'Greek mythology' is the body of stories belonging to the
Ancient Greeks concerning their
gods and
heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own
cult and
ritual practices. Modern scholars refer to the
myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and on the Ancient Greek civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.
[1]
Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as
vase-paintings and
votive gifts. Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of
gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other
mythological creatures. These accounts were initially disseminated in an
oral-poetic tradition; the Greek myths are known today primarily from
Greek literature. The oldest known literary sources, the
epic poems ''
Iliad'' and ''
Odyssey'', focus on events surrounding the
Trojan War. Two poems by
Homer's near contemporary
Hesiod, the ''
Theogony'' and the ''
Works and Days'', contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the
Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the
Epic Cycle, in
lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians of the
5th century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the
Hellenistic Age and in writers of the time of the
Roman Empire, for example,
Plutarch and
Pausanias.
Monumental evidence at
Mycenaean and
Minoan sites helped to explain many of the questions about Homer's epics and provided
archaeological proofs of many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Greek mythology was also depicted in artifacts; Geometric designs on pottery of the
8th century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of
Heracles. In the succeeding
Archaic,
Classical and
Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear to supplement the existing literary evidence.
[2]
Greek mythology has had extensive influence on the culture, the arts and the literature of
Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. It has been a part of the educational fabric from childhood, while poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes.
[3]
Sources of Greek mythology
|
 The Roman poet Virgil, here depicted in the 5th century manuscript the '' Vergilius Romanus'', preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings. |
 Achilles killing a Trojan prisoner in front of Charon on a red-figure Etruscan calyx-krater, made towards the end of the 4th century-beginning of the 3rd century BC. |
Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the
Geometric period (c. 900-800 BCE) onward.
[4]
Literary sources
Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the ''
Library'' of Pseudo-
Apollodorus, which attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.
[5]
Among the literary sources first in age are Homer's two epic poems, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these later and lesser poems are now almost entirely lost. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called
Lyric age.
[6] Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in ''Theogony'' (''Origin of the Gods'') the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world; the origin of the gods,
Titans and
Giants; elaborate genealogies and folktales and etiological myths. Hesiod's ''Works and Days'', a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of
Prometheus,
Pandora and the
Four Ages. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world rendered yet more dangerous by its gods.
2
Lyrical poets sometimes take their subjects from myth, but the treatment becomes gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including
Pindar,
Bacchylides,
Simonides, and bucolic poets, such as
Theocritus and
Bion, provide individual mythological incidents.
[7] Additionally, myth was central to classical
Athenian drama. The tragic playwrights
Aeschylus,
Sophocles and
Euripides took their plots from the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (i.e.
Agamemnon and his children,
Oedipus,
Jason,
Medea etc.) took on their classic form in these tragic plays. For his part, the comic playwright
Aristophanes used myths, as in ''
The Birds'' or ''
The Frogs''.
[8]
Historians
Herodotus and
Diodorus Siculus, and geographers
Pausanias and
Strabo, who traveled around the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supply numerous local myths, often giving little-known, alternative versions.
7 Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him in and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East.
[9]
The poetry of the
Hellenistic and
Roman ages, which although composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, nevertheless contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of:
#The Roman poets
Ovid,
Statius,
Valerius Flaccus,
Seneca and
Virgil with
Servius's commentary.
#The Greek poets of the
Late Antique period:
Nonnus,
Antoninus Liberalis and
Quintus Smyrnaeus.
#The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period:
Apollonius of Rhodes,
Callimachus,
Pseudo-Eratosthenes and
Parthenius.
#The ancient novels of Greeks and Romans such as
Apuleius,
Petronius,
Lollianus and
Heliodorus.
The ''Fabulae'' and ''Astronomica'' of the Roman writer styled
Pseudo-Hyginus are two important, non-poetical compendiums of myth. The ''Imagines'' of
Philostratus the Elder and Younger and the Descriptions of Callistratus, are two other useful sources.
Finally, the Christian apologist
Arnobius, quoting cult practices in order to disparage them, and a number of Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, some of it sourced from lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include
Hesychius' lexicon, the ''
Suda'', and the treatises of
John Tzetzes and
Eustathius. The Christian moralizing view of Greek myth is encapsulated in the saying ''En panti muthoi kai to Daidalou musos'' ("In every myth there is also the defilement of Daidalos"), on which subject the encyclopedic
Sudas reported of the role of
Daedalus in satisfying the "unnatural lust" of
Pasiphae for the bull of Poseidon: "Since the origin and blame for these evils were attributed to Daidalos and he was loathed for them, he became the subject of the proverb."
[10]
Archaeological sources
The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by German amateur
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the
19th century, and the discovery of the
Minoan civilization in
Crete by British archaeologist,
Sir Arthur Evans in the
20th century, helped to explain many of the questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeoloical proof of many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myth and ritual at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the
Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and Greece) was mainly used to record inventories, though the names of gods and heroes have been doubtfully revealed.
2
Geometric designs on pottery of the
8th century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles.
2 These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons; on the one hand, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources (of the twelve labors of Heracles, only the
Cerberus adventure occurs for the first time in a literary text
[11]) and, on the other hand, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry by several centuries.
4 In the Archaic (c. 750–c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear to supplement the existing literary evidence.
2
Survey of mythic history
The Greeks' mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their own culture. The earlier inhabitants of the
Balkan Peninsula were an agricultural people who assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human shape and entered the local mythology as gods and goddesses.
[12] When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older deities of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.
[13]
After the middle of the Archaic period myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes become more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of
pedagogic pederasty ''(Eros paidikos, παιδικός ἔρως),'' thought to have been introduced around 630 BC. By the end of the 5th century BC, poets had assigned at least one
eromenos to every important god except
Ares and to many legendary figures.
[14] Previously existing myths, such as that of
Achilles and
Patroclus, were also cast in a
pederastic light.
[15] Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often adapted stories of Greek mythological characters.
The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles, and as a result to develop a sense of mythological chronology. Thus Greek mythology unfolds like a phase in the development of the world and of man.
[16] While self-contradictions in the stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. The mythological history of the world can be divided in 3 or 4 broader periods:
#''The myths of origin'' or ''age of gods (Theogonies, "births of gods")'': myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race.
# ''The age when gods and mortals mingled freely'': stories of the early interactions between gods,
demigods, and mortals.
#'' The age of heroes (heroic age)'', where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the stories of ''the Trojan War and after'' (regarded by some researchers as a separate fourth period).
[17]
While the age of gods has often been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes. For example, the heroic ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' dwarfed the divine-focused ''Theogony'' and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (=heroes), of the Olympian from the
Chthonic.
[18] In the ''Works and Days'', Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four
Ages of Man (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are separate creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging to the reign of Cronus, the subsequent races the creation of Zeus. Hesiod intercalates the Age (or Race) of Heroes just after the Bronze Age. The final age was the Iron Age, during which the poet himself lived. The poet regards it as the worst; the presence of evil was explained by Pandora's myth.
[19] In ''
Metamorphoses'' Ovid follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages.
[20]
Age of gods
Cosmogony and cosmology
"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms and explain the origin of the world.
[21] The most widely accepted account of beginning of things as reported by
Hesiod's ''
Theogony'', starts with
Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Ge or
Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings:
Eros (Love), the
Abyss (the
Tartarus), and the
Erebus.
[22] Without male assistance Gaia gave birth to
Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilised her. From that union were born, first, the
Titans: six males and six females (
Oceanus,
Coeus and
Crius and
Hyperion and
Iapetus,
Theia and
Rhea,
Themis and
Mnemosyne,
Phoebe and
Tethys, and
Cronus); then the one-eyed
Cyclopes and the
Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handers. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of [Gaia's] children"
22)castrated his father and became the ruler of the gods with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort and the other Titans became his court. This motif of father/son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son,
Zeus. Zeus, persuaded by his mother, challenged him to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes, (whom Zeus freed from Tarturus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.
[23]
The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogony to be the prototypical poetic genre — the prototypical ''mythos'' — and imputed almost magical powers to it.
Orpheus, the archetypal poet, was also the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius' ''
Argonautica'', and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to
Hades. When
Hermes invents the
lyre in the ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', the first thing he does is sing the birth of the gods.
[24] Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods, but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the
Muses. Theogony was also the subject of many lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus,
Musaeus,
Epimenides,
Abaris and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and
mystery-rites. There are indications that
Plato was familiar with some version of the Orphic theogony.
[25] A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by
Neoplatonist philosophers and recently unearthed
papyrus scraps. One of these scraps, the
Derveni Papyrus now proves that at least in the 5th century BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus was in existence. This poem attempted to outdo Hesiod's ''Theogony'' and the genealogy of the gods was extended back with
Nyx (Night) as an ultimate beginning before Uranus, Cronus and Zeus.
[26]
The first philosophical cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes built upon, popular mythical conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be gleaned from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat on the river of
Oceanus and overlooked by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon and stars. The Sun (
Helios) traversed the heavens as a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth, heaven, rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures were popularly regarded as entrances to the subterranean house of Hades, home of the dead.
[27]
Greek gods
After the overthrow of the Titans, a new
pantheon of
gods and
goddesses emerged. Among the principal Greek deities were the Olympians (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea),
[28] residing atop
Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshiped various gods of the countryside, the goat-god
Pan,
Nymphs (spirits of rivers), Naeads (who dwelled in springs),
Dryads (who were spirits of the trees),
Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods,
Satyrs, and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the
Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.
[29] In order to honor the ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs).
[30] Gregory Nagy regards "the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with ''Theogony''), each of which invokes one god".
[31]
In the wide variety of myths and legends that Greek mythology consists of, the deities that were native to the Greek peoples are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to
Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts".
[32] Regardless of their underlying forms, the ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of
nectar and
ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.
[33]
Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods were called upon in poetry, prayer or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and
epithets, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g. ''Apollo Musagetes'' is "
Apollo, [as] leader of the
Muses"). Alternatively the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.
Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example,
Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty,
Ares was the god of war,
Hades the god of the dead, and
Athena the goddess of wisdom and courage.
[34] Some deities, such as
Apollo and
Dionysus, revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as
Hestia (literally "hearth") and Helios (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. The most impressive
temples tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demi-gods) supplemented this of the gods.
Age of gods and men
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and men moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' and they are often divided in two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment.
[35]
Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings.
[36] In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', where the goddess lies with
Anchises to produce
Aeneas.
[37] The marriage of
Peleus and
Thetis, which yielded
Achilles, is another such myth.
The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when
Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when
Tantalus steals nectar and
ambrosia from Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when
Prometheus or
Lycaon invents sacrifice, when
Demeter teaches
agriculture and the
Mysteries to
Triptolemus, or when
Marsyas invents the
aulos and enters into a musical contest with
Apollo. Prometheus' adventures mark "a place between the history of the gods and that of man".
[38] An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the
third century BC, vividly portrays
Dionysus' punishment of the king of
Thrace,
Lycurgus, whose recognition of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife.
[39] The story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy.
[40] In another tragedy, Euripides' ''
The Bacchae'', the king of
Thebes,
Pentheus, is punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his
Maenads, the female
worshippers of the god.
[41]
In another story, based on an old folktale-motif,
[42] and echoeing a similar theme,
Demeter was searching for her daughter,
Persephone, having taken the form of an old woman called
Doso, and received a hospitable welcome from
Celeus, the King of
Eleusis in
Attica. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon as a god, but she was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.
[43]
Heroic age
The age in which the heroes lived is known as the heroic age.
[44] The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden, "there is even a saga effect: we can follow the fates of some families in successive generations".
16
After the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in oaths, and prayers which are addressed to them.
18 In contrast to the age of gods, during the heroic age the roster of heroes is never given fixed and final form; great gods are no longer born, but new heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead. Another important difference between the hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity.
[45]
The monumental events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are also ascribed three great military events, the
Argonautic expedition and the Trojan War as well as the Theban War.
[46]
Heracles and the Heracleidae
:''For more details on this topic, see
Heracles and
Heracleidae''
Some scholars believe that behind Heracles' complicated mythology there was probably a real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of
Argos. Some scholars suggest the story of Heracles is an allegory for the sun's yearly passage through the twelve constellations of the zodiac.
[47] Others point to earlier myths from other cultures, showing the story of Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths already well established. Traditionally, Heracles was the son of Zeus and
Alcmene, granddaughter of
Perseus.
[48] His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many
folk tale themes, provided much material for popular legend. He is portrayed as a sacrificier, mentioned as a founder of altars, and imagined as a voracious eater himself; it is in this role that he appears in comedy, while his tragic end provided much material for tragedy — ''
Heracles'' is regarded by Thalia Papadopoulou as "a play of great significance in examination of other Euripidean dramas".
[49] In art and literature Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate height; his characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club. The vase paintings demonstrate the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds of times.
[50]
Heracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation "mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans as "Herakleis" was to the Greeks.
50 In
Italy he was worshipped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.
48
Heracles attained the highest social prestige through his appointment as official ancestor of the
Dorian kings. This probably served as a legitimation for the Dorian migrations into the
Peloponnese.
Hyllus, the eponymous hero of one Dorian phyle, became the son of Heracles and one of the ''Heracleidae'' or ''Heraclids'' (the numerous descendants of Heracles, especially the descendants of
Hyllus — other Heracleidae included
Macaria,
Lamos,
Manto,
Bianor,
Tlepolemus, and
Telephus). These Heraclids conquered the
Peloponnesian kingdoms of
Mycenae,
Sparta and
Argos, claiming, according to legend, a right to rule it through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance is frequently called the "
Dorian invasion". The Lydian and later the Macedonian kings, as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae.
[51]
Other members of this earliest generation of heroes, such as Perseus,
Deucalion,
Theseus and
Bellerophon, have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on
fairy tale, as they slay monsters such as the
Chimera and
Medusa. Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.
[52]
Argonauts
Engraving (Digitally enhanced for visibility) from the Cista Ficoroni, an
Etruscan ritual vessel (
Galleria Borghese,
Rome), picturing two Argonauts before a hunt. The personages have been tentatively identified as Heracles and
Hylas.
The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''
Argonautica'' of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the
Library of Alexandria) tells the myth of the voyage of
Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the
Golden Fleece from the mythical land of
Colchis. In the ''Argonautica'', Jason is impelled on his quest by king
Pelias, who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would be his
nemesis. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship ''
Argo'' to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included
Theseus, who went to
Crete to slay the
Minotaur;
Atalanta, the female heroine; and
Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. Pindar, Apollonius and Apollodorus endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts.
[53]
Although Apollonius wrote his poem in the
3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than ''Odyssey'', which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus may have been partly founded on it).
[54] In ancient times the expedition was regarded as a historical fact, an incident in the opening up of the
Black Sea to Greek commerce and colonization.
[55] It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local legends became attached. The story of Medea, in particular, caught the imagination of the tragic poets.
[56]
House of Atreus and Theban Cycle
In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of
Atreus and
Thyestes at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of
Labdacus) lies the problem of the devolution of power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae.
[57]
The Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with
Cadmus, the city's founder, and later with the doings of
Laius and Oedipus at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the Seven Against Thebes (it is not known whether the Seven against Thebes figured in early epic) and
Epigoni.
[58] As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have followed a different pattern (in which he continued to rule at Thebes after the revelation that
Iokaste was his mother and subsequently married a second wife who became the mother of his children) from the one known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' "Oedipus the King") and later mythological accounts.
[59]
Trojan War and aftermath
In ''The Rage of Achilles'' by
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1757, Fresco, 300 x 300 cm, Villa Valmarana,
Vicenza) Achilles is outraged that Agamemnon would threaten to seize his warprize, Briseis, and he draws his sword to kill Agamemnon. The sudden appearance of the goddess
Minerva, who, in this fresco, has grabbed Achilles by the hair, prevents the act of violence.
:''For more details on this topic, see
Trojan War and
Epic Cycle''
Greek mythology culminates in the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and
Troy, and its aftermath. In Homer's works the chief stories have already taken shape and substance, and individual themes were elaborated later, especially in Greek drama. The Trojan War acquired also a great interest for the
Roman culture because of the story of
Aeneas, a Trojan hero, whose journey from Troy led to the founding of the city that would one day become Rome, is recounted in Virgil's ''
Aeneid'' (Book II of Virgil's Aeneid contains the best-known account of the sack of Troy).
[60] Finally there are two pseudo-chronicles written in Latin that passed under the names of
Dictys Cretensis and
Dares Phrygius.
[61]
The
Trojan War cycle, a collection of
epic poems, starts with the events leading up to the war: (
Eris and the
golden apple of
Kallisti, the
Judgement of Paris, the abduction of
Helen, the sacrifice of
Iphigenia at
Aulis). To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great expedition under the overall command of
Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos or
Mycenae, but The Trojans refused to return Helen. The ''Iliad'', which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' friend
Patroclus and Priam's eldest son,
Hector. After Hector's death the Trojans were joined by two exotic allies,
Penthesilea, queen of the
Amazons, and
Memnon, king of the
Ethiopians and son of the dawn-goddess
Eos.
[62] Achilles killed both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow. Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the
Palladium). Finally, with Athena's help, they built the
Trojan Horse. Despite the warnings of Priam's daughter
Cassandra, the Trojans were persuaded by
Sinon, a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the horse inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed, Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings of
Odysseus and Aeneas (the ''Aeneid''), and the murder of Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns (''
Nostoi''; lost) and Homer's ''Odyssey''.
[63] The Trojan cycle also includes the adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g.
Orestes and
Telemachus).
62
El Greco was inspired in his ''Laocoon'' (1608–1614, oil on canvas, 142 x 193 cm,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington) by the famous myth of the Trojan cycle.
Laocoon was a Trojan priest who tried to have the Trojan horse destroyed, but was killed by sea-serpents.
The Trojan War provided a variety of themes and became a main source of inspiration for ancient Greek artists (e.g.
metopes on the
Parthenon depicting the sack of Troy); this artistic preference for themes deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its importance for the ancient Greek civilization.
63 The same mythological cycle also inspired a series of posterior European literary writings. For instance, Trojan Medieval European writers, unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found in the Troy legend a rich source of heroic and romantic storytelling and a convenient framework into which to fit their own courtly and chivalric ideals.
12th century authors, such as
Benoît de Sainte-Maure (''Roman de Troie'' [Romance of Troy, 1154–60]) and
Joseph of Exeter (''De Bello Troiano'' [On the Trojan War, 1183]) describe the war while rewriting the standard version they found in ''Dictys'' and ''Dares''. They thus follow
Horace's advice and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem of Troy instead of telling something completely new.
[64]
Greek and Roman conceptions of myth
Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in ancient Greece.
[65] Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's leaders' descent from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. According to
Victor Davis Hanson, a military
historian,
columnist, political essayist and former
Classics professor, and John Heath, associate professor of Classics at
Santa Clara University, the profound knowledge of the Homeric
epos was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the "education of Greece" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις), and his poetry "the Book".
[66]
Philosophy and myth
Raphael's Plato in ''
The School of Athens'' fresco (probably in the likeness of
Leonardo da Vinci). The philosopher expelled the study of Homer, of the tragedies and of the related mythological traditions from his utopian Republic.
After the rise of philosophy, and history, prose and
rationalism in the late 5th century BC the fate of myth became uncertain, and mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the
Thucydidean history).
[67] While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize them.
[68]
A few radical philosophers like
Xenophanes of Colophon were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the 6th century BC; Xenophanes had complained that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods "all that is shameful and disgraceful among men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one another".
[69] This line of thought found its most sweeping expression in
Plato's ''
Republic'' and ''
Laws''. Plato created his own allegorical myths (such as the vision of Er in the ''Republic''), attacked the traditional tales of the gods' tricks, thefts and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature.
6 Plato's criticism (he called the myths "old wives' chatter")
[70] was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition.
66 For his part Aristotle ctiticized the Pre-socratic quasi-mythical philosophical approach and underscored that "Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us [...] But it is not worth taking seriously writers who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must cross-examine them".
67
Nevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his own characterization for Socrates is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher:
[71]
Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by the grassroots Greek civilization.
66 The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to influence poetry, and to form the main subject of painting and sculpture.
67
More sportingly, the 5th century BC
tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects of his plays were taken, without exception, from myth. Many of these plays were written in answer to a predecessor's version of the same or similar myth. Euripides impugns mainly the myths about the gods and begins his critique with an objection similar to the one previously expressed by Xenocrates: the gods, as traditionally represented, are far too crassly
anthropomorphic.
69
Hellenistic and Roman rationalism
Cicero saw himself as the defender of the established order, despite his personal scepticism with regard to myth and his inclination towards more philosophical conceptions of divinity.
During the
Hellenistic period, mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced.
[72] Greek mythographer
Euhemerus established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events.
[73] Although his original work (''Sacred Scriptures'') is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and
Lactantius.
[74]
Rationalizing
hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the
Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of
Stoic and
Epicurean philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and heroes as physical phenomena, while the
euhemerists rationalized them as historical figures. At the same time, the Stoics and the
Neoplatonists promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies.
[75] Through his Epicurean message,
Lucretius had sought to expel superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens.
[76] Livy, too, is sceptical about the mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends (fabulae).
[77] The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense of
religious tradition was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian
Varro, who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of religious cults. In his ''Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum'' (which has not survived, but
Augustine's ''
City of God'' indicates its general approach) Varro argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly religious person venerates them as parents.
76 In his work he distinguished three kinds of gods:
★ The gods of nature: personifications of phenomena like rain and fire.
★ The gods of the poets: invented by unscrupulous bards to stir the passions.
★ The gods of the city: invented by wise legislators to soothe and enlighten the populace.
Roman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.
[78] Cicero is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended.
77 Cicero asserts that no one (not even old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of
Scyllas,
centaurs or other composite creatures,
[79] but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the superstitious and credulous character of the people.
[80] ''De Natura Deorum'' is the most comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of thought.
[81]
Syncretizing trends
In Roman religion the worship of the Greek god Apollo (early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original,
Louvre Museum) was combined with the cult of Sol Invictus. The worship of Sol as special protector of the emperors and of the empire remained the chief imperial religion until it was replaced by
Christianity.
During the Roman era appears a popular trend to syncretize multiple Greek and foreign gods in strange, nearly unrecognizable new cults. Syncretization was also due to the fact that the Romans had little
mythology of their own, and inherited the Greek mythological tradition; therefore, the major Roman gods were syncretized with those of the Greeks.
77 In addition to the combination of the two mythological traditions, the association of the Romans with eastern religions led to further syncretizations.
[82] For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced in Rome after
Aurelian's successful campaigns in
Syria. The Asiatic divinities
Mithras (that is to say, the Sun) and Ba'al were combined with Apollo and Helios into one
Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and compound attributes.
[83] Apollo might be increasingly identified in religion with Helios or even Dionysus, but texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice.
The surviving 2nd century collection of
Orphic Hymns and
Macrobius's ''Saturnalia'' are influenced by the theories of rationalism and the syncretizing trends as well. The Orphic Hymns are a set of pre-classical poetic compositions, attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject of a renowned myth. In reality, these poems were probably composed by several different poets, and contain a rich set of clues about prehistoric European mythology.
[84] The stated purpose of the ''Saturnalia'' is to transmit the Hellenic culture he has derived from his reading, even though much of his treatment of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African mythology and theology (which also affect the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia reappear mythographical comments influenced by the euhemerists, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists.
75
Modern interpretations
The genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth century against "the traditional attitude of Christian animosity", in which the Christian reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or
fable had been retained.
[85] In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Greek mythology. In
Göttingen Johann Matthias Gesner began to revive Greek studies, while his successor,
Christian Gottlob Heyne, worked with
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and laid the foundations for mythological research both in Germany and elsewhere.
[86]
Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches
Max Müller is regarded as one of the founders of comparative mythology. In his ''Comparative Mythology'' (1867) Müller analysed the "disturbing" similarity between the mythologies of "savage" races with those of the early European races.
The development of comparative philology in the
19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in the
20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been comparative.
Wilhelm Mannhardt,
Sir James Frazer, and
Stith Thompson employed the comparative approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.
[87] In 1871
Edward Burnett Tylor published his ''Primitive Culture'', in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the origin and evolution of religion.
[88] Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and myth of widely separated cultures influenced both
Carl Jung and
Joseph Campbell.
Max Müller applied the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted remains of
Aryan nature worship.
Bronislaw Malinowski emphasized the ways myth fulfills common social functions.
Claude Lévi-Strauss and other
structuralists have compared the formal relations and patterns in myths throughout the world.
87
For Karl Kerényi mythology is "a body of material contained in tales about gods and god-like beings, heroic battles and journeys to the Underworld—''mythologem'' is the best Greek word for them—tales already well-known but not amenable to further re-shaping".
[89] introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochment between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.
[90] Carl Jung extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it.
2 According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche".
[91] Comparing Jung's methodology with
Joseph Campbell's theory, Robert A. Segal concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the ''Odyssey'', for example, would show how Odysseus’s life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth".
[92] Karl Kerenyi, one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.
[93]
Origin theories
There are various modern theories about the origins of Greek mythology. According to the Scriptural Theory, all mythological legends are derived from the narratives of the
Scriptures, although the real facts have been disguised and altered.
[94] According to the Historical Theory all the persons mentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the legends relating to them are merely the additions of later times. Thus the story of
Aeolus is supposed to have risen from the fact that Aeolus was the ruler of some islands in the
Tyrrhenian Sea.
[95] The Allegorical Theory supposes that all the ancient myths were allegorical and symbolical. While the Physical Theory subscribed to the idea that the elements of air, fire, and water were originally the objects of religious adoration, thus the principal deities were personifications of these powers of nature.
[96] Max Müller attempted to understand an
Indo-European religious form by tracing it back to its
Aryan, "original" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the ancient history of mankind [...] was this sample equation:
Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar = Greek Zeus = Latin
Jupiter = Old Norse
Tyr".
[97] In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the comparison between Uranus and the Sanskrit
Varuna or the
Moirae and the
Norns.
[98]
Archaeology and mythography, on the other hand, has revealed that the Greeks were inspired by some of the civilizations of Asia Minor and the Near East.
Adonis seems to be the Greek counterpart — more clearly in cult than in myth — of a Near Eastern "dying god".
Cybele is rooted in
Anatolian culture while much of Aphrodite's
iconography springs from Semitic goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and
Tiamat in the ''
Enuma Elish''.
[99] According to Meyer Reinhold, "near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way [...] into Greek mythology".
[100] In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the pre-Hellenic societies: Crete, Mycenae,
Pylos, Thebes and
Orchomenos.
[101] Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connencted with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa,
Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the
Minotaur etc.) Professor Martin P. Nilsson concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaen centres and were anchored in pehistoric times.
[102] Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.
[103]
Motifs in Western art and literature
Botticelli's ''
The Birth of Venus'' (c. 1485–1486, oil on canvas,
Uffizi,
Florence) — a revived ''Venus Pudica'' for a new view of pagan
Antiquity—is often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.
2
The widespread adoption of
Christianity did not curb the popularity of the myths. With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in the
Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.
[104] From the early years of Renaissance, artists such as
Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, and
Raphael, portrayed the
pagan subjects of Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes.
104 Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as
Petrarch,
Boccaccio and
Dante in Italy.
2
In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature. The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with
Chaucer and
John Milton and continuing through
Shakespeare to
Robert Bridges in the 20th century.
Racine in
France and
Goethe in
Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths.
104 Although during the
Enlightenment of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the
libretti for many of
Handel's and
Mozart's operas.
[105] By the end of the 18th century,
Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Keats,
Byron and
Shelley) and painters (such as
Lord Leighton and
Lawrence Alma-Tadema).
[106] Christoph Gluck,
Richard Strauss,
Jacques Offenbach and many others set Greek mythological themes to music.
2 American authors of the 19th century, such as
Thomas Bulfinch and
Nathaniel Hawthorne, held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature.
[107] In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists
Jean Anouilh,
Jean Cocteau, and
Jean Giraudoux in France,
Eugene O'Neill in America, and
T.S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as
James Joyce and
André Gide.
2
Notes
1.
2.
3. J.M. Foley, ''Homer's Traditional Art'', 43
4. F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 200
5. R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 1
6. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 7
7. Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek nad Roman Mythology'', xii
8. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 8
9. P. Cartledge, ''The Spartans'', 60, and ''The Greeks'', 22
10. Pasiphae, Encyclopedia: Greek Gods, Spirits, Monsters
11. Homer, ''Iliad'', 8. An epic poem about the Battle of Troy. 366–369
12. Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 17
13. Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 18
14. A. Calimach, ''Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths;'', 12–109
15. W.A. Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', 54
16. K. Dowden, ''The Uses of Greek Mythology'', 11
17. G. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 35
18. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 205
19. Hesiod, ''Works and Days'', 90–105
20. Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', I, 89–162
21. Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology'', 10
22. Hesiod, ''Theogony'', 116–138
23. Hesiod, ''Theogony'', 713–735
24. ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', 414–435
25. G. Betegh, ''The Derveni Papyrus'', 147
26. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 236
★ G. Betegh, ''The Derveni Papyrus'', 147
27.
★ K. Algra, ''The Beginnings of Cosmology'', 45
28. H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 8
29.
30. J. Cashford, ''The Homeric Hymns'', vii
31. G. Nagy, ''Greek Mythology and Poetics'', 54
32. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 182
33. H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 4
34. H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 20ff
35. G. Mile, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 38
36. G. Mile, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 39
37. ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', 75–109
38. I. Morris, ''Archaeology As Cultural History'', 291
39. J. Weaver, ''Plots of Epiphany'', 50
40. R. Bushnell, ''A Companion to Tragedy'', 28
41. K. Trobe, ''Invoke the GOds'', 195
42. M.P. Nilsson, ''Greek Popular Religion'', 50
43. ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', 255–274
44. F.W. Kelsey, ''An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology'', 30
45. ;Raffan-Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 206
46. F.W. Kelsey, ''An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology'', 30
★ H.J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 340
47. C. F. Dupuis, ''The Origin of All Religious Worship'', 86
48.
49. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 211
★ T. Papadopoulou, ''Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy'', 1
50. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 211
51. Herodotus, ''The Histories'', I, 6–7
★ W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 211
52. G.S. Kirk, ''Myth'', 183
53. Apollodorus, ''Library and Epitome'', 1.9.16
★ Apollonius, ''Argonautica'', I, 20ff
★ Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', Pythian 4.1
54.
★ P. Grimmal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', 58
55.
56. P. Grimmal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', 58
57. Y. Bonnefoy, ''Greek and Egyptian Mythologies'', 103
58. R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 317
59. R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 311
60.
★
61. J. Dunlop, ''The History of Fiction'', 355
62.
63.
64. D. Kelly, ''The Conspiracy of Allusion'', 121
65. Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 15
66. Hanson-Heath, ''Who Killed Homer'', 37
67. J. Griffin, ''Greek Myth and Hesiod'', 80
68. G. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 7
69. F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 169–170
70. Plato, ''Theaetetus'', 176b
71. Plato, ''Apology'', 28b-c
72. M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 89
73.
74. R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 7
75. J. Chance, ''Medieval Mythography'', 69
76. P.G. Walsh, ''The Nature of Gods (Introduction), xxvi
77. M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 88
78. M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 87
79. Cicero, ''Tusculanae Disputationes'', 1.11
80. Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 2.81
81. P.G. Walsh, ''The Nature of Gods (Introduction), xxvii
82. North-Beard-Price, ''Religions of Rome'', 259
83. J. Hacklin, ''Asiatic Mythology'', 38
84. Sacred Texts, Orphic Hymns
85. Robert Ackerman, 1991. ''Introduction to Jane Ellen Harrison's "A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion"'', xv
86. F. Graf, ''Greek Mythicalically'', 9
87.
88. D. Allen, ''Structure and Creativity in Religion'', 9
★ R.A. Segal, ''Theorizing about Myth'', 16
89. Jung-Kerényi, ''Essays on a Science of Mythology'', 1–2
90. R. Caldwell, ''The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth'', 344
91. C. Jung, ''The Psychology of the Child Archetype'', 85
92. R. Segal, ''The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell'', 332–335
93. F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 38
94. T. Bulfinch, ''Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology'', 241
95. T. Bulfinch, ''Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology'', 241–242
96. T. Bulfinch, ''Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology'', 242
97. D. Allen, ''Religion'', 12
98. H.I. Poleman, ''Review'', 78–79
★ A. Winterbourne, ''When the Norns Have Spoken'', 87
99. L. Edmunds, ''Approaches to Greek Myth'', 184
★ R.A. Segal, ''A Greek Eternal Child'', 64
100. M. Reinhold, ''The Generation Gap in Antiquity'', 349
101. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 23
102. M. Wood, ''In Search of the Trojan War'', 112
103. W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 24
104.
★ L. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75
105. l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75
106. l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75–76
107. Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology'', 4
References
Primary sources (Greek and Roman)
★ Aeschylus, ''
The Persians''. ''See original text in
Perseus program''.
★ Aeschylus, ''
Prometheus Bound''. ''See original text in
Perseus program''.
★ Apollodorus, ''Library and Epitome''. ''See original text in
Perseus program''.
★ Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'', Book I. ''See original text in
Sacred Texts''.
★ Cicero, ''
De Divinatione''. ''See original text in the
Latin Library''.
★ Cicero, ''Tusculanae resons''. ''See original text in the
Latin Library''.
★ Herodotus, ''
The Histories'', I. ''See original text in the
Sacred Texts''.
★ Hesiod, ''Works and Days''. ''Translated in English by
Hugh G. Evelyn-White''.
★
★ Homer, ''Iliad''. ''See original text in
Perseus program''.
★ ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite''. ''Translated in English by
Gregory Nagy''.
★ ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter''. ''See original text in
Perseus project''.
★ ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes''. ''See the English translation in the
Online Medieval and Classical Library''.
★ Ovid, ''Metamorphoses''. ''See original text in the
Latin Library''.
★ Pausanias.
★ Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', Pythian 4: For Arcesilas of Cyrene Chariot Race 462 BC. ''See original text in the
Perseus program''.
★ Plato, ''
Apology''. ''See original text in
Perseus program''.
★ Plato, ''
Theaetetus''. ''See original text in
Perseus program''.
Secondary sources
★
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison, , Robert, Ackerman, Princeton University Press, 1991—Reprint edition, ISBN 0-691-01514-7
★
Understanding the Odyssey, , , Albala Ken G, Johnson Claudia Durst, Johnson Vernon E., Courier Dover Publications, 2000, ISBN 0-486-41107-9
★
The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, , Keimpe, Algra, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-44667-8
★
Structure & Creativity in Religion: Hermeneutics in Mircea Eliade's Phenomenology and New Directions, , Douglas, Allen, Walter de Gruyter, 1978, ISBN 90-279-7594-9
★
★
The Derveni Papyrus, , Gábor, Betegh, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-80108-7
★
Greek and Egyptian Mythologies, , Yves, Bonnefoy, University of Chicago Press, 1992, ISBN 0-226-06454-9
★
Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology, , Thomas, Bulfinch, Greenwood Press, 2003, ISBN 0-313-30881-0
★
Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical (translated by John Raffan), , Walter, Burkert, Blackwell Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0-631-15624-0
★
Greek Myths, , Lucilla, Burn, University of Texas Press, 1990, ISBN 0-292-72748-8
★
Medieval A Companion to Tragedy, , Rebecca W., Bushnell, Blackwell Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4051-0735-9
★
Medieval Mythography, , Jane, Chance, University Press of Florida, 1994, ISBN 0-8130-1256-2
★
Approaches to Greek Myth, , Richard, Caldwell, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8018-3864-9
★
Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths, , Andrew, Calimach, Haiduk Press, 2002, ISBN 0-9714686-0-5
★
The Greeks, , Paul A., Cartledge, Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-280388-3
★
The Spartans (translated in Greek), , Paul A., Cartledge, Livanis, 2004, ISBN 960-14-0843-6
★
The Homeric Hymns, , Jules, Cashford, Penguin Classics, 2003, ISBN 0-14-043782-7
★
The Uses of Greek Mythology, , Ken, Dowden, Routledge (UK), 1992, ISBN 0-415-06135-0
★
The History of Fiction, , John, Dunlop, Carey and Hart, 1842,
★
Approaches to Greek Myth, , Lowell, Edmunds, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-8018-3864-9
★
★
Homer's Traditional Art, , John Miles, Foley, Penn State Press, 1999, ISBN 0-271-01870-4
★
Myth and Poetry in Lucretius, , Monica R., Gale, Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-521-45135-3
★
★
★
The Oxford Illustrated History of Greece and the Hellenistic World edited by John Boardman, Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray, , Jasper, Griffin, Oxford University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-19-285438-0
★
The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, , Pierre, Grimal, Blackwell Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-631-20102-5
★
Asiatic Mythology, , Joseph, Hacklin, Asian Educational Services, 1994, ISBN 81-206-0920-4
★
Who Killed Homer (translated in Greek by Rena Karakatsani), , Heath John, Hanson Victor Davis, Kaktos, 1999, ISBN 960-352-545-6
★
The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek mythology", , Robin, Hard, Routledge (UK), 2003, ISBN 0-415-18636-6
★
★
Essays on a Science of Mythology, , Kerényi Karl, Jung Carl Gustav, Princeton University Press, 2001—Reprint edition, ISBN 0-691-01756-5
★
Science of Mythology, , C.J., Jung, Routledge (UK), 2002, ISBN 0-415-26742-0
★
An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology, , Douglas, Kelly, Douglas Kelly, 2003, ISBN 0-415-18636-6
★
A Handbook of Greek Mythology, , Francis W., Kelsey, Allyn and Bacon, 1889,
★
Myth, , Geoffrey Stephen, Kirk, University of California Press, 1973, ISBN 0-520-02389-7
★
Children's Books on Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography, , Brazouski Antoinette, Klatt J. Mary, Greenwood Press, 1994, ISBN 0-313-28973-5
★
★
Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology, , Geoffrey, Miles, University of Illinois Press, 1999, ISBN 0-415-14754-9
★
Archaeology As Cultural History, , Ian, Morris, Blackwell Publishing, 2000, ISBN 0-631-19602-1
★
★
Greek Mythology and Poetics, , Gregory, Nagy, Cornell University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8014-8048-5
★
Greek Popular Religion, , Martin P., Nilsson, Columbia University Press, 1940,
★
Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology, , , North John A., Beard Mary, Price Simon R.F., Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-521-31682-0
★
Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy, , Thalia, Papadopoulou, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-85126-2
★
Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece, , William Armostrong III, Percy, Routledge (UK), 1999, ISBN 0-252-06740-1
★
Review of "Ouranos-Varuna. Etude de mythologie comparee indo-europeenne by Georges Dumezil", , Horace I., Poleman, "Journal of the American Oriental Society",
★
The Generation Gap in Antiquity, , Meyer, Reinhold, "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society",
★
A Handbook of Greek Mythology, , Herbert Jennings, Rose, Routledge (UK), 1991, ISBN 0-415-04601-7
★
Myth and the Polis edited by Dora Carlisky Pozzi, John Moore Wickersham, , Robert A., Segal, Cornell University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8014-2473-9
★
The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell, , Robert A., Segal, "Christian Century",
★
Theorizing about Myth, , Robert A., Segal, Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1999, ISBN 1-55849-191-0
★
Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks, , Heinrich Wilhelm (translated by R. B. Paul), Stoll, Francis and John Rivington, 1852,
★
Invoke the Gods, , Kala, Trobe, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2001, ISBN 0-7387-0096-7
★
★
★
★
The Nature of the Gods, , Patrick Gerald, Walsh, Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-282511-9
★
The Plots of Epip 
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
