CC 303/352: Lecture Outline, September 20, 2001

I. Athena=Minerva

• domain: war (especially strategy), weaving, other crafts, wisdom, ships and chariots, olive, citadels
• attributes/iconography: helmet, other armor and weapons, aegis, owl
• possible origin: perhaps started as protector of palace and citadel
• partners and offspring: none: virgin goddess
• major myths

1. competes with Poseidon for Athens
2. protectress of heroes (Odysseus, Heracles, Jason, Theseus, others)
3. Arachne (punishment of hubris, divine wrath)

• Some perspectives

1. Jung: animus and anima
2. control of force (note especially conflicts with Poseidon)
3. the feminine controlled

II. Aphrodite=Venus

• domain: sex, love, beauty
• attributes/iconography: ideal of feminine beauty, Cupids, doves
• probable origin: Near Eastern fertility goddess (cf. Astartê, Inanna, Ishtar; note connection with Cyprus)
• partners and offspring

1. Ares (offspring Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia, Eros=Cupid)
2. Hermes (offspring Hermaphroditus, Priapus)
3. Anchises (offspring Aeneas)
4. Adonis

• major myths

1. Pygmalion
2. Myrrha

• perspectives

1. the power of desire
2. the feminine uncontrolled

III. Artemis=Diana

• domain: hunt, chastity, moon (Artemis, Hecate, Selene), sudden death of women, childbirth
• attributes/iconography: bow and arrow, costume of huntress
• possible origin: "mother of animals" (note Artemis of Ephesus)
• partners and offspring: none: virgin goddess
• major myths

1. Niobe
2. Actaeon
3. Orion
4. Callisto

• perspectives

1. Artemis and the nubile maiden: initiation into marriage
2. nature versus culture
3. purity
4. the feminine endangered

IV. Introduction to Greek tragedy

• 3 great tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, 5th cent. BC in Athens
• origins of modern theater, but vastly different from today
• the event: the Festival of Dionysus every March

1. religious
2. civic
3. artistic
4. competitive

• the Theater of Dionysus

1. outdoors
2. bit (seats about 17,000)
3. parts: orchestra, skene, cavea, parodoi
4. 3 actors and chorus of 24 men
5. accompanied by aulos=tibia
6. all male performers
7. masks

• the structure of a tragedy

1. prologue
2. parados
3. episodes alternating with stasima
4. messenger speeches
5. agon
6. long speeches and stichomythia

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