4. Study Questions Copy
Try to write your answers first and then compare with the answers provided below. Click on the questions to view the answers.
Question 1
Story not fixed in a definitive version
The Heroic Age/Bronze Age/before the Trojan War/Mycenean age.
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King
Orally transmitted through song by bards.
Eighth century BC
Pandora was given to mortals as a trap, to teach them a lesson through the jar that she opens.
Golden age is the start, then the silver age, then bronze, then the heroic age, then the age of iron (this is a timeline of decline).
Herodotus said that it was Homer and Hesiod who made the Greeks conceive of the gods in an anthropomorphic way.
They come from the myth of Demeter and Persephone. The mysteries were celebrated near Athens (at Eleusis). Mysteries were secret, and initiation involved a symbolic passage from darkness to light.
Question 2
Watch the PowerPoint about Hades and Demeter. Read the selections from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
It explains the transitions of the seasons.
Question 3
Read the web article on the Eleusinian mysteries and make notes.
When religion is so all pervasive and is a central part of civic life in every sphere, perhaps people were looking for a more dynamic and individual experience that went beyond the state experience.
