Classics 170 Greek and Roman Mythology Professor Hugh Lee

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Classics 170 Greek and Roman Mythology
Professor Hugh Lee

• Your first written assignment for discussion is
  on the syllabus, p. 5. It is due this
  Thursday/Friday.
  
• You must learn how to use WebCT.
• Go to http//www.courses.umd.edu/
• Click Student Resources.
• Follow the instructions.
• Get help at 5-1500(M-F 8-6) or e-mail Ulysses
  (see syllabus p. 1).
  
• Please note in your Classical Myth book
• The chart of Greek and Roman gods. p. 681
• Chronological chart, pp. 682-3

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Rooms for discussion sections.

• 0101 F 1 MMH 3418
• 0102 Th 11 JMZ 2207
• 0103 Th 11 ARM 0105
• 0104 Th 12 JMZ 0118
• 0105 Th 1 JMZ 0118
• 0106 F 10 ARM 0101
• 0107 F 11 HZF 0106
• 0108 F 12 ARC 1101

• 0201 F 10 ARM 0120
• 0202 Th 10 JMZ 2207
• 0203 Th 11 ARM 0103
• 0204 F 9 MMH 0108
• 0205 Th 9 JMZ 2117
• 0206 F 12 TYD 2110
• 0207 Th 12 MTH 0303

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The Greek Creation Myth

• Myth and science try to explain the same
  phenomena the world around us.
  
• Literary source Hesiod (700 BC)

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Zeus the Olympian.Red-figure amphora, 480-470
BC.Berlin State Museum.
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St. Michael the Archangel defeats Lucifer.By
Michelangelo Unterberger 1695-1758.Nuremberg,
Germany
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Mt. Olympus in July.
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Map of Hekataios,c. 500 BC
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The Greek Creation Myth

• Hesiod (700 BC) composes two poems
• the Works and Days
• the Theogony
• theogonia birth/origin of the gods
• cosmogony birth/origin of the world/universe
• cosmos order beauty (cosmetics)universe

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• The opposite of cosmos chaos.
• Chaos two contrasting concepts
• In Hesiod yawning gap or void, chasm
• In Ovid jumble of elements which some deity puts
  into order (cosmos). Note that Ovid is
  pre-Christian.

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Creation Stage 1 (asexual)
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Creation Stage 2 (asexual)
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• Why a sexual model for Creation?
• How is life created in our experience?
• Society is agricultural.
• We are surrounded by forces which seem to have a
  will of their own.
  
• What is the mechanism in the Bible?

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Nut (Sky) and Geb (Earth). Egyptian painting,
c. 1000 BC
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Creation Stage 3 (sexual)
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Creation Stage 3 (sexual)The Succession Myth
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When do human beings appear?
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Creation of Sun, Moon, Dawn
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Helios. Red figure krater.London,British
Museum
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Herakles in Helioscup.Interior, red figure cup.
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Selene (Luna).Her lover Endymion(not shown
here)480 BCBerlinCharlottenberg
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Eos (Aurora) 480 BC. Boston, Museum of Fine
Arts.with Tithonus? CM p. 79
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Final thought Is Myth primitive science?

• Is Hesiods account of the creation scientific?
• Is it fair to compare it with science?
• Can the mythical and scientific versions coexist?