CC 303/352: Lecture Outline, September 18, 2001

I. Poseidon=Neptune

• domain: sea, earthquakes, other waters
• attributes/iconography: trident, horses
• possible origins: Indo-European god of fertility/water from under earth? But note Near Eastern tradition of 3-fold division of universe
• principal partner: Amphitrite (offspring: Triton)
• major myths

1. Fails to win Athenians with salt-water spring
2. Odyssey: punishes Odysseus for 10 years because he blinds his son Polyphemus

• personality: implacable

II. Hephaistos=Vulcan

• domain: blacksmith, other crafts, volcanoes
• attributes/iconography: blacksmith's tools, craftsman's cap
• possible origins: Lemnian volcano god?
• principal partner: Aphrodite (no offspring)
• major myths

1. provides armor for Achilles (Homer's Iliad) and Aeneas (Vergil's Aeneid)
2. captures Hera in throne and is brought back to Olympus to free her by Dionysus
3. captures Ares and Aphrodite in net

• personality: social misfit (reflects elite attitudes to craftsmen)

III. Apollo

A. Features

• domain: oracle, prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, sun, sudden death, enlightenment
• attributes/iconography: ideal youthful beauty, lyre, bow, tripod
• possible origins: Lycian plague god?
• principal partners:

1. Hyacinthus
2. Coronis (offspring: Asclepius=Aesculapius)

• other major myths

1. Daphne
2. Cassandra
3. Sibyl
4. Marsyas

• personality: in many ways quintessential youth: paradoxical mix of ideals and pettiness, order and irrationality

B. Places

1. Delos: birthplace: only place that would take Leto; becomes major sanctuary

2. Delphi

• kills dragon
• kidnaps sailors for priests
• Oracle in temple: adyton, tripod, Pythia
• some famous oracles

1. Croesus
2. Themistocles
3. Socrates

• Inscribed on temple: "know thyself" and "nothing too much"
• Also at Delphi: theater, games, treasuries

IV. Hermes=Mercury

• domain: messenger god, psychopompos, trickery, thievery, business, protector of flocks
• attributes/iconography: winged sandals, caduceus, petasus (traveler's hat)
• possible origins: pile of rocks at crossroad, herm, plus Near Eastern messenger god
• principal offspring: Pan
• major myth: Homeric Hymn to Hermes

1. invents lyre
2. steals Apollo's cattle
3. lies about it
4. trial before Zeus
5. appeases Apollo with lyre

• personality: trickster, breaker of rules, jokester

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