Hesiod's Works and Days.ppt

Hesiod?s Works and Days Tuesday, June 24 Announcement Assignment change for next week: Read Book 5 of the Iliad instead of Book 6 ? so, Monday?s assignment is now Iliad 1, 3, and 5. Also, check Carmen often. Titanomachy Machos = Gr. battle, war Titans versus Olympians Zeus brings back the Hundred-Handers, whom Heaven had sent to Tartarus Ends with the Titans being sent down to Tartarus Underworld Hades ? the ?chthonic god? Cerberus Styx Gods swear inviolable oaths by Styx The punishment (p.26) Mesopotamia Sumerian and Babylonian influences on Greek myth The Epic of Gilgamesh: an epic poem from Mesopotamia Sumerian civilization = one of the earliest civilizations Mesopotamia continued Enuma Elish: Babylonian creation account that precedes the Theogony Marduk : Zeus Epic of Gilgamesh : Iliad and Odyssey Flood Stories Works and Days Addressed to Hesiod?s brother, Perses Dispute about property (p.38) Addresses why man toils Work of advice One theory: loose compilation of passages Structure of the Works and Days Opening Prometheus story Pandora Five Ages of Man Hawk fable Farming advice Two Kinds of Strife One promotes fighting The other rouses one to work Pandora ?All gifts? Introduced in the Theogony Hesiod?s conception of the first woman Similarities Between the Presentations of Pandora A trap, an evil Formed from earth Athena dresses her Differences Between the Presentations of Pandora Theogony Unnamed Hermes not mentioned No mention of Epimetheus Works and Days Named ?Pandora? Hermes gives her a ?bitch?s mind and knavish nature? Pandora is given to Epimetheus as a wife Differences continued Theogony Woman is a drone Only her appearance is described She alone is the evil gift Works and Days Athena teaches her weaving, which means she?s capable of working She is given a voice, mind, and heart She is an evil gift, but she also bears evils, given by the gods The Jar of Evils Pandora releases evils into the world Elpis = hope, expectation What does it mean that hope remains behind? Is hope good or bad? What kind of gift is Pandora? ?A great affliction to mortals? (Theogony, p.20) ?A calamity for men? (W&D, p.39) Creation of woman or a kind of woman? Five Ages of Man Gold Silver Bronze Heroes Iron Golden Age Made of gold During the reign of Kronos No toil No aging Die painlessly Become divine spirits Silver Age Made of silver Long childhoods, short adulthoods Crimes Lack of worship Put away by Zeus Bronze Age Made out of ash trees Violent and fierce ?No eaters of corn? Bronze everything Killed off one another Age of Heroes Insertion of Hesiod?s Demi-gods Time of the Trojan War Some died, Some live on the Isles of the Blessed, where the soil bears fruit for them Iron Age Hesiod?s age Full of toil and trouble Born with grey hair Deterioration in relationships No respect for parents Hawk Fable Allegories relate myth to the human condition Allegory = riddle Riddle = a lie like the truth (cf. Muses of the Theogony ?veiled in thick mist? ? more wrapped stuff!) Advice Farming Seafaring Wife Personal habits Religious rituals Days Echoes of the Theogony in W&D Pandora and Prometheus Right, female advisor and daughter of Zeus (p.44) Zeus? omniscience ? ?Zeus that sees everything and notices everything? (p.45)