Classical Mythology [3 ed.] 0582285410, 9780582285415

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Mark E 0. Morford University of Virginia

Robert J. Lenardon The Ohio State University, Emeritus

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY Third Edition Copyright O 1971, 1977, 1985 by Longman Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. For information address Longman Inc., 95 Church Street, White Plains, NY 10601. First published, 1971, and 1977 by David McKay Company, Inc.

Developmental Editor: Gordon T. R. Anderson Production Editor: Jennifer Barber Design: Gloria Moyer Production Supervisor: Anne Musso Cover Art: AURORA, artist unknown. New England, ca. 1820. Watercolor and gold paper collage on silk. This picture, called Chariot in the Clouds in the 1930s, was more narrowly defined in the 1950s as Venus Drawn by Doves on the assumption that the unidentified goddess has some connection with the sailing ship. Aphrodite, assimilated into Roman mythology as Venus, was said by Hesiod to have been born of the foam of the sea. The Levantines believed she had the power to protect ships on their voyages. However, two similar compositions since discovered identify the figure as Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Known to the Greeks as Eos, Aurora was usually depicted drawn by horses; research has not yet revealed the circumstances by which she came to be drawn by birds in these four closely related depictions. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Morford, Mark P. O . , 1929Classical mythology. 1. Mythology, Classical. I. Lenardon, Robert J., 1928. 11. Title. BL722.M67 1985 292'. 13 85- 11394 ISBN 0-582-28541-0

!he memory of

BERTJONES, ar, and friend

CONTENTS

Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface to the Second Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Preface to the First Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part I-The Myths of Creation: The Gods 1 Myths of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zeus' Rise to Power: The Creation of Man . . . . . . . . . 2 The Twelve Olympians: Zeus. Hera. and Their 3 Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Anthropomorphism and Greek Humanism . . . . . . . . . . Poseidon. Sea Deities. Group Divinities. and 5 Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Athena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7 Aphrodite and Eros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Artemis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9 Apollo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hermes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Dionysus. Pan. Echo. and Narcissus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Views of the Afterlife: The Realm of Hades . . . . . . . . . 13 Orpheus and Orphism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

100 107 114 143 154 179 197 228 249 282

Part 11-The Greek Sagas: Greek Local Legends 15 The Theban Saga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Mycenaean Saga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 17 The Trojan Saga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Returns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Perseus and the Legends of Argos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Heracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 21 Theseus and the Legends of Attica and Crete . . . . . . .

295 315 323 351 368 380 406

29 43 68 82

vi

22 23

CONTENTS

The Argonauts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 LocalLegends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Part 111-The Survival of Classical Mythology 24 Roman Mythology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 25 The Survival of Classical Mythology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 26 Classical Mythology in Music and Film . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541 Indexes Mythological and Historical Persons. Subjects. and A Place Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 B Authors. Artists. Composers. Subjects. and Titles . . . . . 567

FIGURES

Descendants of Chaos The family of Prometheus The lineage of major deities Descendants of the sea Descendants of Medusa The family of Cadrnus Map of Greece The dynasties of Thebes The descendants of Chthonius The kings of Thebes Map of central Greece The house of Atreus Map of Asia Minor The royal house of Troy Map of the East The ancestry of Perseus The family of Heracles The royal families of Athens The family of Jason The amber routes Map of the Campagna Map of Rome

ILLUSTRATIONS

Jupiter and Thetis, by J . A. D. Ingres Nereid, by Georges Braque Athena, from an Attic amphora Venus Drawn by Doves, artist unknown Venus and Adonis, by Titian The Death of Adonis, by Ribera The Death of Actaeon, by the Pan Painter Apollo and Daphne, ascribed to Pollaiuolo Apollo and Daphne, by G. L. Bernini Dionysus with Satyrs and Maenads, from a sixth-century vase

Dionysus, cylix by Exekias Hades and Persephone, relief from Locri Orpheus, Eurydice, and H e m e s , fifth-century relief Orpheus and Eurydice, by Isamu Noguchi The Rape of Europa, relief from Selinus The Rape of Europa, by Titian The Rape of Helen by Paris, attributed to a follower of Fra Angelico

TheJudgment of Paris, by Lucas Cranach the Elder The Death of Sarpedon, Athenian red figure krater by Euphronios

The Building of the Trojan Horse, by G-B. Tiepolo Aeneas' Flight from Troy, by Federico Barocci Circe and Her Lovers i n a Landscape, by Dosso Dossi Odysseus and the Sirens, from an Athenian vase The Return of Odysseus, by Pintoricchio Heracles Shows Cerberus to Eurystheus, from an Etruscan h ydria The Apotheosis of Hercules, by Peter Paul Rubens Cephalus and Aurora, b y Nicolas Poussin The End of a Monster, by Pablo Picasso Medea, by Eduardo Paolozzi

ILLUSTRATIONS

X

The Calydonian Boar, by the potter Ergotimos and the painter Kleitias

Pyramus and Thisbe, b y Hans Wechtlin Earth: Vertumnus and Pomona, by Fran~oisBoucher Romulus and Remus, by Alexander Calder Sky-Map of the Northern Hemisphere, by Albrecht Diirer

45 1 459 475

493 517

PREFACE

In the fifteen years since we completed the first edition there have been substantial advances made in knowledge of the Greek world in the Mycenaean and archaic ages. New interpretations of the evidence have required substantial changes in the Introduction and in the chapters on saga. There have also been several important new publications on classical mythology in the last decade, whose findings have led us to make further revisions in the Introduction. Besides these revisions, we have added much new material to the chapters on saga (16-23), including many new translations of primary sources. We have made extensive additions to the chapters on the classical tradition (24-26), especially Chapter 26, on classical mythology in music and film. Some new illustrations have been added, and the bibliographies have been expanded, including a new section on books for young readers. Once again we are grateful to many colleagues and students for their advice and criticism. John Davis has been tireless in his concern, and we have been helped by constructive advice from Mary M. Burns, John T. Gillespie, Christine Gilbert, Hans Pohlsander, Emmet Robbins, Joseph Tebben, John.Vaughn, and Eliot Wirshbo. To them and to our teaching associates and students we offer our thanks.

Mark P. 0. Morford Robert J. Lenardon

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Since the publication of the first edition our book has been extensively tested in undergraduate courses, and the conviction expressed at the beginning of the Preface to that edition has been justified. We have learned from the comments of colleagues and students who have used the book, and we have received many other criticisms and suggestions, for which we are grateful. Many of the shortcomings pointed out to us we have now attempted to rectify: in particular we have expanded the Introduction and the chapter on music (now chapter 26); the legend of Cupid and Psyche has been added to chapter 7; the legends of Theseus and Perseus have been moved from the present chapter 23 to separate chapters (respectively 19 and 21) with much additional material, including several translations from Pindar and Ovid. Various improvements have been made in the aids provided by the book, including bibliographies, lists of the charts and maps, and new indexes, which now include guides to pronunciation. Our purpose remains the same: to provide readers who have little or no background in the classical literatures with a survey based as far as possible on the classical texts presented in translation or on our own reading of the classical sources. We would have wished to satisfy our critics who look for more discussion of the nature of Greek myths or for more extended use of comparative mythology and anthropology. To do this would necessitate changing the scope and purpose of the book, although our revised Introduction does put before students more of the principal theories and provides them with bibliographical references. Since 1971, moreover, the excellent survey by John J. Peradotto and G. S. Kirk's two stimulating and learned books on Greek mythology have been published, so that the student has ample resources at hand for reading more deeply about theories of mythology. We do not subscribe to xiii

xiv

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

any one theory of interpretation, and it is not our purpose to provide more than an introduction to the interpretation of myths in preparation for the myths themselves. Other critics have also questioned our use in part 2 of what Kirk has magisterially dismissed as the paraphrase industry."' While we have added more sources in translation to the chapters on saga, we have also been forced by the limitations of time and space, still more by the nature of the sources for many sagas, to hold in general to our earlier principles. Once again we acknowledge with gratitude the help of many colleagues, teaching assistants, and students. We are especially grateful to Professor John T. Davis for many perceptive criticisms and to Mr. Mark M. Schulz for help with the indexes. Mrs. Colette Armstrong and Miss Cathy Reid have helped us over the years in the labors of typing and organizing the book, and they have earned our warmest thanks.