Exploring Greek Myth E-Book

Matthew Clark

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 533

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Exploring Greek Myth offers an extensive discussion of variant forms of myths and lesser-known stories, including important local myths and local versions of PanHellenic myths. Clark also discusses approaches to understanding myths, allowing students to gain an appreciation of the variety in one volume.

• Guides students from an introductory understanding of myths to a wide-ranging exploration of current scholarly approaches on mythology as a social practice and as an expression of thought
• Written in an informal conversational style appealing to students by an experienced lecturer in the field
• Offers extensive discussion of variant forms of myths and many lesser known, but deserving, stories
• Investigates a variety of approaches to the study of myth including: the sources of our knowledge of Greek myth, myth and ritual in ancient Greek society, comparative myth, myth and gender, hero cult, psychological interpretation of myth, and myth and philosophy
• Includes suggestions in each chapter for essays and research projects, as well as extensive lists of books and articles for further reading
• The author draws on the work of many leading scholars in the field  in his exploration of topics throughout the text

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

List of Illustrations

Preface

Note on Spelling

Further Reading

Acknowledgments

Chapter One: The Knife Did It

I. What is a Myth?

II. Further Characteristics of Greek Myth

III. Did the Greeks have Greek Myths?

IV. Panhellenic Myth

V. Local Myth

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Two: Six Hundred Gods

I. Ancient Greek Polytheism and Hesiod's Theogony

II. Kronos and Hestia in Myth and Ritual

III. Personified Abstractions as Divinities

IV. Beyond Hesiod

V. Myth as Ritual Aetiology

VI. Myth and Ritual in Greek Society

VII. Myth and Ritual in The Oresteia

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Three: Homer's Beauty Pageant

I. Famous Women of Myth in The Odyssey

II. The Myth of Melampous

III. Mythic Traditions in The Iliad

IV. Mythic Tradition in the Catalogue of Women

V. Myth on the FranÇois Vase

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Four: Pelops' Shoulder

I. Lykaon in Latin Poetry and Greek Myth

II. Pelops' Shoulder

III. Lykaon and Pelops

IV. The Sources of Greek Myth

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Five: Ikaros' Wings, Aktaion's Dogs

I. Ovid and Aktaion's Error

II. Aktaion's Crime

III. Localization and Rationalization

IV. The Fall of Ikaros

V. Ikaros in Rome

VI. Ikaros in the Western Tradition

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Six: The Bones of Orestes

I. The Bones of Orestes

II. Bears for Iphigeneia

III. The Bones of Theseus

IV. Hyrnetho's Olive Grove

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Seven: Born from the Earth

I. The Early Kings of Athens

II. Athenian Autochthony

III. Other Cities and their Founders

IV. Myths of Colonial Foundation

Conclusion

Further Reading

Appendix: genealogies of ion

Chapter Eight: The Judgment of Paris

I. Greek Myth and the Indo-Europeans

II. Greek Myth and The Near East

III. Greek Myth, World Myth, and Psychoanalysis

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Nine: Boys in Dresses, Brides with Beards

I. Boys and Men

II. Girls and Women

III. Women Only

Iv. Men and Women

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Ten: Agamemnon's Mask?

I. Herodotus and Myth

II. Thucydides and Myth

III. Mythic History in Ancient Greek Thought

IV. Myth and the History of the Delphic Oracle

V. Myth and The History of The Trojan War

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Eleven: Orestes on Trial

I. Myth and Thought in Athenian Tragedy

II. Myth and Thought in Aeschylus

III. Myth and Thought in Sophocles and Euripides

IV. Sacrifice and Mythic Thought

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Twelve: Plato and the Poets

I. Skepticism, Allegory, and Rationalization

II. Parmenides, Prodicus, and Protagoras

III. Plato and Myth

IV. Plato and Atlantis

Conclusion

Further Reading

Chapter Thirteen: Conclusion

Notes

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

References

Index

This edition first published 2012

© 2012 Matthew Clark

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell's publishing program has been merged with Wiley's global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clark, Matthew, 1948-

Exploring Greek myth / Matthew Clark.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p.     ) and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-9456-3 (hardcover: alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-9455-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)1. Mythology, Greek. I. Title.

BL783.C53 2012

292.1′3–dc23

2011038291

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs 9781444362121; ePub 9781444362138; Mobi 9781444362145

This book is dedicated to the memoryof my sister, Miranda Smith

List of Illustrations

Figure 1.1 Persephone rising out of the earth from the Underworld

Figure 1.2 Triptolemos in his winged chariot

Figure 2.1 Rhea deceives Kronos

Figure 3.1 The François Vase

Figure 5.1 Aktaion and Artemis

Figure 7.1 Gaia hands Erichthonios to Athena

Figure 7.2 Kadmos and the serpent

Figure 10.1 The “Mask of Agamemnon”

Figure 11.1 Aigisthos prepares to kill Agamemnon

Figure 12.1 The abductions of Thetis and Oreithyia

Acknowledgments

These explorations would never have happened without the help of many people. I begin by thanking those teachers, colleagues, and friends with whom I have discussed myth over the years, in particular Eric Csapo and Gregory Nagy. Special thanks also to those with whom I have shared the teaching of Humanities 1105, “Myth and Imagination in Ancient Greece and Rome”: James Rives, Laurence Broadhurst, and Clifford Ando; this course is now in the able hands of Rob Tordoff. The wonderful editorial group at Wiley-Blackwell has been helpful and encouraging from beginning to end; Haze Humbert (who got the whole thing going), Galen Young, Allison Medoff, Nik Prowse, and Michael Coultas, as well as the anonymous readers. Thanks also to Ann Lau for the indexing. And thanks to the many students over the years who have allowed me to ramble on about the wonders of Greek myth.

Chapter One

The Knife Did It

Definitions and Characteristics for the Study of Myth

This chapter introduces definitions and concepts necessary for the exploration of Greek myth. Myth is not easy to define, and there is no definition which would receive universal approval, but an approximate definition is presented in Section I. Section II continues with a few characteristics of Greek myth not covered by the definition, including time in Greek myth, and the interconnected web of stories which make up the mythic tradition. Section III asks if the Greek themselves had a concept of Greek Myth. Sections IV and V introduce an important distinction between Panhellenic myths – myths which were widely known throughout the Greek world – and local myths – myths which were of primary interest to those resident in a particular city or region of Greece. Section IV uses the myth of the abduction of Persephone as an example of Panhellenic myth, and Section V presents the story of the Athenian festival of the Bouphonia as an example of local myth.

I. What is a Myth?

It is easy to give examples of Greek myths – the Abduction of Persephone, for instance, or the Labors of Herakles – but surprisingly difficult to say exactly what a Greek myth is. Scholars generally agree that myth is a slippery category. According to G. S. Kirk, “There is no one definition of myth” (1970: 7). Walter Burkert asks, “What is myth?”, and he answers, “A simple definition will not do” (1979: 1). Eric Csapo warns that “Definition is never the innocent first step in a process of empirical discovery . . .; it is rather always the final precipitate of an already elaborate theory”, and he continues, “If I begin with a discussion of the problems of defining myth, it is to urge suspicion” (2005: 1). Despite these warnings, it seems appropriate to attempt a provisional definition, so that the reader will have an idea of what will count as a Greek myth in this book, and then to indicate some of the problems such a definition may raise.

As an approximate definition, then, a myth is a traditional story that speaks to important issues in the culture in which it is told. This definition is not perfect, as further discussion will show, but it marks off at least a central area that everyone would consider myth. This definition should not be used too rigidly, however; the edges of the category are fuzzy, and myths that are atypical by this definition should not be excluded from consideration.