Download 第二讲希腊神话

第二讲
Chapter One
希腊神话
The Origin of Gods and Goddesses
The values of Greek myths.
Greek myths are very important in cultural communication. They laid a
foundation for the later development of drama, poetry, painting, sculpture and fiction.
So, it is the very basis of the whole western culture.
Literature Zeus(Jupiter), Athena(Minerva), Oedipus, Aphrodite(Venus) are basic
words in English and as important as words such as pen, car, dictionary.
Main Points in the text:
Cronos was the father of Zeus. He was afraid he would be overthrown by one of
his children. So he swallowed all his children as soon as they were born. One of his
children, Zeus or Jupiter, was saved by his mother. He then went to war with his
father Cronus and defeated the old king. He then forced the old king to bring back to
life the the children swallowed. When all the children were reborn, Zeus gave each of
them one part of the whole kingdom. He made himself the king of gods, and took the
blue sky as his his own kingdom. He made his sister Hera (Juno) as his wife and the
queen of gods and goddesses. He gave the ocean to his brother Poseidon (Neptune),
and the underworld to Hades (Pluto), his another brother.
Questions asked in classroom
1, How did Zeus, or Jupiter, survive while all his brothers and sisters were
swallowed by his father Cronos?
2, How did Zeus, or Jupiter fight against his father Cronos?
3, Who were Zeus’s brothers and his sisters?
4, Who was captured by Pluto to be his wife? Was she willing to live in the
underworld with his husband?
5, Who is the goddess of wisdom? How did she come into the world?
6, Who is the goddess of beauty? How did she come into the world?
7, Where did the word “music” come from? Or, where did the word “music” has
its origin?
Questions for assignment
1, Why Cronos swallowed his children as soon as they were born?
2, How many children had been swallowed before Zeus (Jupiter) was born?
3, How did Zeus (Jupiter) was saved by his mother?
4, What’s the meaning of zeus’ name? How he got his name?
5, Why did Jupiter fight against his father Cronos?
6, How did Jupiter fight against his father Cronos?
7, Who were Jupiter’s brothers and sisters?
8, Who was the god of sea? Who was the god of the underground world?
9, Why nobody wanted to marry Pluto and to be the queen of the kingdom of the
underworld?
10, How Pluto got a beautiful girl as his wife? What happened when Proserpine was
taken to the underworld to be a queen?
11, Who was the goddess of wisdom? Where did she come from?
12, Who was the goddess of love and beauty? Where did she come from and to whom
she was given to be a wife?
13, Who was Eros, or Cupid? What whould happen if one was pierced by his arrow?
14, Who were Fates? What would happen if they desired to destroy somebody?
Chapter Two & Three
Deucalion and Cadmus
Deucalion 丢卡利翁，普罗米修斯（Prometheus）的儿子，皮拉（Pyrrha）的丈夫，
赫楞（Hellen）的父亲。
Phoenicia 腓尼基，地中海东岸古国，约在今天叙利亚、黎巴嫩一带。腓尼基的文字
影响了希腊的文字。多数学者相信希腊文起源于腓尼基文。
Cadmus 卡德摩斯。欧罗巴被宙斯拐走后，阿革诺耳（Agenor）派卡德摩斯兄弟外出寻
找。此时有神喻要卡德摩斯停止寻找，并跟随一头牛走，在牛歇息的地方建城。卡德摩斯执
行神示，成为忒拜（Thebes）的建城者。事实上，他和欧罗巴一样，可以视为欧洲人的祖先，
因为当今多数学者相信，希腊文起源于腓尼基文，希腊字母来源于腓尼基字母。卡德摩斯的
故事在一定程度上反映了这一历史事实，因为在课文中，卡德摩斯教会人们读书写字“他的
学校是欧洲最早的学校。
”
Europa 欧罗巴，腓尼基国王阿革诺耳的女儿，卡德摩斯的妹妹。她在海边玩耍时，被
宙斯化为公牛带到克里特岛，并和宙斯生国王米诺斯。教材中说她被带到今天的欧洲，欧洲
因她而得名。
Amphion 安菲翁，会用音乐筑墙的琴师。
Harmony （Harmonia） 哈耳摩尼娅，卡德摩斯的妻子，阿瑞斯和阿佛洛狄忒的女儿。
“哈耳摩尼娅的项链”代表不吉的礼物或不幸的命运，已经成为西方成语
Questions asked in classroom
1, Where did the word “music” come from? Or, where did the word “music” has
its origin?
2, Why Jupiter decided to destroy the early Greeks by a flood?
3, How did Deucalion and his wife survive while all his fellowmen were
destroyed by flood?
4, What is “oracle”? What did a god speak to Deucalion from the cleft in Mount
Parnassus?
5, What happened when Deucalion and Pyhhra had thrown stones behind them as
they were asked to do by a god?
6, Why Greeks called themselves Hellenes? How did they call their country?
7, How Europe got its name?
8, Who was Europa? How she was carried off to a far-off place?
9, Why Cadmus gave up his search of Europa? What he was asked to do by an
oracle?
10, When the dragon’s teeth were planted in soil, what happened?
11, What did Cadmus shout to those warriors when they were fighting against
each other?
12, What did Cadmus do after he built Thebes?
13, Who was Harmony and what happened to her according to the text?
14, Retell the ending of the story about Cadmus.
Introduction to the Chapter
The two chapters tell different stories.
The first one tells how Greek people were all destroyed by a flood out of the will
of Jupiter because they became wicked, and how Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
escaped from death and became the only survivals, and how they became the
ancestors of the new-born Greek people.
In this chapter the first thing we should note is that where the English word
“music” came from. It came from Muses, the nine goddesses of poetry, arts, and
sciences. You know that the great contribution ancient Greek people made to human
civilization is their poetry, arts, sciences and philosophy, so Muses should be
remembered by us. In the following times, especially from Renaissance to 19th
century, western poets and writers always wished to have inspiration from the Muse
who was in charge of poetry or literature.
The second thing we should keep in mind is that how ancient Greeks got their
name. They got their name from one of the son of Deucalion, who was named Hellen.
The name differs from Helen, the most beautiful woman in all the Greek world. The
two words differs form each other because one has two “L” in spelling while another
has only one “L”. Anyway, we should know that Greek people call themselves as
Hellenes and call their country as Hellas.
The third one that we should pay our attention to is that there were many stories
in ancient world which talked about the flood. For example, the great flood in ancient
China, which was connected with Da Yu, who is known by all Chinese People. But I
wonder if you know the great flood described in the Bible. According to the Bible,
when God saw all the people became wicked, he decided to destroy them by a flood,
and while the great flood destroyed all the humans, only Noah and his family
members ---- his wife and their three sons ---- survived the disaster by getting into a
big boat called Ark. Now, one would be tempted to ask, why there are so many similar
myths and stories in different cultures? And this is the task that comparative literature
has to do.
Now I will talk about another story. It is about Cadmus and Europa. In reading
this story we should learn by heart that Europe got its name after Europa, the beautiful
daughter of a king in Asia. Such a story tries to tell us that European people created
their civilization under the influence of ancient Asian peoples such as Phoenicia and
Mesopotamia. Both Cadmus and Europa can be seen as the ancestors of European
people. According to your textbook, Europe got its name after Europa, and Cadmus
taught people the arts of reading and writing, so the Greek people learned their a-b-c’s,
and Cadmus’ school was the first school in Europe. This is precisely what modern
historians try to tell us. According to modern scholars, Greek language came from
Phoenician language, that means it had an Asian origin, and the story of Cadmus
reflects just the same historical fact.
Chapter Four Agamemnon and Achilles
Two chapters will be studied today. I will first introduce the first chapter.
There are four stories in this chapter.
The first one is about the golden apple. In a wedding party, all the gods and
goddesses were invited except one, who was called the goddess of discord. She threw
a golden apple into the party and wrote on it the words “to the most beautiful”. Three
goddesses wanted the golden apple. They were Juno, Minerva and Venus. Each of
them thought she herself was the most beautiful. And they came to Paris to decide the
matter.
The second one is about Paris. How his mother had a nightmare when he was
born; how he was thrown into the wild to die; how he became the son of a shepherd;
how he was selected as the judge to decide who was the most beautiful among the
three goddesses; how he took away the beautiful Helen from Menelaus.
The third one is about Helen. She was the wife of Menelaus when she first saw
Paris but she fell in love with Paris at the first sight. She ran away with Paris and all
the Greek heroes resolved to take her back to Menelaus, because, before she chose
Menelaus as her husband, thirty or more of the Greek Kings tried to marry her, and all
of them had sworn to aid the one who was chosen by her as her husband when
someone else tried to take her away from the chosen one.
The fourth one is about Agamemnon and his daughter Iphigenia. Agamemnon
was the most powerful king in Greece and was called by all the Greeks as “the king of
men”. Besides, he was the brother of Menelaus. So, it was too natural for him to be
chosen as the commander-in-chief of the Greek army. However, when the Greek
military ships were about to start for Troy, a terrible storm made it impossible for the
ships to set out. It was said that Agamemnon had offended Diana, goddess of the
Moon, and, to release her anger, Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia
to the goddess. Iphigenia would like to die for his country when she knew the truth,
but Diana was moved by the girl and saved her.
These four stories together constitute the whole story, that is, the story about the
cause, or the beginning, of the Trojan War.
Well, when reading this chapter, we should pay our attention to the place, the
time, the characters, the events, the cause and the effect of the whole story. If we want
to be a story-teller, we should know how to begin a story and how to end it by having
all these elements put into the whole narrative.
Now I will talk about the second chapter which is connected with Achilles.
Achilles was the son of Thetis, the beautiful sea nymph, in whose wedding the
golden apple was thrown by the goddess of discord.
When achilles was born, his mother Thetis dipped him in the water of the Styx
by holding his heel. So, when he grew up, no sword or arrow could injure him. The
only part of his body which could be injured was his heel, because that part had not
been dipped into the magical river. And, later, he was wounded by an arrow right at
his heel. From this story, came the English idiom “Acchilles’ heel”, meaning the
weakest part of somebody or something.
Achilles’ mother did not want her son to fight the Trojans because she knew he
would die in the battle. So she dressed him as a girl and hid him among girls.
However, he was identified by Ulysses and then went to Troy. (Ulysses disguise as a
pedlar, bringing all sorts of beautiful things for sale. While all girls were wild with
delight in seeing so many wonderful treasures, a war trumpet rang and all of them ran
away except Achilles, who seized a spear and stood there ready for battle.)
The Trojan war lasted for ten years, during which so many Trojans and Greeks
were killed. Achilles proved to be the bravest of all the Greek warriors. All the Trojan
soldiers would be terrified to death as soon as they saw him, but when his girl-slave
was taken away by Agamemnon, he declared he would help the Greek armies no more.
Only because his friend Patroclus was killed by Hector, he returned to the battle in
hope of vengeance.
He soon killed Hector, but he himself was wounded at his heel by an arrow. He
died. And the Greek army, with the help of the wooden horse, rushed into the city.
They killed all those who were trying to fight, sacked the palace, took away all the
beautiful women and all valuable things, and then, burned the city and turned it to a
ruin.
Questions
What did the goddess of discord do while all the gods and goddesses were
enjoying the wedding feast?
What words were written on the golden apple?
Who were the three goddesses who all wanted to get the golden apple?
Who was Paris? What did his mother dream when he was born? And what
decision was made by his father?
How each of the three goddesses tried to persuade Paris to decide the matter in
her favor?
Who was Helen, and what was the cause of the Trojan War?
Why Agamemnon had to sacrifice his own daughter?
What did Achilles’ mother do after he was born?
Why Achilles refused to fight and declared he would help the Greeks no more?
Who advised the Greeks to build the wooden horse?