chapter 14 lecture one of two perseus and myths of the argive plain ©2012 pearson education inc

Chapter 14Lecture One of Two

Perseus and Myths of the Argive Plain

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Argolid

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NASA

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Myths of the Argive Plain

• Rich Bronze Age area– Mycenae– Lion’s gate– Beehive tombs

• Tiryns

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Fig. 14.1The Lion Gate at Mycenae.

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Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Athens

IO AND HER DESCENDANTSThe Wanderings of Io

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The Wanderings of Io

• The river god Inachus and Melia– Io

• Zeus’s passion and Hera’s jealousy– Lerna– the “cow”– Argus– Hermes (Argeïphontes)

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Fig. 14.2 Hermes Slays Argus

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Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg

The Wanderings of Io

• Ionian Sea, Byzantium, the “Bosporus,” the Caucus Mountains, Egypt

• Epaphus “he who has been touched”– = Isis– boôpis

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IO AND HER DESCENDANTSCrimes of the Danaïds

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Crimes of the Danaïds

• Epaphus + Memphis– Libya + Poseidon

• Agenor• Belus

• Belus has two sons– Aegyptus, who rules in Arabia,– Danaüs, who rules in Libya

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Crimes of the Danaïds

• Aegyptus has fifty sons• Danaüs has fifty daughters

– the Danaïds

• They flee to Argos to prevent the proposed marriages– Danaüs now king in Argos

• The sons of Aegyptus in Argos

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Crimes of the Danaïds

• “All but one”– Hypermnestra spares Lynceus– Their heads buried in the Lernean swamp

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OBSERVATIONSSprings and the Dangers of Woman

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Dangers of Woman

• Etiological to explain the swamps?– Also from another, related story

• Amymonê and Poseidon

• Theme of female resentment against fixed marriages– Also saved Argos from foreign rule

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Fig. 14.3Poseidon and Amynomê.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, New York

Dangers of Woman

• Historical connection between Argos and Egypt– The historical Danuna (Sea Peoples?) or 1200 BC,

and the tribe of Dan

• “Danaän used by Homer to refer to the Argives and Achaeans (words for the Greeks at Troy).– Hellenes only from Thessaly

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End

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