2. SLO’s & Objectives  SLO Interpret historical knowledge to extend comprehension of world cultures  Objective: Distinguish the characteristics of the worlds major civilizations and discuss their enduring influences

5.  ZEUS is the supreme god of the Olympians.  Zeus and his brothers Poseidon and Hades divided up creation.  Poseidon received the sea as his domain,  Hades got the Underworld and  Zeus took the sky.  Zeus also was accorded supreme authority on earth and on Mount Olympus.

6.  APOLLO was the god of prophesy, music and healing.  Like most of his fellow Olympians, Apollo did not hesitate to intervene in human affairs. As god of music, Apollo is often depicted playing a instrument.

7.  ARES aka Mars was the god of war, or more precisely of warlike frenzy. His throne on Mount Olympus was said to be covered in human skin.  The Roman god Mars, with whom Ares was identified, was the father of Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of Rome. Thus he was more important to the Romans than his Greek counterpart.

8.  ARTEMIS was the virgin goddess of the hunt. She helped women in childbirth but also brought sudden death with her arrows.  Artemis and her brother Apollo were the children of Zeus and Leto. In some versions of their myth, Artemis was born first and helped her mother to deliver Apollo.

9.  ATHENA was the goddess of crafts and the domestic arts and also those of war. She was the patron goddess of Athens. Her symbol was the owl. She was originally the Great Goddess in the form of a bird. By the late Classic, she had come to be regarded as a goddess of wisdom

10.  Zeus was once married to Metis, a daughter of Ocean who was renowned for her wisdom. When Metis became pregnant, Zeus was warned by Earth that a son born to Metis would overthrow him. Zeus swallowed Metis and was overcome with a splitting headache and summoned help from the craftsman god Hephaestus (or, some say, the Titan Prometheus). Hephaestus cleaved Zeus's forehead with an ax, and Athena sprang forth fully armed. Zeus swallowed Metis and was overcome with a splitting headache and summoned help from the craftsman god Hephaestus (or, some say, the Titan Prometheus). Hephaestus cleaved Zeus's forehead with an ax, and Athena sprang forth fully armed.

11.  DEMETER was the goddess of agriculture. Demeter is the sister of Zeus and the mother of Persephone.  Persephone was gathering flowers when a huge crack opened up in the earth and Hades, King of the Dead, emerged from the Underworld. He seized Persephone and carried her off in his chariot, back down to his his realm below, where she became his queen.

12.  Demeter was heartbroken and wandered the earth in search of her daughter, during which time the crops withered and it became perpetual winter.  Hades was persuaded to surrender Persephone for one half of every year, the spring and summer seasons when flowers bloom and the earth bears fruit once more.  The half year that Persephone spends in the Underworld as Hades' queen coincides with the barren season.

13.  HEPHAEST was the lame god of fire and crafts or the two together, hence of blacksmiths.  Hephaestus also created the first woman, Pandora was given to the Titan's brother, Epimetheus, as his wife. For her dowry she brought a jar filled with evils from which she removed the lid, thereby afflicting men for the first time with hard work and sickness. Only hope remained inside the jar.

14.  HERA was the goddess of marriage. Hera was the wife of Zeus and Queen of the Olympians.  Her worship goes back to a time when the creative force we call "God" was conceived of as a woman. The Goddess took many forms, among them that of a bird.  Hera was worshipped throughout Greece, and the oldest and most important temples were consecrated to her.

15.  HERMES was the messenger of the gods and guide of dead souls to the Underworld.  Hermes was the son Zeus and a mountain nymph and known for his helpfulness to mankind.  It was Hermes' job to convey dead souls to the Underworld.

16.  POSEIDON aka Neptune was the god of the sea, earthquakes and horses. Although he was officially one of the supreme gods of Mount Olympus, he spent most of his time in his watery domain.  Poseidon was brother to Zeus and Hades.

17.  Poseidon cursed the wife of King Minos. Minos had proved his divine right to rule Crete by calling on Poseidon to send a bull from the sea, which the king promised to sacrifice. Poseidon sent the bull, but Minos liked it too much to sacrifice it. So Poseidon asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to make Minos's queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. The result was the monstrous Minotaur, half-man, half-bull.  As god of horses, Poseidon often adopted the shape of a steed. Poseidon sometimes granted the shape-shifting power to others.

18.  APHRODITE aka Venus was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. She was also a protectress of sailors.  The poet Hesiod said that Aphrodite was born from sea-foam. Homer, on the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.

19.  When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena. The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in battle, but Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.  This was Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris subsequently eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena were implacable enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the Trojans.

20.  DIONYSUS was the god of wine. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele.  Dionysus also saved his mother from the Underworld, after Zeus showed her his true nature as storm god and consumed her in lightning.  It was Dionysus who granted Midas the power to turn whatever he touched into gold, then was kind enough to take the power back when it proved inconvenient.

21. Birth of DIONYSUS

22.  According to mythology, Dionysos' "mortal mother was Semele of Thebes, whom Zeus had taken as a lover.  Jealous Hera appeared to Semele in the guise of her old nurse and dared her to demand that Zeus appear in his real form.  Semele was incinerated by his thunderbolt, but Zeus salvaged the unborn boy and sowed him into his thigh; a few months later Dionysus was born and given to Hermes to entrust to the care of nymphs on Mount Mysa.  When he grew up these nymphs became his female devotees, the Maenads. Hera drove him mad and he fled to the east where the oriental earth goddess Cybele cured him.  They then returned to Greece, establishing his cult in different places and proved to the world that his father was Zeus."

23.  Dionysus traveled about the world teaching the mysteries of his worship and also how to cultivate wine.  Those who welcomed him received the gift of the vine and those who did not were driven "mad."  Dionysus was the god of wine, fertility and joyous life. He was the god of hospitality, which included bringing joy to the feast and freeing men from their cares. These feasts included sexual orgies seeking “ecstasy”

24.  Followers of Dionysus believed that he was the presence that is otherwise defined as the craving within man that longs to "let itself go" and to "give itself over" to the baser earthly desires.  worshippers of Dionysus attempted to bring themselves into union with the god through a ritual casting off of the bonds of sexual denial and primal constraint by seeking to attain to a higher state of ecstasy.

25.  The uninhibited rituals of ecstasy (Greek for "outside the body") employed wine, abandon, and perversion  to bring the followers of Dionysus into a supernatural condition which enabled them to escape the temporary limitations of the body and mind and to achieve a state of enthousiasmos, or, outside the body and "inside the god."

26.  The Dionystic idea of mental disease resulting from the suppression of secret inner desires, especially aberrant sexual desires, was later reflected in the atheistic teachings of Sigmund Freud.  Thus Freudianism might be called the grandchild of the cult of Dionysus.  But the person who gave himself over to the will of Dionysus was rewarded with unlimited psychological and physical delights.

27.  Followers migrated in frenzied hillside groups, dressed transvestite in fawn skins and accompanied by mask-wearing, screaming, music, dancing, and licentious behavior.  Women attempted to nurse young animals. Older animals who ran from them were considered "resistant" to the will of Dionysus and were torn apart and eaten alive as a part of the fevered ritual.  Human participants were sometimes subjected to the same orgiastic cruelty, as the rule of the cult was "anything goes," including beastiality.

28.  In 186 B.C.E. the Roman Senate met to call for the destruction of all Dionysis shrines and worship in Italy after numerous outrageous ceremonies.

29.  Dionysus was honored with a series of festivals: the Oschophoria, Lesser Dionysia, Lenaea, Anthesteria, and the Greater Dionysia.  Greater Dionysia was celebrated in Athens in the spring. This festival lasted for five days.  During the celebration business life stopped, prisoners were freed in order to participate.  The festival had one very special event title the Thymelic contest.

30.  This contest was performances of the works of poets in an open-air theatre.  Observing this contest was considered an act of worship.  Also in honor of Dionysus, the musicians did not have to pay taxes; and from the 4th century BC until 800 years later, the members of the Artists Guild did not have to participate in the military.  Dionysus was worshipped throughout Greece and India.

31.  Many link current activities such as Mardi Gras Festivals to the Cult of DIONYSUS

32. Frenzied Crowd Atmosphere