The Nature of Myth:
- Maurizio, Chapter 1
- Key Names & Terms:
- terms: legends, folktales, mythological corpus
- Archaic Age: Homer (Iliad, Odyssey), Homeric Hymns, Hesiod Theogony, Works & Days
- Classical Age: Tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), Herodotus, Plato, Palaephatus
- Hellenistic Age & Roman Period: Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica), Plutarch, Ovid, Virgil, Catullus
Creation:
- Maurizio, Chapter 2
- Key Names & Terms:
- authors & Works: Hesiod, The Theogony, The Works & Days; Homer
- places: Mycenae, Ascra, Olympia
- terms: panhellenism, cult title
- Names: Chasm, Earth, Tartarus, Eros, Heaven, Kronos, Titans, sickle, Aphrodite, Tethys, Zeus
- Hebrew selection: God, Eden, Adam, Eve, serpent
- Leonard & McClure (check back later):
- Key Names and terms:
- Norse: Muspell, Black Surt, Niflheim, Ginnungagap, Ymir, Audumla, Odin, Vili, Ve, Ask, ash, Embla, elm
- Mayan: Sovereign Plumed Serpent, Hurricane/Thunder Gods, midwife Xmucane, order of creation: animals, mud humans, wood humans, corn & water humans
- Vietnamese: Golden Crow (the Sun), Au Co, Dragon Lord, Dragon Prince/Lac Dragon, River, Meadow, 36th Heaven
- Hindu: Puranas, Maitreya, Parasara, Brahma, Narayan, Kalpa, Prithivi (earth), boar
Zeus & Hera; floods:
- Maurizio, Chapter 3
- Key Names & Terms:
- Zeus: Cronus, Rhea, Athena, Hera, thunderbolt, eagle, Zeus Meilichius, Sarpedon
- Hera: Cronus, Rhea, Hephaestus, peacock, cow-eyed, Argeia
- terms: cult
- Greek passage: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Prometheus, Hephaestus, Io, Oceanids
- Greek flood: Zeus, Deucalion, Pyrrha, chest, humans immoral, rocks (laas) = laoi (Gk for people)
- Near Eastern flood stories: Epic of Gilgamesh, Ea, Gilgamesh, boat, flood=too many/too noisy
- Hebrew: God, Noah, Ark, animals, covenant, flood=cleansing
- Leonard & McClure:
- Key Names and terms:
- Mayan: Sovereign Plumed Serpent, Hurricane/Thunder Gods, wood humans (didn't praise, 'evil')
- Norse: Ymir (evil), Odin, Vili, Ve, boat (2 frost giants), Asgard, Midgard
Possible Essay Questions:
Use only the primary material (i.e. the actual stories) in Maurizio's Classical Mythology in Context and in Leonard & McClure's Myth & Knowing and the pdf in Moodle for the missing lines from Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound that we have covered in this unit.
- Creation:
- Source material: Hebrew (Maurizio, ch 2), Norse (L & M, ch 2), Greek (Maurizio, ch 2)
- Prompt: Compare/contrast the creation of day/night, light/darkness, and sun/moon in the Hebrew, Norse, and Greek myths (see "source material" for which myths to use).
- Deities & Humans:
- Source material: Greek: Maurizio, pp 66-68 (ll. 417–499), 103–104, & 118–125 and the pdf in Moodle; Vietnamese: Leonard & McClure, pp 151–154; Hebrew: Maurizio, pp 90–94 and 137–141
- Prompt: Compare/contrast how Zeus & Prometheus, Au Co & the Dragon Prince, and Hurricane & the Sovereign Plumed Serpent relate to, or treat, humans.
