4: Mortals

Question 1

Versions of the creation of mortals

Answer 1

• Hesiod’s Theogony
  -main focus is the ‘Creation of Woman’
  -Later: the 5 ages of Man(kind)
• Ovid’s Metamorphoses has two versions
  1. Creator of Universe: makes mortals from divine seed
  2. Prometheus creates mortals from earth and water and traces of divine seed. Theomorphic (dieties in human form)

Question 2

Hesiod’s Myth of the 5 Ages

Answer 2

• In Works & Days: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, Iron

Question 3

Gold Age

Answer 3

• Hesiod’s Myth of the 5 Ages in Works & Days
• created by olympians
• time where cronus ruled
• • Gold: almost immortal, painless death. In death: “holy spirits”

Question 4

Silver Age

Answer 4

• Hesiod’s Myth of the 5 Ages in Works & Days
• created by Olympians
• childlike until 100
• prime of life is short and violent
• Silver: refused to honor gods. in death: “blessed”

Question 5

Bronze Age

Answer 5

• Hesiod’s Myth of the 5 Ages in Works & Days
• Created by Zeus from ash trees
• wagers of war (bronze weapons)
• Bronze: death by mutual annihilation and sent to Hades

Question 6

Heroes Age

Answer 6

• Hesiod’s Myth of the 5 Ages in Works & Days
• Created by Zeus
• “Godlike race of heroes”
• Death for most are sent to Hades but for a select few are sent to Islands of the Blessed

Question 7

Iron Age

Answer 7

• Hesiod’s and our own age
• Endless labor and strife
• some good mixed with much evil
• acopalyptic passage: “Zeus will destroy this race of mortals …”
• AIdos and Nemesis depart for Olympus
  -Aidos: sense of modesty/shame
  -Nemesis: sense of righteous indignation

Question 8

Hesiod’s myth of the 5 ages vs other creation stories

Answer 8

• near eastern 4 fold metallic lassification
• intrusion of “Heroes” which accounts for Legends of Trojan War
• Ovid’s Metamorphosis –> omits Age of Heroes
• In Hesiod’s 5 ages –> Inverse relationship of progress in technology and regress in morality

Question 9

Who is Prometheus

Answer 9

• in Hesiod’s Theogony
  -Son of Titan Iapetus and Oceanid Cylmene so cousin of Zeus
• Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound
  -Son of Gaia and therefore a Titan
  -or son of Themis (Titan)
• Etymologically significant name
  -Prometheus = “Forethought” and his brother Epimetheus is “Afterthought”
  -trickster figure and culture hero: gives us all the arts of civilization
  -philanthropist: benefactor of mortals, wants to take down Zeus

Question 10

Prometheus vs Zeus

Answer 10

• “For the one group in the dispute he placed flesh and the rich and fatty innards on the hide and wrapped them all up in the ox’s paunch; for the other group he arranged and set forth with devious art the white bones of the ox, wrapping them up in white fat” and offered the bones wrapped in fat to Zeus
• Zeus punishes mortals by removing fire, no direct contact with gods, and creating woman
• Prometheus steals back the fire for mortals with hollow fennel stalk

Question 11

Prometheus’ Punishment

Answer 11

• Prometheus is bound to a pillar where his liver is devoured daily by an eagle and it grows back
• Zeus allows Heracles to kill eagle and free Prometheus because Prometheus knows the answer to the prophecy of “Child greather than father to be born to a certain woman”
• The woman is Thetis (a Nereid), who’s father is Peleus (a mortal) and the child is Achilles

Question 12

Origin of Woman from Hesiod

Answer 12

from Hesiod’s Theogony and Works & Days
* Origins of woman, marriage, and suffering –> Pandora was made as a punishment for men because Prometheus stole the fire back from Zeus
* Second punishment: those who flee marriage comes to ruinous old age
* Zeus commissions gods to create ‘gift’ –> Pandora
-Hephaestus: mix earth with water and implant a human voice and make her beautiful
-Athena: teach her skills of weaving
-Aphrodite: shed grace about her head and painful longing that permeate the body
-Hermes: put in her the mind of a bitch and the character of a thief

from Works & Days
* Pandora named = “All-Gifted” or “All-Giver”: Earth mother, doblet of Gaia who is given to Epimetheus (Prometheus’ brother)
* Pandora’s Jar: “Hope alone remained within” Blessing or a curse?
-if opened evil escapes
-beautiful on the outside but evil on the inside

Question 13

How was the name Pandora’s box named?

Answer 13

• Hesiod’s Pithos: Ceramic Jar
• Greek Pyxis: Small box
• Erasmus’ mistranslates Pithos for Pyxis aka Pandora’s box

Question 14

Who wrote Prometheus Bound and what is it

Answer 14

• written by Aeschylus
• Punished for being mankind’s benefactor
• Bound by strength (Kratos) and Force (Bia)
• Hephaestus secures chains on Zeus’ orders
• Theme is that Prometheus is philanthropic and Zeus is tyrannical

Question 15

What did Aeschylus write

Answer 15

Prometheus Bound

Question 16

Story of Io vs Hera vs Zeus

Answer 16

Zeus loved Io but his wife, Priestess of Hera, transforms Io into a Cow and sends Argus Panoptes (Argus = “All-Seeing”) to guard Io. Zeus sends Hermes and lulls Argus to sleep and decapitates him. Hermes Argeïphontes = “Argus-Slayer”. Hermes sets Argus’ eyes on a peacock, etiology (cause) for peacock tail who becomes Hera’s bird. Zeus still lusts after Io so Hera torments Io with a Gadfly (Oistros) to make her in heat “in estrus” = “in heat”. Io (= Isis who is an Egyptian goddess) wanders the world and arrives in Egypt and regains human form. Zeus touches Io and she becomes pregnant with Epaphus (“He of the Touch”) = Apis (Egyptian Sacred Bull). Io is an ancestor of Heracles.

Question 17

Who did Zeus love and who interfered

Answer 17

Zeus loved Io, and Hera (Zeus’ wife) interfered

Question 18

Zeus and Lycaon

Answer 18

• from Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• Zeus disguises himself as a mortal named Jupiter/Jove to spy on mortals
• He realizes the wickedness of mortals so he reveals himself and demands workship
• Lycaon, the King of Arcadia doubts his divinity and tests him by asking Zeus to get slaves and make a human stew
• Lycaon is punished by Zeus by transforming him into a wolf (Greek Lykos = Wolf)

Question 19

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Answer 19

• Deucalion: son of Prometheus
• Pyrrha: daughther of Epimetheus
• Zeus wants to eradicate mankind so he sends a flood with the help of Poseidon
• Only D and P survive and they pray to Oracle of Themis and ask her how they can repopulate the Earth
• Goddess Themis says “Toss bones of mother over shoulders” meaning toss the stones of the earth over their shoulders and the stones will transform into humans
• Stones thrown by Deucalion turn into men and Pyrrha’s into women
• D and P have a child named Hellen who is the founder of Hellenes

Question 20

What does anthropogony mean

Answer 20

creation of mortals

Question 21

who are the parents of Prometheus and his other siblings

Answer 21

Parents: Iapetus (Titan) and Clymene (Oceanid) who had Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius