Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [84]
—EDITH HAMILTON, Mythology
Where did the Greeks get their myths?
Was Greece ever a theocracy?
Who kept the “family tree” of the gods in ancient Greece?
How do you get Creation from castration?
Who’s Who of the Olympians
How did man get fire?
What was in Pandora’s “box”?
Why does Zeus send a great flood to destroy man?
Which mythical monster has the worst “bad hair day”?
What kind of hero kills his wife and children?
Which great hero gets “fleeced”?
Which Argonaut was a god of healing?
Was Hippocrates a man or myth?
Was Atlantis ever discussed in Greek myth?
Is Theseus and the Minotaur just another “bull” story?
What was the Delphic Oracle?
Do all little boys want to kill their father and sleep with their mother?
Is Homer just a guy from The Simpsons?
How did Homer fit a ten-year war into a poem?
Is the Iliad all there is to go on when it comes to the Trojan War?
Was there really a Trojan War?
Which crafty Greek hero can’t wait to get home?
Did the Romans take all their myths from the Greeks?
Who were Romulus and Remus?
Was Homer on the Romans’ reading list?
What were the Bacchanalia and the Saturnalia?
MYTHICAL MILESTONES
Greece and Rome
Before the Common Era (BCE)
c. 3000 The early Minoan civilization is established on the island of Crete.
c. 2000 Greek-speaking Indo-European peoples begin to migrate into the Aegean Sea area.
Palace of Knossos is built on Crete.
Egyptian-influenced hieroglyphic script used on Crete.
1900 Potter’s wheel introduced to Crete.
1750 Linear A, an early form of script, used on Crete.
1600–1400 Height of Minoan civilization on Crete.
1628 Volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (modern Santorini).
c. 1600 Rise of Mycenaean civilization on Greek mainland.
1450–1400 Fall of Minoan civilization on Crete after invasions and volcanic disasters; Mycenaeans take control of Crete.
1400 Mycenaean civilizations dominate the Greek mainland. Mycenaeans adapt Linear B script.
c.1280–1184 Trojan War with Mycenaean Greeks.
1150–1100 Collapse of Mycenaean dominance. Possible Dorian invasions from the North.
1100–800 Beginning of the so-called Dark Ages in Greece.
c. 1000 Worship of Zeus grows at Olympia.
c. 900–800 Archaic Age begins; growth of the Greek city-states, or poleis—independent cities ruled by a variety of governments.
900–700 Early books of Hebrew Bible composed.
776 First documented Olympic games are held at Olympia.
753 Traditional date for the founding of Rome by Romulus.
750–700 Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are first written down.
750 Greek colonization of Mediterranean spreads. First evidence of use of Greek alphabet.
700 Hesiod’s Theogony, Works and Days composed.
621 Draco and the first written law cod e in Athens.
600 Thales of Miletus; birth of philosophy (Ionian School). First Greek coins used in Lydia.
594 In Athens, Solon is given extraordinary powers; he reforms government, establishes rules for public recital of Homeric poems.
580 Sappho and the flowering of Greek lyric poetry.
570 Anximander develops systematic cosmology.
525 Pythagoras begins philosophical-religious brotherhood; develops mathematical, scientific, and mystical ideas.
520 Xenophanes, philosopher-poet, develops ideas of human progress, philosophical monotheism, skepticism toward deities.
509 Foundation of Roman Republic.
508 Democratic reforms instituted in Athens.
490 First Persian invasion of Greece; Greeks defeat the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
480 Second Persian invasion, led by Xerxes. The Persians win at Thermopylae; Athens is sacked; the Persians are defeated in the naval Battle of Salamis; Persian troops withdraw after loss at Plataea in 479.
480–336 The Classical Age—the culminating