CLASS 40 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Culture Hero, Hephaestus
Classics 40 Mythology
4/6/18
●Final struggles for power
○Second set of parent vs. children battle
○Cronos and titans vs. zeus and the olympians
○Zeus chosen by the gods to be king
■Distributing privileges and rights
○Zeus swallowed metis (mind) so she doesn’t bear a son who will overthrow him
○Zeus vs. typhios (the typhoon)
○This explains why zeus is the king of the gods in hesiod’s time and will always
continue
●Transgressive sexuality among the gods
○Cronos and Rheia (flow) are siblings
○Cronos “forced himself upon rheia”
○Zeus and hera are siblings
○These are not acceptable behaviors in greek culture
○Asexual births: the sea, hephaistos, athena from zeus
○How can transgression be part of their divine stories
○Important to judge by both
■The standard of ancient myth, where stories of transgressive sexuality and
birth are common
■What do you think is right, articulating why, challenging yourself, asking
where your standards come from
●Fate
○Rheia’s parents told her the fate of Cronos and Zeus
○The destinies and the fates prosecute the transgressions of mortals and gods
○Is Fate stronger than the gods?
○“Fatum” = “what has been told”
○Think about your own fate.. What is it?
○Fate as a narrative device
○Fate as the structure of the universe
●Prometheus: Rebel and culture hero
○Pro- Before
○Metheus - thinking
■His name means: thinking ahead
○Tricks zeus in sacrifice:
■Pile of bones bigger and covered in fat and skin
●Wanted zeus to pick this one
■Pile of flesh and innards, the good stuff
○Zeus chooses the wrong pile
○Explanation for why men get the good stuff
Document Summary
Second set of parent vs. children battle. Cronos and titans vs. zeus and the olympians. Zeus chosen by the gods to be king. Zeus swallowed metis (mind) so she doesn"t bear a son who will overthrow him. This explains why zeus is the king of the gods in hesiod"s time and will always continue. These are not acceptable behaviors in greek culture. Asexual births: the sea, hephaistos , athena from zeus. How can transgression be part of their divine stories. The standard of ancient myth, where stories of transgressive sexuality and birth are common. What do you think is right, articulating why, challenging yourself, asking where your standards come from. Rheia"s parents told her the fate of cronos and zeus. The destinies and the fates prosecute the transgressions of mortals and gods. Fate as the structure of the universe. Pile of bones bigger and covered in fat and skin. Pile of flesh and innards, the good stuff.
