Transcript Greek and Roman Mythology

Greek and Roman Mythology
Creation of Mankind
Different origins of mankind
in mythology
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In Homer's version of creation of humans,
the god Prometheus formed the first man,
out of mud and breathes life into him with the help of
Athena.
In Hesiod’s account, Zeus
created succeeding races of
men gold, silver, bronze and
iron.
Hesiod’s version- five ages of mankind
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The golden race
The silver race
The brass race
The heroic race (godlike heroes)
The iron race
Homer’s version of creating man
Prometheus and Epimetheus were spared
imprisonment in Tartarus because they had not
fought with their fellow Titans during the war with
the Olympians. They were given the task of
creating man. Prometheus shaped man out of mud,
and Athena breathed life into his clay figure.
Prometheus’ good deeds for mankind
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1. Fashioning humans in a nobler shape than the
animals, upright like gods
2. Bringing down fire from heaven to mankind
3. Teaching humans to trick Zeus while picking
the parts of animals as sacrifice for gods
Prometheus stealing fire from the gods
Zeus’ revenge on mankind-Pandora
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Zeus called Hephaestus, the god of fire and a
master blacksmith, and ordered him to shape a
mortal being out of clay. When the figure was
finished and brought to him, Zeus breathed life
into it and called it woman. Then, Zeus assembled
all the gods and asked them to give gifts to this
woman-creature. They named her Pandora, which
means the gift of all.
Pandora- “the gift of all”
Zeus’ revenge on mankind-Pandora
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Then Hermes handed her a box with the
instruction never, ever to open the box. The gods
sent their creation down to Epimetheus, the foolish
brother of Prometheus. The box teased Pandora's
mind unbearably. Curiosity overcame her; she
simply had to open the box. But as soon as she
lifted the lid, misfortunes began to fly out.
Pandora’s box
•“Remorse
of Pandora”
The only thing remained in Pandora’s boxhope
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Now that the lid was open,
they all quickly flew out.
Sorrow, hunger, anger, disease,
madness, and a hundred other
horrible conditions filled Pandora’s room and, like smoke, they
escaped out into the world to plague mankind for the rest of time.
As the evils swarmed around her, Pandora became frightened. As
quickly as she could, she slammed shut the lid of the box, but
Pandora realized that it was too late to regret not having obeyed the
gods. Their revenge was final. However, Pandora noticed that one
spirit still remained in her box. This was the spirit of hope.