Download Mythology - classics and composition i WITH MR. BRAUTIGAN

Classics I
Greek Mythology
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Classics I
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Classics I
Unit Goals
1. Students will understand the characters of the Greek Pantheon and their relevance to
literary allusions.
2. Students will understand the characters of the Greek Pantheon in their relevance to
popular culture.
3. Students will apply the hero’s journey (monomyth) to ancient hero myths and modern
hero stories.
4. Students will analyze how stories communicate cultural and historical values and
norms.
5. Students will creatively interpret imagery from mythological texts in an individual
manner.
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Classics I
Introduction to Mythology
Objectives: to see how stories communicate cultural values; to read and comprehend
stories from a distinctly foreign and ancient vantage point
Key Vocabulary:
Myth: a ____________________ story, esp. one concerning the early ___________________ of a
people or explaining some ____________________ or social phenomenon, and typically
involving ____________________ beings or ____________________.
Allusion: a brief ____________________ to a person, ____________________, place,
____________________, or work of ____________________
Why Mythology?
Why do people still constantly refer to mythology when it is so old, and people do not
generally believe in the literally truth of the stories?
What are the characteristics of a myth?
•
Explains a ____________________or ____________________phenomenon
•
Usually has ____________________beings or ____________________
•
Conveys ____________________values and expresses deeper ____________________
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Classics I
ICARUS AND DAEDALUS
by: Josephine Preston Peabody (1874-1922)
The following short story is reprinted from Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew. Josephine Preston Peabody. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1897.
Among all those mortals who grew so wise that they learned the secrets of the gods, none
was more cunning than Daedalus.
He once built, for King Minos of Crete, a wonderful Labyrinth of winding ways so cunningly
tangled up and twisted around that, once inside, you could never find your way out again
without a magic clue. But the king's favor veered with the wind, and one day he had his
master architect imprisoned in a tower. Daedalus managed to escape from his cell; but it
seemed impossible to leave the island, since every ship that came or went was well guarded
by order of the king.
At length, watching the sea-gulls in the air,--the only creatures that were sure of liberty,-he thought of a plan for himself and his young son Icarus, who was captive with him.
Little by little, he gathered a store of feathers great and small. He fastened these together
with thread, moulded them in with wax, and so fashioned two great wings like those of a
bird. When they were done, Daedalus fitted them to his own shoulders, and after one or two
efforts, he found that by waving his arms he could winnow the air and cleave it, as a
swimmer does the sea. He held himself aloft, wavered this way and that with the wind, and
at last, like a great fledgling, he learned to fly.
Without delay, he fell to work on a pair of wings for the boy Icarus, and taught him
carefully how to use them, bidding him beware of rash adventures among the stars.
"Remember," said the father, "never to fly very low or very high, for the fogs about the earth
would weigh you down, but the blaze of the sun will surely melt your feathers apart if you
go too near."
For Icarus, these cautions went in at one ear and out by the other. Who could remember to
be careful when he was to fly for the first time? Are birds careful? Not they! And not an idea
remained in the boy's head but the one joy of escape.
The day came, and the fair wind that was to set them free. The father bird put on his wings,
and, while the light urged them to be gone, he waited to see that all was well with Icarus,
for the two could not fly hand in hand. Up they rose, the boy after his father. The hateful
ground of Crete sank beneath them; and the country folk, who caught a glimpse of them
when they were high above the tree-tops, took it for a vision of the gods,--Apollo, perhaps,
with Cupid after him.
At first there was a terror in the joy. The wide vacancy of the air dazed them,--a glance
downward made their brains reel. But when a great wind filled their wings, and Icarus felt
himself sustained, like a halcyon-bird in the hollow of a wave, like a child uplifted by his
mother, he forgot everything in the world but joy. He forgot Crete and the other islands that
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Classics I
he had passed over: he saw but vaguely that winged thing in the distance before him that
was his father Daedalus. He longed for one draught of flight to quench the thirst of his
captivity: he stretched out his arms to the sky and made towards the highest heavens.
Alas for him! Warmer and warmer grew the air. Those arms, that had seemed to uphold
him, relaxed. His wings wavered, drooped. He fluttered his young hands vainly,--he was
falling,--and in that terror he remembered. The heat of the sun had melted the wax from
his wings; the feathers were falling, one by one, like snowflakes; and there was none to
help.
He fell like a leaf tossed down the wind, down, down, with one cry that overtook Daedalus
far away. When he returned, and sought high and low for the poor boy, he saw nothing but
the bird-like feathers afloat on the water, and he knew that Icarus was drowned.
The nearest island he named Icaria, in memory of the child; but he, in heavy grief, went to
the temple of Apollo in Sicily, and there hung up his wings as an offering. Never again did
he attempt to fly.
Questions:
1. What is the plot of this myth?
2. What is universal about this myth?
3. What is the deeper moral embedded in this story?
4. Why is this moral valuable?
5. How can we apply this moral to our own lives? Why is still relevant today?
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Classics I
Read each myth and answer the questions.
“Narcissus” p. 114 - 116
1. What is the plot of this myth?
2. What is universal about this myth?
3. What is the deeper moral embedded in this story?
4. Why is this moral valuable?
5. How can we apply this moral to our own lives? Why is still relevant today?
“Pyramus and Thisbe” p. 135 - 138
1. What is the plot of this myth?
2. What is universal about this myth?
3. What is the deeper moral embedded in this story?
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4. Why is this moral valuable?
5. How can we apply this moral to our own lives? Why is still relevant today?
“Orpheus and Eurydice” 138 – 143
1. What is the plot of this myth?
2. What is universal about this myth?
3. What is the deeper moral embedded in this story?
4. Why is this moral valuable?
5. How can we apply this moral to our own lives? Why is still relevant today?
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Classics I
“Prometheus”
1. What does Prometheus’ name mean? What does Epimetheus name mean? Why are the
meanings of these names significant?
2. Explain the roles of Prometheus and Epimetheus in the creation of man.
3. How and why is Prometheus punished?
“Pandora”
Compare and contrast the two version of this story:
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Classics I
The Twelve Olympians
Using pp. 17-40, in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, research the Olympians assigned to
your group using the topics below:
•
I.
II.
Domain: By what special names is the god identified?
Characteristics: What are the god’s unique traits, both good and bad? What are his/her
symbols?
III.
Role: What role does he/she play in different famous stories?
IV.
Relationships: How is the god related to other gods and goddesses?
V.
Beloved: Favorite cities, birds, animals, plants? Why do these go well with this particular
god?
VI.
Special skills or distinctions: What are his/her special powers and abilities?
Find an interesting and original way to present to the class the information for each of your
Olympians.
 You may not read your notes to the class.
 Each person in the group must participate equally.
 Presentations need to be 2-3 minutes or less.
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ZEUS (Jupiter):
Hera (Juno):
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Poseidon (Neptune):
Hades (Pluto):
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Pallas Athena (Minerva):
Phoebus Apollo
(“The mosT Greek of all Gods”):
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Artemis (Diana):
Aphrodite (Venus):
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Hermes (Mercury):
Ares (Mars):
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Hephaestus
(Vulcan and Mulciber):
Hestia (Vesta):
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The monomyth is the concept that most stories contain ______________________
______________________________.
People across different cultures tend to ____________________________________________.
It is also known as the __________________________.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
This is not a ___________________________________. It is simply a collection of elements
which commonly reoccur in a wide variety of stories.
With Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, it is important to note that her accounts of the hero myths
are compiled from a variety of different stories. As such, _________
________________________________________________________________. However, the
basics of the hero’s journey still remain.
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