Greek Mythology (Classics)

August 7th, 2012

Lecture 2
What is Myth, History, Legend, Epic of Gilgamesh?
What is Myth? A myth is a special event/story involving a supernatural
phenomenon.
-Sacred/Divine Myth (pertains to the upper class/aristocrats)
-Legends/Fables
*What is History? Event(s) that is(are) documented, which are meant to be proven
to have existed.
*The ancient Greeks believed, for a fact, that the Trojan War happened.

Gilgamesh is an historical character (name is apart of the kinglist)

o He is because there are historical documents, which help us prove his
kingship.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is set in Ancient of Iraq, or Uruk, which is located in
Sumer.
This place is the origin of writing.
Language similar to Mongolian and Turkish. (Sumerians came from the North
and invaded the south)
****There were migrations from the West to the East as were there those
from the East to the West. Their final destination was Sumer, or Uruk.
o There are 12 different city-states/towns.
o Intense agriculture leads to developed cities, urbanized with people.
o This is due to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. (irrigation and food
surplus, and with a food surplus, cities boomed.)

o Mesopotamia = Land between two rivers.

o Egypt develops writing system called Cuneiform and begin to use

papyrus.
Moving into different areas of the world, places that are in close proximity
have people who speak languages that are similar or related
o People never realized this until the British Imperialism had begun.

Proto-Indo-European languages**
The Sumerians, where were they from?
Its very hard to tell, however, but from what we know, they most likely came from
the North as far as Mongolia.

Gilgamesh comes from the city of Uruk.

o The ancient Mesopotamians believed in their Gods
o The gods were reality and you have to praise the Gods and never
disrespect them

o The Gods were the source of good and evil, so if you wanted good
things to happen, you were to pray often; the same goes for the
opposite.
o Polytheism vs Monotheism; polytheism was very prevalent in the
third millennium BC.
o Many well-read men speculated how man was created and how man
came to look like the way they do.
They speculated why do we pray to the gods who make us
suffer?
o The Tigris and Euphrates were viewed as Gods due to their powerful
and practical applications.
o Polytheists believed the Gods were fickle (good and evil)
o Those in Egypt believed that the gods were always forgiving and
beneficent. In other words, the gods were more good than they were
evil, because their goal was to protect the people.
o Monotheistic beliefs say that God is always good and is never a source
of evil and that he is all powerful.
o Primus Inter pares **** is people of equal rank
o Enlil was the wind god.
o The next world (afterlife) was a very negative place. [dust?]
o The next world in the Egyptian river valley is the place of judgement
where paradise is.
o Specifically in Mesopotamia: There is the underworld and the
realm of the Gods (Ziggurats)
o AN The highest God
o KI - Mother Earth
o KUR The Underworld
Page 65 in Powell Text it gives the names of various Gods. (Akkadian)
Ishtar lives on earth goddess of love, fertility, and war for both
humans and animals
Sin - the moon god
Shamash the sun God and god of justice.
Enlil - God of wind, earth, fire and is chief god.
Anu God of them all
Ea - God of wisdom and waters
Ereshkigal Chief goddess of the underworld and supposed sister of
Ishtar.
There are 4 elemental gods and they produce offspring creating a
dynasty of gods; the Greeks are the products of the offspring of
generations of the elemental gods.
First maps from ancient Sumer

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Great King, son of Ninsun [mother] and of Lugulbanda
[father, supposed grandfather])
Very powerful King, despot
He has to face mortality, unfortunately, regardless of his strength.
He doesnt want to die and turn into dust forever.
Gods drink ambrosia and nectar
o They do not die
**Prima nocte taking girls before their wedding nights and having his
way with them.
**Prima inter Pares first among equals
the people begin to pray to the council of gods
the gods send a savage Enkidu
Aruru is the goddess of childbirth, who is an assistant to Ishtar (minor
goddess)
Creates Enkidu out of clay
Born with the animals
Equally as strong as Gilgamesh
Dreams are the way for the gods to send messages to the people. Its
difficult to discern between dreams and messages from the gods. Oracles
were to be utilized for this process.
Trapper fails, so he sends a harlot to Enkidu so she can calm his
animalistic desires. (7 days and nights)
After this, he is shunned/ostracized from the animals so he becomes
civilized.
Enkidu finds out that Gilgamesh continues to partake in prima nocte and
he wants to fight him as a result.
The text was fundamental to the ancient Sumerians and the Babylonians
as well as the Assyrians who followed.
It shows that man needs friends who can socialize and bond.
It shows that the gods can be evil as well as good (Enlil and Shamash)
Gilgamesh learns why and how important it is to be a good king (selfless
in nature and loved by all)
Death isnt as important as life, that is, life should be emphasized, not the
distance to death.
Collective Punishment - The entire family can be punished if one of the
members of the family terrorized another person.
The gods are extremely contentious, they turn against each other a lot of
the time
Humbaba is the guardian of the Cedar forest
Gilgamesh and Enkidu were to go to the Cedar Forest (Northern Iraq,
Eastern Turkey)
Were not certain whether Gilgamesh was involved in a colonization
efforts, however, its a myth/legend, so were not 100% certain

Gilgamesh was a successful king and powerful, who tried to rule northern
Mesopotamia
Enkidu is growing more human as time goes on
Shamash angers Enlil
Enlil tried to wipe out humanity by flooding everything
The mountains hold the key to large scale buildings (Ziggurats) made of
wood.
Only source of wood/trees from Zagrus mountains or bonus mountains in
northern Iraq, because they couldnt use palm trees, since they were a
source of food.
Resource for lumbar and raw materials, and the Tigris and Euphrates
were extremely rich with fertile land
Dreams helped let you know the future (prophesies)
Humbaba was the guardian of the Cedar forest.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu have to kill Humbaba to get the tallest Cedar tree
Humbaba represents the darkness/evil of the forest
We see changes in Gilgamesh as he evolves into a human, who is more
social
After they kill Humbaba, Enlil grows extremely furious
Now the Cedar forest is open for colonization and resource extraction
Now the people look up to Gilgamesh since he has finally helped the
people by opening the Cedar Forest
He looked like a god and as a result, the goddess of war/fertility/love
grows lustful for Gilgamesh who spurns/rejects her
You dont want to get involved with Ishtar because she can change you
into a beast/wolf/mole
Ereshkigal of the underworld is the sister of Ishtar
Ishtar grows extremely outraged because of her rejection, so she begs the
council with her father Anu to send the Bull of Heaven (represents
destruction of city), which has a 7 year famine and flood, to kill
Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Bull of Heaven is fatally wounded and it will try to hurt Gilgamesh so
Enkidu will tear the thigh of the bull.
Enkidu throws the thigh of the Bull of Heaven at the face of Ishtar. This
demonstrates a sign of hubris (pride). It seemed like a joke when it
happened.
So, as a result, one of them must die, so the gods choose Enkidu.
Ninsun, mother of Gilgamesh, protects her son.
After 2 weeks of sickness, Enkidu dies, while believing he was cursed by
the gods. (lose the will to live, which affected/accelerated the dying
process)
He realized he was cursed because he found out in a dream, which is
essentially a prophesy

Griffin (half bird half man) takes him down into the underworld [in the
dream] meaning that he will die; eventually, he dies.
Larvae all over Enkidus body when he dies, which Gilgamesh cannot
accept. He wants immortality extremely bad.
He wants to seek Utnampishtim so that he can give him advice for
immortality.
The process of doing good for the people has come to halt so that he can
get immortality.
Goes out into the desert naked, gets a weapon, kills a lion for its head and
skin.
Gilgamesh is the prototype for the Greek Heracles*** apparently
Its a rebirth in a sense, and he goes east to where the sun rises.
Beyond the sunrise, where the sun god Shamash resides, he goes to the
twin peaked mountain of Mashu where two guardians of the Mashu cave
wont let Gilgamesh pass.
The guardians have half man torsos and half scorpion tails.
After he gets out of the cave, he meets a veiled/winekeeper goddess
(minor goddess) named Siduri
Siduri gets frightened but figures that he wants help to find
Utnampishtim.
She gives him advice against looking for immortality since its not
possible for man.
He ignores and rejects the advice and begs to find Utnampishtim, so she
directs him to Urshanabi who takes him through the Sea of Death to
Utnampishtims island.
At first Urshanabi rejects taking him, but Gilgamesh begs and persuades
him to sail to the island.
Utnampishtim is the Mesopotamian Noah and his wife takes a liking to
Gilgamesh, so she protects him in a way by helping him out in his quest.
She offers him a plant of Once-Old-Now-Young-Again but as Gilgamesh
bathes in the water to clean the dirt, a serpent takes the plant and
Gilgamesh grieves.
Utnampishtim makes Urshanabi return to the land and rejects him from
his company.
We learn that humans were created by the gods to be their helpers and
sacrifices.
Smoke/burn incense for the gods as a sacrifice/gifts, which were made on
a daily basis
Enlil gets annoyed with the humans one day, so he wants to create a
wrath on the humans so he plans to flood them all.
Ea, the god of wisdom warns Utnampishtim about the flood and advises
him to create a huge boat strong enough to withstand the flood. All the
humans die except Utnampishtim and his family as well as one of each of
the animals on the planet. They repopulate the land of Mesopotamia
As a result, Utnampishtim becomes immortal.

At the same time, Gilgamesh wants to be immortal so Utnampishtim tests

Gilgamesh by telling him to stay awake for 7 days, but he fails as a result.
Utnampishtims wife offers a magic elixir that reverses aging.
Gilgamesh thinks about his city and his subjects before himself in
reversing aging, making him a great king/leader.
He loses the plant to a snake that picks it up from a nearby rock and eats
it, reversing its age, but Gilgamesh realizes that his destiny is to be a good
king and to die doing the best he can for his people.
Snakes are seen to be positive and negative, which has taken the
immortality from the people in Gilgameshs case, making it appear
negative; however, it is seen to be positive because it represents the idea
of mortality and the good things of mortality.

Greek Mythology (Classics)

August 8th, 2012
Lecture 3

English is a dramatic language

Vocabulary is normally greek and latin in origin
3.5 page summary on a very short intro to Classical Mythology for extra
credit
Greek Mythology (Classics)
August 9th, 2012
Lecture 4

Bronze Age Highlights

o Near East
Ca 3000 BCE Sumerian Civilization
o City states (Ur, Uruk, etc, Gilgamesh ca 2700?)
o Irrigation
o Writing Cuneiform
Ca 3000 BCE Egyptian Civilization
o Pyramids
o Irrigation
o Hieroglyphics
Ca 2000 BCE Babylonian Civilization
o Eastern Empire
o Advanced laws (Hammurabi 1700 BCE)
o Emma Elish (creation story, 1800 BCE)
Monuments called Ziggurats (a religious center/temple that is massive)

Diviners looked into the future, they could be inspired and tell you a story
with an interpretation using cards and things like that.
o Uniform was bare chest and hair and their statues had big eyes
World of Gods and Humans
o An, upper world
o Ki, mother earth
o Ur, underworld
GREEK MYTHOLOGY PART:
The Late Bronze Age (3000-1600 BCE) generations of legends
o Homer (750s BC)
First person to write about the Trojan War
o Hesiod (700BC) wrote about theogony
o Fall of Troy (1200s BC)
o Heracles (Roman Hercules)
o Perseus
o Medusa
o Jason and the Argonauts
o Theseus
o Heroes of Trojan War (Archaean)
The Greeks come out of South Russia in 2000BC near Ukraine
Establish 100 little kingdoms
Hunter-Gatherers/clan bands and tribal peoples/priests/small
aristocracy/everyones a warrior
They have a culture but no civilization/cities
1600BCE we see that there are fortification sites like palaces and workshops
Influenced by the island of Crete island off of Greece, who had control of the
Mediterranean
The Cretans or Minoans (Greek) made trades in Greece.
o Pottery, buildings, and similar writing system as the Greek Minoans
o Their writing system was Linear A, which is Minoan and Linear B is
Greek.
Mycenaean was the most powerful
Mycenaean were influenced by the Minoan Cretans
Greeks became wealthy because they were bringing mercenaries (Soldiers
for money)
There were monopolies that the kings were imposing on their kingdoms.
Kings were controlling the flow of and the commodities themselves
By 1600BCE most of Greece was conquered
Minoans controlled trade, but around 1400-1475BC, the Mycenaean Greek or
Bronze Age Greeks, invade Crete and kill the Minoans, so the trade between
the near Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean ends.
Linear A and B are lists of supplies and property holdings of the gods, so they
werent documents, but only military lists.
How do we know that these texts existed?

Linear B tablets start showing up in Greek Minoan palace, which were in

large number
Minoans would rarely adopt Linear B
Pots used to transport olive oil and perfume (soap, cooking, lighting,
perfume, cosmetics, etc.) and the vases used to transport are no longer
Minoan in style.
Greeks were more pragmatic
Another reason why the Mycenaean Greek invade Greece was the burial
styles, so we see royal burial styles in Greece
Greeks took over Crete.
After 100 years, Greece begins to cross breed, and at around 1300BC, there is
a war between Hittites and the Egyptians, between Lebanon and Syria.
Their relationship was contentious, but in the latter part of the 1300BC, there
was a strong desire to kill the other.
1000s of mercenaries were hired on both sides, such as philistines, who came
from Crete, bringing their pottery, writing system, weapons, etc.
Greeks served as mercenaries
1280s-1290sBC, they told the mercenaries to go home, however, they didnt
want to leave for home
Egypt almost fell
Philistines were defeated at the Gaza Strip in modern-day Israel
In Anatolia, the empire falls
The Hittite empire wasnt very united, so it collapses around the 1160s BC
WHAT EFFECT DOES THIS HAVE ON GREECE?
o Trade declines due to war, since traders dont want to die, obviously
o No more money flowing back into these palaces
o Greece in 1200s BC develop more fortifications, and various citystates start attacking each other for resources
o Greeks had an honor code
o The Greeks turn to piracy
o Pylos falls
o Epicenter for earthquakes
o 1200BC someone attacks Troy
people think the Greeks attack Troy
o 1220 BCthere are around 20% of the population they had before,
because there was a migration from Peloponnesus to off coast islands
and to southern Italy as well as Crete.
o Dorians come to facilitate the conquest of the Greeks who are still in
Greece, who become enslaved; this is the Dark Age (1150-800BC)
o Intensive agriculture
o Decline in population
o No large-scale buildings nor large temples made up of clay and wood
o Get out of Dark Age in around 900BC
o People from the middle East came to Greece for raw materials and a
language, which makes the population grow.

o During good times, women who are less stressed become more fertile,
and the opposite occurs if the bad times are rolling.
o Greeks extend to the Black Sea
o Magna Graecia Greeks migrating to Italy
o Homer illiterate; poems were from memory
o Hesiod is our second source for Divine Myth
Creation of the Universe, of God, and of Man
o Greeks engage in trade at the end of the Dark Ages
Mycenaean Age or Late Bronze Age (1600-1150BC)
By 1700BC to 1870AD there is an acceptance of this to a complete rejection
Schliemann discovered Troy, and using his wealth, with the help of many
helpers he discovered Troy, which Homer suggests that Achaeans attacked.
Greek Mythology (Classics)
August 13th, 2012
Lecture 5

Greek Video Notes:

Greeks dont enter the Bronze Age until the 2000s BC
Linear B tablets have the names of most of the primordial gods.
Greeks = Linear B tablets, while Minoans/Cretans = Linear A tablets
Trojan war around 1200BC
No actual writing until Phoenicians introduce the alphabet in 900BC
First written sources are the Iliad and the Odyssey (homecoming of Odysseus)
o Homer around 750 to 700 BC
o Hesiod around 700BC;
Works and Days
Theogony
Works on Gods and theyre just one form of etiological
forefront of Greek Mythology
No system of theology, but only that there was some sort
of system based upon the gods that we know from
Theogony.
In the 1600s, the philosophers began to deny that the
planets were actually gods, so that later they werent
necessary to believe.
Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus were three of the Greek
playwrights. (Aristophane
Sophocles wrote many plays, however, they were lost over
time; regardless, Euripides was able to recover and rewrite
many legends and myths in plays such as Medea, and Jason and
the Argonauts.
Greece has very fertile land, which is made up of mostly hills and mountains.
o Maintained their culture
o Had many city-states and people represented their individual polis.

GREEK MYTH VIDEO 1 NOTES:

o Delphi, one of the great city-states
o Agamemnon and the Trojan War
Achaeans were those who fought in the Trojan War, where the
Greeks lost miserably.
o Greek was one of the earliest Indo-European languages
o Mycenaean Greeks were the first to inhabit the land of Greece.
o We dont know what the Ancient Greeks thought, because there were
no historical documents of the Mycenaean Greeks; soon thereafter,
the Late Bronze Age turned into the Dark Age from 1150-800BC
o No buildings, architecture, or advancement
o Iliad is about the war between Greeks and Trojans
No historical account of the Trojan War, however, we know that
the city of Troy was definitely destroyed in some way, shape, or
form
The protagonist, Agamemnon, was the commander in chief of the
Greek army against the Trojans.
5th century Athens: Democracy
Greeks were the first to write history, which means inquiry,
where in the world it happened as well as why it happened.
This gave birth to the Classical Age.
o The Classical Age came after the Archaic age, which occurred in 480323BC
Different Epochs
o Early Bronze Age = 3000-1600BC
o Late Bronze Age or Mycenaean Age = 1600-1150BC
o Dark Age = 1150-800 (750 Hesiod) BC
o Archaic Age = 800-480BC
o Classical Age = 480-323BC
o Hellenistic Age = 323-30AD
o Roman Age = 30-400AD
Greek Mythology (Classics)
August 14th, 2012
Lecture 6
Theogony was the most common version as well as accepted version of the
creation of the Gods by the Greeks.
o Created by Hesiod
For the Greeks, there was a time when there was nothing up until the point
when there began a spurring of an egg shape nebula. This is how life began; it
began in the shape of an egg-like Chaos.
Chaos --- Gaea --- Eros --- Tartarus
Ovid was a classical Greek Poet who touched on Chaos
Gaea differentiates and creates the mountains and the seas, Cyclopes, and
Hecatonchires (100-handers)

Tartarus grows into a root that anchors Chaos and Gaea (mother Earth)
Chaos gives birth to Darkness and Night (Nyx), and Darkness give birth to
Day (Chimera) and Light (Aether)
Gaea gives birth to Uranus (sky god)
Gaea marries Uranus, who has a penis
Gaea and Uranus make up the first dynasty of gods, however, when they
make the first Titans, Uranus forces Gaea to keep them in her womb.
Gaea plots to give a weapon (sickle) to one of her Titans to castrate Uranus so
that he stops his sexual urges and payback.
o Gaea gives it to Cronus, the youngest, but bravest of them all
Uranuss penis falls onto the mother Earth and create Giants, trees, as well as
Aphrodite when the semen and saltwater of the seas mix.
Aphrodite is the goddess of love.
Cronus takes over Uranus and the second dynasty of gods
Cronus marries his sister, Rhea (dynasty of the Titans)
They all live on mount Olympus, the tallest mountain on the Peloponnesus.
Oceanus (Titan) is the river that surrounds the Earth, and he marries Tethys.
Together they make Oceanids.
Hyperion (Sun god), and his children are Selene (moon goddess), Helius (sun
god), Eos (dawn)
Iapetuss children are Prometheus (god of human creation), Epimethius
(after learner), Atlus
Cronus and Rhea give birth to 6 Olympians, but Cronus eats all of their
children. Rhea gives birth to Zeus in secret on Crete, and she tricks Cronus
with a rock in the shape of Zeus to swallow. Zeus grows up and he tries to
rescue his other brothers and sisters to fight in the Titanomachy (10 year
war between Titans and Olympians + Hecatonchires + Cyclopes )
o Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Demeter.
TO BE AN OLYMPIAN, YOU NEED TO HAVE A HOME ON MOUNT OLYMPUS
The world was divided among three Olympians (2 of them are, one of them
isnt)
o Poseidon got the Sea
o Zeus got the world in the heavens
o Hades got the underworld (invisible helmet)
In the Hesiod, Aphrodite = Uranuss Sperm + Sea
o In Homer Aphrodite = Zeus + Dione
Zeuss Children
o Apollo medicinal god, prophetic god, god of music, beautiful
o Artemis goddess of the hunt, countryside
o Aphrodite goddess of love
o Hermes messenger god, liar, trickster
o Ares god of war
o Hephaestus blacksmith
o Athena goddess of wisdom and the arts as well as strategic war
(born from Zeuss head, smacked by Prometheus and Epimetheus.

o
o
o
o

PZHHHAD, AAAAAHH
Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Aphrodite, Demeter
Apollo, Athena, Area, Artemis, Hermes, Hephaestus
Other Children of Zeus:

Greek Mythology (Classics)

August 20th, 2012
Lecture 7

Dionysus replaces Hestia as the twelfth Olympian on Mt. Olympus

Demeter is the goddess of grain (I know this stuff no need to take notes at
the moment)