Transcript Stories from Greek mythology

Stories from Greek mythology
Orpheus and Eurydice
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Lovers
Wedding
Snake bite
Music calms the savage beast – play music for
CERBERUS
• Look back too soon
Narcissus
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Good looking youth
Falls in love with his own reflection
Starves to death gazing at it in the water
Is now a flower that he turned into when he
died
• Narcissistic
Hercules
• Hera made him go mad and kill his family
• 12 labors as penance
– Slay the Nimean Lion
– Slay the 9-headed Hydra – cut off one head, one
grows back
– Capture the golden hind of Artemis
– Capture the Erymanthian Boar
– Clean the AUGEAN stables in a single day
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The Stymphalian Birds
The Cretan Bull
The Horse of Diomedes
The belt of Hippolyte
Greyon’s Cattle
The Apples of Hesperides
Cerberus
Prometheus
• The titan who helped out the Gods is
punished for giving fire to mankind
• Epimetheus is given the task of making all the
creatures of the earth
• He creates all animals first and gives all the
defensive weapons – claws, fangs, fir, to them
so there is none left for humans
• Prometheus steal fire from Zeus for humans
Punishment
• Zeus to punish Prometheus has him tied to a
rock and has Prometheus’ liver eaten out
every day by an eagle and the liver grows back
over night.
• To punish man – Zeus creates woman and
gives the first woman Pandora to Epimetheus
Pandora
• When Zeus sends Pandora to Epimetheus he
has fills a box with all the horrible things in the
world, sickness, hate, death, evil in every
form, plague, blight, pestilence, but before he
sends the box, Hestia puts in one last thing –
HOPE
• Zeus tells Epimetheus not to let Pandora near
the box for she will open it
Pandora’s box
• Epimetheus doesn’t listen
• He leaves Pandora alone, she gets curious, in
some myths she is tempted by others to open
the box, in some myths it is her own idea.
• She opens the box and all is released – but the
last thing that comes out is HOPE
The Trojan War
• Most important war for understanding the
Odyssey
• Look for the elements of an epic within the
story
EPIC POETRY
• ELEMENTS
– A hero that is nearly infallible
– Divine intervention
– A quest
– A great event
– Sustained formality in the writing style
– Reflects the values of society
– Can be passed down orally before written down
Pathos
• Like most stories of heroes in the Greek
culture – The Odyssey and The story of the
trojan war were communications meant to
embody the idea of PATHOS – the experience
of living through or feeling for someone who
goes through virtuous suffering and struggle.
The Trojan War the beginning
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Paris – Prince of Troy
Steals Helen - wife of Menelaus
Greeks go to get Helen back
War rages for ten years outside the walls of Troy
Achilles versus Hector
Trojan Horse – Greeks win, Trojans flee or are
slaughtered (more slaughtering than fleeing)
• Aeneas – young Trojan flees and founds Rome
Paris – makes a wrong choice
• Wedding huge everyone is invited except the
goddess of discord – Eris
• Throws a golden apple into the wedding feast
• It says “To The Fairest”
• Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera fight over it
• Zeus will not intervene so he chooses a mortal
Paris – a prince of Troy to do it for him
Three offers
• Athena offers Paris rule over the Trojan
enemies – Greece
• Hera offers Paris rule over the world
• Aphrodite offers Paris the most beautiful
woman in the world
• Paris chooses the most beautiful woman –
Helen who is married to the king of Sparta –
the greatest and most fearsome land of
warriors - Menelaus
History of Helen
• Helen was so beautiful her father went against
tradition when it was time for her to marry
• He let her choose
• Her worry was whoever she chose would be
killed by the others
• A pact was made that her marriage would always
be protected
• She married Menelaus
• Other important suitors were Achilles,
Agamemnon, Odysseus (Ulysses)
The Face that Launched a Thousand
Ships
• After Helen was taken the pact was made
good on
• All the warriors of Greece were called upon to
attack Troy and get her back
• 1,000 Greek ships sailed for Troy
Odysseus tries to get out of it
• Odysseus – the king of Ithaca – tried to get out
of going to war
• He disguised himself as a beggar (watch he
will do this again)
• Athena revealed his disguise
• He was happy with his wife Penelope and his
son Telemachus
Achilles follows suit
• Achilles – the greatest Greek warrior because
of his mother’s help
• Achilles’ mother, Thetis, dipped him in the
river Styx so he would be invincible.
• She had to hold onto his ankles though
• Achilles disguises himself as a woman – he is
also found out and arrives on the shores
outside Troy with his army – The Myrmidons
Angering the gods
• The gods and goddesses were highly involved in the
war
• Athena loved the Greeks and she helped them
• The Greeks ruined Apollo’s temple and he sent firey
arrows full of sickness into their camp
• Athena helped Diomedes and Ares helped the Trojans
against her
• Warriors saw the face of the god of the war in
Agamemnon and Ajax, etc…
• The gods and goddesses were on the battlefield during
the war
Achilles versus Hector
• Achilles got into an argument with
Agamemnon
• Refused to fight
• His nephew Patroclus stole Achilles’ armor
and wore it into battle
• Hector thinking it was Achilles – slew him
Achilles’ revenge
• Achilles battled Hector alone
• Achilles slew Hector and tied his body to the
back of his chariot
• He dragged the body around and around the
walls of Troy, with Hector’s father King Priam
watching, until there was almost nothing left
Gods do not like this
• The gods do not like disrespect of the dead
• They tell Paris how to kill Achilles
• Achilles is shot in the ankle by Paris and dies
War for ten years
• Poseidon liked the Greeks for they were men
of the sea so he helps end the war
• Sends a dream to Odysseus of the Trojan
Horse
• The Greeks build the horse, put men inside
and then take all their ships around an inlet
and hide
The Trojan Horse
• When the Trojans find the horse they see it as gift
from the Greeks and they think the Greeks have
left
• They move to take the horse into the city when
one of their high priests tells them it is a trap
• Poseidon sends a monster to drag the man off
the beach and pull him into the sea
• The Trojans then see that it would go against the
gods to not accept the gift
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts
• The horse is taken into the city and then the
Trojans begin to celebrate
• At night, the Greek warriors climb out of the
horse, open the gates and let the rest of the
Greeks who have snuck back into the city
• The Greeks slaughter the Trojans who are
caught unawares
Famous people who survived
• Dido – a princess of Troy who tells the story of
watching King Priam die
• Aeneas who founds Rome
• Cassandra – who knows what is going to
happen always but no one listens to her. Hear
had cursed her to always know the future but
no one would ever believe it.
• Lots of slaves also survive
Aftermath
• The Greeks loot and party and slaughter
• They never once thank the god who is
responsible – Poseidon
• Poseidon punishes the man who mostly
should have thanked him – Odysseus – by
sending Odysseus ships ten years from home
when they sail from Troy
Movie representations
• Troy with Brad Pitt – Achilles is the protagonist
of The ILLIAD – the story of the Trojan war, no
gods or goddesses in the story
• Parody – Sherman and Peabody