CLAS 3308: MYTHS AND THE CULT OF ANCIENT GODS

PART I (Scantron)

The following are true statements:
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Question # 1:   b  d
Comments:

• a) It is the general consensus of historians nowadays that the Dorian invasion is a fiction about history, rather than a real event.  Read the pertinent section in Perseus' Overview of Greek History:  The question of a Dorian invasion.
• c) The fifth and the fourth centuries are the Classical period.
• e) On the contrary, myths were transmitted in song many centuries earlier than the beginnings of writing. This is known as the oral tradition.

• b) There is no evidence, either historical or pre-historical, of human sacrifice in the ancient Greek culture.  The ritual of sacrifice  involved the killing of an animal.
• e) Such a belief took root in some religious groups, and of course was the tenet of some thinkers, but it was not by any means "shared" by mythmaking groups.

• c) Zeus and Athena wore the aegis.

• a) It would be a great mistake to interpret the plots of  myths as representing historical reality.  Marriage and the household were the primary societal group in the ancient Greek culture.
• e) Hera won the contest.

• b) The behavior of gods and heroes is not a model to be imitated by humans; furthermore, in her myths Hera is shown as a pathetic mother.
• d) This happened to Hephaestus.
• e) Of course: they were daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, "Memory."

• a) Athena is a goddess of civilization, not of nature.  She is the protector of the city.
• d) Apollo was the god of music.
• e) Athena was born from the head of Zeus.

• d) That Athena is a goddess does not mean that her traits are feminine.  Athena was the the favorite daughter of Zeus and a goddess of intelligence and war.  The ancient Greek culture was clearly patriarchal.

• a) Delos was, early on, an important center for the worship of Apollo, where a festival of the Ionians was celebrated.  Yet Delphi displaced it and became the primary site of the cult of Apollo.

• Cassandra is a mythic character.  The story says that she refulsed Apollo and he punished her by taking away her credibility.

a) aegis; b) Demeter; c) Hermes; d) Apollodorus; e) Parthenos; f) Zeus; g) tripod; h) Eileithya; i) Metis; j) Hephaestus; k) palladium; l) Daphne; m) Marsyas; n) Cheiron; o) Delos.
 

General observations on the essays

Short essays

In some cases writing does not reach the minimum standard of correct English.  See my suggestions at Sample test.

Short questions:

a) In the first part of the Hymn,Apollo inspires fear among the immortals, and Delos is afraid of his hot temper.  Soon after he was born, Apollo declared (l. 131-32), "The lyre and the curved bow are dear to me, and I shall prophesy to men the unerring will of Zeus."

b) Some students confused the myth with the ritual.  You were not expected to remember all the details of either, but to recognize that the Arrhephoria (listed in the review guide)  1) was a myth of initiation; 2)  symbolized the birth of an ancestor born from the earth and thus restated the Athenian claim to possession of their territory and inalienable power.
It is not appropriate to tell the story of Hephaestus, Athena, and the miraculous birth, and then say that "after that happened (the myth happened??) the Arrhephoria was carried out every year, etc."  The Arrhephoria is a historical ceremony, the myth may actually have been created, or at least consigned to writing, later, as an explanation of the ritual.

Main essay

This was not a question about Hera as a person, but rather about, on the one hand, the traits that myths assign to her imaginary personality, and on the other, to the function of this goddess in the Greek culture, as far as we can glean it from what we know about her cult.  It would be a mistake to say that Hera got even on Zeus for his infidelities "in order to preserve their marriage."  Students who mentioned this drew the conclusion that Hera was a mainstay of the institution of marriage because she defended her own marriage.

The better answers pointed out that Hera was the wife, the female partner of the prime "holy couple."  These students mentioned the ritual in honor of Hera where the burning of her effigy and the appurtenances of the mock wedding ceremony  took place and explained that  this ancient ritual is an example of reversal which  promoted the consolidation of the institution of marriage.