Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This syllabus is intended to help guide you in your preparation for the exam. It is not the be all,
end all; there can be information on the exam which is not explicitly detailed on this syllabus.
The material found here is a starting point for study and should help you understand the scope of
the exam and gauge the difficulty of the material which could be on the exam.
I. Births
A. Parents:
1. Cronus- son of Gaia and Uranus, whom he castrated; Cronus had been warned
his offspring would dispose him
2. Rhea- daughter of Gaia and Uranus; wanted to protect her offspring
B. Consumption: Cronus ate his children as they were born
C. Rhea hid Zeus (the youngest) in a cave and gave Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling
clothes
D. Freedom via regurgitation:
1. Metis gave the grown up Zeus a drug to cause Cronus to vomit the siblings
2. After the 5 siblings were freed, they fought Cronus and the Titans
3. Zeus freed the Cyclopes and Hecatonchieres (100-handed) to help
4. Cyclopes gave:
a. Zeus his lightning and thunder bolts
b. Hades his helmet of invisibility
c. Poseidon his trident
E. Division of realms:
1. by some accounts, they cast lots
2. by other accounts, all the other gods wanted Zeus to be in charge
D. Minor Myths:
1. Ixion’s attempted rape of Hera
2. Revenge against women who do not respect her enough-
a. Side
b. daughters of Proeteus
c. Antigone (the daughter of Laomedon)
3. placing of Argus’ eyes into the peacock’s feathers
4. her dispute with Zeus which Tiresias settled
5. her dispute with Poseidon over the city of Argos
E. Symbols and Associations:
1. the peacock
2. Argos
3. Carthage
V. Hestia/ Vesta
A. Domain: the hearth and home
B. No Spouses nor offspring
C. Myths:
1. she refused to marry Poseidon and Apollo, who both pursued her
2. was nearly raped by Priapus, but a donkey warned her
D. Symbols and Associations:
1. the hearth
2. Vestal Virgins in Roman religion
Sources:
Primary-
Homer’s Iliad
Homer’s Odyssey
Hesiod’s Theogony
Homeric Hymn to Demeter
Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica
Ovid’s Metamorphoses (especially Book 5 for the Persephone episode)
Vergil’s Aeneid
Secondary-
The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology
Grimal’s Classical Mythology