Transcript Perseus 1 powerpoint

Chapter Thirteen, Lecture One
Perseus and Myths of the Argive
Plain
Argolid
Myths of the Argive Plain
• Rich Bronze Age area
– Mycenae
– Lion’s gate
– Beehive tombs
• Tiryns
Io and Her Descendants
The Wanderings of Io
The Wanderings of Io
• The river god Inachus and Melia
– Io
• Zeus’s passion and Hera’s jealousy
– Lerna
– the “cow”
– Argus
– Hermes (Argeïphontes)
The Wanderings of Io
• Ionian Sea, Byzantium, the “Bosporus,”
the Caucus Mountains, Egypt
• Epaphus “he who has been touched”
– = Isis
– boôpis
Crimes of the Danaïds
Crimes of the Danaïds
• Epaphus + Memphis
– Libya + Poseidon
• Agenor
• Belus
• Belus has two sons
– Aegyptus, who rules in Arabia,
– Danaüs, who rules in Libya
Crimes of the Danaïds
• Aegyptus has fifty sons
• Danaüs has fifty daughters
– the Danaïds
• They flee to Argos to prevent the proposed
marriages
– Danaüs now king in Argos
• The sons of Aegyptus in Argos
Crimes of the Danaïds
• “All but one”
– Hypermnestra spares Lynceus
– Their heads buried in the Lernean swamp
Springs and the Dangers of
Woman
Springs and the Dangers of
Woman
• Etiological to explain the swamps?
– Also from another, related story
• Amymonê and Poseidon
• Theme of female resentment against fixed
marriages
– Also saved Argos from foreign rule
Springs and the Dangers of
Woman
• Historical connection between Argos and
Egypt
– The historical Danuna (Sea Peoples?) or
1200 BC, and the tribe of Dan
• “Danaän used by Homer to refer to the
Argives and Achaeans (words for the
Greeks at Troy).
– Hellenes only from Thessaly
End