Royal House of Athens, Lesser Greek Myths, and Norse Mythology

(BoJack Norseman)

HOUSE OF ATHENS, LESSER GREEK MYTHS, AND NORSE MYTHOLOGY

Creation

• Nothingness
• Chasm - the Ginnungagap
• Niflheim (cold realm of death)
• Muspelheim (realm of fire)
• Ymir and three frost maidens made
• Ymir's son is Odin's father
• Odin and bros. kill Ymir, making him the land, sea, and sky

Relations to other

Mythology/Literature

Motifs

Greek Creation - Giants sprung from Uranus' blood

Connection:

The Aesir, or soon to be Norse gods, killed the frost giant Ymir, using his bones they made mountains, the ocean from his blood and his skull became the dome of the sky.

Theme:

The blood or life force of the old and vanquished brings forth new life for the next generation.

• Wisdom (proverbial and semi insightful)
• Creation
• Battle
• "The gods are doomed and the end is death"
• Heroism
• Creatures, gods, and men
• Yggdrasil

Loki

Relations to Other Mythology/Literature

Mischievous antagonists ("Trickster" archetype) Severe punishments

Examples of Tricksters:

• Rumplestiltskin
• Kitsune
• Pied Piper
• Leprechauns
• Edmund - King Lear

Examples of severe punishments:

• Prometheus
• Eve

• Son of a goddess and Giant; not technically a god, always jealous of legitimate gods
• Notorious for causing trouble
• Loki and Balder:
• Balder was doomed to die, but Frigga ensured almost nothing could physically harm him
• Loki asked Frigga what could possibly harm Balder, and figured out it was the mistletoe
• Loki had Balder's blind brother Hoder unknowingly throw the mistletoe that killed Balder
• Loki punished - bound underneath serpent that dripped venom on his face

Connection to King Lear

Loki:

• son of a giant
• always an outsider to the gods, willing to harm the gods out of jealousy (Balder)

Edmund:

• the "whoreson" of Gloucester, betrays father and brother Edgar in order to sieze what he considers his natural birthright
• rejects church which considers him a bastard, believing in the supremacy of the nature

Uses on the AP Test

Sisyphus

Relations to Other Mythology/Literature

• Cecrops - Gender roles in society
• Midas - corruption brought by power
• Sisyphus - consequences of trickery, challenging of authority, hubris
• Odin - sacrifice for knowledge
• Loki - consequences of mischief

Odin

Relations to Other Mythology/Literature

• King of Corinth
• Notorious for being crafty & deceitful
• River god Asopus' daughter, Aegina, taken away by mighty eagle, Sisyphus suspected it was Zeus
• Sisyphus tells Asopus what he saw in return for a river
• Punished by Zeus, condemned to Hades
• Punished with rolling boulder up mountain only for the boulder to roll back down the mountain
• Repeats for eternity... (so it goes)

• Challenging of divine authority/hubris
• Consequences of trickery
• Hypocrisy
• Doomed endings/Futility

Examples:

• Catcher in the Rye (hypocrisy)
• Henry VIII -- Cardinal Wolsey (hubris)
• Slaughterhouse-Five (futility)

• Mirrors Zeus (Power, responsibility)
• Theme of sacrifice for the sake of knowledge and wisdom
• Divine intervention (Prometheus)
• Days of the Week (Tyrsday, Wodensday, Thorsday)
• Desire for wisdom is reminiscient of the biblical King Solomon

• King of the Norse gods (a.k.a. Woden)
• Husband of Frigga
• Constantly seeks wisdom
• Gave up an eye for wisdom, also suffered to win knowledge of the runes
• Passed down wisdom, knowledge of the runes to the Norse people
• Continually postpones Ragnarok (the end of heaven and earth)

"Sight vs. Sight"

Odin:

• Odin trades his eye for wisdom
• Literally gives up sight for enlightenment

Oedipus:

• fallacy that having foresight can fix the future

King Lear:

• Both King Lear and Gloucester cannot see which of their children is truly loyal before its too late
• Isn't until Gloucester's eyes are removed by Cornwall, that he can "see" that he was betrayed
• "A man may see how this world goes with no eyes" (Act 4, Scene 6)
• "I stumbled when I saw" (Act 4, Scene 1)

2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.

Royal House of Athens

Relations to Other Mythology/Literature

Theme of corruption through power:

• Macbeth
• Lord of the Flies
• The Crucible
• King Lear

• Granted one wish by Dionysus (Bacchus)
• Everything he touches turns to gold.
• His avarice keeps him from considering the repercussions of his wish.
• Overjoyed until he realizes that he can no longer eat or drink.
• His beloved daughter runs to embrace him and he turns her to gold as well

• Tells the stories of the royal Athenian family
• Cecrops:
• Half man, half dragon
• Ancestor of Athens, Responsible for election of Athena over Poseidon as protector of the city
• Poseidon gets butthurt and floods the city
• Women voted for Athena, men for Poseidon, men take away women's suffrage
• Variety of very tragic love stories involving daughters of Erechtheus, another great Athenian king
• Procne and Philomela (and Tereus)
• Procris and Cephalus
• Orithyia and Boreas
• Creusa and Ion

• Many other cities had patron deities
• Argos - Hera
• Thebes - Dionysus
• Olympia - Zeus
• Other love triangles:
• Zeus cheating on Hera
• Aphrodite, Hephastus, Ares
• Anna Karenina
• Les Misérables
• Wuthering Heights
• Midsummer Night's Dream

Connection to King Lear:

Midas' avarice brings about the loss of his beloved daughter.

King Lear loses youngest Cordelia over his own pride, bringing about her death at the hands of Reagan and Goneril.