CLASSICS 224 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Greek Hero Cult, Graeae, Death Of Baby P
31 May 2020
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Document Summary
In early poetry (e. g. homer and hesiod), hero was applied widely to anyone (male) whose fame the poet sang about. Later, hero was a deceased individual who exerts power, good or bad, after death and demands honor/worship. Not living, not olympian gods (heracles an exception?) Famous mythical figures, also many locally prominent individuals. Kills opponent in 469 bce olympics, disqualified. Goes home distraught/enraged, smashes out pillar in local school;, kills 60 schoolboys. C. takes refuge in temple of athena- vanishes. Delphic oracle tells astypalaians to worship c. as one no longer mortal . Local, not panhellenic (panhellenic all throughout the greek world) If no worship, then famine, plague, infertility, drought, civil unrest. Mysterious death/vanishing in a suburb of athens (colonus) Broadway adaptation as gospel at colonus , in style of african-american. Grandfather arcisius, king of argos, receives oracle that grandchild will kill him. Acrisius locks his virgin daughter danae in bronze tower.
