- Greek

o Hesiod’s Theogony

o Gaia (fertility) birthed generations of gods

o Cosmos came into being by generalised universal sex drive of nature

- Babylonian

o “Enuma Elish”

o narrates success of hero/god Marduk for supreme power

o Tiamat (sea water) and Apsu (sweet water) mingled together to create the earth

- common themes

o natural forces evolve into anthropomorphic gods

o pathogenic replaced by sexual reproduction

o strife is the catalyst for revolution

o power originally belongs to the female, but is then taken over by the male (usually through violence)

o Man’s Creation

§ gods want to destroy mankind for no reason

§ one man and one woman survive

§ survival is due to divine intervention

§ episode end with reconciliation

o The King of the Gods

§ Devour their children to maintain power

§ It is foretold that their youngest (male) child will overthrow them

§ The child is assisted, or kept alive by their mother

§ There is a progressive establishment of divine order

The Hellenistic Period

- after Alexander the Great

- the end of city states and the launch of empires, which are then plagued with instability and strife

- myths needed to be reinterpreted radically, because there were historical and social changes, not a static society

- mythic heritage in two streams

o Homer

o Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

- Hellenistic people can not enjoy the same drama, because they are now a mix of cultures

o people are sick of wars

o self-centred issues

- Gods become literary characters, not the cause of fate

- the main character is not always a hero

- Hellenistic poetry is full of oblique references to ancient Greek mythology, need to be well read to understand it

Pastoral Myth

- deals with rustic life

- very unrealistic

- has conventional themes, a set time/space (Spring or Summer)

- beginning of the Greek Novel

o troubled love of two protagonists, with exotic settings and a happy ending

All notes are Copyright Monash University.