2. Read in Mythology 48-55 and write a comment (by clicking on this post).
3. Optional: work on your summary for your collection. If you bring it to class Friday, I will give you feedback on it.
4. Start to locate either a copy of the Bible or print out a copy of the Book of Genesis (the first "book" of the Bible, chapters 1-21. If you have a choice, use the New Revised Standard Version (it's the most authoritative from the scholarly point of view). You can find it on line; just google it. You should have this by Monday.
Yay! This time I'm the first one to post a comment!
ReplyDeleteI found the passage I read extremely interesting. I've never known before how important and reverent Demeter and Dionysus were.
I would like to comment on the distinction between gods that this passage provided. The first paragraph describes the awesome and exalted gods who have a big fault of being capricious and, in a way, immature. On the other hand, Demeter and Dionysus are not daunting or awe-inspiring like Zeus, but they are more mature than the other gods. The other gods never had to face a long-term problem or sorrow before, so they do not understand about the effect it has. Meanwhile, Demeter faced a complication that many humans can counter in everyday life, losing her only daughter. From this experience, she is not the joyful goddess anymore, but the mourning and pitiful goddess. I definitely agree with the Greeks and feel that I can rely and confront Demeter who has been familiar with problems that humans have.
I am noticing several connections between humans and Gods/Goddesses in this passage. For one, the beginning of the reading gives a picture of the Gods being of little use to human kind, when in fact, some humans worshiped these Gods. Also a statement that caught my attention was "the breaking of the bread and the drinking of wine." That is a reference to a religion that does not worship more than one God. It was interesting how the vine and corn Gods are pulled together in that way. Then the joy-gods experienced pain and misfortune, and a lot of the emotions of the gods are human emotions as well. When the gods are feeling sad or upset, it affects life on Earth. An example of this can be found on page 53 where it says that the goddess, Demeter revealed herself, and had people build her a temple of worship. However, because she was still longing for her daughter, nothing grew that year.
ReplyDelete-Maddie Adams
I found something on the very first page. This showed the Ancient Greeks perspective on gender roles, which we discussed in History. To quote the passage, "When the business of men was hunting and fighting, the care of the fields belonged to the women". This did not show so much that the men ruled over the women, just that they each had their places.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the only gods that know pain are the two earth gods who are most connected with humans. That the corn and wine gods are most like the humans, that the feel the same emotions as humans do- (although they clearly are not humans) The book goes on to say that the seasons change with the gods. That after the harvest and the frost sets in, the earth gods become full of sorrow. An example of this is on page 51 where it tells the story of Demeter losing her daugter and because of her sadness over this, the flowers and forests iced over.
ReplyDelete-Audrey Emerson
I have read
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ReplyDeleteI personally though it was interesting how these gods, aside from Demeter and Dionysus, were actually quite cruel and unhelpful entities. These gods were harsh and rarely beneficial to humans; this leads me to the point that Audrey brought up before. The only gods that are sympathetic and helpful towards humans are Demeter and Dionysus. I believe that this is because they have felt the pain humans felt; knowing the agony that we face they are merciful and don't add upon the pain. All of the other gods are blind to the human condition; gods like Zues, Aphrodite, and even the wise Athena are living in Mount Olypus where they drank nectar, ate ambrosia, listened to Apollo's music and muses singing. They were in paradise and had no knowledge of human suffering so they have no problem with adding to their troubles. Demter and Dionysus, however know all too well how they suffer from personal experiance, so they are far more sypathetic.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Robillard
I have read
ReplyDelete-Maddie Adams
In this passage the olympians were portrayed as cruel and ignorant towards human suffering. This is very interesting because the olympians are often what comes to our mind when we think of mythology. We all know who Zeus is and we probably have an idea of who these other gods are: Aphrodite, Athena,Hermes,and Hera. So why have very few of us heard of Demeter and Dionysus? These gods played a tremendous role in the everyday lives of humans. These two gods are not recognized enough. It also says that often times what seems to be the biggest and best is simply not. this is definitely the case with the gods of Olympus.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Demeter was an excellent example of how people used the gods as an explanation for why certain things in nature occur. In the story, due to Demeter's sorrow over the loss of her daughter, she keeps plantlife from growing, and causes widespread famine. When her daughter is finally returned, she learns that she must return to the underworld every year for four months, thus for four months a year, Demeter is sorrowful, and causes winter. I also think, perhaps, if winter is caused by Demeters sadness over not seeing her daughter for months, perhaps fall is caused by her sadness building up as she prepares for her daughters departure.
ReplyDeleteI found it very intruiging how although there are many gods and godesses, Zeus is still in charge of all of them. On page 53, " At last Zeus saw that he must take the matter in hand." And on page 54, "Come, my daughter, for Zeus, far-seeing, loud thundering, bids you." Zeus is like the father figure to all gods in ancient greek mythology. And like all other gods he has many imperfections, but he still remains the head of olympus.
ReplyDelete-Erin Moody
On the first page in the first sentence the book states that "the immortal gods were of little use to the human beings." Yet, now that I have thought about it, they were of great help to the people. For instance, Artemis, who is the goddess of wild things she "preserved the young" which was a big help to the humans. Also, Aphrodite who is the goddess of love and all things beautiful certainly does many wonderful things for the people. I just thought it was interesting how the author started a new chapter with a sentence in which I think is exactly the opposite in which she stated.
ReplyDeleteJust like Ashley I found it surprising to find out that most of the gods besides Demeter and Dionysus were cruel and just unhappy people. But while there were being cruel to the humans Demeter and Dionysus were actually sort of the nicer and kinder ones of all of the gods. I found that surprising because I thought that all of the gods were quite evil, but now after reading about these two gods, I found out that I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI have read.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Robillard
Going off of Chris’s point also at the beginning of the chapter it talked about how the power that brought grain to the world was suited for a Goddess and not a God. This is a good example of how each power was thought of significantly either going to a female power, or a male. I thought Chris was also right on with his comment!
ReplyDeleteI have read.
ReplyDeleteWell I sort of agree with christopher... but i have more to add when there is a women god like Dionysus the god of good harvest/ grain and wine. She has these characteristics because these are women activities for the most part. As the book said that while the men were fighting and hunting the women stayed home and looked over the crops and such. So if women aspects go to a goddess then a god get manly qualities such as Ares, the god of war.- JJ McGlone
ReplyDeleteWhen Demeter held back her gifts from the Earth and the land turned into a frozen desert, because of the death of her daughter, I realized how human like these gods were. Not only were they the "nicest" gods and closest to humans, but they were humans in a sense. And with this information, I could tell a little bit about the greek culture. Because of the fact that they were seen as wonderful and "mankinds best friend" , and were the gods of earth and agriculture, showed that the earth and agriculture were the aspects most important to the Greeks.
ReplyDeleteI have read. 8)
ReplyDeleteI basically noticed that all of these gods are not the same. They all have a different type of attitude. While there is a number of vicious/ruthless gods, you have the gods who are quite joyful, and stay away from the evil and malicious ways. My personal favorite god of all time is definitely Zeus. He is still staying a leader, and will never change. In every page, and chapter he's in he is still in charge no matter what. I also do have to agree with chris and how he's saying that the gender roles back then, and how they both had their own places. They all have separate obligations to attend. The men do the heavy/powerful things, and the woman be wherever they need to be to take care of their home. They all have contrasting responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that all that has been stated earlier, mostly agreeing with how cruel the gods were towards human kind. The only gods that seemed to be actually lenient and caring about the human race were Dionysus and Demeter. It also seems that the gods care more about the earth itself, than what actually happens to it, which makes you wonder, "if the Greeks knew that the gods didn't care about them, would the Greeks have worshiped them as much?" Oh, and I have read.
ReplyDeleteI have read again.
ReplyDeleteWhat Nahshon said is right. I also wonder if the Greeks would still worship the gods as much if they knew. The Greeks treasured these gods to an extreme and it would be interesting to know why the gods didn't treat them the same way, after all the Greeks were their followers. I never thought about that...Thanks Nahshon!
ReplyDeleteI have read.
I just wanted to point out one thing.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I don't consider the gods such as Zeus, Hera, Ares, Athena as evil and treat the humans harsh. Rather, they have good sides, but those sides can be blinded more easily by their sudden and effective acts than the mature gods like Demeter and Dionysus. Apollo is the beautiful god who first taught men the healing art, and "No false word ever falls from his lips." (p.30) Hephaestus is the "kindly, peace-loving god, popular on earth as in heaven." (p.35) Hades may be crude and ruthless, but he is "terrible, not an evil god." (p.29) I agree that Demeter and Dionysus are absolutely the better gods who understand humans, but the other gods can't be seen as cruel and evil.
I found interesting the profound difference between the ancient Greek and Roman gods and the one God of the bible. The ancient Greek and Roman gods make mistakes, they fight with one another; basically, they are imperfect. The one God of the bible knows all and never falters. God represents a beacon of a perfect humanity. God represents a “perfect being”; the sole thing that we are constantly trying to become. The ancient gods of Greek and Roman mythology represents a link between the divine and visible world that I feel does not exist in a religion based on the bible. The ancient gods in some sense represent a much more “realistic” interpretation of humanity. This could have been a good thing; making the Gods more relatable. But as said on page forty-nine “for the most part the immortal gods were of little use to human beings and often they were quite the reverse of useful”. To me it seems that most of the gods are either too self-absorbed in themselves or in the other gods to pay enough attention to the humans. The gods and goddesses of ancient Roman and Greek mythology seem to have another life like the life of humans. One that, like the life of humans, is time-consuming.
ReplyDelete- Alana Pagano
I think what Miranda said is interesting. It made me think more about my comment and question more how these gods could be of little use to the humans when they controlled so much and did a well in most. If it was true that the humans got on better without them, what was life like without them and why was it better?
ReplyDeleteI have read.
-Alana Pagano
I think that that is a really good point Chelsea!!
ReplyDeleteI have read.