love with a shepherd boy asleep amongst his flock; she saw his feet and noticed how beautiful he was, so she covered him with kisses and waited for him to wake up; since she covered him in moonlight, he never wakes up and is still sleeping somewhere Moving backwards even further to Helios Had a lot of daughters, the named Heliades Also had one last son named Phaethon (Told in Metamorphoses by Ovid) Phaethon was teased at school one day because his mom had like a million kids but no husband (not sure how the other little kids even know about reproduction). His mother told him to look at the Sun, and that that was his father. He arrived at the palace of Helios before dawn and found the Sun god getting ready for the days ride. Phaethon asked Helios to prove that he was his father, and Helios swore by the river Styx that he would. He asked to drive the car and Helios didnt want to, but he let him in the end. Phaethon was a crappy driver and Zeus shot him down with a lightning bolt. Mother and sisters went to where he was washed ashore and cried. The sisters cried for so long they turned into trees. The mother tried to get the roots off of them but they screamed that she was hurting them. Phaethon also had a cousin who *really* liked him, whatever that means. When Cicnus heard about what happened to Phaethon, he ran away and stayed away from anywhere that had fire. He stayed in the water for too long, and turned into a swan. When he was about to die, he flew into the sky and started singing; turned into stars Cicnus the Swan is a constellation also known as the Northern Cross 8.29.08 Signs of the Zodiac: Cant draw in Word, but theres 12 of them and each of them is in the sky for about a month Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini Mnemosyne: Loved by Zeus, became mother of 9 Muses
Cronus and Rhea had six children, who became the first generation of Olympians. Chronus was scared that his children would become stronger than him, so he at them as they were born. When Zeus was born, Rhea hid him and gave Chronus a rock to eat instead. Children were: Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hades/Pluto, Hera, and Zeus Uranus and Gaia: Gaia continued to conceive in her old age and gave birth to 3 Cyclopses (the other 3 are children of Poseidon) and 3 Hecatontyres (hundred-handed giants) Uranus didnt let Gaia give birth to the children, so she was in huge pain. She asked one of her children to punish their father, and Cronus obliged and castrated Uranus. The splash landed and Aphrodite was born from the foam. According to Hedios Homer gives Aphrodite a normal birth.
9.3.08 Argus: Hundred-eyed guardian that kept watch for Hera; lulled to sleep by Hermes with the panpipes and then slain; turned into a peacock Dianthys: Flower of Zeus Eos and Tethonys: talked about in poem he read; Tethonys getting older and older, wants to die War between Titans and Olympians [Titanomacle] One-eyed giants, Hecatoneres, sided with Olympians Prometheus (forethinker) switched sides, along with his mother Themus (justice), to fight for the Olympians Atlas forced to support the sky for all eternity after war Hesiod: Golden Age: Everything is great and wonderful Silver Age: Gods began to move away from the mortals Bronze Age: Weapons and wars began [also sailing?] [Age of Heroes: Survivors of the Trojan War live in the Blessed Isles] Iron Age: More and more horrifying weapons [what were in, apparently] 4th Mesianic [boy who would lead people back into the Golden Age] Ecklog? Im so confused here Zeus didnt want mortals to have fire, but Prometheus brought it to them anyways. Prometheus also taught mortals how to sacrifice offerings in a way that they would get the best parts and the gods would get the leftovers. Gods sent Pandora to earth with a jar. Epymetheus, Prometheus brother, asks her to marry him (after-thought). Everything bad on earth flew out of the jar and the only thing that didnt escape was hope.
*Pandoras jar is where everything bad came from. Pandoras box is her cootch* Prometheus Bound: First in a Greek trilogy written about Prometheus; shows a defiant Prometheus that takes no crap from Zeus The later two parts of the trilogy, but Prometheus and Zeus probably kissed and made up.