Starting from Delphic Oracle

Apollo and Artemis

Wu Shiyu

常用词的英语读法

The quiz

Twelve Olympians

“太阳神阿波罗 (Apollo) 的理性与酒神狄俄尼索斯（ Dionysus ）非理性的张力是整个希腊文化原动力之一。”

----Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy

Olympians: Apollo and Artemis

Zeus (king of the god) Leto (minor goddess)

Twin sisters

Apollo and Artemis

Jealousy of Hera

place to give birth

Island of Delos

Ilithya, necklace

Clasping a palm tree

The twins

Apollo and Artemis

Apollo and Artemis

The Deity of Apollo

Lyre

God of:

Arts: music, poetry,…

Leader of Muses

Creative ability

Representing Culture

God Apollo

God of:

Sun

Youth

Medicine

Healing

(Phoibos) Apollo

Arrow; quiver

Still god of

Sudden death for men

Inflict Plague and death

Strike from afar

“ 他（阿波罗）随即坐在远离船舶的地方射箭， 银弓发出令人心惊胆战的弦声。

他首先射向骡子和那些健跑的狗群，然后把利箭对准人群不断放射。焚化尸首的柴薪烧了一层又一层。”

----- 荷马史诗《伊利亚特》

Apollo: God of Prophecy

The most important aspect:

God of prophecy

Delphic oracle (Delphi)

Sacred to Apollo

Apollo’s role as a god of who provides prophecy for humans is central to our understanding of him

Delphi: the omphalos and tripod

The Oracle of Delphi

Pythia, priestess, trance-like state

Ecstasy

Virgin of Delphian birth

Dressed like a girl

Translated verse-form

by Priest

Video

Delphic Oracle

Attracted Greeks and non-Greeks

Consult the oracle

about things, big or small,

public or private

Oedipus the king

Croesus

Socrates

Later stories

An order in the world

Apollo knows and foreknows this order

Tell you what will happen in the future

Apollo: God of reason and moderation

Carved on the temple:

“Know thyself”

“Nothing in Excess”

Association with reason and with moderation.

Crucial to understanding of Greek culture

Know Thyself

Remember:

what kind of a creature you are;

your limitations;

above all else that you are not a god.

The Universe

The Story of Niobe

The Story of Niobe

Niobe: queen of Thebes, mother of 14 children

Greater than Leto (goddess)

worshiped instead of Leto

Apollo and Artemis shoot

Cliff face, water running down

Eternal tears

Lessons to learn

Humans by definition vulnerable to death

14 children today, not tomorrow

Human, die at any moment

Leto’s two children, god

Do not transgress

Human good fortune unstable

Changeable, unstable,

disappear in the blink of an eye

Follow reason, nothing in excess, know yourself

Two maxims connected.

Excess---- not know yourself

Address by Jobs

Immortal and Mortal

"If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right."

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don‘t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life…”

-----Steve Jobs

Immortal and Mortal

Eos, the dawn goddess

Affair with the human Tithonos

Enjoyed him so much

Make him immortal

Failed ageless

Continue to age

Nothing left but a voice

Complaining voice

A back chamber

Immortal and Mortal

Attempt to gain immortality

Result in total disaster

Sybil, a female lover of Apollo

Asked for as many years of life as there were grains of sand on the shore of sea

This was granted

But eternal youth was left out

Grows older and older

Withered away into a little thing sits in cage

几个问题

1. 古希腊神话里对“人”的思考，比如本课所讲的人与神的区别，还有斯芬克斯之谜里的问题；

2. 古希腊文明所体现的理性，自省与其悲剧意识和这一文明的创造性的思考。

Hubris or hybris

Humans must avoid hubris

A word come into English from Greek.

What is hubris? Implications for our life.

Refer to presentations

Pay your price for your hubris.

The story of Croesus

Persian king, Xerxes

The story of Actaeon

The story of Actaeon

The story of Actaeon

The story of Actaeon

A great hunter (Thebes)

Hunting with his friends

Wandering through woods

Surrounded a lake

Artemis, nymphs bathing

Unintentionally, by mistake

Stag, animal body, human mind

Own hounds tear to shreds

Most dreadful story

Artemis: her twins’ opposite

God of moon

Huntress

Wild beasts

Protector of young species

Sudden death of

women

Mistress of wild beasts

Protector of young babies including of humans

Protector of childbirth

Protector of childbirth

Forever virgins: Artemis, Athena and Hestia

Is it contradictory?

Identify women with nature, men with culture.

In Greek culture

Women were submissive

Male dominant

Rejecting domination by a male because of her essential wildness

Her rejection of sexuality illustrates the danger of crossing a god or transgressing the boundaries between humans and gods.

The story of Actaeon

Know Thyself

Nothing in Excess

Hubris

Know your own limitations as fallible mortal and then exercise moderation because you are mortal.

阿波罗神谕的两句话和 Hybris 这一概念都反应了古希腊文明深刻中的一贯主题，并且还在这一文明的各种艺术形式里，被反复演绎和发展，比如，在神话、哲学、史诗和悲剧以及它们的历史学等。

“ 做一个能自制的人，。。。才能成为最高尚、最幸福和最有推理能力的人。”

史学之父希罗多德则在《历史》里反复提及，“我们头上的神是非常嫉妒的，并且很喜欢干扰人间”，由此来使人认识“自知”和“适度”的重要。这些理念，深刻地体现出古希腊文明理性、厚重和深刻的特点。