Archaic Greece#
Hesiod#
Hesiod’s Cosmogony/Theogony
appeal to the Muses’ divine authority and role as witness; not based on natural evidence
each aspect of the world is identified with the distinct characteristics and personality of a god, who controls that part of the universe
the change from chaos to the coming to be of the world is not explained
the natural world is imbued by the supernatural; there is no distinction
Homer#
Homer’s historical account
appeal to the Muses’ divine authority and role as witness
Homer’s representation of the world
characters embody a certain understanding/processes of the world
everything is meaningful
rational worldview
Homer
what is the meaning and presence of human beings in the natural world?
mortality, the Gods, the physicality of death
the living body vs the dead body, made of parts
sets a tone for greek thought after that: the material of body vs the living character of body
Mythology#
Uranus (sky) + Gaia (earth)
Titanides αἱ τῑτᾱνῐ́δες “the titanesses”
Mnemosyne
Phoebe
Rhea
Tethys
Theia
Themis
Titans οἱ τῑτᾶνες “the titans”
Coeus
Cronus
Crius
Hyperion
Iapetus
Oceanus
Cronus + Rhea
first-generation Olympians
Demeter
Hades
Hera
Hestia
Poseidon
Zeus
Pontus + Gaia
Eurybia
Crius + Euribya
Astraeus
Hyperion + Theia
Eos
Helios
Selene
Astreaus (dusk) + Eos (dawn)
Astra Planeta (planets)
Stilbon (Mercury)
Phosphorus (Venus, Morning Star)
Hesperus (Venus, Evening Star)
Pyroies (Mars)
Phaethon (Jupiter)
Phainon (Saturn)
Anemoi (winds)
Boreas (north)
Notus (sout)
Eurus (east)
Zypherus (west)
Zeus + Mnemosyne
Muses
Calliope (epic poetry)
Clio (history)
Erato (love poetry)
Euterpe (lyric poetry and music)
Melpomene (tragedy)
Polyhymnia (hymn)
Terpsichore (chorus and dance)
Thalia (comedy and idyllic poetry)
Urania (astronomy)
Oceanus + Tethys
Oceanids
Terms#
[W] Achilles ἀχιλλεύς
[W] Adonis ἄδωνις
[W] Aeolus
[W] Aether
[W] Aion
[W] Agoge ἀγωγή
[W] Ananke
[W] Ancient Greek astronomy
[W] Ancient Greek economy
[W] Andron
[W] Anemoi ἄνεμοι (Venti)
[W] Antichthon
[W] Archaic Greece
[W] Archon ἄρχων
[W] Archon Basileus ἄρχων βασιλεύς
[W] Argonauts
[W] Astra Planeta αστρα πλανητα “wandering stars” (Stellae Errantae)
[W] Astraeus ἀστραῖος
[W] Atlas Ατλας
[W] Atropos
[W] Autochthon
[W] Boreas βορέας (Aquilo or Septentrio) - northerly, winter wind
[W] Caerus καιρος (Occasio,Tempus)
[W] Calliope καλλιόπη “beautiful-voiced” (muse of epic poetry)
[W] Chaos
[W] Charybdis Χαρυβδις
[W] Chronos
[W] Classical Greece
[W] Clio κλειώ “to celebrate; to make famous; to recount” (muse of history)
[W] Crius κρεῖος
[W] Cronus χρονος (Saturn)
[W] Clotho
[W] Coeus κοῖος “query, question”
[W] Delphi
[W] Derveni Papyrus
[W] Dike
[W] Didacticism
[W] Dionysian Mysteries
[W] Dionysus Διονυσος (Bacchus)
[W] Dysnomia
[W] Eirene
[W] Elysium ἠλύσιον πεδίον
[W] Endymion ἐνδυμίωνος
[W] Eos ἠώς “dawn” (Aurora)
[W] Epikleros
[W] Eponymous Archon ἐπώνυμος ᾶρχων
[W] Erato ἐρατώ (muse of love poetry)
[W] Erebos
[W] Eros
[W] Eschatology
[W] Eunomia
[W] Eurybia εὐρυβία “wide force”
[W] Eurus εὖρος (Vulturnus) - easterly wind
[W] Euterpe εὐτέρπη “delight” (muse of lyric poetry and music)
[W] Gaia
[W] Ganymede γανυμήδης (Catamitus or Ganymedes)
[W] Golden Fleece
[W] Greek Dark Ages
[W] Greek Mythology
[W] Greek primordial deities
[W] Gynaeceum
[W] Hecatoncheires
[W] Hector ἕκτωρ
[W] Helios ἥλιος “sun” (Helius, Sol)
[W] Hemera
[W] Hesperes ἕσπερος “evening” (Evening Star; Venus; Vesper)
[W] Homonoia
[W] Horae
[W] Hyacinth ὑάκινθος
[W] Hybris
[W] Hyperborea
[W] Hyperion ὐπερίων “he who goes before”
[W] Iapetus ἰαπετός
[W] Jason
[W] Kalos Kagathos καλὸς κἀγαθός
[W] Kore κόρη “maiden”
[W] Kouros κοῦρος “boy; youth (esp. of noble rank)”
[W] Kyrios
[W] Lachesis
[W] Lethe
[W] Melpomene μελπομένη (muse of tragedy)
[W] Metempsychosis
[W] Mnemosyne μνημοσύνη “memory; remembrance”
[W] Moirai
[W] Musaeus of Athens
[W] Muses
[W] Mycenaean Greece
[W] Mysteries
[W] Nothing comes from nothing
[W] Notus νότος (Auster) - hot, southerly wind
[W] Nyx
[W] Oceanus ὠκεανός
[W] Odysseus ὀδυσσεύς (Ulysses)
[W] Olympians
[W] Oracle of Delphi
[W] Orpheus
[W] Orphism
[W] Ouranos
[W] Ourea
[W] Pan πάν (Faunus)
[W] Persephone
[W] Phaethon φαέθων “blazing” (Jupiter)
[W] Phainon φαίνων “shining” (Saturn)
[W] Phoebe φοίβη “shining”
[W] Phosphorus φωσφόρος or Eosphorus ἑωσφόρος “dawn-bringer” (Lucifer; Morning Star; Venus)
[W] Pillars of Hercules Ηρακλειαι Στηλαι
[W] Polemarch πολέμαρχος
[W] Polyhymnia πολυύμνια “(the one of) many hymns” (muse of hymns)
[W] Pontus
[W] Priam
[W] Pyroies πυρόεις “fiery” or Mesonyx μεσονυξ “(star of) midnight” (Mars)
[W] Pythia
[W] Rhapsode
[W] Rhea ῥέα (Ops)
[W] Scylla Σκυλλα
[W] Sea Peoples
[W] Selene σελήνη “moon” (Luna)
[W] Stilbon στίλβων “gleaming, glittering” (Mercury)
[W] Styx
[W] Tartarus
[W] Terpsichore τερψιχόρη “delight in dance” (muse of chorus and dance)
[W] Tethys τηθύς
[W] Thalia Θάλεια “fluorishing; joyous” (muse of comedy and idyllic poetry)
[W] Theia θεία “divine” (titaness)
[W] Themis Θέμις “custom; justice; law” (titaness)
[W] Titan
[W] Titanomachy
[W] Totenpass
[W] Urania οὐρανία (muse of astronomy)
[W] World Egg
[W] Zephyrus ζέφυρος (Favonius) - westerly, spring-summer wind
Notes#
nature is heterogeneous
nature is governed by multiple different domains,entities,forces,gods,sources with human personalities
The Iliad
I Opening
IX Achilles’ fate
XII Sarpedon at the gates
XIII No satisfaction in war
How is human death presented?
What is mortality like?
Why is mortality a problem?
Is glory presented as good?
Is glory presented as an adequate solution to the problem of mortality?
What is the place of war in the cosmos?
Is war good?
What must be assumed (or what must be the case) for mortality to be like this?
What must be assumed (or what must be the case) for mortality to be a problem?
XVIII Creation of the shield
XXI Fighting the river
What did Achilles do to the river god?
What are the phenomena that the fight between Achilles and the river god describes?
XXII Achilles fights Hector
Identify all the similes in the battle between Achilles and Hector: How are they related to each other?
Similes seem to refer to a parallel world: What is this world like?
What does the simile accomplish by putting us in such a detailed alternate world in the midst of the action?
What is the role of the gods in the action?
What about them leads people to honor them?
Are the gods good?
How does the imagery link both men’s deaths to one another?
What agreement does Hector seek with Achilles, and why does Achilles refuse?
Is this a healthy soul? A soul with natural passions?
XXIV Priam visits Achilles to get Hector’s body
What moves Achilles about Priam’s speech begging to retrieve Hector’s body? Why does this work?
motifs
the rage (wrath) of Achilles
the problem of death (fate) and glory (pride)
the reality of war and glory in the context of nature
mortality and war in the natural world
natural cycles
soul in relation to death
Enkidu is trapped
duality
nature vs civilization
legacy and identity
Gilgamesh,Enkidu are representations of civilization
taking Enkidu out of nature, civilization over nature
the concept of mourning
Achilles’ reaction to death,mourning
duality hero archetype
changes perspective
nature vs civilization
man vs god
nature transforms us, shows us the different sides of oursevles
philosophical anthropology
the city
individual souls vs society
individual souls goal is immortality
human society is anchored in society
presocratics
dynamic dualism
unity of opposites
anaximander’s infinity
plato
how does a city come to be
the kosmos
the receptable; materiality vs democritus’ void
materiality as the source of motion
we come to know things by being the same as them
realm of becoming through senses, realm of being through understanding
aristotle
things come into being through their opposites
the underlying subject from which something comes to be
four causes
difference between things that exist in nature vs the unnatural (things that do not have the propensity to change)
maturation, being thrown further towards itself
luck and chance
four types of being: attribute; essential/incidental; potential,dynamis; aletheia
we come to know things out of a flux; as the distinctions are made they are attached to each other
definition of change, both change and potency
change is not something indefinite
change
LISTEN
source of the problem between being and becoming
Aristotle: all change is specific
just because somehting’s changing it doesn’t mean it’s indefinite
change is the potential of something that is currently at work
Nature
dynamic balance
a system of relationships, a series of cycles which has a certain structure in which we are participating, intervening
such a system can be disrupted, pushed to their limits
things don’t fit perfectly together, so nature can adjust, adapt
Ancient Greek historical context
shifts in climate drove sea people away, east
rapid decline of civilizations?
more intensive agriculture
the autonomy/individuality of the household; homeowners become politically relevant
the rise of individual autonomy: What are the social, political, historical reasons?
individual relationships are negotiated via persuasion/rhetoric
INDIVIDUALITY, PERSUASION, RATIONALITY
Homer
a father of philosophical thinking?
Homer’s authorial style
descriptive
illuminated
medical-scientific
rational
recorded
related
everything has a place in the world, a relation to everything else
Two intellectual traditions: Athens vs Jerusalem
Athens: the world is articulated; those things that are meaningful are explainable; knowledge is NATURAL EXPLANATION
Jerusalem: the meaningfulness of the world is anchored in God, which is beyond us; those things that are meaningful are inward, hidden; knowledge is REVELATION (SUPERNATURAL EXPLANATION)
Abrahamic style
certain things are extremely important, central; other things are background, not understood
mystery is the fundamental characteristic of our relationship to the world
Auerbach’s Odysseus’ Scar
a story implies a worldview (a belief system) not only in terms of the content of the story but in terms of the style, how the story is told
worldview might include the components of the world, their relationship and their meaning, our place in space and time and our relationship with the rest of the world, the extent of our knowledge
Auerbach’s varieties of myth?
Sarah Brill?
human social relationships (political community) are categorically different from non human social relationships
Aristotle
humans are political animals
the transition from supernatural explanation to natural explanation
natural phenomena become describable, explainable in terms of other natural phenomena
What is the place of WAR in Homer’s worldview?
conflict, war is the medium through which men obtain admiration, fame, honor, glory, respect
the fruits of war are material, physical, tangible things: there is an economy
Achilles’ wrath μηνις
a rage/vengeance that transcends our normal human relationships, that has a divine power to it
other ancient Greek words for anger are related to the human body
Achilles’ wrath extends beyond, transcends, rejects the normal economy of relationships in war
the rejection of the economy of glory is a rejection of the community?
Aristotle: “he who is a lwa unto himself is either a beast or a god”
What is the place of HUMAN DEATH/MORTALITY in Homer’s worldview?
ceremony, grief, mourning, ritual stabilizes? war, reconciles?, processes the dead; it is a symbolic system for managing death, reincorporating?, remembering, immortalizing? the dead
for Homer, the underworld is dusty, forgetful, lost, murky, subterranean, unseen; echoes, shadows
the house of Hades is the unseen place
the dead have to be fed with the blood of the living to gain back something of vitality?
the dead are tied to, trapped in the world in the memory of the living yet helpless to influence the world; ceremony processes the dead, the mechanism through which the dead may depart the world
Theogenes of Megara: “it is best for mortal beings to never have been born at all”
the Greeks faced it in a frank way, both in terms of its connection with the living (they have to be mourned)
if death sucks so badly, then dying in battle is a problem
in nature, there is satiety in everything
phenomenology
lived body vs corpsed body
Homer is contextualizing war in the natural world, how unnatural and strange war is by describing the gore, the viscera
highlighting the things that drive us to war
Homer
perspective taking on the body in particular
a rational perspective on the body and its processes
the beginnings of a scientific/medical approach to the body
situated within a morally important context: the meaning and value of an individual life in part due to political forces
a norm for the way Greeks approach bodies
opens up a rheotical space to this medical-scientific appraoch to the body and to the natural world in general
what is the broader ethical importance attached to this development: the problem of the individual life and mortality
be aware of other aspects, implications, connotations of the way that Greeks develop this concept to nature and the rational approach to nature
the stylistic aspect of Homer is capacious, accomodating, characterized by the phrase “everything is illuminated”
the world is accessible to description; contrary to the Abrahamic
with Homer, the world is plural; different gods with different domains who interact with one another; there’s no mystery about their relationships; we should be able to describe it; the natural world is still heterogeneous
the Homeric, Hesiodic worlds: each god has its domain; the world is heterogeneous; nature is not all the same, it’s governed by different principles
the birth of philosophy is associated with a shift in the way we vew nature, the natural world
Thales: a homogeneous world; a philosophical concept of ?
there’s something about nature that is the same everywhere
the birth of philosophy
ways of understanding the gods
a paractical approach: ritual practice, propitiated by offerings
topological understanding of the gods: a certain city that each god is in charge of, each god has a domain, the people of that city are accompanied by that god
the main gods involved in Iliad and Odyssey
how “Earthy” are the gods?
Achilles and the river
the river wins, Achilles technology fails him
Hera, Apollo, Hephaestus; the automata burn the land, the river evaporates, retreats
highlights the relationship between the might of a human being and the flow and power of the natural world
highlights the weirdness of the relationship between war and natural cycles
difference between Olympian gods vs the “nature spirits”
place based spirituality of the ancient Greek world
in Greek mythology, there’s a point in time when nature exists and Olympian gods don’t exist yet
what is the relationship between Olympian gods and the nature spirits
look deeply at Hesiod and the earlier versions of the pantheon; look across different cultures, islands, cities
the generations of the gods, how is it to be interpreted
a different belief system? if there was a transition, there would have to be a story about what came before
the dominion of the olympian gods is never going to be total
titans vs olympians: natural vs technological?
time works in such a way that creatures are born and then they are eaten
presented as a monstrous thing and then subverted
fate is above the gods
phenomenologically, fate is of experiencing what happens as opposed to what could’ve happened
different possibilities are ruled out
what sort of figure is fate? an individual that doesn’t seem to be involved in relationships with others, no negotation
fate is a certain mode of experience that affects the meaning of the world around us, in our normal experience
the idea of necessity, fundamental concept in Greek philosophy that becomes important in the scientific tradition
the idea of fate could be a psychological response to atrocity; need to make meaningful suffering
philosophically problematic…
we always have a local exerience in light of a holistic experience
what do the gods do for us? what are they?
abrahamic tradition: there is a covenant, there is a deal between the people and god
Greeks: transactional relationship, heterogeny, the play between the different gods; we undergo the gods, a source of human suffering and woe
do the gods all obey the same laws? homogeneity of the natural world, the gods can’t do otherwise at a certain point; what is it that constrains them
were the presocratic philosophers atheistic?
transition from heterogeneity to homogeneity
strengthand weaknesses and adaptability of a hetergeneous nature embodied in the pantheon
strengths and weaknesses that come along with a homogeneous worldview from an explanatory worldview
Apollo’s relationship to fate; the oracle of delphi
the greek gods utility perhaps is their better understanding of fate than humans
the gods are laws unto themselves; has a certain relationship with necessity
gods as law-like patterns
phenomena that we don’t have good ways of explaining
the way that we psychologize sports is woefully innacurate
a meta, emergent pattern of relationship that we are not really able to describe
understand phenomena via the gods; this is how gods are related to natural phenomena
characterizing the transition from Homer/Hesiod to the birth of philosophy
the discovery of the phenomeon of nature as a phenomenon worthy of study
to be interested in nature is to be interested in the sources of all things, homogenously; nature is the source of allthings; it explains what happens; it’s the internal character of all things; it explains the regularity of events; all things happen for reasons and these reasons are associated with necessity as opposed to purposiveness, character; things of nature are implacable, inpersuadable; there’s a departure from the polytheistic world bc the structure of the world has changed, no longer governs the worlds intelligibility, the gods may still be there but are no longer the fundamental explanatory structure of things
different methods from the thinking that goes on in myth telling
sociological explanation: the fragmentation of the Greek world, resumed seafaring, trade, developing unique political structures, each island has its own consitutition, form of debate; laws governing relations of trade; as a result, there is a political discourse that is grappling with the variety of constitutions based on persuasion; they knew and criticised each other
when Thales and Anaximander emerge, they knew each others’ books and are criticising each other on certain grounds
when you’re making an argument that the other person is wrong, you have to provide a basis for that, you have to give reasons for that, that are philosophically interesting; figuring out the structure of argumentation, how to use evidence to resist each other and establish their own points; the logical structure of argumentation; the emergence of the phenomenon of nature and the universality, homogeneity of the natural world; these things together are the foundation of early philosophy
philosophy is a continuation of myth; a desire to coherentize
intellectual paradigms don’t fail radically, it’s much subtler
Parmenides is writing mythology?
hermeneutic situation, we need intellectual imagination
What is nature?
What is our relationship (qua individual, qua civilization) with nature?
humans reduced: humans are just trying to survive via reproduction like any other animal
nature elevated: human civilization is just another manifestation of nature; nature includes human civilization
What is the scope of nature? The Earth? Outer space and the universe?
Knowledge as loss
Wisdom as inner peace, as the acceptance of loss
We are not born mortal, to the extent that birth is couched in a cultured framework (parents, customs, habits, rules, etc.); we become mortal
Life is a sequence of …
We learn of death through others by observing/witnessing their bodily deaths from the outside; we experience, contemplate, imagine death abstractly; what is the meaning of the undergoing of our own death?
Logos
Is the kind of natural(istic) explanation that arises in Homer’s writing and the pre Socratic worldview an explanation of natural phenomena in terms of other natural phenomena?
What does natural explanation achieve over other forms of explanation, such as supernatural or religious explanation? How does rationality and mathematics fit into this?
Is this what makes it devoid of a certain kind of meaning that can only be gained with an introspective aspect and a supernatural foundation?
Where do cause and effect fit into the picture? Can we say that both pre Homeric supernatural explanation and post Homeric natural explanation both included causal explanation?
Is human community/civilization natural or unnatural?
Both, born out of the natural and extend the natural. The unnatural is just a kind of natural
Is nature good? Are we at home in it? Is it bad? Is it something that threatens us? Is it neutral?
Nature as nature is neither good or bad. We aren’t exactly at home in Nature. We are in dialogue/dialectic with nature. Nature is like our partner.
Does civilization express or distort natural human desires?
It distorts original desires, expresses and extends many other kinds of desires
Are humans natural or unnatural? Explain.
Humans are natural in the first place. But we have the capacity to challenge nature. We’ve been successful in our challenge. It is still an open question
Are human civilization and nature compatible or in conflict?
We are compatible by necessity to a certain extent. We are certainly in conflict
Pursuit of knowledge is a dispute, dialogue with nature
Knowledge requires loss
Trajectory of our goals brings about fate