Good morning and welcome to LLT121 Classical Mythology. I guess, if there's a lesson for this particular lecture, it's that Zeus abhors a wise guy. The official title of this unit, Unit Three is “All that Zeus.” But, before we read about all of his children and the interesting ways in which some of them came about, we need to learn a little respect for Zeus. That is to say, no matter what I say about Zeus in this or the next lecture, the ancient Greeks still conceived of him as a supreme god, still conceived of him as all powerful, ruling the universe, and to the extent that anything good and positive was going on in the universe, Zeus was to thank for it. That was a disclaimer, but if you wanted an illustration of Zeus's attitude toward the human race, you need look no further than poor, old Prometheus, Mr. Foresight, the fellow who taught human beings how to sacrifice. Well, actually he's a god, the god who taught human beings how to trick Zeus through the art of sacrifice. Zeus punished the humans b y stealing fire back from them. Prometheus, that friend of humankind, stole fire back for the humans.
What did he get for his troubles? He got chained to some mountains spread-eagled with a giant gutter eagle eating his liver everyday. It grew back everyday because he is immortal, and, as I suggested, he is, perhaps, making a very rude gesture to Zeus with one of his hands, because Prometheus knows—his name in ancient Greek means Mr. Foresight—he knows a secret. He knows the answer to a question that Zeus, oddly enough, doesn't know. It seems that there is a certain promising young sea goddess who is destined to bare a son who is greater than his father. Prometheus knows this sea nymph's name, this sea goddess's name. I'll clue you in, too. It's Thetis. Unfortunately, Zeus does not know this sea nymph's name, which means, among other things, that Zeus is going to have to behave himself. Think about it for a second. There are no known means of birth control in ancient Greece. It's very unlikely that any of them could restrain the godly manliness of Zeus, anyway. He never knows which woman, which goddess, might be the one who is destined to bear a son greater than his father. Zeus isn't interested in having any kids who are greater than he is. Think about Kumarbi, the ex-ruler of the Hittite universe. Think about Cronus. Think about Uranus. Until such time as Zeus finds out the identity of this promising young sea nymph, Zeus has to be monogamous. Zeus does not like being a one-goddess god—is that right—?or a one-woman man or anything like that, so keep that in the back of your head as we talk about “All that Zeus.”
Prometheus, we'll leave him chained to his rocks on the Caucuses Mountains with the gutter eagle eating his liver everyday. We have to turn now to Zeus's retribution on mankind for Prometheus's theft of fire. That is to say, the creation of women. Clearly, this myth shows all the earmarks of a misogynistic society. The word “misogynist” denotes somebody who hates women. According to this myth of the creation of womankind, Zeus decided to punish mankind by getting together with all of the other gods and goddesses but Prometheus and forming out of clay and water a creature in the shape of the goddesses.
Now, right there, I've got to stop. One of you bright people is going to say, “How is it that, if gods exist and goddesses exist, all humans were male?” That boggles the mind. Another thing which might boggle your mind is the goddesses are going to go along with this plan to get even with humans by creating something that looks like them. That is as if to say I'm going to unleash a race of bald guys with red beards who talk about forever. I will punish the universe this way. Not going to happen. At any rate, they create her on the ancient Greek equivalent of an assembly line. The various gods and goddesses each bestow presents upon this creature, whose name, by the way, is Pandora, the ancient Greek word meaning “all gifts.”
Athena, influential goddess of war, wisdom and women's work—we'll meet her later—gives her a veil and other pretty things to wear. B, the god of metal shop, makes a lovely crown for her. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, gives the creature grace, beauty and desirability. Hermes, the god of thieves, gives her, and I quote, “the mind of a bitch.” You can obviously see that this myth was written and passed down by men. Then, once they deck her out with a few other things, wheedling, lies, and thievery. They get her all dressed up and send her down to the house of Prometheus's younger brother, Epimetheus, whose name, in ancient Greek, means “Mr. Hindsight.” This bewitching creature comes knocking at the door of Epimetheus, holding a box. She has been instructed, the silly girl, not to open the box, not to look in the box. Okay? Of course, that means she's got to look in the box. What's in the box? Your name is? Carrie. What's in the box, Carrie? Mona? Pandora's box? You don't know? All the evil there is: doom, despair, agony, and all the other horrible things—male pattern baldness. She's told not to open it. There's also hope. Hope is in the box, but we don't know that yet. Epimetheus answers the door, even though his brother, Prometheus, has told him that, at some point in your life, there's going to be a creature knocking at your door called a woman. She's going to be holding a box, which she's been told not to open. Please do not open the door, because it will be a fat lot of trouble for the whole universe. Prometheus actually told Epimetheus this. But, like younger siblings throughout the history of humanity, the younger sibling does not listen to the wisdom of the older sibling and Epimetheus lets Pandora into the house.
Pandora comes into the house and opens her box. Out of the box fly all the evils of the world; death, hatred, disease, high cholesterol and the like. The only thing that remains in the box is hope. The interpretation of this, well, interpretation number one is that Pandora's box, obviously, is a symbol of the womb. You can blame women for unleashing from the womb all of their troubles on the world. All troubles begin in the womb. Well, that's actually correct. Your troubles are all due to your existence. Your existence begins in the womb. It is also fundamentally misogynistic in that it assigns all blame for all evils to females. If Pandora had just kept the box closed, like she was told to, obviously we wouldn't have all these problems here. I pause for your questions. We could beat this one to death. It's worthwhile. Your name is? It's still Jeremy. Go ahead. She was told to. She goes because—I'll make up a good answer to this. They knew, being gods and goddesses, that he'd be stupid enough to let her in. He fell for that. Okay, that was good. Yes. Mark's question is, why did the gods send her there? Why did they send Pandora to Epimetheus? Remember that the gods and goddesses are, for whatever reason, trying to get even with humans for a perceived injustice. The gods and goddesses have, if you will, been dissed. They have been disrespected. Remember, the lesson of today's class is, Zeus abhors a wise guy.
Actually, I can even give you a buzzword now. I'll give you a buzzword, which is usually good for at least two points on any essay exam. The word is “hubris.” Hubris is the crime of thinking you are equal to or greater than a god.. The punishment is either death or something that makes you wish you were dead. Greek and Roman mythology is just filled with scads of hubris. Gods and goddesses are getting even with humans who get fat heads for some reason. You push the envelope a little too far, boom, whap, you're gone. Prometheus; even gods can suffer from hubris, sometimes. But, since Prometheus is a god, he just gets something that makes him wish he was dead, stretched out on a mountain with a gutter eagle eating his liver everyday. Only hope remains. So on and so forth. So much for Hesiod's explanation. I might also point out that Hesiod, who lived around 750 BC, believed that every word he put in his poetry was true. Hesiod believed that it happened just as I am describing it to you.
Hesiod also had a theory on why it was that Zeus eventually let Prometheus off the rock. I haven't forgotten about you, big guy. According to Hesiod, Zeus decided that Hercules—or Heracles—should take Prometheus off of that rock. According to Hesiod, Zeus did this—had Hercules take Prometheus off that rock—in order to honor Hercules. Your name is? Jeremy. You got a problem with that version? You don't? Have I taught you no better than that? Your name is? You got a problem with that version of the myth? Okay, tell me about it. Somebody should have a problem with this version of the story. Have I raised you all to be schmoozed? Nobody has a problem? Yeah, that is kind of bogus. He just decided to honor Hercules. He has lots of kids, why Hercules? Who else has a problem with this version of the story, as I'm telling it? Greer—are you Greer? You've got a problem with this version of the story? Okay, tell me about it. Yes. Matt? Well that's a pretty good one, too. Yeah, well Hercules is half mortal. I don't know. I can't answer that one. Thanks. Thanks a whole lot, buddy.
Does anybody here get the idea that Hesiod is just covering up for the Big Z? What's the real reason why Prometheus comes off that rock? Prometheus knows the name of a certain promising young sea nymph with whom Zeus must not perform the act of love because this promising young sea nymph, named Thetis, is destined to bear a son who is greater than his father. Zeus must avoid this nymph at all costs, but he doesn't know what her name is, so he must avoid all nymphs at all costs, but he doesn't know what her name is, so he must avoid all nymphs at all costs and he's tired of that. Yes? You're being a literalist, son. He knows that it's female. He knows there's somebody female with whom he is not permitted to sleep. He just doesn't know her name. No options, he's desperate.
Why won't Hesiod tell us this version of the story? What's your name? I knew that. Jerod? It makes Zeus seem like he's not all knowing. It makes it seem like Zeus's thinking is done by a certain organ of his, which is not his brain, and Hesiod doesn't want that information to get out, so he makes up this patently false, bogus story, “Oh, Hercules did it.” I pause for your questions. That's the version of the story that gets out in 750 BC from our friend, Hesiod. Another version of the story is told to us right around 475 BC by a poet whose name is Aeschylus. All questions must be directed to the great yours, truly. Please, any questions? No, it's not all right if you're lost. Thank you for having the courage to admit it. I'm lost a lot of the time, myself, so I feel your pain. According to Hesiod, Hercules is the one that let Prometheus go. Okay, let's say that you drive your car into the garage door, right? You say that your sister did it, when, in fact, you did it, but you try to cover your tracks by saying, “Heather did it.” Okay? I just made up your sister's name. It's the same thing here. Hesiod doesn't want to say Zeus let Prometheus off the rock because Prometheus knew the sea nymph's name that he's supposed to avoid. He knew the name of the one sea nymph that Zeus couldn't do it with. That would make Zeus look like a jerk. Hesiod doesn't want Zeus to look like a jerk anymore than you want Jennifer to look like a bad driver, right?
So Hesiod, in the year 750, because he feels compelled to cover up for Zeus, makes up this bogus story about how Hercules did it because Zeus wanted to honor Hercules. Does that help a little bit? I thought that was a pretty good explanation, too. Other questions? Yes. It's reading a whole lot into Hesiod's story, as a matter of fact, but I think the bottom line is that he is trying to honor Zeus and, consequently, deletes myths that, you know, could be construed as disrespecting Zeus. Moreover it's almost too difficult to explain any other way, but Aeschylus takes a shot at it. If you subtract 750 from 475 you get the number 275. Either the number 275 or some other number. That's almost three centuries, folks. From the years 750 to 475 Greek life—the life of your average Greek schmuck or schmuckette in the street—became much kinder and much gentler. Moreover, in the years between 750 and 475 the Greeks made a number of interesting discoveries like writing, medicine, philosophy, theater, the notion that maybe the earth is all made out of one substance. It's all made out of water—or maybe it's all made out of earth. There's a lot of intellectual development going on between the years 750 BC and 475 BC. Consequently, the weltanschauung of the ancient Greeks changes, likewise. They are less prone, in 475 BC, to see Zeus as this inflexible tyrant who destroys everything in the world and more likely sees Zeus as a kinder, gentler supreme god who, on occasion, does act with the best interests of humankind in his heart.
If you take two people, even today, one who grows up poor and never sure where they're going to get their next meal, and one little rich kid and ask them to explain the universe. The poor kid's universe is going to be a much crueler and nastier place, in most instances, than is the rich kid's. The same thing goes here. In 475 BC—and I'm going to have to cover this very briefly—we have a trilogy of plays called the Prometheus Trilogy by Aeschylus. Only the first of the three plays survives. The second and the third are lost. The first of these three plays is called the Prometheus Bound. If you like dramatic action in your plays, this is not the one to read or watch. It is just Prometheus standing there with his arms stretched out and a gutter eagle eating his liver everyday. Various people come up and talk to him about things. These people are all sent by Zeus in order to find out a certain piece of information. Who is the promising young sea nymph that Zeus is not supposed to sleep with? The first pair of, so-called, persuasive people are named Force and Strength. Right off the bat, this should give you an idea of where Aeschylus is coming from. He assigns Zeus a couple of henchmen, messenger-type boys whose names are Force and Strength. They say to Prometheus, “Prometheus, you better let out your dirty little secret or else Zeus is going to make you really, really sorry.” Does anybody have any observations at this point? Yeah? Because it would make for a bad play. Okay. I can answer that one quite easily. Yes, Crystal. You got it, Crystal. What can you do to him? What can you do to Prometheus? It's like, “I'm sitting here on death row and I'm going to be executed tomorrow. There's a big sign that says, ‘No Smoking.’ I'm sitting there smoking and they tell me to stop smoking. What are you going to do to me if I don't? Kill me?”
You can almost see Prometheus saying, “What are you going to do to me if I don't tell, chain me to a rock and have a gutter eagle eat my liver everyday?” So the mission of Force and Strength is a wash, because they've run out of threats. The next visitor is Hephaestus. I'll write his name up on the board. We'll meet him later. He's the god of metal shop and handicap folks. Hephaestus, when he was a young baby, so the story goes, was so ugly that Zeus threw him off of Mount Olympus. He wound up having clubfoot after that. He's the god of metal shop and making things. He's a nice guy. Everybody likes Hephaestus. And Hephaestus is the next visitor. Hephaestus says, “Prometheus this is a real bummer. I really hated putting those chains on you, but you know Zeus is not somebody you want to mess around with. One time Hera pulled a trick on him and he hung her upside down from the edge of the world.” I think it's Hephaestus who also says, “Keep in mind, too, that Zeus is young. He had just become the supreme god when he did this to you. Everybody is kind of a hard guy when they just come on to the job, when they are just getting to be the boss.” A kinder, gentler Zeus or at least a Zeus who is capable of being portrayed is kinder and gentler.
Then there's a third visitor, a young woman, a womanly woman, who has cow horns on her head. Her name is Io. The story of Io is, really, really, very sad. Io is a young woman whom Zeus has done wrong to. Okay, Io comes up and asks questions of Prometheus. “Prometheus, since you see everything in the future, what does life hold for me, poor semi-bovine female that I am?” Prometheus says, “Well, it basically works out all right for you, Io, but woe, woe, woe is me.” The play ends with Prometheus saying, “I'm not going to tell you, Zeus. You can blast me down to the underworld and I'm not going to tell you, Zeus, because I know you're going to let me off.” The play ends with a roll of drums and a whole gallon of production values as Prometheus gets smitten down to hell. And while you're watching this play, while you're ancient Greeks sitting down in the ancient Greek theater watching this play, who are you rooting for? Who looks like a jerk? Who looks like a nice person? Your name is? Mitch. Who are you rooting for? One or the other, Mitch. Yeah? Okay, another opinion. Your name is? Regina. Regina, who are you rooting for? How many of you are rooting for Prometheus? How many of you are rooting for Zeus? Why are you rooting for Zeus, Phil? That's a good way to put it. You know, you've got a point, because Aeschylus is making Zeus look like a jerk. But, by the same token, Aeschylus is a true believer. Aeschylus is fighting for a way to explain why Zeus does bad things like this while, fundamentally, being good in much the same way, I suggest, that, when somebody loses a loved one, they wonder, “why was this person, whom I love, why were they taken from me by a kind and loving God?” There's some wrestling involved there, too.
Well, at any rate Prometheus goes, “Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah.” He gets blown down to the underworld. We don't have the rest of the plays. We don't have the second or third play in this series, but from fragments, we do know that Zeus does, indeed, let Prometheus off the mountain. Aeschylus does not come out and say he did it so he could find out the name of the promising young sea nymph. That would be too much disrespect. That would be hubris, even for Aeschylus. The points that I'd like you to take and the points that I'd like you to keep in the back of your mind is that, in 750 BC, Hesiod, the true believer, the fundamentalist believer in everything he said, had to resort to this story about how Zeus decided, in the goodness of his heart, to let Prometheus off the rock in order to honor his son, Hercules. I know Kristen, it doesn't do much for me either. Aeschylus, in 475 BC, in a civilization that was more advanced, that had, I suggest, a more positive weltanschauung, wrestles with this concept of a Zeus who, at the one hand could punish Prometheus so terribly for benefiting humankind, and balancing that against his need to believe in Zeus as the supreme ruling force for good in the universe. This is the best he can do. He seems to suggest, I would say, Aeschylus seems to suggest that Zeus might be capable of learning from his mistakes. Zeus might be capable of looking at human sufferings and changing his viewpoint and attitude toward the world when he sees human suffering. That is interesting.
I pause for a question at this point. Ray, let me have it. Yes, as a matter of fact, it is a side labor to one of his twelve labors. We'll cover that more in the Hercules Unit. He gets a whole week. We're going to have a whole Hercules week in class. Other questions? Caroline. Oh, she got married. Once they found out that she was the young nymph who was going to bear a son that was greater than his father, they married her off to this mortal dude named Pelius. They had a really great wedding. All the gods and goddesses were invited except for Eris, goddess of strife. She showed up anyway with an apple marked, “For the Fairest.” That is a completely different story. Thanks Caroline. Yes, what's your name? Jeremy. No, Hephaestus got his foot injury being thrown off of Mount Olympus. You're threatening me. You know I can't answer that. Why is it that my dad has a disgustingly full head of hair and he's old? Whereas, mine is receding a little bit. That's just the way it works out.
Okay, so much for the creation of mankind. It's time now to go into a different myth, the second myth, explaining the Ages of Humankind. Anybody who says, “Wait a minute, two accounts of the creation of humans,” anybody that asks me that question gets it right in the head with this eraser. I don't want any literalists right now. In this account of the creation of humankind, humans just appear. This version comes to us from Hesiod and also from Ovid. Again, Ovid knows Hesiod’s story. He quotes it. Don’t you do that. That’s plagiarism. Hesiod says, in the beginning, there was an age of people who were golden. They were made out of gold, the so-called Golden Age. According to Hesiod, they were created by Cronus. These people lived, ate, and bred along side the gods and goddesses. They did not suffer from old age. They did not have to work or build houses. The fertile land, of its own accord, bore fruit ungrudgingly in abundance and stuff. If this sounds familiar, just raise your hand and don't tell me. Elizabeth, tell me. It sounds a lot like the Garden of Eden, doesn't it? These people were pure and good, uncorrupted by evil. The reason why the Golden Age ended in the Book of Genesis is that Eve talked Adam into eating the apple that the snake told her to eat and stuff.
In this version, the Golden Age, according to Hesiod and, later, to Ovid, ends because Zeus replaces Cronus as chief god. That's it. The Golden Age stops simply because— well, the same thing happens here in the state of Missouri or the country anytime that one party or another gets in charge of the state or U.S. government. Right now, there is a Democratic governor. Well, there's going to be a lot of Democrats with jobs in Jefferson City. If a Republican governor gets elected next, guess what? All the Democrats are going to be shown the door. That's the way politics works. You want your own people there. If I got to be president of the university, I would undoubtedly make Matt the vice-president for academic affairs. The present inhabitants of the job could go...well, whatever. That could be beaten into the ground. The Golden Age is displaced because it's not Zeus’s. Zeus creates an age of silver people, the so-called Silver Age.
I can read to you from Hesiod here. It’s pretty short. “Then those who have their home on Olympus made a second race, of silver. Far worse than the one of gold, and unlike it both physically and mentally. A child is brought up by the side of his dear mother for 100 years, playing in the house as a mere baby. But when they grew up and reached the measure of their prime, they lived for only a short time and in distress because of their senselessness. They could not restrain their wanton arrogance against other and they did not want to worship the blessed immortals or sacrifice to them as is customary and right. Then, in his anger, Zeus hid them away because they did not give the blessed gods their due.” It also sounds somewhat familiar. This Silver Age is destroyed by Zeus because they did not show the gods proper respect. Moreover, this race of people is destroyed by Zeus because they did not show the gods proper respect. Moreover, this race of people is destroyed by Zeus because they display violence and arrogance towards each other. The ancient Greek word for violent arrogance is “hubris.” Okay, they fight with each other. They don't respect the gods. Zeus covers them over with earth. That is the end of the Silver Age.
The third age which follows is the Age of Bronze. Has anybody ever heard of the Bronze Age? Okay, what is a characteristic of the Bronze Age? Oh Lord. Thank you. People use bronze tools. The underlying conception behind this is that humans can be neatly categorized by their tools. We'd like to think that this was just something those modern scholars invented, but in the year 750 BC, Hesiod is telling us this story in which he says this race of people is characterized by their use of bronze tools. Guess what? We're going to have an Iron Age after it. Then we had what? The Enlightenment. Then we get the—what other ages do we have in modern times? The Dark Age, thank you. The Age of Information. Computer Age, the Silicon Age, after that is the Age of Velcro. I myself live in the Age of Velcro. “Father Zeus made another race of mortal men; the third of bronze and not at all like the one of silver. Terrible and mighty because of their spears of ash, they pursued the painful and violent deeds of war. They were terrifying and had dauntless hearts. Great was their might and unconquerable hands grew upon their strong limbs out of their shoulders. Of bronze were their homes and they worked with bronze implements. Black iron did not exist. When they had been destroyed by their own hands, they went down into the dark house of chill Hades, without leaving a name.” How was it that this race of human beings left the earth? New inventions that they used to kill themselves off the face of the earth. You got it. The possibility that humans might invent a form of killing each other so technologically advanced that they could use it to destroy all existence on the planet. Growing up in the late second half of the 20th century, we're all used to that. We grow up with that. We all know that it could all end any day with some jerk pressing a button, can’t it? It still can. We can still blow ourselves up how many times? Last time I heard, it was 14. That’s all. I'm kind of surprised, myself. In the year 750 BC, Hesiod tells us this myth in which the Bronze Age, the people who discovered bronze, used it to build houses and stuff. But they used it to build better war implements and used this new killing technology to destroy the entire human race, bringing up a question that I sometimes like to discuss with people. Maybe we can discuss it next time if we have time.
This is a big question: Is technology good or is technology bad? One instance, the telephone. Reach out and touch someone. If you want to call someone and say, “I miss you.” But what’s the bad side of the telephone? You don’t write any letters, do you? When you look back five years on your special friendship with so and so, you just have the memories of a really huge phone bill. Both good and bad. It’s the same thing for bronze. It is, if used correctly, a major step forwards in human existence. But these silly Greeks of the Bronze Age supposedly used it to kill each other with. Over here, we've got an Iron Age. The Iron Age is the age that Hesiod himself lives in. It’s really bad. It's wicked. Zeus is going to destroy it any second as soon as it comes to pass that babies are born with gray hair at their temples and stuff. Okay? You look at this and it hangs together very nicely progressing from more precious metal, gold, to a less precious metal, silver, to a less precious metal, bronze, to a less precious metal of iron. It gets progressively less precious. Moreover, the metals get progressively harder as you go on. Gold, pure gold. I have a stick of pure gold and I hit you over the head with it, Farrah Lynn. What happens? Splort! The same thing with pure silver. A pure silver ring. You drop it on the ground, it goes splort. Bronze is harder and holds an edge better. Iron is harder still and holds an edge even better still. Hesiod predicts that this Iron Age, too, will pass. When Zeus gets so tired of its wrongdoing that he destroys it, too.
This is really neatly put together, except for one problem. Hesiod sticks a fifth age in here, an Age of Heroes. See? I let you write it down the easy way, the smart way, the way that makes sense, then I just up and stuck the heroes into the middle of it. Why did Hesiod stick the heroes in? I’ll give you another hint. They are an up blip to the Iron Age. Hum. Yeah, go ahead Farrah Lynn. You’re a ringer, Farrah Lynn. But that’s alright. I couldn’t have explained it better myself. Now, let’s just say, for example, that we are like Hesiod. We are all the sort of people who like to climb on the soapbox and complain about how the universe started out really good in the Garden of Eden and is getting so bad now that it’s going to fall apart any minute. Okay, the old 100 to minus 5 bit. We are all preaching the imminent doom of the world. I suggest, if we are of the Christian faith, we could find one up blip, the birth of Jesus Christ. Okay? Then another down blip, we messed that up. If you are an American patriot you can hold up as the one decent event that gave hope to human existence. You could hold up July 4, 1776, the foundation of the United States of America. Or if you were utterly egocentric you could hold up your birthday as the one up blip, as the one telltale hope for human society that was ultimately crushed. Hesiod, being a good, patriotic Greek, wants to honor the memories of Achilles, Agamemnon, and all those other—Ulysses—those other great Greeks we’re going to read about later on this semester. He honors them by saying, “Yeah, the Bronze Age stank, then the Heroes were an improvement, but my own age? Blp!” However, in our next class we will read, very briefly, Ovid’s reworking of this Ages of Humankind story. We will meet Zeus and his other Zeuslings besides. Thank you very much. You’ve been a very good class.
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