FOLK LITERATURE

• Not all stories were written down when they were first told.• Folk literature comes from generations of

peoples or cultures that passed down their favorite tales orally before ever writing them down.

• Like a family recipe—folk literature holds special enjoyment for all those who know it and pass it on.

FOLK LITERATURE

• Myth = fictional tale that explains the actions of the gods or the causes of natural phenomena

• Myths involve supernatural elements and have very little historical truth to them.

• Most familiar myths today are those of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

FOLK LITERATURE

• Myths have several purposes:– Serve as cultural history, explaining things like

oceans and mountains– Reinforce a culture’s values– Source of entertainment

• “Perseus,” p. 214, is a myth.

FOLK LITERATURE

• Folk tales= stories composed orally and then passed by word of mouth

• Folk tales originated among people who could neither read nor write.

• Composers entertained one another by telling stories aloud, often about heroes, adventure, magic, or romance.

• Like mythology, folk tales reinforce a culture’s values and explain the natural world.

• “Talk,” p. 412, is a folk tale.

FOLK LITERATURE

• Tall tales are humorous• Characters possess superhuman abilities and

impossible things occur in tall tales• Tall tales were common on the American frontier• The story of Paul Bunyan and his ox is a tall tale.• Tall tales are told in common, everyday speech

and use some realistic detail + exaggeration• The story of the pond freezing with the ducks in

Fried Green Tomatoes is also a tall tale.

FOLK LITERATURE• Epics = long narrative poems about the deeds of

gods or heroes in war or travel.• Epics are written in ornate, poetic language.• Epics use myth, legend, and history and often

include the intervention of gods in human affairs.• Epics begin with the poet announcing the subject

and asking a Muse, one of the nine goddesses of the arts, literature, and sciences to help.

• Homer’s epic Odyssey, p. 980, tells the story of the Greek hero Odysseus, the king of Ithaca.

Greek Mythology

Homer

The Iliad is the oldest work of western literature.

                                                      

    

Homer is credited with writing down the Iliad and Odyssey in the late 9th or early 8th century B.C.

Greek Mythology begins with Homer, generally believed not to have lived any more than 900 years before Christ.

The Greeks were the first to make their gods in man’s image.

The Egyptians made their gods as women with cat’s heads, or a monstrous mysterious sphinx.

In Mesopotamia, men with birds’ heads and lions with bulls’ heads, and both with eagles’ wings showed that they created gods as things men had never seen except in their imagination.

Having human-looking gods made heaven a very familiar place. The Greeks felt at home in it. They knewjust what the divine inhabitants did there, what theyate and drank and where they banqueted and how theyamused themselves. Of course, they were to be feared;the gods were very powerful and very dangerous whenangry. Still, with proper care, a man could be quite atease with them, He was even perfectly free to laugh atthem!

It may seem strange, but the men who created the Greek myths disliked the irrational and had a love for facts. Even the most nonsensical tales take place in a setting that is rational and matter-of-fact. Hercules, whose life is one long combat against preposterous monsters, is always said to have had his home in Thebes. The exact spot where Aphrodite was born of the foam could be visited by any ancient tourist—just offshore from the island of Cythera. The winged Pegasus, after skimming the air all day, went every night to a stable in Corinth. A familiar local habitation gave reality to all themythical beings. If the mixture seems childish, consider how sensible the solid background is as compared with the Genie who comes from nowhere when Aladdin rubs the lamp and then returns to nowhere when he is done.

1. The terrifying irrational has no place in classical mythology.

2. Magic, so powerful in the world before and after Greece, is almost nonexistent.

3. There are no men and only two women with dreadful, supernatural powers. The witches who haunt Europe and America play no part in these stories. There are only two witches: Circe and Medea, and they are young and beautiful, delightful, not horrible.

4. There is no astrology in Greek myths. There are many stories about the stars, but there is no trace of the stars influencing men’s lives.

5. Not a single story has a magical priest who is to be feared because he can win over the gods or alienate them. The priest is never seen and rarely important.

6. Ghosts do not make an appearance in Greek myths, either. The Greeks were not afraid of the dead.

Beware: Though Greek mythology is made up of stories about gods and goddesses, it must not be read as a kind of Greek Bible, and account of Greek religion. Greek mythology was more an explanation of something in nature.

Thunder and lightning occur when Zeus hurls his thunderbolt.A volcano erupts because a terrible creature is imprisoned in the mountain and is trying to get out.The Big Dipper does not set below the horizon because a goddess once was angry at it and decreed that it should never sink into the sea.

Myths = early science, the result of men trying to explain what theysaw around them.

Myths = early literature as well; some are just for entertainment and explain nothing.

The Gods, The Creation, and the Earliest Heroes

Before there were gods, heaven and earth had been formed. They were the first parents. The Titans were their children, and the gods were their grandchildren.

Titans:1. Enormous in size

2. Incredibly strong

3. Many in number, though only a few appear in Greek mythology

4. Most important Titan was Cronus (Saturn in Rome) He ruled over the other Titans until his son Zeus (Jupiter) dethroned him and seized power for himself.

5. Other Titans were Ocean, the river encircling the earth, his wife Tethys; Hyperion, the father of the sun, moon, and the dawn; Mnemosyne, which means memory; Themis, or Justice; Iapetus who was the father of Atlas, who carried the world on his shoulders and Prometheus, who was the savior of mankind. These alone were not banished when Zeus came to power, but they took a lower position.

Olympians The twelve great Olympians were supreme among the gods who came after the Titans. They are called Olympians because they lived at Olympus. Olympus is not heaven. Poseidon rules the sea, Hades rules the dead, Zeus rules the heavens, but they all live on Mt. Olympus.

Twelve Olympians:1.Zeus (Jupiter), the chief god.2.Poseidon (Neptune), his brother.3.Hades (Pluto), his other brother.4.Hestia (Vesta), their sister.5.Hera (Juno), Zeus’s wife.6.Ares (Mars) Zeus and Hera’s son.Zeus’s other children:7.Athena (Minerva)8.Apollo9.Aphrodite (Venus)10.Hermes (Mercury)11.Artemis (Diana)12.Hera’s son Hephaestus (Vulcan) sometime said to also be Zeus’s son.

ZeusMost powerful of the gods, but not omnipotent nor omniscient; he could be opposed and deceived.

Fate is often spoken of as stronger than Zeus.

Zeus falls in love with one woman after another, and plays all kinds of tricks to hide it from his wife, Hera.

His breastplate was the aegis, awful to behold; his bird was the eagle, his tree the oak. Zeus’s will was read by the rustling of the oak leaves which the priests interpreted.

HeraZeus’s sister and his wife.

She was reared by Ocean and Tethys.

Hera is the protector of marriage, and married women were her particular care.

She punished the many women Zeus falls In love with, even when they gave in only when he coerced or tricked them. It made no difference to Hera how reluctant or how innocent any of them were, she treated them all alike. Her anger followed them and their children, too.

Hera never forgot an injury. The Trojan War would have ended in peace if it had not been for her hatred of a Trojan who had judged another goddess lovelier than she.

The cow and the peacock are sacred to her. Argos was her favorite city.

Poseidon1. Ruler of the sea, second only to his brother Zeus in power.

2. Married to Amphitrite, a granddaughter of Ocean.

3. Has a splendid palace under the sea, but often found in Olympus.

4. He gave the horse to man.

5. Storm and calm were under his control.

6. He was commonly called “Earth-shaker” and was always shown carrying his trident, a three-pronged spear, with which he would shake and shatter whatever he pleased.

Hades or Pluto God of the underworld and the dead; as Pluto, he was the god of the wealth, of the precious metals hidden under the earth.

He had a famous cap or helmet that made anyone who wore it invisible.

He rarely left the underworld to go to Olympus or the earth.

He was not a welcome visitor—unpitying, but just; terrible, but not evil.

His wife was Persephone (Proserpine) whom he carried away from the earth and made Queen of the Lower World. He was king of the Dead—not Death (Thanatos) itself.

Pallas Athena (Minerva)Full-grown and in full armor, she was born from Zeus’s head; no mother carried her.Protector of civilized life, of handicrafts, and agriculture—she invented the bridle, first tamed horses for men to use. She was Zeus’s favorite child. He trusted her to carry the aegis, his buckler, and the thunderbolt. She is described as grey-eyed or flashing-eyed. She is chief of the three virgin goddesses, and is called the Maiden or Parthenos, and her temple is called the Parthenon. She is the goddess of wisdom, reason, and purity. Athens is her special city, the olive created by her was her tree, and her bird is the owl.

Hermes He is the son of Zeus and Maia, who was the daughter of Atlas. His appearance is more familiar than any other god’s. Graceful, swift, winged sandals are on his feet, wings on his helmet, and on his wand, the Caduceus. Zeus’s messenger. He is the shrewdest of all the gods and the most cunning; He is the master thief, who started stealing before he was a day old. he stole Apollo’s herds of cattle, but Zeus made him give them back. He won Apollo’s forgiveness by giving him the lyre, which Hermes had just invented, making it from a tortoise’s shell. He was also the solemn guide of the dead, who led the souls down to their last home. He appears in the tales of mythology more often than any other god.

Medusa

Pygmalion and Galatea: A Roman Myth• Pygmalion was a gifted young sculptor of Cyprus who hated women.• He swore he would never marry. His art was enough for him.• Nevertheless, the statue he made and devoted all his genius to was a of a woman. He was bent on forming the perfect woman and showing men the deficiencies in the kind of women they had to deal with.• He labored long and devotedly on the statue and produced a most exquisite work of art. Lovely as it was, though, he couldn’t quit; he kept working on it and every day it grew more beautiful. No woman ever born or any statue ever made was more beautiful. When it was obvious that nothing else could be added to it, he realized he had fallen in love with his creation.• Now, it didn’t look like a statue; no one would have thought it was ivory or stone, but warm skin, motionless for a second only.

Pygmalion and Galatea: A Roman Myth (continued)

• From that time on, the women he had scorned had their revenge because no hopeless lover of a living maiden was ever as miserable as Pygmalion.• He kissed her lips; they didn’t kiss back. He caressed her hands, her face; they were unresponsive. He took her in his arms; she stayed cold and impassive there. For a time, he tried to pretend, dressing her, and bringing her gifts, but he wasn’t a child. He couldn’t go on pretending.• He loved a lifeless thing and he was utterly wretched. Venus spotted him and his new kind of love. On the feast day of Venus, Pygmalion was there and dared to pray only that he might find a maiden like his statue, but Venus knew what he really wanted, and as a sign, the flame on the altar in front of him leaped up three times, blazing into the air.• Pygmalion went home to find his statue standing just as he had left her. He caressed her only to find that she felt warm. He kissed her and felt her lips grow soft beneath his. He touched her arms, her

Pygmalion and Galatea: A Roman Myth (continued)

shoulders and the hardness disappeared. It was like watching waxsoften in the sun. He clasped her wrist: blood was pulsing there.• Venus, he thought. The goddess must have done this. With unspeakable joy, he put his arms around his love and saw her smile into his eyes and blush.• Venus herself went to their marriage, but what happened after that we do not know, excetp that Pygmalion named the maiden Galatea, and that their son, Paphos, gave his name to Venus’s favorite city.

Epic Epic hero = larger than life figure from history or legend– Undertakes a dangerous journey, exhibiting traits such as courage, loyalty, and honor that are

valued by the society that creates him– Usually embodies cultural and religious beliefs of the

culture– Has no superpowers, but is smart and brave and

overcomes his fears to protect friends, families, and countries

– Warrior who performs tasks that others find difficult or impossible

“Perseus,” Epic Hero

• Protagonist = main character in a story or hero• Antagonist = Greek for “against” and “contest”• The antagonist is the character who goes against

the main character in the story. • In a myth, the hero is a character who performs

amazing feats in a tale involving supernatural gods and magic elements.

• Even though in danger, the hero must show admirable qualities such as courage, loyalty, and fairness.

“Perseus,” Epic Hero“Perseus” takes place in a mythological world

populated by Greek gods and goddesses.

Zeus – chief god who has fathered a number of

human children Athena – goddess of war and wisdom;

she has no mother, but sprung full-grown from Zeus’s head

Hermes – the messenger god; he carries a staff which has the

medical insignia on all doctors’ diplomas