The Iron Age

CLCV LECTURE 1 WEEK 3

THE IRON AGE ( dark age)

• Geometric period 900-700 BCE : greece is beginning to emerge from several centuries of depression , by 700 BC we have homer. Writing comes in this period and art ex : dipylon funeral vase (750BC).
• Introduction of the alphabet and vase painting, narration of myths glorifying the  « heroic age ». Concentration on the worship of Zeus.
• Olympic Games founded in 776 BC : beginning of the greek calendar.
• Hesiod 700 BC , « Theogony » ! Theo = god and gon = birth , creation. So theogony = birth of the gods.
• Starts his poems by invoking the muses , daughter of mnemosyne (memory) and zeus , they are 9.Often associated with Apollo.
• Then invokes the three Graces , make his poem a work of art. They have an iconographic(the way an image is drawn)  tradition ( boticelli , primavera , rubens the three graces in 1638).
• In the beginning , one divity : CHAOS. Everywhere , like outer space. Then GAIA , the earth. She too , is both geophysical in conception and antropomorphic. For Hesiod , earth is a flat disk and a goddess. First there is nothing(chaos) , then earth .
• The third divinity is Tartarus ( anti-earth) :become the torture chamber .God
• Then EROS , concept of love holding all this together.a god. Personnified as a young man .  
• Workbook page 19 : parthenogenesis.
• Chaos has two children : Erebos ( darkness) and Night , who has two children as well : Day and Aether(brightness).
• Gaia , parthenogenesis, has children : Uranus (sky) and Pontus( sea) and mountains.
• Then Gaia and Ouranos ( earth and sky ) : have 12 titans together , the first being the Ocean , Oceanus, and the youngest is Kronos
• The Ocean is a mythical fresh-water river ( not salt ) that encircles the earth .