Greek Mythology Terms and Concepts, Quizzes of Classical Philology

Download Greek Mythology Terms and Concepts and more Quizzes Classical Philology in PDF only on Docsity! TERM 1 ANTHROPOMORPHISM DEFINITION 1 attribution of human characteristics to things that are not human; gods in this case. gods have feelings and emotions gods are depicted as human like gods are unpredictable like humans TERM 2 PANHELLENIC DEFINITION 2 Of relating to the greeks pan(all) hellenic(greek). There were Panhellenic Games which were festivals held in ancient Greece. TERM 3 PANTHEON DEFINITION 3 of relating to the gods as a whole "of all gods" "of or common to all gods" from pan+theios. TERM 4 TEMPLUM DEFINITION 4 Literally means "temple". does not necessarily mean a building place of worship sanctioned by gods via a preist TERM 5 HENOTHEISM DEFINITION 5 belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities that may also be worshipped. for example: there is apollo, athena, artemis, dionysis, gaia, hera, aphrodite,demeter, zeus, etc. BUT it is clear that zeus is the most worshipped and the most powerful of the gods. all are worshipped, zeus is just most powerful. TERM 6 EX NIHILO DEFINITION 6 gods can create things out of nothing. gods created the earth out of nothing. TERM 7 CHTHONIC DEFINITION 7 deities of the underworld. spooky gods. often depicted with black animals who have been sacrificed. TERM 8 DAIMON DEFINITION 8 powerful spiritual beings they guide and protect TERM 9 EPITHET DEFINITION 9 a descriptive nickname for a god preceding or replacing their name. these nicknames ae based on characteristic reinforced by mythology. "dark-haired hades" golden-haired demeter cloud-gathering zeus TERM 10 SUCCESSION MYTH DEFINITION 10 gaia, ornos, and their children (titans) kronos (child of gaia and ornos), Rheia and their children ->zeus (olympians) struggle between titans and olympians zeus defeats the titans "the father of gods" "the best of the gods and the greatest in strength" Zeus has many wives out of which comes culture and civilization. *** THE BIRTH OF THE GODS (AND THE COMING-INTO-BEING OF THE WORLD) TERM 21 EPOPTAI DEFINITION 21 after being a mystai during initiation to an eleusenian mystery cult, you are now called an epoptai. Epoptai perform the initiation on the next mystai, and so on. TERM 22 HEIROPHANT DEFINITION 22 the heirophant is the person who removes demeters sacred objects from the Kiste to allow each mystai to hold them to be initiatied into the mysteries. TERM 23 KISTE DEFINITION 23 the basket inside of the Anaktoron. contains sacred objects of Demeter used by heirophant for induction of mystai into the eleusian mysteries. they are able to hold the scared objects. TERM 24 THESMOPHORIA DEFINITION 24 the most widespread form of the Cult of Demeter. 3-10 days only women who have given birth able to join women go outside city walls and set up a camp. perform rites: fasting, torches, pig sacrifice, simulation of underworld visitation by demeter. TERM 25 LETO DEFINITION 25 phoebe's daughter. a titan sister is asteria TERM 26 PYTHIAN DEFINITION 26 delphi TERM 27 DELIAN DEFINITION 27 delos-> the birthplace of Apollo. TERM 28 PYTHIA DEFINITION 28 a preistess (the oracle of delphi) at the apollo temple at delphi. TERM 29 PHOEBUS DEFINITION 29 epithet meaning "shining" or "the sun god" Apollo's grandmother is Phoebe the "shining goddess" Apollo becomes associated with the sun because of "shining" grandmother. TERM 30 ASCLEPIUS DEFINITION 30 Apollo's son. can perform healing ->asclepius temples healed people always portrayed as old, wise physician. symbol is the branch with shake portrayed older than apollo. TERM 31 MIASMA DEFINITION 31 Impureness of a human which is physically visible to gods like a stain but is invisible to humans. This miasma prevents those unpure from visiting temples. Apollo can remove miasma from someone. TERM 32 MAENAD DEFINITION 32 In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. TERM 33 GREATER DIONYSIA DEFINITION 33 CITY/GREATER DIONYSIA festival of the tragedies. theatrical competition associated with dionysus 3 playwrites 9 days long "what being athenean is all about" TERM 34 ORPHISM DEFINITION 34 religious text based on hymns by Orpheus. organized religion discussing basic nature of life and life after death. sacred text = titans eat Zagreus and Dionysus is rebuilt from his heart. "WE" are created from the ashes of the titans. THUS, we (humans) are a mixture of good/soul/devine (zagreus and dionysysus) and evil/body/mortal (titans) TERM 35 ZAGREUS DEFINITION 35 worshipped by followers of orphism the "first-born dionysus" dionysus was born out of zagreus' ashes after the titans ate him and went up in flames.