Transcript Basic Review

Greek Mythology
Gods and Goddesses of Greece
Home of the Gods
• The most powerful gods and goddesses
lived on top of a mountain in Greece called
Mount Olympus.
• This is the
highest
mountain in
Greece.
Personality of the Gods
• They looked and acted like humans but
had the power of gods.
• They were more powerful and more
beautiful than humans.
• They had human feelings such as love,
anger, and jealousy.
• They got married, had children, fought with
each other, and even got jealous of
humans sometimes.
Why do we call it mythology?
• A myth is a story that is made to answer some of
the biggest questions people ask but cannot
answer.
• Who are we? Where do we come from? Why do
these things happen to us?
• In ancient times, myths sometimes explained
things that we now know through science, such
as why seasons change or why planets move
the way they do.
• The Greeks used these gods and their stories to
explain why things happened to them long ago
before they had modern science.
Tell us about the
gods
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12 Major Gods of Mount
Olympus
Zeus—highest god (king) of Olympians
Hera—Zeus’s wife & queen
Poseidon—god of the sea
Hades—god of the underworld
Apollo –god of light and truth
Hermes—messenger god
Ares—god of war
Hephaestus—god of fire
Artemis—goddess of hunting
Athena—goddess of wisdom
Aphrodite—goddess of beauty and love
Hestia—goddess of the home
Demeter—goddess of corn & harvest
Dionysus—goddess of wine
The Epic
And how The Odyssey ties into
the Epic…
Origin of an epic
• Stories about great heroes were told through
song.
• Later, these songs were written down and were
called ______. Once these ________ were
written down people began to add supernatural
elements, which turned them into _______.
• Legends and myths were presented in the form of
_________ or _______ and they were episodic.
• These episodic legends and myths became known
as an epic.
Elements of an Epic
• A ______ impressive hero of national or hystoric
importance (_________ _________)
• A vast _____ involving much of the know n physical world
and sometime the land of the _______ as well
• Action such as a _______ or ______ taken in search of
something of _______
• Evidence of ____________ _________ at work
• _______________ of the hero at the end
• Rooted in a specific culture and society
• Summons of the ________
• Hero is _________
• Epic descent into the_________
Examples of the Epic:
• The Odyssey by Homer (lucky you, we will be reading
this one)
• The Iliad by Homer (happens before The Odyssey,
about the Trojan War, you will read this next year)
• The Aeneid by Virgil (a very good version of Homer’s
Iliad, copyright laws do not exist in these days, you will
also read this next year)
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (you will read
Book 1, The Inferno, of this trilogy next year)
• Beowulf told by Bards of the ancient days (Senior
year)
• Paradise Lost by John Milton (Senior year again)
Epic Conventions
• Dues ex machine- “____ the machine”; this is
usually used in Greek plays when the main
character gets into trouble and the reader thinks
that he will not get out a god or goddess steps in
and the hero gets out of trouble.
• _________ guardian- there to keep the hero from
accomplishing his goal; the hero must get past the
threshold guardian in order to move.
• Epic descent- Part of the narrative structure in an
epic; the hero must make a descent to the
underworld.
Epic Conventions continued…
• Nostos- myth of eternal ______; the hero
will begin at _____ and will end up at home;
this is in most epics because they are circular
in nature
• In medias res- “in the______ of things”; the
story begins in the middle
The Odyssey
An epic poem written by Homer
Homer
• Homer was a blind poet who wrote The
Odyssey after it had been passed down
from Greek singers.
The Epic Poem
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“Epic” means VERY long, so an epic poem is a
long poem with 5 characteristics.
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Long narrative (story)
Heroic people whose actions determine the fate of a
group
A long journey with many challenges
A large setting (many different places)
Gods and other non-human beings are active in the
lives of humans
5 Traits of an Epic Hero
• Hero is of great size (physically and
socially)
• Hero has super-human courage and
strength
• Hero faces supernatural forces
• Hero has characteristics valued by his
culture
• Hero has flaws
The Epic Hero
• An epic hero is a “super-human”
person from history or legend
who goes on a journey and
faces many challenges.
• Even though the hero does many
good things, he still has flaws—things
that get him into trouble.
Odysseus: The Epic Hero
• Odysseus is the name
of the epic hero in
the Odyssey.
• Odysseus is brave, and
he is a good leader.
• Odysseus faces many
challenges coming home
from the Trojan War.
Odysseus’s Journey
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The 10 year Trojan War has ended.
When Odysseus gets back on his ship,
he yells out that he defeated the Trojans
on his own without the help of the gods.
He then says that he does not need the
help of the gods to get back home to
Ithaca.
• This makes Poseidon, god of the ocean,
mad. Poseidon makes sure that
Odysseus’s journey back home is very
hard to show him that he does need
help from the gods.
• Because Poseidon makes his journey so hard, it takes Odysseus
10 years to get home to Ithaca.
• What is one of Odysseus’s flaws?