1. ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY:
SETTING THE SCENE
Thursday, Sept 10, 2015
THEO 226

2. WHAT YEAR IS IT?
(IN THE WESTERN WORLD)
2015
 AD = (Anno Domini = “in the year of our Lord [Jesus Christ]”)
 BC = Before Christ
 BCE = Before Common Era
 CE = Common Era

3. GREEK
MYTHOLOGY
(WESTERN)

4. ANCIENT GREECE
8TH C. BCE – 1ST C. CE

5. CLASSICAL
GREECE
5TH C. BCE –
4TH C. BCE

6. HOMER & HESIOD:
ANCIENT GREEK POETS
Homer (12th – 8th C. BCE) Hesiod (8th – 7th C. BCE)

7. HOLLYWOOD GOES GREEK
 [Homer’s] Odyssey miniseries (1997)
 [Homer’s Iliad] Helen of Troy (1956; 2003)
 Troy (2004)
 [Homer’s] Ulysses (1955)
 Hercules (2014)
 300 (2006; Rise of an Empire: 2014)
 Clash of the Titans (2010)
 Wrath of the Titans (2012)
 The Immortals (2011)

8. COSMOGONY & THEOGONY:
THE ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS
Chaos, Gaea, Tartarus, Eros
 Chaos: Darkness & Night
 Air, Light & Day
 Gaea (Earth): Uranus
(Heaven), Mountains, Sea

10. BIBLICAL
MYTHOLOGY
(EASTERN)

11. ANCIENT
NEAR EAST
&
PALESTINE
/
ISRAEL

12. THE
(CHRISTIAN)
BIBLE
=
HEBREW BIBLE
(OLD TESTAMENT)
+
NEW
TESTAMENT

13. ABRAHAM,
THE “FATHER” OF THE NATION OF ISRAEL
Genesis chapters 12 – 25
(c. 2,000 BCE)
Abraham
Isaac
 Jacob (Israel)
12 Patriarchs ( = 12 tribes)

14. THE HEBREW BIBLICAL TRADITION
The Hebrew Bible most
probably took its present
form around the 6th C. BCE
(6th C. BCE: neo-Babylonian/Persian
period)
(4th C. BCE: Alexander the Great would
conquer the Persian Empire, including
Judaea [Palestine])

15. BIBLICAL CREATION MYTH
 1 God who exists prior to anything else (cf. Gn 1.26ff);
the origins of this God are not explained
 The situation prior to creation: the Earth was “without
form and void”; darkness; abyss (waters)
 God creates by speaking order into this situation of
chaos
 Light, Heaven, Earth and Seas are created during the
first 3 days of the “week of creation”

16. CREATION MYTHS COMPARED
Hesiod’s Theogony
Chaos, Gaea, Tartarus, Eros
 Chaos: Darkness & Night
 Air, Light & Day
 Gaea (Earth): Uranus
(Heaven), Mountains, Sea
 Creation by reproduction
Biblical Creation Myth
 1 God who exists prior to anything else
(cf. Gn 1.26ff); the origins of this God
are not explained
 The situation prior to creation: the
Earth was “without form and void”;
darkness; abyss (waters)
 God creates by speaking order into this
situation of chaos
 Light, Heaven, Earth and Seas are
created during the first 3 days of the
“week of creation”