Module IV A - Pantheon 1:

Olympians I
Zeus’ Divine Children
 Athena
Homeric hymn #11 – p.73
“town-defender”
Patron deity of Athens
Athena: Metis & Zeus
[Metis – Cleverness]
Athena: Metis & Zeus
 Athens
Athena Polias / polis
(polis = city /state)
 Contest:
Poseidon vs Athena
salt water vs olive
Poseidon – salt spring
Athena - olive
Athens – acropolis
Bronze Age Palace
Athens – Acropolis
Athens Acropolis
 Athens – acropolis
Athena Polias temple
Peisistratos: 550 BC
tyrannos
[military dictator]
 Athens – acropolis
Athena Polias temple
destroyed by Persian invasion:
Xerxes: 480 BC
Parthenon – 450 BC
parthenos (virgin)
Parthenon – 450 BC
 Parthenon
Panathenaea
(Annual festival)
 Panathenaea:
Statue of Athena washed
dressed in a new
peplos / robe
 4
Arrephoroi (Dew Carriers)
(priestesses: 7-11)
2 wove new peplos
 Erechtheum – 430 BC
(Erechtheus - legendary King)
Athena
&
Poseidon
 Erechtheum / Parthenon

Athena Polias (Bronze Age Palace)

Sacred olive
Caryatid Porch
Erechtheum - caryatids
Caryatids: generic term
Female statues used in
architecture:
Karyatides
[Καρυάτιδες]
Caryatids – Arrêphoroi &
Kanephorai:
virgin priestesses
of Athena
 Erechtheum
Caryatids –
represent / symbolize
virgin priestesses
of
Athena / Athens
2 of 4 Arrephoroi
♦ carried sacred objects
from Erechtheum
to underground chamber
♦ brought other objects
from that chamber
to Erechtheum
 Pausanias
Guide to Greece
[c. 150 AD]
Monuments +
Myths & Ceremonies
 Pausanias: Guide to Greece {1.27.3}
Two maidens dwell not far from the temple of Athena Polias, called by the
Athenians Bearers of the Sacred Offerings [Arrephoroi]. For a time they live
with the goddess, but when the festival comes round they perform at night
the following rites. Having placed on their heads what the priestess of Athena
gives them to carry—neither she who gives nor they who carry have any
knowledge what it is—the maidens descend by the natural underground
passage that goes across the adjacent precincts, within the city, of Aphrodite
in the Gardens. They leave down below what they carry and receive
something else which they bring back covered up. These maidens they
henceforth let go free, and take up to the Acropolis others in their place.
 Epithets for Athena:
Pallas
 Epithets for Athena:
glaux + opis
glaukopis: “owl-eyed”
glaukopis: “grey-eyed”
(color of screech-owls)
Nudimmud – epithet
Ea / Enki /another
epithet:
Ninigiku
"Silver-eyed Lord"
or "Lord Silvereye"
 Athens:
silver
tetradrachma:
ca. 455 BC

drachma = 1 day’s wage

 Athens:
silver
tetradrachma:
ca. 455 BC

glaux = screech owl

Epithets for Athena:
Aegis – bearing
Aegis on her shield
(Aegis – fear)
Athena wearing
peplos with aegis
 Hephaestus
Smith / Metalworker
Apollodorus – p. 30
 Hephaestus
Zeus + Hera
OR
Hera - asexual
 Hephaestus lame (ugly)
kakoi – workers / artisans
Few stories
Zeus & Hephaestos
Artemis & Apollo: twins
Zeus & Leto
 Birth of
Artemis & Apollo
Homeric Hymn # 3 – p. 19 ff.
 Apollo: bowman
Phoebus – “Shinning”
Artemis 1st - Ortegia
Apollo: Delos
Aegean Area
Apollo: Delos fears Apollo
Leto: promises a shrine
– p. 21
Leto:’s birth: 9 days – p. 22
Eileithyia – birth pain
onomatopoeia?
Bribed with a ______
 Messsenger to
Eileithyia :
Iris - rainbow (eye)
Iris for Hera
Hermês for Zeus
Leto + Palm tree
victory
 Palm: Tanit / Astartê
[Semitic goddess of desire]
 pp. 22 ff
Delos et al Rejoicing
Apollo: precocious – p. 23
song & dance
[Delos – Ionian festival]
Pythian Apollo: – p. 23
– Lyre
more - song & dance
Apollo: descends from Olympos
p. 26 - Itinerary south
toward Delphi
 Apollo: meets Telphusa
p. 27-28 – convinces him
not to build by her spring
Telphusa convinces him - go to
Crisa / Mt Parnassus
Delphi
 Apollo - Typhaon!
p. 29 - 31 digression
Hera’s anger
alternant version
from Hesiod
[Typhaon - Gaia]
 Apollo - Typhaon!
Dragon killed with arrow
[another myth?]
 Apollo - Typhaon!
Dragon killed with arrow
[Tiamat]
 Apollo - Typhaon!
“rots”
Pytho
Place of temple / python
Apollo - dolphin!/ delphis
Cretan sailors
Itinerary by sea
Malea, Pylos & Elis
Apollo – Cretan Sailors
manifests
as a young man.
p. 35:
“Glory to the Healer”
 p. 36:
“Glory to the Healer”
promised wealth
insults!!!
Parnassus
Aegean Area
Delphi
 Delphi
Mycenaean ‘idols’
[1400 BC]
Linear B Tablets – silent!
{Bronze Age Greek writing}
Mycenaean Idols:
400-1100 BC
 Delphi: omphalos
“navel of the world”
Stone given to Cronos
Omphalos:
Delphi
 Pythia & Aegeus:
Red-figure – 450 BC
 Pythia at Delphi
adytum (sanctum)
phiale =
libation bowl
 Pythia.
John
Collier
c. 1900
(Pre-
Raphaelite)
 Pythia:
laurel leaves / bay leaves
Plutarch: ca. 100-125 AD
fumes from spring
 Geological fault:
oil bearing shale
ethylene percolated into spring
 Apollo’s motto:
gnothê se auton!
“Know yourself!”
 Delphi:
International Sanctuary
Croesus - Lydia: ca. 550 BC
dedications at Delphi
Croesus - Lydia: ca. 550 BC
dedicated columns for
Temple of Artemis
at Ephesus
Aegean Area
 Cyrus I of Persia attacks
Croesus’ Capital at Sardis in Lydia
Aegean Area
 Cyrus I of Persia
Croesus – Lydia
sent envoys to Delphi
“A great army will be
destroyed.”
Phoebus – “Shinning One”
Hêlios / sun
syncretism