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

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Argolid


NASA

Myths of the Argive Plain

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

• Tiryns


Fig. 14.1The Lion Gate at Mycenae.


Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Athens

IO AND HER DESCENDANTSThe Wanderings of Io


The Wanderings of Io

• The river god Inachus and Melia– Io

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


Fig. 14.2 Hermes Slays Argus


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


IO AND HER DESCENDANTSCrimes of the Danaïds


Crimes of the Danaïds

• Epaphus + Memphis– Libya + Poseidon

• Agenor• Belus

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



• 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



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


OBSERVATIONSSprings and the Dangers of Woman


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


Fig. 14.3Poseidon and Amynomê.


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


End


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

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