Note on schedule, due dates: note the change in the due date for paper #2, and the elimination of the Hippolytus reading
Myth in Religion: Olympians; mystery religions; hero cults
POLYTHEISM: a different kind of religion
Zeus: king of the gods
Zeus: we are too prone to think reflexively of the Judaeo-Christian god, with all that entails: Zeus as an unchanging, transcendent, wise, and even - possibly - loving deity.
What is "god": is the meaning stable? fixed? or culturally determined?
Zeus and Leda: a different idea of "god"?
W. B. Yeats: see Powell, p. 505
The problem of divine indifference to the human condition
The polytheistic world view
The lack of a "canon": the plurality of mythmaking voices, in addition to the natural plurality of gods and stories: no fixed theology
The pagan, polytheistic world of gods is potentially chaotic, and not just to outsiders
Distinctive personality of a god derives from four factors:
Redundancy and plurality everywhere
Cult: fire festivals belong to Artemis, Demeter, Heracles; ox sacrifices in which the ox-slayer flees from the scene of his deed are celebrated in honor of both Zeus and Dionysus; maidens are consecrated to serve in the temples of Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite; Cleisthenes tyrant of Sikyon abolished a cult to Adrastos and reassigned the celebration to Dionysus (!)
Names: different names belong to the same god (Apollo & Paean; Ares and Enyalios) or two beings may be consciously equated (Apollo and Helios); in this way a local name or quite specific power is associated with a better known divinity (Poseidon Erechtheus; Zeus Kataibatas)
Myths: seem to allow interchange of figures, thus the dramatic rescue of an unborn child from its burning mother is told of Asklepius (god of healing) as well as of Dionysus (god of wine etc.); or the same being can have contradictory myths associated with it (two versions of the birth of Aphrodite, for instance)
Authority and organization: to some extent Homer (through his representation of the family of gods on Olympus) and Hesiod (through his genealogies) helped to make sense of this confusion of traditions. (Cf. quote from Herodotus.) But the great literary authorities were still subject to revision, and the enormous plurality of beliefs often overwhelms any simple statement as to what a god is about
ZEUS: the "father of gods and men"
The Example of Zeus: What divine power does Zeus represent?
Zeus = day : sky-god : thunderbolt (deus, dies, Tuesday). "Zeus is raining" : Zeus Kataibates
stronger than other gods (Hesiod tells us how)
swallows Metis: union of power and wisdom: cf. Prometheus deceptions (only later then that Z. is omniscient)
oversees divine order: head of family
oversees human order: kings, assemblies, hospitality: Zeus Xenios, Zeus Polieus, Z. Boulaios
possessions of kingly household: Z. Ktesios
scales of Zeus: problem of relationship to fate (moira)
Dike = "justice" alongside Zeus: Zeus Dikaios
Themis = "right" as first spouse
never represented on stage (very special)
"Zeus is aether [=upper air], Z. is earth, Z. is sky, Z. is everything and what is still higher than this"
Relationship to order (cosmos), divine justice, and the like seems a deep association, but it is not, as for us, a matter of doctrine, but rather something the ancients felt free to explore through their myths
Iconography: a bit more background
Black figure (earlier), Red figure (later): "bilingual vases"
Figures of Europa: an illustrative example of the importance of details in the analysis of iconography
The iconography of Zeus (=Roman Juppiter, Jove)
Attributes: beard (almost always), sceptre, lightning bolt, eagle
Hera unveiling herself to Zeus
Other images of Zeus collected at the Univ. of Victoria (includes an example of Z.'s signature!)
The iconography of Poseidon (=Roman Neptune)
Attributes: beard, trident, fish, horse (!)
Poseidon, Apollo & Artemis (Parthenon frieze East side Acropolis, Athens 442-438 BC): how do we know this is Poseidon (Pausanias)?
Ambiguity between the figures of Zeus & Poseidon: the limits of iconographical analysis
Zeus hurling thunderbolt (statuette from Dodona)
Poseidon hurling trident (coin, one of several examples)
Poseidon? or Zeus? Full size bronze statue from Cape Artemision:
Zeus and the Near East
Maintainer of order: head of family in Olympus, strong associations with kings, assemblies: power and the dispensing of justice which is the natural province of power. Union of power and wisdom (Metis).
How does this relate to his role (aspect) as sky-god?
Very old mythologies from the east (much older than our Greek stories) make the weather-god the head god of the Pantheon of gods (why?) Ruler-god ===> kingship, power, judgement
Quintessentially Greek: exploration between the relationship between power and judgement :: justice and retribution, with special reference to the age-old question, Is the world informed by a sense of justice? Is there in fact anyone in control who will punish the wicked and reward the good?
A notion of divinity worth contemplation, that speaks strongly to basic ethical and spiritual concerns.
But NOT a "good" god in every respect. Nor always an INTERESTED god.
