Myth Sp
2009 ch 5
Myths of
Creation: Mortals
Prometheus
–most common origin
Titan who helped
Zeus in battle
quam
satus Iapeto, mixtam pluvialibus undis,
finxit
in effigiem moderantum
cuncta deorum,
pronaque
cum spectent animalia
cetera terram,
os
homini sublime dedit
caelumque videre
iussit
et erectos ad sidera
tollere vultus:
sic,
modo quae fuerat
rudis et sine imagine, tellus
induit ignotas hominum conversa figuras.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.82-88)
Prometheus
Protector
of Mortals
“forelearner”
--he is cleverness
brother is
Epimetheus “hind-sight”
A trickster god
(Hermes, Enki, Loki)
delights
in pestering Zeus
Zeus is very
fearful of an overthrow
Prometheus at Mecone:
in Theogony
etiology
of sacrifice to gods
Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus Prometheus Bound (430BC)
READ
Pandora
(from Hesiod)
For
theft of Fire, Zeus creates woman
Hephaestus
the form of a
GODDESS
gifts from
all the gods:
Athena (weaving)
Aphrodite (desire, heartbreak, love)
Hermes (thievish morals, soul of a bitch, lies)
Gives it to Epimetheus
–who *accepts*
Pandora (“all-gifted”) opens the
jar (??)
and all
evils fly out, except for hope
Etiological:
origin of evil, suffering,
women, marriage
Golden age lost
–like many other tales
(like Genesis)
Ancient Misogyny:
often
primitive/ritualistic (like Miasma)
with
Greeks it seems directly tied to monogamy
Pandora and Eve?
Cf. Genesis
2:3–3:24
Hesiod and the
Five Races
in the Works and Days
Race of Gold under good King Cronus
The earth yielded everything
to all
Under the earth—wander as
protective spirits
Silver
100 year-baby
violent
to each other
do
not honor gods
Zeus buried
them—subterranean spirits
Bronze—a terrible race
bloody
and war-like, bronze weapons—plunder
have
died, and are in Hades
Heroes—braver and juster--god-like
Cadmus, Oedipus, Trojan
warriors
most
died, but some have been taken away
to
a blessed Isle (cf. Arthur)
Cronus
rules
Iron
Fight ourselves
the
goods hassle us
Hesiod inherited
this image from the
EAST:
Reinterpreted by
Vergil in his Fourth Eclogue
the golden
age has returned!
NOVUM ordo saeclorum
The
Universal
Flood
Noah is saved
because of his
righteousness
Mesopotamia: a
River culture
Sumerian: 3000BC
Enki
warns Ziusudra
Akkadian
(1700BC) : Atrahasis
Enlil
cannot get any sleep!
Other gods approval—plague,
drought, famine
Ea (=Enki) tells Atrahasis to build a boat
Many
Eastern
versions of this story; no archaeological evidence of a cultural break
in
Mesopotamia
Classical
versions
Does not show up in surviving Greek
texts
Ovid –but surely based on
earlier versions
Zeus visits earth
: wickedness
exemplified
by Lycaon
Deucalion (Prometheus' son) and Pyrrha
Go to the shrine of Themis
Son: Hellen
eponymous ancestor
Cf. the
account
in Genesis, of Noah’s
Flood
