FOR 106
Myth and Meaning

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Chapter 4 Outline, Keywords and Art

Pages are keyed to Morford and Lenardon's Classical Mythology, 7th edition
You are responsible for words and names in purple.

TITANOMACHY (machkos = "battle", so "Battle against the Titans"
    Olympians (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon) join brother Zeus after they are freed from their father's belly (nedys = "belly" and "womb").

Olympians, Hecatonchires, and Cyclopes, plus Themis and son Prometheus
VERSUS
Titans and their children (including Atlas, also son of Themis)

Battle was ten years long, Zeus on Mt. Olympos, Cronos on Mt. Othrys. Titans lose, imprisoned in Tartarus, Atlas to hold up sky.

GIGANTOMACHY (Battle against the Giants). Giants also lose battle against the Olympians. Famous giants: serpent-like Typhoeus (also called Typhon or Typhaon), and Otus and Ephialtes, who try to reach Olympos (the highest mountain in Greece) by piking Mt. Ossa atop Mt. Pelion. Perhaps this photo, taken of a huge piece of rock seemingly thrown to the ground on Mt. Olympos is proof of this battle! Coming soon are photographs of the frieze of the Altar of Zeus from Pergamon (now in the museum of the same name in Berlin) which provides a graphic description of the battle between the Giants and gods.

CREATION OF MORTALS: Ovid (Met. 1.76-88) says that Prometheus molded the first man from clay into the likeness of the gods.

HESIOD'S FIVE AGES OF MAN:
Gold (created by Cronos), Silver (created by Zeus), Bronze (created by Zeus), Age of Heroes (created by Zeus), Iron (created by Zeus)...reflects deterioration of man over time...Age of Heroes is the Age of the Trojan War and pretty much all the myths we will read. The Age of Iron is Hesiod's own age, and corresponds to our "Age of Iron" for the level of fabrication of tools as well.

PROMETHEUS
Iapetus (a Titan) and Clymene (daughter of the Titan Oceanus) mate and have four sons: Menoetius, Atlas, Prometheus ("forethinker") and Epimetheus ("afterthinker").

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Prometheus' crime against Zeus: he tricked him. Prometheus slew an ox, and offered Zeus a choice between the ugly pile of brown meat (the valuable part) or the bones wrapped up in white, glistening fat (garbage). Zeus picked the fat, but the key to this story is that he KNEW he was being deceived and allowed it to happen. This foretold the wickedness of men (who would make sacrifices to the gods with this method). Prometheus then further angered Zeus by stealing fire from the gods and bringing it to man. This got Prometheus a hefty punishment: to be tied to a rock and have his (immortal) liver eaten out every day, only to grow back every night.

Atlas was punished (why?) by being made to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Pandora:

Hera, Jupiter, Io, Argus (and Mercury's tale of Pan/Syrinx):

Lycaon (photo of Mt. Lycaon coming soon)

Flood: Deucalion and Pyrrha: photo of where their boat first touched ground after the flood (Mt. Parnassos) and where the flood waters were said to have drained out in to the earth (in Athens). Here is a woodcut from an illustrated Ovid from the 17th century illustrating this myth (click to enlarge):