The Olympian Gods: 2011

Heracles and the 12 labors

THE LIFE AND TIMES

There are as many different versions of Hercules' life story as there are storytellers.
Zeus fell in love with a beautiful Greek woman named Alcmene. When Alcmene's husband, Amphitryon, was away, Zeus made her pregnant. This made Hera so angry that she tried to prevent the baby from being born. When Alcmene gave birth to the baby anyway, she named him Herakles. The name Herakles means "glorious gift of Hera" in Greek, and that got Hera angrier still. Then she tried to kill the baby by sending snakes into his crib. But little Hercules was one strong baby, and he strangled the snakes, one in each hand, before they could bite him.
Hera remained angry. Hera decided to pay Zeus back for his infidelity by making the rest of Herakles' life as miserable as she could.

Louvre G 192, Attic red figure stamnos, c. 480-470 B.C.
The baby Hercules wrestles with the snakes Hera has sent to his crib.
Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the Musée du Louvre

When Herakles became a great warrior, he married Megara. They had two children. Herakles and Megara were very happy, but Hera sent a fit of madness to Herakles that put him into so great a rage, he murdered Megara and the children.

When Herakles regained his senses and saw the horrible thing that he had done, he asked the god Apollo to rid him of this pollution. Apollo commanded the hero to do certain tasks as a punishment for his wrongs. Apollo declared that he had to go to the city of Tiryns. The king of Tiryns was Eurystheus. He had a reputation for being mean, and Herakles knew that the king would give him a tough time. The hero had to serve Eurystheus for twelve years while he performed the Labors. There was some good news, though. When the tasks were completed, Apollo said, Herakles would become immortal.

Aerial view of the fortress-palace at Tiryns.
The citadel's impressively thick fortress walls have stood for over thirty centuries.
Photograph by Raymond V. Schoder, S.J., courtesy of Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers

THE LABORS

Ref: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/labors.html

Zeus and his consorts

He had numerous lovers in mythology. He had divine consorts, Nymphs and mortal women.

Look for information of each couple and explain it.

Zeus and Demeter
Zeus and Eurynome
Zeus and Hera
Zeus and Leto
Zeus and Metis
Zeus and Mnemosyne
Zeus and Maia
Zeus and Alkmene
Zeus and Europa
Zeus and Kallisto
Zeus and Semele

Zeus

He is the most important Olympian god. He divided the world between him, Poseidon (sea) and Hades (underworld). He was the lord of the sky. His parents were Cronus and Rhea, two of the titans. He is the little brother of some other important gods: Hestia, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter and Hera.
He controlled lightning and thunder, whic are their elements and weapons. He was married to Hera, his sister, despite he mated with other women.

Activity 9: Working with pictures

Have a look at these pictures and then do the activities:

1. Can you identify these gods/goddesses? Here you have a clue, but you have to make some sentences using it.

In picture X there is/there could be a/an/the Egyptian, Aztecan, Greek, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist god.

2. Write at least 10 differences and similarities between the Greek god and the others.

Activity 8: Greek gods, spirits ans monsters

You have to write a short biography of the following Greek gods, spirits and monsters.
You can use this Encyclopedia on line: http://www.theoi.com/Encyc_A.html

Chaos
Gaia
Rhea
Kronos
Pontus
Tethys
Uranos
Atlas
Iapetos
Oceanus
Erinyes
Hesperides
Cyclopes
Mnemosyne
Nereids
Leto

Activity 7: Theogony, Part III

Have a look at this picture and then do the exercises:

Complete these sentences:

- Gaia and Uranos were ____________ parents.

- Erinyes, Giants and the three nymphs were _______________ children.

- Leto was ____________ mother.

- Tethys was _______________ daughter.

- Kronos was ______________ husband.

- Hermes was ___________ son.

Activity 6: Theogony, Part II

Read this synopsis of Theogony (II) by Hesiod and then answer the questions:

Kronos, who had established himself as leader of the Titans, married his sister Rhea but, mindful of the prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed: Hestia (goddess of the hearth and domesticity), Demeter (goddess of the earth and fertility), Hera (goddess of women and marriage), Hades (god of the Underworld), Poseidon (god of the sea) and Zeus (god of the sky and thunder, and later to become the king of the gods) in that order. However, with the help of Gaia and Ouranos, Rhea managed to trick Kronos into saving Zeus from this fate, and then to further trick him into vomiting up his other five children.

Joining with Zeus, the other offspring of Rhea and Kronos (collectively known as the Olympian gods, for their chosen home on Mount Olympus), along with the Kyklopes, Prometheus and Epimetheus, then waged a great ten-year war on the Titans and the Giants for control of the cosmos. Eventually Zeus released the Hecatonchires from their imprisonment in Tartarus to shake the earth, allowing him to gain the upper hand in the struggle and, casting the fury of his thunderbolts at the Titans, throw them down into Tartarus.

Who was the most powerful Olympian god? Did he create the world?
Were the Greek gods eternal? Were they immortal?
In part I and part II of Theogony, how many ways of "reproduction" are there in the text?

Activity 5: Theogony, Part I

Read this synopsis of Theogony by Hesiod and then answer the questions:

In the very beginning, Chaos arose spontaneously. The parthenogenic children of Chaos were Gaia (the Earth), Eros (Desire or sexual love), Tartarus (the Underworld), Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).

Erebos and Nyx reproduced to make Aither (Brightness) and Hemera (Day), and from Gaia came Ouranos (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea). Ouranos mated with Gaia to create three sets of offspring: the twelve Titans (Oceanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Kronos), a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age; the three Kyklopes or Cyclops (Brontes, Steropes and Arges), a race of one-eyed giants; and the three Hecatonchires (Kottos, Briareos and Gyges), hundred-handed giants of even greater power and ferocity than the Titans.

Ouranos was so disgusted with the Hecatonchires that he pushed them back into Gaia's womb, so Gaia begged the Titans to punish their father. Only Kronos, the youngest and most ambitious Titan, was willing to do so, and he castrated his father with Gaia’s sickle. Ouranos’ blood splattered onto the earth, producing the Erinyes, the Gigants and the Meliai (a race of tree nymphs). Kronos threw Ouranos’ severed testicles into the sea, and Aphrodite (the goddess of Love) formed out of the sea-foam which resulted.

Nyx produced many children, including Moros (Doom), Oneiroi (Dreams), Ker and the Keres (Destinies), Eris (Discord), Momos (Blame), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Retribution), the Hesperides (Daughters of Night), Hypnos (Sleep), Oizys (Hardship) and Apate (Deceit). Eris, in her turn, produced Ponos (Pain), Hysmine (Battles), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Phonoi (Murders), Lethe (Oblivion), Makhai (Fight), Pseudologos (Lies), Amphilogia (Disputes), Limos (Famine), Androktasia (Manslaughters), Ate (Ruin), Dysnomia (Lawlessness), the Algea (Illnesses), Horkos (Oaths) and Logoi (Stories).

After Ouranos's castration, Gaia married Pontus and they went on to produce a line of sea deities, nymphs and monsters, including Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea, also known as Proteus and Phorcys in his other aspects, from whom were descended the Nereids, the fifty nymphs of the sea, the best-known being Thetis), Thaumas (who later married the Oceanid Electra, and bore Iris, or Rainbow, and the two winged spirits, Aello and Ocypetes, known as the Harpies), Eurybia and Cetus (a hideous sea monster).

The Titans married between themselves and had Titan offspring of their own: Oceanus and Tethys bore the three-thousand Oceanid nymphs (including Electra, Calypso and Styx) as well as all the rivers, fountains and lakes of the world; Theia and Hyperion had Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn); Crius and Eurybia bore Astraios (father, with Eos, of the wind gods, Zephyros, Boreas, Notos and Eurus, as well as all the stars), Pallas (father, with the Oceanid Styx, of Zelos or Zeal, Nike or Victory, Cratos or Strength and Bia or Force), and Perses; Coeus and Phoebe married to produce Leto and Asteria (mother, with her cousin Perses of Hecate, the goddess of wilderness, childbirth, witchcraft and magic); Iapetos married the Oceanid nymph Clymene and had Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus.

http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_hesiod_theogony.html

Start your vocabulary list of this Lesson! It means that you have to write in your notebook all the words you don't know the meaning and look them up in a dicctionary. Then you have to translate them into Catalan.

Make a list of:

- Chaos' children
- Gea and Ourano's children

Is there any relation between the primeval gods or "protogenoi" and the basic components of the univers?
Why Ouranos was castrated? Who was born from this action?
How many Titans were there? Write their names.

Let's answer a Quiz!

Here is a map of Ancient Greek colonies and Hellenic civilization in Ancient times. Click on it and do the quiz.

Temples

Look at these pictures of Greek Gods temples and answer the questions below.

Serapis' Temple in Empúries

Temple of Concordia in Agrigento

Zeus' Temple in Athens

Zeus's Temple in Kutahya

In which countries are these temples?
Why do you think Greek Gods had temples outside of Greece?

Languages

Greek people spoke some variations of the Greek language, called dialects. Look at both maps of the Greek polis and of the Greek dialects and match polis with dialects. Then make sentences using this structure: In X people spoke X.

http://greece.mrdonn.org/city-states.html

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/historians/

Complete this sentence:

The Ancient Greeks didn't share __________________ but they _________________ some variants of the same__________________.

The Ancient Greek

Look at these maps of Greece in Ancient times and Europe nowadays. Then answer the questions below:

Which of present countries covered Ancient Greece at that time?
Was Ancient Greece a unitary state?
Why do you think the ancient Greek people felt like they belonged to the same civilisation?