Optional Reading

The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis by Kevin Clinton 

The Heraion at Samos by Helmut Kyrieleis.

Both these articles are from a book on Greek sanctuaries. The first gives a good description of the ceremonies leading up to the Mysteries. The second I’ve provided to give you a description of a major site on the island of Samos devoted to Hera to let you know that she was worshiped and not just known for her jealousy over Zeus’ adulteries.

Myth and Cult, The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries by Kevin Clinton.

This contains the major portion of a monogram devoted to Eleusis and the ancient texts concerning the Mysteries. It will also provide an alternative glimpse of what might have gone on in the Mysteries.

Consolation to His Wife by Plutarch.

You encountered the writing of Plutarch (2nd century AD) before in his biography of Theseus. Remember that Plutarch was a priest of Apollo at Delphi for many years. This time, in keeping with the theme of death for this lecture, I’ve selected a letter Plutarch [who was away from home at the time he wrote it] sent to his wife after learning that their two-year-old daughter had just died. This is a touching account and demonstrates both the mourning customs and how fond he was of his little daughter and also how concerned he was about his wife. We’ve heard a lot of derogatory things said about women while reading the tragedies and you might have the idea that men didn’t care about the female members of their families at all. This just simply wasn’t true as is demonstrated in this short piece, although again a portion of the letter is devoted to keeping his wife under control during grieving.

The Greek Way of Death by Robert Garland.

Death has been a prominent theme in all the tragedies we’ve read and this book by Robert Garland has the best discussion of death and funeral customs I’ve found anywhere.

Marriage to Death by Rush Rehm.

From the first reading of the ancient texts [Homeric Hymn to Demeter], one element has reappeared more frequently than any other, ‘marriage to death’. Rehm discusses this subject in detail. I’ve excerpted the chapters that pertain to the works we’ve read.

Frogs by Aristophanes.

I thought it would be appropriate to end all this murder and suicide with a little comic relief. Many elements of Greek myth are reenacted in this comedy. It provides a description of the Underworld and also allows us to see and hear a chorus of initiates to the Mysteries. Plus, and this is the great attraction, it contains a debate on the art of writing tragedies by Aeschylus and Euripides who appear as character in the play. Also we see Aristophanes’ irreverence by his portrayal of the god Dionysus as a very human character.

Timaeus and Critias by Plato.

The story of Atlantis as told by Plato is contained in the Timaeus and the Critias dialogues. This is the complete source material for the origin of the myth. Everything ever written about Atlantis has its origin in these words. The bit about Atlantis in the Timaeus only concerns the first five pages. The Critias is very short but is all about Atlantis. I’ve also included an appendix from another book that discusses Atlantis and provides a layout of the city according to Plato’s discussion.

You have already seen part of the Timaeus in the readings I provided last time on divining by entrails. This time I want to focus on the particular part that refers to Atlantis. This will give you plenty of background on the Atlantis ‘myth’ for our last class where we’ll discuss the archeological findings at Santorini [Akrotiri] which many people are beginning to believe was Atlantis.

Black Athena, The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization by Martin Bernal.

The excerpts I’ve provided here will give you additional information on the volcanic eruption of Santorini in 1628 BC and the collapse of Mycenaean civilization following the Trojan War in 1200 BC. It also contains and interesting discussion of the burning of Thebes and the Oriental cylinder seals found in its ashes.

Excerpt from Plutarch, The Histories.

The following event occurred during the Persian invasion of 480 BC.

The following is a tale told by Dicaeus, the son of Theocydes, an Athenian, who was at this time an exile, and had gained a good report among the Medes [the Persians]. He declared that after the army of Xerxes had, in the absence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he chanced to be with Demaratus the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian plain, and that while there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from Eleusis, such as a host of thirty thousand men might raise. As he and his companion were wondering who the men, from whom the dust arose, could possibly be, a sound of voices reached his ear, and he thought that he recognised the mystic hymn to Bacchus (the Iocchus song). Now Demaratus was unacquainted with the rites of Eleusis, and so he inquired of Dicaeus what the voices were saying. Dicaeus made answer-

"O Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty calamity is about to befall the king's army! For it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted by its inhabitants, that the sound which we have heard is an unearthly one, and is now upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians and their confederates. If it descends upon the Peloponnese, danger will threaten the king himself and his land army- if it moves towards the ships at Salamis, 'twill go hard but the king's fleet there suffers destruction. Every year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the Mother and the Daughter (Demeter and Persephone); and all who wish, whether they be Athenians or any other Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou hearest is the Bacchic song, which is wont to be sung at that festival."

"Hush now," rejoined the other; "and see thou tell no man of this matter. For if thy words be brought to the king's ear, thou wilt assuredly lose thy head because of them; neither I nor any man living can then save thee. Hold thy peace therefore. The gods will see to the king's army."

Thus Demaratus counselled him; and they looked, and saw the dust, from which the sound arose, become a cloud, and the cloud rise up into the air and sail away to Salamis, making for the station of the Grecian fleet. Then they knew that it was the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer destruction. Such was the tale told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes; and he appealed for its truth to Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.

CHRONOLOGY

The dates of events in Greek mythology are subject to debate. I have adopted the following chronology, which may prove useful:

Kadmos founded Thebes sometime around 1400 BC, and Thebes was destroyed by Oedipus’ grandsons in 1225 BC. The Trojan War occurred a generation later, and shortly thereafter the Mycenaean civilization collapsed.

A dark age (loss of writing) followed the collapse of the Mycenaean Civilization during which the stories of these heroic characters were told and retold through an oral tradition and, sometime after the end of the millennium, culminated in the works of Hesiod and Homer. Many of its peoples had relocated in Ionia on the western coast of Asia Minor (Turkey) and the adjacent Aegean islands. Homer was reported to have been born either on the island of Chios or on the mainland at Smyrna (now Izmir). Hesiod lived on the Greek mainland near Thebes. The work of the great Greek tragic poets of Athens (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), who continued the dramatization of the characters and events of the Heroic Age, followed during the outburst of creativity in the 5th Century BC know as Classical Greece. A chronology for the lives of these writers is as follows: 

As for writing itself, three forms of it existed in ancient Greece: Linear A, Linear B and ancient Greek written using the Phoenician alphabet. Linear A was in use by the Minoans and is the most ancient form of writing found in Greece. Linear A is pictographic and difficult to decipher although some sound values of Linear B may be used for similar symbols of Linear A. Many of the words appear to be Egyptian. Linear B is also pictograph and was used primarily by the Mycenaeans. It was decoded in 1953 by a young Englishman, Michael Ventris, who was a cryptographer during World War II. He used statistical analysis to show that Linear B is ancient Greek.

Following the fall of Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, writing was no longer practiced and a Greek "dark-age" followed until revived during the time of Homer and Hesiod. This written form of ancient Greek received its alphabet from the Phoenicians and, according to legend, was brought into Greece by Kadmos of Tyre who founded Thebes. If this is true, a lapse of 600 years occurred between Kadmos bringing the alphabet to Greece and it being used. More likely, the alphabet was brought into Greece sometime after 800 BC. In any case, the Greeks assigned sound values to the Phoenician letters and in that way a written form of ancient Greek developed. Ancient and Modern Greek forms a continuous line of descent from Homer to modern times, the ancient writing relating to the modern much as the English of Chaucer relates to Modern English.

THE REDISCOVERY OF THE ANCIENT MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

For centuries scholars believed that the writings of Homer concerning the Trojan War and those of the tragic poets were an elaborate fiction about totally “mythic” characters. No one thought a civilization of any significance existed before that of 5th century BC Greece. In the late 19th century AD, an amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann shocked the world by uncovering the ruins of Troy at Hisarlik at the mouth of the Dardanelles on what is now the north-western coast of Turkey. Schliemann had used Homer’s text to locate the site, and after his first discovery, he went into central Greece and successfully located Mycenae, the legendary home of Agamemnon, the general who led the Greek forces in the ten-year war against Troy. Other finds quickly followed, including what came to be called the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete with its magnificent palace at Knossos, which was excavated by Arthur Evans. Just north of Athens archaeologists uncovered the ruins of ancient Thebes, the setting for the tragedy of Oedipus and his family.

Schliemann’s finds rocked not only the world of archaeology but classic literature as well. The legends of the ancient Greeks were viewed with a new respect. The names Theseus, Oedipus, Odysseus, Agamemnon took on a dimension heretofore only realized by those from the Bible. Ancient Greek religion took on a new respectability.

Additional reading.

First of all let me say that I realize I’ve given you a lot to read, probably too much. If you can’t get through all of it, don’t worry. I’ve provided it so that in the days to come when the class is over you can continue your investigation of ancient Greek myth and its significance.

The extra reading material falls into three categories: (1) ancient myth, (2) psychology, and (3) archaeology. These subjects are closely connected because Hermes was guide of souls in the Underworld and was frequently seen in the present of those going-to or coming-from. If you’ll remember, just before Oedipus died he saw Hermes coming for him along with Persephone.

ANCIENT MYTH

Book XXIV of The Iliad.

This excerpt from Homer’s The Iliad is the last chapter of that work. Achilles, the most fearsome warrior among the Greeks has just killed Hector, the champion of the Trojans. Achilles won’t bury Hector’s body but continues to defile it by dragging it about his friend’s, Patroclus’, grave. (Hector had killed Patroclus a little earlier.) Priam, Hector’s father, finally goes to retrieve his son’s body. The story is about that retrieval, and how Hermes assisted Priam in getting in and out of the enemy’s camp safely.

Pay particular attention to Hermes’ actions because they are discussed in detail in Murray Stein’s In MidLife, part of which I’ve also included in this reading assignment. This will then give you a good idea of not only how Greek mythology is related to our lives today, but also how it is currently being used by psychotherapists to uncover our psychic structure.

Book X of The Odyssey.

Book XI of The Odyssey.

These two excerpts from Homer’s The Odyssey describe part of Odysseus’ attempt to get home following the Trojan War. Odysseus spent ten years fighting Troy and then ten years trying to get home. They also concern Odysseus’ encounter with the sorceress, Circe, and Odysseus’ descent into the Underworld to see the shade of Teiresias who had recently died. Teiresias is the only human being to retain an unclouded mind in the Afterlife. Book X also contains Odysseus’ encounter with Hermes, and it is used extensively by Stein in In MidLife. Also note that Odysseus sees Oedipus’ mother/wife (here called ‘Epicaste’ and Oedipus ‘Oedipodes’) in the Underworld.

There is an interesting connection between Oedipus and Odysseus. They both suffer at the hands of the gods (Oedipus by Apollo and Odysseus by Poseidon) and have difficulty finding their way home. Oedipus’ search is for a final resting place, and he has been searching for his rightful home since he was exposed on Cithaeron when three-days old. The aspect of wandering the countryside has characteristics reminiscent of midlife as described by Murray Stein. This should cause us to rethink the metaphorical significance of Oedipus’ wanderings.

Book XXIV of The Odyssey.

This is the final chapter in The Odyssey. I’ve included it because it is used by Murray Stein in In MidLife and also Karl Kerenyi’s Hermes, Guide of Souls, part of which I’ve also included for your reading assignment.

The Republic by Plato.

Of course the writings of Plato aren’t myth, but this particular selection contains a story, supposedly true, describing one man’s near-death experience. I’ve included this Plato dialogue primarily because of its discussion and presentation of the Underworld contained in the last few pages as The Legend of Er. I’ve included the entire dialogue because it contains a discussion of tragedy and a lengthy dissertation on the soul. This will give you another view of the ancient Greek’s philosophical view of the divine.