Jon D. Mikalson Ancient Greek Religion, Chapter 3: “Seven Greek Cult Myths” pp. 54-65.
Mikalson Figure III.1 (p. 55): Codrus Painter, ca 440BCE: Athena receives Erichthonios/Erechtheus from Gaia. Left: Cecrops. Right: Hephaestus and Herse (dauther of Cecrops)
Be prepared to answer the questions that end with the same digit as your University of Arkansas ID number on Thursday, January 22, 2015.
0. What would be a good definition of “myth” as relates to this chapter’s theme? Can you define it in three words or fewer?
1. Why does Mikalson call the myths in this chapter “cultic”?
2. What are the sources for these cultic myths? (i.e.: Where do they come from?)
3.What were Athena’s and Poseidon’s “gifts” to the people, and why did they give them?
4. Where was the statue of “Athena Promachos”? [See Acropolis watercolor by Peter Connolly Plate I, facing p. 204.] What did it look like, and what occasioned its creation?
5. How do two monuments on the Acropolis remind Athenians of important cultic myths of Athena and Poseidon?
6. How did the mythical birth of Erechtheus relate to Athenian autochthony?
7. What two things did the mythical Erechtheus do to promote the worship of his foster mother Athena?
8. Why do you think that Gaia is shorter than the other adult figures in the red-figure cup by the Codrus Painter, of about 440BC? What does this have to do with Athenian autochthony?
9. What does the semi-animal form of Cecrops in the red-figure cup by the Codrus Painter of about 440BC have to do with Athenian autochthony?
10. What myth explains to the Athenians why they worshipped the daughters of Erechtheus as heroines?
11. What literary work preserves the story of Erechtheus’ daughters? What was its title? Who wrote it? When and where was it produced?
12. Why does Mikalson think that the Greeks considered the god Dionysus a “late comer” to the Olympic pantheon?
13. What cult myth does the Athenian red-figure drinking cup of about 440 BCE represent (Figure III.2)?
14. Why is a satyr shown in the Athenian red-figure drinking cup of about 440 BCE that relates to the Aiora?
15. What makes Icarius the eponymous hero of the deme Icarion?
16. What do the drunkenness and murder in the story of Icarius tell about Athenians’ view of Dionysus?
17. What is the possible relationship between the deme Icarion and the origin of Greek drama?
18. Why does Mikalson say that the gods Athena, Poseidon and Dionysos “encountered struggles in getting established”?
19. What myth explains why Athenian girls had to “play the bear” for Artemis at Brauron?
20. Why do we call the story of Artemis and the bear at Brauron an etiological myth?
21. How did girls take part in the worship Artemis at Brauron? (i.e. What did they do?)
22. What was the marble stoa at Brauron used for (Figure III.3)?
23. What etiological myth explains the Athenian Bouphonia ritual? What does bouphonia mean?
24. Why was a member of the Thaulonidae family chosen to kill the ox at the Bouphonia? What does “Thaulonidae” mean?
25. What was the essence of the mock trial the Athenians held after the Bouphonia sacrifice? Why is it called a “comedy of innocence”?
26. How does the cult myth of the Bouphonia relate to vegetarianism?
27. How does Walter Burkert interpret the mock trial and “reconstruction” of the Bouphonia’s sacrificed ox?
28. What etiological myth explains why the Greeks offered on the altar “some of the worst portions of the animal” that they sacrificed to the gods?
29. In Hesiod’s Theogony, which of the two offerings that Prometheus offered to Zeus was the “better” one? What made it better than the other one?
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