CCIV 110 WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
SPRING 2000
ILLUSTRATIONS AND STUDY QUESTIONS

HESIOD, THEOGONY
HESIOD, PANDORA MYTH
SEMONIDES, POEM 7


This course is a discussion seminar. Thus, the reading assignments for the course are relatively modest. Students are expected to spend a significant proportion of their class preparation time reviewing the assigned reading, thinking about it, checking out the material on the Web Sites for the assigned day, and pondering issues raised by the reading and the background material. The following illustrations and questions are designed to help you get started.
Illustrations: Most of the illustrations present a slightly different version of the myth or story than the one that you will have encountered in the reading, and they are intended to help you think "beyond the text": What happened that we aren't told about? What are some of the questions left open by the reading? What kinds of things would you like to know that the text doesn't tell you?
Study Questions: The questions, like the illustrations, are to help you get started. They raise a few of the issues that we will want to discuss in class, but are not intended to limit your thinking. Unlike the illustrations, the study questions are tied closely to the assigned texts. They are designed to help you think "inside the text" about issues that need analysis, explanation, or expansion; as you reflect on them, try to come up with ideas of your own about issues you would like to bring up in class for discussion.

February 28
Hesiod, Theogony

Rhea presents "Zeus," wrapped in swaddling clothes, to Kronos. How does this depiction of the scene compare with the impression you received when you read the account of the episode in the Theogony?  (To see a larger view, click on the photo.) Compare this depiction of Kronos with the famous one painted by Francisco de Goya, entitled Saturn (= Kronos) Devouring His Son. The differences from the vase painting are obvious, but what are their implications for your interpretation of the scene? (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1906; # 06.1021.144)

  • The Theogony traces the passage from the domination of the cosmos by Gaia to the rule of the cosmos by Zeus. What are the larger implications of this transition? What is its meaning in terms of the sexual, political, moral and social themes of the poem?
  • The Theogony is organized around a three-stage succession-myth. How does the relationship between male and female change in each stage of the succession-myth? How do Ouranos, Kronos and Zeus compare? How do Gaia, Rheia, and Mêtis compare?
  • Aphrodite is the first of the "Olympian" deities born in the poem; Athena is the last one born in the succession-myth (pages 35-6, lines 888-926). What do you make of the differences and similarities between Aphrodite and Athena as goddesses in terms of their relation to significant males in the poem, and especially to Zeus?


March 1
Hesiod, Pandora Myth; Semonides, Poem 7


Zeus stands on the left of this scene, and Hermes moves away from him, holding a flower in his left hand, and the caduceus, his particular symbol, in his right hand. On the right-hand side of the scene, both Epimetheus and Pandora are identified by inscriptions above the head of each (not visible here). Epimetheus carries a hammer and is dressed in workmen's clothes. Pandora is veiled and wears a crown, and above her head flutters the figure of Eros. (To see the right-hand section in detail, click on the image.) What moment in the myth of Pandora does this scene represent, if any? What are its distinctive features as compared with the narrative in the Hesiodic poems? (From Shapiro, Myth into Art: Poet and Painter in Classical Greece [New York: Routledge, 1994] figure 45, page 69; detail from Reeder, Pandora: Women in Classical Greece [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995] figure 81, page 286)

  • The Theogony traces the passage from the domination of the cosmos by Gaia to the rule of the cosmos by Zeus. What are the larger implications of this transition? What is its meaning in terms of the sexual, political, moral and social themes of the poem? (Study Question repeated from February 28; think it over carefully for class on March 1)
  • At what point in the Theogony does the story of Prometheus and Pandora occur? What is the significance of its placement in terms of the evolution of the narrative and of the cosmos?
  • What are the differences between the story of Prometheus and Pandora in the Theogony and in the Works and Days? What reasons can you think of that might account for the difference? You can probably come up with some even if you don't know much more about the Works and Days than the few lines you read: the 65 lines preceding them give you an idea of the themes and topics of this poem.
  • Think carefully about the attributes that Semonides assigns to each type of animal-woman: which are repeated, which are particular to one animal? How appropriate are the attributes assigned to the individual animals? Do any of them seem strange to you? Are there aspects of misogyny (literally, "hatred of women") that Semonides omits? Compare also the overall meaning of Semonides' view of women with what Agamemnon says in Book 24 of the Odyssey about Penelope and Clytemnestra (the passage is cited in the Background Notes).



Last revised 18 January 2000