SECTION 112 Thursday 10-11 242 Dwinelle
free VOICE CHANGER .ruSECTION 113 Thursday 11-12 175 Barrows
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For our next section meeting, I’d like to devote our time to examining the nature of two of the Olympians: Hermes and Poseidon.
We’ll be reading no self-contained and stand-alone epic or tragedy, as we’ve been doing in previous weeks. Instead, we’ll be relying solely on chapters carefully culled from our two major sourcebooks (Classical Mythology and Greek Myths) to piece together what we can about these two gods and how we should view them.
The readings and four questions follow. Please remember to cite specific examples and page numbers when appropriate. You also might find it helpful to read the questions first and keep them in mind while doing the reading... (always good advice).
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1) Morford & Lenardon, Classical Mythology, p. 257-273 (Hermes), 152-153 (Scylla and Charybdis).
2) Robert Graves, Greek Myths, chapters 9 (Athena’s origin), 16 (Poseidon), 18.A-D (Hephaistos traps Aphrodite & Ares), 25 (Athena), 33.B (Medusa), 47 (Erechtheus & Eumolpus), 99.F (King Theseus).
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1.A) Hermes is the messenger god, as you probably know. But he is also patron of travelers; associated with shepherds and flocks; guide of newly-departed souls down to the underworld; patron god of both merchants and thieves (!); a trickster figure; patron of treaties; generator of hermaphrodites; cares very little about following social convention; and can be found in statue form guarding the doors to houses. The question: What underlying principle does Hermes stand for or embody which can account for why he is god of all these seemingly different things? (You might be able to answer this in a single sentence.)
1.B) In addition to acting as carrier of Zeus’s message to Calypso (as we would expect), Hermes makes at least two more appearances in the *Odyssey*: in book 8 he makes a humorous comment amidst the story of how Hephaistos caught and trapped Aphrodite and Ares in bed together (which I asked you to pay attention to); and he helps Odysseus deal with Circe. How might his comment be appropriate to his nature in the first case? And why is his appearance appropriate to what Odysseus faces with Circe in the second?
1.C) When reading Euripides’s *Ion*, you might have noticed that the play is introduced by Hermes, who gives the background of Ion’s origins and his relationship to Apollo. Any thoughts as to why Hermes should be the one to introduce the play?
2) What principles do you think Poseidon represents or stands for? That is, how are we to view him, how are we to make sense of him? (For clues, you might consider: his children; the fate of his lovers; his epithet “Earthshaker” as god of earthquakes; the animals sacred to him and those which he produces; and above all, his relationship with Athena. You’ll probably want to devote a few paragraphs to this issue, and be sure to cite specifics--not only from our readings, but also from lectures, if you can.)
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