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Classical myth
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Table of Contents
From the Book
pt. 1, Definitions and background:
1. The nature of myth:
What is myth?
Types of myth
The study of myth;
2. Mesopotamian myth:
Historical background
The gods and their world
The creation of the world: the Babylonian Enuma Elish
The Sumerian creation of man from mud
The underworld: the Sumerian myth of Inanna and Dumuzi
The universal flood: Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Noah
The hero and his exploits: Gilgamesh;
3. The cultural background of the Greek myth:
Greek Geography
Greek History
Greek Society
Sources for Greek mythology.
pt. 2, The divine myths of the Greeks:
4. Myths of creation: the rise of Zeus:
Children of chaos
The children of Gaea: the Titans and their cousins
Zeus against Cronus: the battle with the Titans
Zeus' battle with Typhoeus
Zeus' battle with the giants
Prominent themes in the Greek creation story;
5. Myths of creation: the origins of mortals:
Prometheus, friend of Mortus
Pandora
The five races
The universal flood
Prominent themes in Greek stories of human origin;
6. Myths of the Olympian gods: the first generation;
Anthropomorphism in Greek myth
Zeus, lord of the sky
Hera, queen of heaven
Demeter, mistress of wheat
Poseidon, lord of the deep
Hades, king of the dead
Hestia, the hearth
Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love;
7. Myths of the Olympian gods: the second generation:
Hephaestus, god of smiths
Ares, incarnation of blood lust
Athena, mistress of the city
Apollo and Artemis, the divine twins
Hermes, trickster god of wayfarers;
8. Myths of fertility: Demeter and the 'great goddess':
Cybele and Attis
Isis and Osiris
Aphrodite and Adonis
Demeter and Persephone
Interpretations: myth of Demeter and Persephone
The Eleusinian mysteries;
9. Myths of fertility: Dionysus:
The birth and early youth of Dionysus
The wanderings of Dionysus
Resistance to the god
Dionysus in Thebes
Dionysus and the pirates
Dionysus' journey to the land of the dead
Interpretation: the myths of Dionysus
The cult of Dionysus
Dionysus, god of the theater;
10. Myths of the dead: encounters with the underworld:
The Greek view of death
Odysseus journeys to death's realm
Aeneas' descent to the underworld
Orpheus and Eurydice
Orphism;
11. Myths of inspired knowledge: prophecy and healing:
Forms of divination: signs, portents, dreams
Apollo the far-darter, god of prophecy
Apollo at Delphi
The Delphic Oracle
Famous prophets
The Cumaean Sibyl
Asclepius
Interpretation and summary: the mask appearance, the face of reality.
pt. 3, Greek legends:
12. The myths of Athens, Theseus:
Cecrops, Erichthonius, and the daughters of Cecrops
Procris and Cephalus
Procne and Tereus
Theseus
The exploits of Theseus and Pirithous
the death of Theseus
Observations; myths and propaganda;
13. The myths of Crete:
Europa and the bull
Minos and Pasiphae
Minos and Scylla
Theseus and Amphitrite
Theseus and the Minotaur
Daedalus and Icarus
The death of Minos
Observations: archeology and prominent themes in Cretan myth;
14. Io and her descendants
The legend of Perseus
Perseus' descendants: the birth of Heracles;
15. Heracles:
Heracles' youthful deeds
Marriage, madness, and expiation: the twelve labors
Various Praxeis
The death of Heracles
The return of Heracles
Interpretation: Heracles kallinikos, 'handsome in victory';
16. The myths of Thebes;
The two foundings of Thebes
The descendants of Labdacus
The seven against Thebes
Sophocles antigone
The Epigoni;
17. The myths of Iolcus and Calydon: Jason and the Argonauts: the Calydonian boar hunt:
Prelude to the Argonautica
The voyage of the Argo
After the voyage of the Argo
Interpretation: loss, sacrifice, restoration
The Calydonian boar hunt;
18. The Trojan War I: the house of Atreus; The anger of Achilles:
The house of Atreus
The house of Tyndareus
The wedding of Peleus and Thetis
The judgment of Paris
The Trojan War
Observations: Homer, inventor of plot and character;
19. The Trojan War II: The fall of Troy; The end of the house of Atreus:
The Greeks at Troy
The returns;
20: The return of Odysseus:
Flashback: Odysseus' journey from Troy
Return to Ithaca
Interpretation: the folktale of the man who overcame death and returned home;
21. Roman myth:
Italy: the land and its people
Roman religion
Myth in the service of politics
Legends of the Roman monarchy
Heroes of the early republic
Observations: an imaginary past preserves the present.
pt. 4, Interpretation:
22. Theories of myth interpretation:
Greek theories
Medieval and Renaissance theories
Theories of the Enlightenment and Romanticism
Theories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
conclusion.
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ISBN
9780130884428
9780131434707
9780131434707
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