Athena lecture

 I am  a PhD student looking at the way one character from Greek Mythology was used by Latin writers beyond the Classical Period, more specifically in the medieval as opposed to the Renaissance periods. I completed a degree at the University of Melbourne in Ancient and Medieval Studies, but also have a Bachelor of Applied Science.

(i)My main secondary source for today has been Robert Lenardon and Mark Morford's A Companion to Classical Mythology. I have also used Mary Lefkowitz' Greek Gods, Human Lives when the first didn't give me what I wanted. Another modern book which gives insight into Greek Mythology but in a more narrative form is Robert Calasso's The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony.  My presentation will have more of an Athenian bent. I have tried to use images that were typical of those found around Ancient Greek households as a way of reminding everyone how familiar these myths were to the people. Household crockery presented these stories so they were as familar to them as advertising jingles might be today. I have also included some Roman mosaics to show how the myths continued to be represented and some even more recent ones to show how the Greek myths still underpin so much of Western art and thought. Most of the images have come from Google Image, so if you are interested, they are easy to find. My only word of advice there is to stick to the Greek names as opposed to the Roman if you don't want the other type of heavenly bodies...although the moons of Jupiter appear to be named after some of the lesser known Greek entities, so the plan is not foolproof.

Primary source material is frequently Homer whose writings are the oldest within the Western tradition. I have also used Hesiod, some playwrights from the fourth-century BCE, particularly Sophocles and my favourite, Euripides. It should be noted that although these writers used the mythology as a basis for their works, it does not mean they believed in the gods. The gods were a useful tool for understanding aspects of human nature, and were a safe way to comment on contemporary society without pointing fingers at those in power. The Latin writer Ovid, who wrote in the time of Augustus is also an invaluable source for mythical material. Having said all that, I am now going to change persona, which helps settle my nerves. Here goes.

(*r) Hi. I am Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, here with two of my symbols, the owl and the shield with the image of Medusa. As the lecture is subtitled "repressed libido" I am probably the most suited of the Greek gods to address you. I am not a sexual being, which makes me better suited to addressing you in a lecture theatre than any other of the Olympian gods. Education is an intellectual pursuit, based on reason, not lust or any other unconscious urge. The image you are looking at now is a modern copy of the statue believed to have been worshiped in my temple on the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon. Parthenon derives from my epithet, Athena Parthenos, which refers to my maidenly status. I am the daughter of Almighty Zeus who is the ruler over all the Olympians. There are twelve of us inall, all related to Zeus in some way. You may note that I did not name my mother. I was not born of her body, and never knew her. She died well before my birth. My father was frightened of siring a son more powerful than himself...a detail that will be discussed later. My mother's pregnancy was therefore a potential risk to Zeus.  When he discovered that Metis, which means cunning or intelligence, was pregnant, he swallowed her whole. Thus, she was eliminated from his thoughts, but I continued to grow. I continued to grow inside my father's head. The only remedy for Zeus was to call his son Hephaestus, the smith, to bring his axe and relieve the pressure. (*r) Thus I was born from my father's head, and not only that, I was already fully-armed as war goddess. (*r) These images come from vases painted in Greece in the fifth-century BCE.

Being born from the head of Zeus is significant. The head is about as far from the genitals that one can get. The head represents rational thought, not base animal urges. Contrast this to the birth of Dionysus, my brother. His Roman name is Bacchus, with which you may be more familiar, especially the associations with wine and Bacchanalian excess. Dionysus represents the life forces, especially the liquid varieties, like wine, blood and even semen. His mother, Semele, had wanted to see Zeus in his natural form, as the god of the heavens. He obliged, and the resultant lightning bolt burnt her to a cinder. Zeus rescued her yet unborn child, stitching him into his thigh to continue his gestation. Thus, Dionysus was born from the thigh of Zeus. Here is one image of that moment. There is a more beautiful one in the Archaeology Museum on the sixth floor of the Menzies Building. Those of you who have read the Bacchae by Euripides will know about the wild frenzy associated with his worship. In this play, Pentheus refuses to join Dionysus in some wine and song. As punishment, (becasue you dare not refuse the gods) Dionysus leads all the women of the household into a Bacchic frenzy. Thinking to see an orgy, Pentheus dresses as a woman and joins the throng. Dionysus uses his powers, and Pentheus appears to the woman as a deer. They attack in their frenzy and tear him to pieces. Proud of their accomplishments, the women, led by Agave, the mother of Pentheus, return home with the head of the king thrust upon the thyrsus, one of the symbols of the god. This image shows the women, or maenads as they are called, tearing the body apart.

Although having a female form, I do not function as a woman within Greek society. Some think I represent the subjugation of women to patriarchal ideals. However, I do not succumb to men's passions, either. My brother Hephaestus once attempted to rape me, but I was armed, and remained inviolate and impregnable. I wiped his seed from my thigh and dropped it the earth, and a man sprung from the ground, Erichthoneus. He is the ancestor of all Athenians.

So, here I am before you, a representative of Greek Mythology and a symbol of the importance of rational thought amongst the Greeks. My influence helps create and maintain a stable society, based on culture and civility. But we know that life is not always like that. Let me introduce you to one of the most powerful forces to undermine all that I stand for. (*r) Here is Aphrodite, the goddess of love, otherwise known by the Romans as Venus. Note that unlike me, she is naked. This is not only the antithesis of me in my armour, but it is emblematic of her disregard for civilised practices. I am also the goddess who invented the loom, enabling people to weave fabrics and cover their bodies. Aphrodite shuns this. This is now her story.

In Homer, one of the greatest sources of Greek Mythology, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus, who was begotten from an otherwise unknown goddess called Dione....which coincidently means goddess and could just mean the female form of Zeus. This is all very clean and convenient, placing Aphrodite, as daughter, in a position below that of Almighty Zeus. But Hesiod, another poet of just a century later, presents a different version of Aphrodite's being, which is much more indicative of the power and control she exercises in the world, over mortals and immortals. This is how he explains her birth.
(*r)  In the beginning was Chaos, a gaping void, from which developed  Tartarus (the Underworld),  Eros (the potent force of Love) and  Gaia, the earth. Those of you who grew up watching Captain Planet might remember her. Gaia produced Uranus, which in Ancient times was the word for sky or the heavens.  (*r) They married and produced several offspring, including Cyclopes and Titans, from which were produced gods of the sun, moon and dawn. Uranus hated his children so, he hid them within the depths of Gaia's body, which did not please her overly much.  She colluded with one of her children, Chronus, giving him a weapon with which to castrate his father as he attempted a sexual interlude with his wife. The severed genitals were thrown out to sea, and from the foam, a very powerful goddess was created. Some believe Aphrodite means foam. You often find her pictured in the sea, which to the Greeks was wild and unruly, untamed by man. The most famous picture of this story is not ancient, but came from the Italian Renaissance.  I'm sure all of you have seen "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli.  As I said, Aphrodite is very powerful, and very few can withstand her temptations. Even the immortals are swayed by her, including the mightiest of all the Olympic gods. I am one of the few not swayed by her influence, along with my aunt Hestia, who looks after the family hearth, and my half-sister Artemis of the hunt. She obtained special dispensation from our father not to be prey to Aphrodite. Although being able to grant this favour to Artemis, Zeus is often at the behest of goddess of Love, and many gods and heroes alike can claim his fatherhood. You must understand the the Love represented by Aphrodite was not a Christian type of Love, equated with compassion and empathy, but related to Eros and passionate desire. It is essential for life and its generation, but has its down-side. It undermines rationality, and engenders disharmony. Even the battle for Troy...probably the most famous of the mythological wars can be blamed on the machinations of Aphrodite. Even so, erotic love was not considered bad, or evil, but the stories emphasise its fundamental role in life, and attempt to engender a respect for its power. The fourth-century play by Euripides called Hippolytus describes the tragic circumstances of one person trying to defy Aphrodite and lead a celibate life. Hippolytus is the son of Theseus and Hippolyta. His father having left his first wife, marrying Phaedra, taking his son with him. Hippolytus wishes to follow Artemis, the virgin hunter, and does not acknowledge Aphrodite. This could be seen as symbolic of someone not wanted to grow up. Of course, the goddess of love has to punish the young man for neglecting her. She makes the Phaedra fall in love with her stepson, and she suffers for several years, getting sicker over time with guilt. The nurse intervenes on her behalf and approaches Hippolytus explaining his step-mother's feelings. He is outraged. Phaedra is so frightened by his outburst, that she hangs herslf, first leaving a note saying that Hippolytus had violated her. In this way she hopes to spare her reputation and the inheritance of her children. Theseus is devastated and banishes his son, incurring the wrath of Poseidon upon him. The god of the sea responds, sending a bull from the sea, which frightens the horses. Hippolytus is severly injured. He is moved home, where a too late reconciliation is made with his father. Artemis promises that his dedication to her will be honoured beyond his death. Not much consolation for Theseus really, having lost both wife and son due to Aphrodites need for recognition!  The dual aspect of Aphrodite's nature, life generator but also potential cause for disharmony, is similar to other patterns within the Olympian pantheon. All the gods represent some aspect of life, and can be judged as positive or negative, depending on the extreme. The gods frequently represent extremes, and mortals need to find the balance. The stories thus become the means of guiding good social behaviour.
Now I have introduced you to Aphrodite, let me continue with the generation of the major gods. Chronus, father emasculator and my grandfather, married Rhea, and like his own father, did not relish his role as father. He devoured all of his children, except the youngest, whom Rhea managed to hide on Crete. She gave her husband a rock to swallow instead. The rescued baby was Zeus, and he grew mighty enough to overthrow his father, and rescue all of the other gods from his belly, in the reverse order of their births. (*r)  These children included Poseidon, god of the sea, Hades, god of the underworld, Hestia, goddess of the hearth, Demeter, goddess of agriculture and Hera, the goddess who became the wife of mighty Zeus.  Hestia and Hades, due to their responsibilities being so far from Mt Olympus did not remain part of the Olympic twelve. The twelve Olympians are responsible for so many aspects of human life. Here are all of them, those that were rescued by Zeus and his various offspring. (*r)  Of the children of Zeus, there is Apollo, whose name is the same both for the Greeks and the Romans.  Ares was the war god, known in Rome as Mars. He became more important in Roman mythology. Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo,  Athena Dionysus. Hephaestus was the lame god, Hermes is the cunning one, not disimiler to me in a way. I'll just quickly show you a picture of each of them, showing their defining attributes, and quickly relating any tales relating to their sexuality.

Zeus:  Master of all, is generally depicted on a throne. His sexual escapades will be dealt with later.

Poseidon:  Married to Amphitrite. He looks like his brother Zeus, but carries a trident instead of a thunderbolt. He is also called earthshaker as he is the god of earthquakes. He is associated with bulls and horses as signs of his virility.

Demeter:  Much of our information comes from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter...not that many believe it was written by Homer. Nowadays it would be marked 'trad.' or 'anon'. She bore a daughter Persphone or Kore to her brother Zeus, who promised his daughter/niece to Hades as a bride. The story of Demeter's mourning for her daughter and the importance of her Eleusion Mysteries suggest to some that the myths revolving around the agricultural goddess also suggest the maintenance of a strong matriarchal component within a growing patriarchal society.

Hera: (*r)  The wife of Zeus is generally presented as self-righteous and nagging. For all of this, she was still able to seduce him when she needed him distracted from the world of men.

Apollo:  The son of Zeus and Leto, and twin to Artemis. He is generally picture with his bow and a lyre, representing his attachment to poetry and music. In later ages, Apollo was associated with the sun. He was close to his father, which gave him the power of prophecy. Although physically beautiful, his lovelife was generally disastrous. The cumaean Sybil agreed to be with him after bargaining with him and then renegged. She ended up living almost forever, but without perpetual youth, so was so wizened up, she became just a voice. Cassandra, daughter of the king of Troy, also backed out a a relationship with him and was doomed to be able to foretell the future but to never be believed. Apollo also fell in love with a couple of young men who ended up being plants...a cypress tree and the hyacinth. He also fell in love with the beautiful Daphne, but as he had been bragging to Eros, she was struck by an arrow of lead which incurred fellings of revulsion. As she ran from the god, she prayed to her father to remove her beauty, which he did by turning her into a Laurel. The laural thus became sacred to Apollo and its leaves used as wreaths for awards. The term poet laureate comes from this distinction. Apollo was generally depicted with an arrow and a lyre. He fathered Asclepius, the father of healers.

Artemis:  The huntress swore to live as a perpetual virgin. She lived in the borderlands and the wilds and was responsible for children. Their sexual immaturity and carefree spirits are represented by this goddess. She also assisted women in labour. A hunter called Actaeon once stumbled upon her in the wilds while she was bathing. The punishment for seeing her naked body was death. She set his own dogs upon him.

Ares: (*r)  Physically beautiful and whole, but not overly important in Greek culture. He became more important under the Romans. There is one famous story of an affair, but that will come later.

Dionysus:  (*r)  Despite his reputation for bacchanalian frenzy, Dionysus is in fact the stable and benevolent god. He is a god of frenzy but brings enlightenment to those who recognise him. The performance of plays and singing were part of the Dionysiae. He did not go in for many lovers, which may surprise. He settled for one wife. Ariadne rescued Theseus from the labyrinth and certain death out of love for him. He left her alone on an island. Dionysus rescued and married her.

Hephaestus:  The lame god who is the master smith. He made armour for gods and mortals. He may have been a son of Zeus, but one myth says that Hera created him as a reaction to my birth. He is responsible for creative fire and inventions that help society, so in many ways we are quite similar. He is married to Aphrodite.

Hermes:  The trickster, and messenger of the gods. He is generally depicted with winged sandals and hat. You might recognise him as the Interflora symbol. As he could travel into the different realms, including the underworld, he is considered the guide of the soul and is sometimes called 'Psychpomp.' He had an affair with Aphrodite, and the child was Hermaphrodite. He is also associated with herms, square based statues with phalluses used to bring good fortune.

Athena; (*r) This one you know, but I had to include her as this is the little statuette of Athena that belonged to Freud.

 Here is a picture of the family tree....but as you can see, it is very complicated. Where all the red lines seem to converge...that's Zeus and all his matings!

I mentioned earlier Zeus's fear of being overpowered by a son. Not only had it happened in the preceeding two generations, but it had been foretold that one woman would bear a sone mighty enough to overpower Zeus himself. Thetis was destined to bear such a son, and she did. This time, Zeus was clever enough to force her in marriage to a mortal called Peleus. The marriage of  Thetis and Peleus was one of the most famous mythological marriages and had dire consequences, not only for themsleves, but for the whole of the Mediterranean region. It was at this event that Paris, the handsome Trojan prince, had to select the most beautiful goddess from amongst Hera, Aphrodite and myself...the Judgment of Paris...but that is another story involving Helen, all the Greeks, and the ancient city of Troy. Thetis did produce a son mightier than his father. Achilles was a glorious warrior, who far exceeded his mortal father's accomplishments. He was the famed warrior of Greece, invincible accept for his achilles' heel. His glory was made at the seige of Troy. The story of Troy is fundamental to Greek Mythology. The tale of Gods bickering and mortals playing it all out on the battle field has been handed down to us by first Homer, in the Iliad and then the Odyssey, and in more condensed forms by hundreds of authors over the centuries. The Trojan War has echoed over time as different nations have defined themselves as descended from either the Greeks or the Trojans.  The works of Homer themselves and their spinoffs provide much of the modern knowledge of Greek Mythology.

A mortal too was once destined to kill his father. We know this story from another fourth-century BCE playwright, Sophocles. One of the features of Greek mythology is that a curse on a family continues for several generations. This is the case of the king of Thebes and his wife Jocasta, who inherited a god's curse. It was said that Laius the king would be killed by his son. so at the birth of a young male child, he sent it out into the wilderness with stakes hammered through the ankles so that the babe would die . (*r)A shepherd found the child and took it home with him to Corinth, where the child grew to adulthood with the king and queen of Corinth, ignorant of his background, and with the name Oedipus, which means 'swollen foot.' On a trip to Delphi where the oracle sat, Oedipus heard that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, so he left Corinth. He headed off towards Thebes, and was run off the road by an old man. He retailiated and killed him. He continued to Thebes and was confronted by the Sphinx. (*r)By answering the riddle correctly, Oedipus was able to rid the city of Thebes of the monster. He was made king of Thebes, and married the widow of Laius. Many years later, a plague come to the city, and the prophet Tiresias was called in. The plague was caused by the harbouring in the city of Laius' murderer. Oedipus was determined to find the murderer, but did not believe it was him. At this time, the king of Corinth died, and the shepherd came to Thebes to ask Oedipus to return and be the new king. He refused, as he did not want to return and fulfill the rest of the prophecy and marry his mother. The shepherd then explained to Oedipus that he was not originally from Corinth, and so the woman who had raised him was not his mother. Jocasta heard this and went back into the palace and hanged herself. Oedipus in shame then blinded himself in shame at having killed his father and marrying his own mother. In this tale there is not the same collusion between son and mother as in the gods' tales, but the import is the same. All sons will eventually be more powerful than their fathers. (*r) It might be considered a mark of their shared mortality.

As previously mentioned, Aphrodites influence was great, and even the immortals bowed to her pressure. There are so many stories of Zeus and love, many involving abduction or transformation. Zeus love Io, a priestess of Hera, who out of jealousy, turned her rival into a cow. Out of love of Europa, Zeus became a bull, who gently approached the maiden while she collected shells on the beach with her friends. She approached and climbed on the bull's back and was carried across the sea to Create. The story of Leda and the swan is also very well known, often pictured in later times. Erotic is the word that comes to mind with some of these representations. The swan was Zeus. Leda laid an egg which contained Helen, the one abducted by Paris (promised to him by Aphrodite after judging her the most beautiful goddess) leading up to the Trojan War. All of these affairs usually meant trouble with Hera, and at times it was taken out on the children. Herakles, or as we tend to call him now, Hercules, was never favoured by Hera due to his paternity. She even sent snakes to kill him in his crib.(*r) Just as a post-script. It wasn't just women or girls that could fall victim to Zeus' lust. Ganymede of Troy was abducted by Zeus because of his youthful beauty and lived on Mt Olympus as a cup bearer. Whether sex was involved, no-one really knows, but there are always suspicions.

Aphrodite may have caused mayhem with others' lives, but once, she too could be victim. Zeus, out of frustration put into the heart of Aphrodite a great love for a mortal. That mortal was Anchises, a Trojan. She came to him as a mortal, and he was horrified the next morning when he realised that she was a goddess, "for no man retains his strength who sleeps with an immortal goddess". Aphrodite bore a son, Aeneas, who on fleeing the fallen Troy, founded the state of Rome. Another story comes to us in Homer's Odyssey. I mentioned earlier that Aphrodite was married to the lame Hephaestus, a truly strange match in some ways, but seen now as the archetypal union of the lame intellectual and sensuous beauty. However, she was enamored of Ares, the god of war who was handsome and whole. Hephaestus was understandably jealous, and determined to catch them out. He went to his forge and made an unbreakable chain as fine as a spider's web which he hung on the bedposts. The unwitting lovers were trapped, and Hephaestus called all the other gods down from Mt Olympus to witness the ludicrous scene. Ares had to agree to an adulterer's fee before they could be released.

Well, that is a light skip through Greek Mythology. There is so much that I have been unable to cover, as there is so much there to work with. I hope you leave the room knowing about the Twelve Olympians and the variety of their functions. No two gods represent exactly the same things, but there are overlaps and subtle variations which are brought to bear in the society's use of them. They often represented those aspects of life over which individuals had no control, such as life, death, war and love. I hope you have also understood that love was seen as fundamental to life, but needed to be treated with respect. It was recognised as having the capacity to undermine the rationality of even the most powerful, but was not something that therefore needed to be avoided.

And on that note, I think we should leave the last words to Oedipus.