Transcript Slide 1

SLO’s & Objectives
 SLO Interpret historical knowledge to
extend comprehension of world cultures
 Objective: Distinguish the characteristics
of the worlds major civilizations and
discuss their enduring influences
 ZEUS is the supreme god
of the Olympians.
 Zeus and his brothers
Poseidon and Hades
divided up creation.
 Poseidon received the sea
as his domain,
 Hades got the Underworld
and
 Zeus took the sky.
 Zeus also was accorded
supreme authority on earth
and on Mount Olympus.
 APOLLO was the god of
prophesy, music and
healing.
 Like most of his fellow
Olympians, Apollo did not
hesitate to intervene in
human affairs. As god of
music, Apollo is often
depicted playing a
instrument.
 ARES aka Mars was the god
of war, or more precisely of
warlike frenzy. His throne on
Mount Olympus was said to
be covered in human skin.
 The Roman god Mars, with
whom Ares was identified,
was the father of Romulus
and Remus, the mythological
founders of Rome. Thus he
was more important to the
Romans than his Greek
counterpart.
 ARTEMIS was the virgin
goddess of the hunt. She
helped women in
childbirth but also
brought sudden death
with her arrows.
 Artemis and her brother
Apollo were the children
of Zeus and Leto. In
some versions of their
myth, Artemis was born
first and helped her
mother to deliver Apollo.
 ATHENA was the
goddess of crafts and the
domestic arts and also
those of war. She was the
patron goddess of Athens.
Her symbol was the owl.
She was originally the
Great Goddess in the form
of a bird. By the late
Classic, she had come to
be regarded as a goddess
of wisdom
 Zeus was once married to Metis, a daughter
of Ocean who was renowned for her wisdom.
When Metis became pregnant, Zeus was
warned by Earth that a son born to Metis
would overthrow him.
Zeus swallowed Metis and was overcome with
a splitting headache and summoned help
from the craftsman god Hephaestus (or, some
say, the Titan Prometheus). Hephaestus
cleaved Zeus's forehead with an ax, and
Athena sprang forth fully armed.
 DEMETER was the goddess
of agriculture. Demeter is the
sister of Zeus and the mother
of Persephone.
 Persephone was gathering
flowers when a huge crack
opened up in the earth and
Hades, King of the Dead,
emerged from the
Underworld. He seized
Persephone and carried her
off in his chariot, back down to
his his realm below, where
she became his queen.
 Demeter was heartbroken and wandered the
earth in search of her daughter, during which
time the crops withered and it became
perpetual winter.
 Hades was persuaded to surrender
Persephone for one half of every year, the
spring and summer seasons when flowers
bloom and the earth bears fruit once more.
 The half year that Persephone spends in the
Underworld as Hades' queen coincides with the
barren season.
 HEPHAEST was the lame
god of fire and crafts or the
two together, hence of
blacksmiths.
 Hephaestus also created the
first woman, Pandora was
given to the Titan's brother,
Epimetheus, as his wife. For
her dowry she brought a jar
filled with evils from which
she removed the lid, thereby
afflicting men for the first time
with hard work and sickness.
Only hope remained inside
the jar.
 HERA was the goddess of
marriage. Hera was the wife
of Zeus and Queen of the
Olympians.
 Her worship goes back to
a time when the creative
force we call "God" was
conceived of as a woman.
The Goddess took many
forms, among them that of a
bird.
 Hera was worshipped
throughout Greece, and the
oldest and most important
temples were consecrated
to her.
 HERMES was the messenger
of the gods and guide of dead
souls to the Underworld.
 Hermes was the son Zeus and
a mountain nymph and known
for his helpfulness to mankind.
 It was Hermes' job to convey
dead souls to the Underworld.
 POSEIDON aka Neptune
was the god of the sea,
earthquakes and horses.
Although he was officially
one of the supreme gods
of Mount Olympus, he
spent most of his time in
his watery domain.
 Poseidon was brother to
Zeus and Hades.
 Poseidon cursed the wife of King Minos.
Minos had proved his divine right to rule
Crete by calling on Poseidon to send a bull
from the sea, which the king promised to
sacrifice. Poseidon sent the bull, but Minos
liked it too much to sacrifice it. So
Poseidon asked Aphrodite, the goddess of
love, to make Minos's queen, Pasiphae,
fall in love with the bull. The result was the
monstrous Minotaur, half-man, half-bull.
 As god of horses, Poseidon often adopted
the shape of a steed. Poseidon sometimes
granted the shape-shifting power to
others.
 APHRODITE aka Venus
was the goddess of love,
beauty and fertility. She was
also a protectress of sailors.
 The poet Hesiod said that
Aphrodite was born from
sea-foam. Homer, on the
other hand, said that she
was the daughter of Zeus
and Dione.
 When the Trojan prince Paris was asked
to judge which of three Olympian
goddesses was the most beautiful, he
chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena.
The latter two had hoped to bribe him with
power and victory in battle, but Aphrodite
offered the love of the most beautiful
woman in the world.
 This was Helen of Sparta, who became
infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris
subsequently eloped with her. In the
ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena
were implacable enemies of Troy while
Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the
Trojans.
 DIONYSUS was the god of
wine. Dionysus was the son
of Zeus and the mortal
Semele.
 Dionysus also saved his
mother from the Underworld,
after Zeus showed her his
true nature as storm god and
consumed her in lightning.
 It was Dionysus who granted
Midas the power to turn
whatever he touched into
gold, then was kind enough
to take the power back when
it proved inconvenient.
Birth of DIONYSUS
 According to mythology, Dionysos' "mortal mother was
Semele of Thebes, whom Zeus had taken as a lover.
 Jealous Hera appeared to Semele in the guise of her old
nurse and dared her to demand that Zeus appear in his
real form.
 Semele was incinerated by his thunderbolt, but Zeus
salvaged the unborn boy and sowed him into his thigh; a
few months later Dionysus was born and given to
Hermes to entrust to the care of nymphs on Mount Mysa.
 When he grew up these nymphs became his female
devotees, the Maenads. Hera drove him mad and he fled
to the east where the oriental earth goddess Cybele
cured him.
 They then returned to Greece, establishing his cult in
different places and proved to the world that his father
was Zeus."
 Dionysus traveled about the world
teaching the mysteries of his worship and
also how to cultivate wine.
 Those who welcomed him received the gift
of the vine and those who did not were
driven "mad."
 Dionysus was the god of wine, fertility and
joyous life. He was the god of hospitality,
which included bringing joy to the feast
and freeing men from their cares. These
feasts included sexual orgies seeking
“ecstasy”
 Followers of Dionysus believed
that he was the presence that is
otherwise defined as the craving
within man that longs to "let itself
go" and to "give itself over" to the
baser earthly desires.
 worshippers of Dionysus
attempted to bring themselves
into union with the god through a
ritual casting off of the bonds of
sexual denial and primal
constraint by seeking to attain to a
higher state of ecstasy.
 The uninhibited rituals of ecstasy (Greek
for "outside the body") employed wine,
abandon, and perversion
 to bring the followers of Dionysus into a
supernatural condition which enabled
them to escape the temporary limitations
of the body and mind and to achieve a
state of enthousiasmos, or, outside the
body and "inside the god."
 The Dionystic idea of mental disease
resulting from the suppression of secret
inner desires, especially aberrant sexual
desires, was later reflected in the
atheistic teachings of Sigmund Freud.
 Thus Freudianism might be called the
grandchild of the cult of Dionysus.
 But the person who gave himself over to
the will of Dionysus was rewarded with
unlimited psychological and physical
delights.
 Followers migrated in frenzied hillside groups,
dressed transvestite in fawn skins and
accompanied by mask-wearing, screaming,
music, dancing, and licentious behavior.
 Women attempted to nurse young animals.
Older animals who ran from them were
considered "resistant" to the will of Dionysus and
were torn apart and eaten alive as a part of the
fevered ritual.
 Human participants were sometimes subjected
to the same orgiastic cruelty, as the rule of the
cult was "anything goes," including beastiality.
 In 186 B.C.E. the
Roman Senate met
to call for the
destruction of all
Dionysis shrines and
worship in Italy after
numerous
outrageous
ceremonies.
 Dionysus was honored with a series of
festivals: the Oschophoria, Lesser
Dionysia, Lenaea, Anthesteria, and the
Greater Dionysia.
 Greater Dionysia was celebrated in
Athens in the spring. This festival lasted
for five days.
 During the celebration business life
stopped, prisoners were freed in order to
participate.
 The festival had one very special event
title the Thymelic contest.
 This contest was performances of the works
of poets in an open-air theatre.
 Observing this contest was considered an
act of worship.
 Also in honor of Dionysus, the musicians did
not have to pay taxes; and from the 4th
century BC until 800 years later, the
members of the Artists Guild did not have to
participate in the military.
 Dionysus was worshipped throughout
Greece and India.
 Many link current activities such as Mardi
Gras Festivals to the Cult of DIONYSUS
Frenzied Crowd
Atmosphere