CMLT316 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Coeus, Erebus, Crius
31 May 2018
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2/8 Class Notes
Changing Myths, Cosmogony and Theogony, The Creation of the Universe and the Succession
of the Gods
Sources of Myths
● The Greeks and Romans lacked a single, authoritative, religious narrative
● Some important narratives did exist, for example:
○ Greek
■ Homer’s “Iliad” and Odyssey (circa 8th century BCE)
■ Hesiod’s “Theogony” and “Works and Days” (circa 700 BCE)
■ The Homeric Hymns (7th-4th centuries BCE?)
○ Roman
■ Virgil’s “Aeneid” (1st century BCE)
■ Ovid’s writings (1st century BCE)
○ But these are more or less works of literature
Ancient Literacy
● Conservative estimates are that about 10-15% literacy in the most urban parts of the
Greek and Roman worlds
● Oral transmission of myth- “the telephone game”
Sources of Myths: Mutability
● The lack of any single fixed “authoritative” text and the definition of these stories as
“literature”
● Meant that the details of each could be changed to some degree
● Things that can’t (shouldn’t ?) be changed
○ Ex. Batman/Bruce Wayne
Part 1: Cosmogony-The Birth of the Universe
● Cosmogony = the birth of ‘the order’
○ All such myths are non-falsifiable, they cannot be proven false
● Cosmetology = the study of making ‘order’
● Plato’s Timaeus
○ Myth = a reasonable account
○ Stories of creation must remain tentative-they are only useful as long as they
remain probable or possible
● Russel’s Teapot: Appeal to Tradition Fallacy
Cosmogony-Hesiod’s Theogony
● Circa 8th century BCE (sometime between 799-700 BCE)
● Shepherd/farmer turned poet
● From Boeotia (region north of Athens)
● Wrote “Theogony,” “Works and Days,” (and “Catalogue of Women”?)
● Invocation to Theogony
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
But these are more or less works of literature. Conservative estimates are that about 10-15% literacy in the most urban parts of the. Oral transmission of myth- the telephone game . The lack of any single fixed authoritative text and the definition of these stories as. Meant that the details of each could be changed to some degree. Things that can"t (shouldn"t ?) be changed. Cosmogony = the birth of the order". Changing myths, cosmogony and theogony, the creation of the universe and the succession of the gods. The greeks and romans lacked a single, authoritative, religious narrative. Some important narratives did exist, for example: Homer"s iliad and odyssey (circa 8th century bce) Hesiod"s theogony and works and days (circa 700 bce) All such myths are non-falsifiable, they cannot be proven false. Cosmetology = the study of making order". Stories of creation must remain tentative-they are only useful as long as they remain probable or possible.
