Download The Greek Pantheon - Ancient Philosophy at UBC

AGELESS PURSUITS • UBC 2016
IDEAS OF GOD
DR. MICHAEL GRIFFIN
UBC CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY
MICHAELJAMESGRIFFIN.COM
L E C T U R E 2 : T H E O LY M P I A N S
ROMAN WALL PAINTING OF HIPPARCHEIA AND CRATES FROM THE VILLA FARNESINA, ROME. HIPPARCHEIA APPROACHES CRATES CARRYING A BOX, IMPLYING THAT SHE HAS COME TO CRATES AS A POTENTIAL BRIDE BEARING HER POSSESSIONS.
OVERVIEW
• June 6
Introduction
• June 7
The Greek Gods
and the Pantheons
• June 8
The Abrahamic God
and the Rise of Monotheism
• June 9
Awakened Beings:
Buddhas & Bodhisattvas
• June 10
The God of Mathematics &
Science, and ‘Proofs of God’
OVERVIEW
• Today
• 1. Review: Agency
• 2. Understanding myth
• 3. Hesiod: the First
Powers
• 4. The Olympians
1
REVIEW:
AGENCY
AGENCY
IN REVIEW
• Sentience
• Having feelings
• Acting for reasons
• Being self-aware
We’ll call this agency.
• May be
• First-personal (me)
• Projected second- or third-
personal (you, she), to humans
• Projected to non-humans
• Projected to the whole world
AGENCY
IN REVIEW
• Some of us, including children, find
entities that are not people or
animals to have feelings, wants and
needs, to be agents: we take the
intentional stance.* Trees want to
grow; the sky wants to rain, etc.
• As a general projection of
agency, the all is endowed with a
kind of sentience and agency. This
profoundly influences human
behaviour, both social (“Big Gods”
theory)** and environmental
(sustainability).
* Dan Dennett: The Intentional Stance
** See Norenzayan 2015: Big Gods (Princeton UP)
AGENCY
IN REVIEW
• Effective projection of “agency”
is not necessarily onto tangible
beings
• One can act differently based
on the views of a “god”*
• Or lose oneself in a fictional
character, adapting one’s
own behaviour accordingly**
• Or be helped later in life by
dialogue with an “imaginary
friend”***
* Norenzayan 2015: “Big Gods”
** Libby 2012
*** Davis et al. 2013
AGENCY
IN REVIEW
• Children already reason that minds
before and after embodied life are
agents (in this sense)*
• “And the part of us that is eternal,
we believe, is not our skills or ability
to reason, but rather our hopes,
desires and emotions. We are, in
fact, what we feel… Studies have
found that both children and adults
believe that bodily needs, such as
hunger and thirst, end when
people die, but mental capacities,
such as thinking or feeling sad,
continue in some form.”
* Emmons 2014
EXAMPLE
BUDDHIST COSMOLOGY
Hierarchies develop, with assumed first-person experiences
• Animals
• People
• Trees • Nymphs, dryads
• Rivers • River spirits
• Heroes • Beings in ‘heaven’
• Social and psychological
exemplars: love, justice, war
• Natural principles: Sky, Ocean
• Cosmos as a Whole • ‘God’
http://2divineways.com/Buddhist-Cosmology.jpg
• Places • ‘Sacred’ space
“Everything is full of gods.”
THALES (C. 600 BCE)
QUOTED IN ARISTOTLE, DE AN. 411A7-8
I N D I V I D U A L I S T PA N P S Y C H I S M
Every entity is irreducibly unique* • LEIBNIZ
There’s ‘something it is like’, 1st-personally, to be anything • CHALMERS • NAGEL
People, animals, and the world are all agents
We should treat them accordingly: as ends and not means • KANT • SINGER
All things therefore deserve reverence, as people do • GREEK VIRTUES
* T R Y T O F I N D S O M E T H I N G T H AT I S N ’ T !
2 • BEGINNINGS
U N D E R S TA N D I N G M Y T H
W H AT I S M Y T H ?
• Can myth be defined?
• Greek: mythos (vs. logos)
• A “story” or “tale” backed by cultural tradition,
which may (or must) be false
• Media: Oral, written, painting, sculpture, music,
dance, mime…
• A division of mythos
• Saga: story with historical roots
• Legend: story with historical roots, with a moral
• Folk-Tale or Fairy-Story: popular story with a moral,
often about an “everyman,” with fantastic elements
• Myth (proper): tale usually involving gods
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
W H AT I S M Y T H ?
• Historicism: Retelling of historical fact, with some
distortions. [Ancients, some moderns]
• Allegory: Symbolic expression.
•
Philosophical: Allegory of psychological states,
philosophical ideas, or metaphysical facts. [Ancients]
•
Natural: Allegory of natural processes and phenomena,
especially aetiological (explanatory) [Max Müller].
• Myth-Ritual: Accompaniment or explanation of ritual
actions
• Comparative mythology: Themes revealed by crosscultural comparison (in “Indo-European” context)
Continued
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
W H AT I S M Y T H ?
• Psychoanalysis: Expression of deeper psychological
facts, typically unconscious
•
Sigmund Freud: Myth reflects our waking effort to
systematize the visions and impulses of our dreams.
Dreams are (disguised) wish-fulfillment
•
Carl Jung: Myth projects the symbols of humanity’s
collective unconscious: the archetypes
• Structuralism: Once analyzed into their structural motifs,
myths raise and resolve cultural and social problems (e.g.,
over-rating of blood relationships). Chronology of sources
insignificant. [Lévi-Strauss]
• Modern tendencies toward sensitivity to cultural,
historical, and ritual context.
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
3 • HESIOD’S THEOGONY
THE FIRST POWERS
H E S I O D ’ S TA L E
• Hesiod: A farmer-poet
• Boeotia, Greece, 8th century BCE
• Author of two epic poems
• Theogony: beginning of the world
• Works & Days: advice on human life
HESIOD (PS.-SENECA), ROMAN BRONZE
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
OF NAPLES
• Hesiod’s world
• A network of countless small poleis (city-
states) around the Aegean Sea, connected
by trade, sport, and their common oral
myths
BOEOTIA IN GREECE
And this was the very first thing they told me,
The Olympian Muses daughters of Zeus Aegisholder:
’Hillbillies and bellies, poor excuses for shepherds:
We know how to tell many believable lies,
But also, when we want to, how to speak the plain truth’.
So spoke the daughters of great Zeus…
And they gave me a staff, a branch of good sappy laurel,
Plucking it off, spectacular. And they breathed into me
A voice divine, so I might celebrate past and future.
And they told me to hymn the generation of the eternal gods,
But always to sing of themselves, the Muses, first and last.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 22-34
T H E F I R S T G E N E R AT I O N
In the beginning there was only Chaos, the Abyss
But then Gaia, the Earth, came into being.
Her broad bosom the ever-firm foundation of all,
And Tartaros, dim in the underground depths,,
And Eros, loveliest of all the Immortals, who
Makes their bodies (and men’s bodies) go limp,
Mastering their minds and subduing their wills.
From the Abyss were born Erebos and dark Night.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125
( A N T H O L O G Y P. 1 3 5 )
T H E F I R S T G E N E R AT I O N
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125
And Night, pregnant after sweet intercourse
With Erebos, gave birth to Aether and Day.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125
T H E F I R S T G E N E R AT I O N
(Day)
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125
The World of Hesiod
The World of Hesiod
Chaos
(A space)
The World of Hesiod
Er
ōs
Earth (Gaia)
Chaos
(A space)
Tartarus
The World of Hesiod
Er
ōs
Earth (Gaia)
Chaos
(A space)
Erebus
Tartarus
The World of Hesiod
Er
ōs
Earth (Gaia)
ht
ig
N
Chaos
(A space)
Erebus
Tartarus
The World of Hesiod
Aether
Er
ōs
Earth (Gaia)
ht
ig
N
Chaos
(A space)
Erebus
Tartarus
The World of Hesiod
Aether
Er
Da
ōs
y
Earth (Gaia)
ht
ig
N
Chaos
(A space)
Erebus
Tartarus
Earth’s first child was Ouranos, starry Heaven,
Just her size, a perfect fit on all sides,
And a firm foundation for the blessed gods.
And she bore the Mountains in long ranges, haunted
By the Nymphs who live in the deep mountain dells.
Then she gave birth to the barren, ranging Sea
Without any sexual love.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 126-32
The World of Hesiod
Aether
***
Ouranos
Earth (Gaia)
Tartarus
Er
ōs
But later she slept with Ouranos
and bore Ocean with its deep currents…
Question: What is signified by “Earth and Heaven lying together”?
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 147-56
The World of Hesiod
Works & Days 720-61
Aether
***
Ouranos
Er
ōs
10 days’ fall
Earth (Gaia)
Ocean
10 days’ fall
Tartarus
Nut – Reproduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goddess_nut.jpg
Map of the cosmos – Egypt
Nut – Reproduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goddess_nut.jpg
Waters (nu)
Sky (nut)
Sun-Barque
Duat (Underworld)
T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E T I TA N S
… and [the Titans, namely] … Rheia …
After them, she bore a most terrible child,
Cronos, her youngest, an arch-deceiver,
And this boy hated his lecherous father.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 147-56
Hyperion + Theia
Helios (Sun)
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 147-56
Selene
(Moon)
BEGINNINGS: KEY NAMES TO KNOW
The First Generation
Chaos (Space, Abyss)
Eros (Love, attraction)
Gaia (Earth; also Gē)
The Second Generation
Ouranos (Sky, heavens)
The Third Generation (Titans)
Kronos
Rhea
Helios & Selene
Latin: Cupid
Latin: Uranus
Latin: Cronus; Saturn
R E V I E W : R I S E O F T H E T I TA N S
• Ouranos forced his children into Gaia (148-59)
• Gaia and Kronos conspire to castrate Ouranos (160-187)
• Ouranos calls them “Titans”, over-reachers (209-10)
• Ouranos’ genitals, mingling with Ocean, give rise to Aphrodite,
goddess of love and sexuality (188-210)
• Note that according to another genealogy, Aphrodite is
daughter of Zeus and Dione; on a later Greek rationalization,
that’s the “younger” Aphrodite.
• Kronos forces himself on Rhea, his sister, and swallows down the
next generation of his children – the Olympians (456-471)
• Rhea saves the youngest, Zeus (472-508)
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
Z E U S ’ E A R LY D AY S
• 503-508: Zeus frees the Cyclopes, who give him thunder and
lightning
• 510-22: The Titan Atlas holds up the heavens (cf. 751-54)
• 509-72: The Titan Prometheus appears to trick Zeus into
granting human beings the more edible part of the sacrifice
(540-62), and Prometheus later steals fire for mortals (565-72)
• Zeus punishes Prometheus, but later allows Heracles to free
him (522-36)
• 573-620: The creation of Pandora (“All-Gift”) (cf. W&D 58-125)
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
T I TA N O M A C H Y
• 621-33: Zeus frees the
Hundred-Handers to fight on
his behalf
• 634-725: Zeus leads the
Olympians from Mount
Olympus (hence their name);
Kronos leads the Titans from
Mt. Othrys
… Then both sides’ hands flashed with power,
And the unfathomable sea shrieked eerily,
The earth crashed and rumbled, the vast sky groaned
And quavered, and massive Olympos shook from its roots
Under the Immortals’ onslaught…
And the sound
Of each side shouting rose to starry heaven
As they collided with a magnificent battle cry.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 680-89
R U B E N S , S T U R Z D E R T I TA N E N C. 1637-38
And now Zeus no longer held back his strength.
His lungs seethed with anger and he revealed
All his power. He charged from the sky, hurtling
Down from Olympos in a flurry of lightning,
Hurling thunderbolts one after another, right on target
From his massive hand, a whirlwind of holy flame.
And the earth that bears life roared as it burned,
And the endless forests crackled in fire,
The continents melted and the Ocean streams boiled,
And the barren sea…
As if broad Heaven
Had fallen on Earth.
And the battle turned.
–HESIOD, THEOGONY 690-715
A F T E R M AT H : Z E U S I N P O W E R
• 726-825: The Titans are locked in Tartaros, vividly described here
• On one tradition, Zeus later frees Kronos to rule over the
Blessed Isles (Elysian Fields)
• 826-885: Earth and Tartaros give birth to Typhoios (Typhon,
Typhoon), a powerful monster, and Zeus’ last great challenge.
They duel, and Zeus is victorious.
• 886-969: Zeus swallows Metis (Wisdom) and gradually gives rise
to the next generation of Olympians, who will rule the world.
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
THE WORLD OF GREEK MYTH
• The Greek landscape is shaped (and remembered) through
myths.
• The cultivated world is civilized: Demeter
• The rustic world is less civilized: Pan, Nymphs
• The wild is more frightening: Artemis
• Beyond is the unknown, distant lands
• Especially in the wild, monsters pose challenges for heroes
like Heracles or Odysseus.
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
4
THE
O LY M P I A N S
T H E O LY M P I A N S
Hestia
Aphrodite
Hermes
Ares
Demeter
Hephaestus Poseidon
Zeus
Hera
Athena
Apollo
Artemis
FRAGMENT OF A HELLENISTIC RELIEF (1ST CENTURY BC – 1ST CENTURY AD) : THE TWELVE OLYMPIANS (WALTERS ART MUSEUM)
Source: Wikimedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_the_Greek_gods)
ZEUS
• Lord (and father) of gods and men
• Realm: Sky (as world divided with Poseidon
and Hades)
• Wife Hera: “sacred marriage”
• Passionately amorous
• Also god of justice
• Allegorically associated with
lightning
H E S I O D ’ S PA R A B L E : T H E H A W K & T H E N I G H T I N G A L E ( 2 0 2 - 2 1 7 , D I F F. N U M . )
Piteously she, transfixed by his crooked claws, was lamenting
When the imperious hawk addressed her in arrogant parlance,
"Why, little lady, such shrieks? One stronger than you now has got you;
Where you are going I'll take you myself, though you are a songstress,
For as I please I'll make you my dinner or give you your freedom.
Witless is one who attempts to strive against those who are stronger:
When he is stripped of the prize it's injury added to insult."
Thus said the fast-flying hawk, that bird with the generous wing-span.
Pay more attention to justice and curb high-handedness, [brother];
Violence ill suits men who are lowly; not even the noble
Man can lightly endure it; it weighs on a person who's fallen
Into affliction. It's better to take your way on the other
Road which conduces to right. For outrage (hubris) surrenders to justice (dikē)…
HERA
• Guardian of family, women,
marriage, and childbirth
• Wife and mother
• Guardian of queenship and
royalty
• Beautiful
• Sometimes allegorically
associated with air
HESTIA
• Eldest daughter of Kronos and
Rhea
• Goddess of hearth
• Domesticity
• Family
• State
DEMETER
• Spheres of influence: nature,
fertility, the earth
• Daughter: Persephone
• When Persephone is abducted
into the underworld by Hades,
Demeter goes into grieving
• The world’s crops don’t grow
during her grief
POSEIDON
• Consort: Amphitrite
• Realm: Ocean
(as world divided with Zeus and Hades)
• Master of the Sea and Water
• Earth shaker
• Possibly in historical origins a sky-god
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
• Primary symbol: Trident
POSEIDON
• Master of the Sea and Water
• Ovid’s flood narrative (MLS 102-3)
• He called together the rivers and, when they had entered
the dwelling of their master, said, “… Pour forth your
strength, this is the need: open wide your domains, and
all barriers removed, give full rein to your streams.” …
Neptune himself struck the earth with his trident; it
trembled and with the quake lay open paths for the
waters. The streams… rushed over the open fields and
swept away, together and at once, the trees and crops,
cattle, human beings, houses, and their inner shrines with
sacred statues.
HADES
• God of the underworld
(after world divided with Zeus and
Poseidon)
• Often invisible
• Governs psychai in the
underworld
• After Hermes has conveyed
them
• Consort: Persephone
HEPHAESTUS
• Divine craftsman
• Born from Hera by
parthenogenesis
• Associated with fire
• Husband of Aphrodite
• Cast down from Olympus, lamed,
returned victorious (and drunk)
• Linked with Athena in creative art
ARES
• God of warfare
• Partner of Aphrodite; in character
a “divine swashbuckler”
• Ambiguous attitude from other
gods
APOLLO
• Spheres of influence: the Sun and
light; music and culture; oracles,
archery, medicine and disease
• Symbols: Lyre, laurel wreath, bow
and arrows
• Parents: Zeus & Leto
• Twin sister: Artemis
ARTEMIS
• Spheres of influence: the Moon,
the hunt, the wilderness,
childbirth, virginity, young girls
• “Mistress of animals”
• Symbols: Bow, arrows, stags,
hunting dog and moonSister:
Artemis
• Parents: Zeus and Leto
• Twin brother: Apollo
AT H E N A ( M I N E R VA )
• Primary symbols: Olive trees,
owls, spear, Aegis
• Parents: Metis and Zeus
• Provinces: Wisdom, craft, and
battle
HERMES
• Spheres of influence: Messengers
and heralds; travellers; mediation
between humans and gods; guide
of souls ("psychopomp"); speech
and oratory; commerce; trickery
and thieves
• Attributes: winged sandals,
caduceus, rounded hat (petasus),
cloak, lyre
• Spheres of influence: the harvest; wine;
ritual and mystic madness; fertility; and
theatre
• Symbols: the thyrsus (fennel staff with a
pinecone crown); the grape and grapevine;
animals, especially great cats
• Birth: from Zeus and Semele, by way of
Zeus’ thigh
• Essential characteristics
• “Release” through music and dance
• Possession of followers (Maenads &
Satyrs)
Michelangelo’s Bacchus
DIONYSUS
DIONYSUS
DIONYSUS
Birth of Athena (Attic black-figured tripod), ca. 570–560 BCE.
Helper of heroes: Athena, Perseus & the Gorgon (5th C BCE)
APHRODITE
• Two ‘levels’: Aphrodite
Ourania (Heavenly) and
Aphrodite Pandemos
(Common)
• Primary symbols: Dolphin,
rose, dove, mirror
• Parents: Ouranos (Heavenly)
or Zeus & Dione (Pandemos)
• Provinces: Love and beauty,
pleasure, procreation
Pistoxenos Painter,
Kylix with: Aphrodite Riding on a Goose
c.470-460 BCE
APHRODITE
• Born from foam of the sea
(aphros), or from Zeus and
Dione (a titaness)
• Shifting portrayal of her from
a highly sexualized fertility
figure (pre-archaic) to a
beautiful clothed woman
(archaic) to nude (classical and
later)
• Attended by the Graces and
the Hours
• Son: Priapus
Pistoxenos Painter,
Kylix with: Aphrodite Riding on a Goose
c.470-460 BCE
Birth of Venus, Ludovisi Throne, 5th century BCE
Birth of Venus, Pompeian Wall Painting, 1st century BCE
The Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel, 1863
The Birth of
Venus,
William-Adolphe
Bouguereau
1879
Birth of Aphrodite, (1485) Botticelli
Sun
Hunting
Earth
Control
Agriculture
Moon
Travel
Sky
Procreation
Trade
Drunkenness
Marriage
War
Wisdom
Hospitality
Family
Healing
Death
Thievery
The state
Beauty
Competition
Household
Skilfulness
Sexuality
Virginity
Ocean
Immortality
Craft
Love
Ecstasy
Justice
Motherhood
Wildness
Underworld
Adventure
Royalty
Life
FOCI OF
AGENCY
• Reverence is due to every god
• And through this, to some
people (e.g., strangers,
beggars)
• Failure of reverence is hubris
• Greek “polytheism”
encourages integration of a
diversity of motivations and
states of mind, for a common
good under justice
(represented by Zeus)