In this class it was my intention to look at two katabases or journeys into the underworld that were described eight hundred years apart.  The perceived geography and the nature of the underworld changed over those eight centuries.  The first katabasis was made by Odysseus (Ulysses for the Latinists) in the Odyssey written by Homer in the 9th century BC.  The second was made by Aeneas in the Aeneid completed by Virgil in 19 BC.
 
In the Odyssey, the underworld was a place of darkness where the shades of the dead wandered unconscious and unknowing.  To revive them so Odysseus could talk with them, he had to feed them a libation or offering of blood and milk. ​

Thanks to the influence of Platonic philosophy in the 4th century BC and the rise of the mystery religions like the Eleusinian Mysteries, this changed over time.  When Aeneas made his katabasis in the 1st century BC, he found that the shades were now separated in the good and those who had been evildoers in life.  The dead were judged by three judges of the underworld.  All these judges were famous during their lifetime for the stern wisdom of their judgements. ​

The geography of the underworld had changed and clarified since the time of Odysseus.  The katabasis of Aeneas told us that those without the fare to pay Charon for a voyage across the Styx remained on this side of the river, unquiet and dangerous.  Once across the Styx were the Fields of Mourning where those who had died for love wandered uneasily. 
 
The Asphodel Meadows was where the majority of the dead dwelled.  Nearby were the Fields of Dreams whence came dreams, true and false, that haunt men’s sleep.  Once judged by the underworld gods, especially distinguished individuals and heroes could be sent to Elysium or the Elysian Fields.  This was a paradisiacal afterlife.  Elysium was where Aeneas found the shade of his father, Anchises. 

​The Isles of the Blessed were another, higher, place of reward.
 
Although the early writers like Hesiod and Homer knew of the Isles of the Blessed, over time, and under the influence of the mystery religions, the islands were reserved for those who had chosen to be reincarnated three times, who managed to be judged as especially pure enough to gain entrance to the Elysian Fields all three times.
 
Sadly, I did not have a class for my intended tour of the underworld.  I presume that the pressure of Christmas events claimed their attention.
 
John Barry

In November we reviewed that most grievous sin of the ancient Greeks – hubris.  Hubris was and is the overweening sense of pride in one’s superiority.  Zeus always punished hubris.

Bellerophon, one of the earliest of heroes, suffered from hubris.  As a task given to him by Iobates, who falsely believed that Bellerophon had dishonoured Iobates’ daughter, Bellerophon was ordered to kill the fire-breathing Chimera.  This Bellerophon did by capturing Pegasus the flying horse.  From its back, he used a lead tipped spear to choke the Chimera.  Afterward he completed other difficult, nay impossible, tasks.  Each one puffed him up more with hubris until he believed that he belonged on Mt Olympus with the gods.  He attempted to fly Pegasus there, but Zeus sent a gadfly to bite the horse.  Bellerophon fell to earth and landed in a thorn bush.  Blinded by it, he lived out his life in misery, despised by all.  So, hubris always ends.

Because of a quarrel between two princes of Thebes, seven heroes set out to destroy Thebes.  Warned in advance that their expedition would end in the death of all of them, they persisted anyway.  Their behaviour on the way to, and at the gates of Thebes, was beset with hubris.  One even claimed that not even Zeus could prevent him burning the city.  One who was promised eternal life threw it away by eating the brain of his still living opponent. 

Today, this tragedy of hubris and futility that was the ‘Seven against Thebes’ is almost unknown yet in ancient times, it was the most popular topic for plays and stories.  There are at least six surviving plays about the subject.  Every ancient playwright has a surviving play about ‘Seven against Thebes.’ Almost every ancient author wrote stories about this tragedy which they treated as history. 

​Remember, tragedy, in ancient times, meant a series of events that would inevitably end in death of the participants, yet the participants would undertake these events anyway.  This was the essence of ‘Seven against Thebes’.  This tragedy was driven by hubris.

Friday December 1, 2 - 4pm, 'A Tour of the Roman Underworld' followed by coffee at Zeus.
​
John Barry

​Although most classes will wind up in November, I intend to deliver two more classes - one in November on the Seven against Thebes, the hero Bellerophon and review the Roman Fetial priesthoods.  This class is by way of tidying up.  

The class on 1 December will be a tour of the Roman underworld, along with instructions about how to enter (short of death!), what monsters and villains are imprisoned there and how the Romans/Greeks imagined the underworld was structured before the rise of the Mystery Religions.  The Mystery Religions changed everything because, for the first time, they held out the opportunity for a personal afterlife. If I have time, I shall review my sources with the class and recommend further reading.

Afterwards, we will finish the year with coffee at where else? - Zeus' the king of the gods.

I have enjoyed the year's class.  Although the numbers fell off dramatically (often a problem with U3A), the ones who stayed were interested, asked all sorts of intriguing questions and made the classes very enjoyable.  Sadly, I do not believe that there will be sufficient interest in Benalla to put on a second round of classes. 

And 2024 is the year I want to get away in our caravan!

​John Barry

In the first century BC, there was a prophecy spread all over the Roman world.  It proclaimed that a divus puer (a divine child) would be born in 40BC and he would usher in another golden age.  Even Virgil wrote about it in his Fourth Eclogue.  That is why Virgil was seen by later Christians as a proto-Christian saint.  That is why Dante chose him to guide Dante through the Inferno.
 
Christians, from St. Jerome through St. Augustine to the Emperor Constantine, claimed this prophecy predicted the birth of Jesus.  However, there were many others competing for the title of divus puer.  Even mad Emperor Caligula claimed that he was the subject of the prophecy. 
 
Apollonius of Tyana was another believed to be the divus puer.  Even before he was born, it was known that Apollonius would be someone special. A supernatural being informed his mother that the child she was to conceive would not be a mere mortal but would be divine. He was born miraculously, and he became an unusually precocious young man. As an adult he left home and went on an itinerant preaching ministry, urging his listeners to live, not for the material things of this world, but for what was spiritual. He travelled from town to town and village to village proclaiming his message. He gathered disciples around him, who became convinced that his teachings were divinely inspired, in no small part because he himself was divine. He proved it to them by doing many miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.

Apollonius, an undoubtedly historical man, was born in Tyana in Central Anatolia around 3 BC. He was a follower of Pythagoras.

How do we know of him?  His biography was preserved in the writings of a later follower named Philostratus. The biography was written as the request of Julia Domna, the wife of the emperor Septimus Severus, two hundred years after Apollonius died. Julia Domna's son, the emperor Caracalla, worshipped Apollonius and her grandnephew emperor Severus Alexander probably did as well.

Apollonius is mentioned by the Roman historian Cassius Dio. There are also letters written by Apollonius.

Eventually, Apollonius’ actions and preaching across the Roman world attracted unwelcome attention. His opponents fabricated charges against him and he was executed at the probable age of 85 for using magic to conspire against the emperor.

After Apollonius’ execution, some of his followers claimed that he had appeared to them; that they had touched him; and that he had ascended into heaven. Some of these followers went on to spread his message.
 
There is an inscription from a tomb in Cilicia,  now held at a museum in Adana in Turkey. Translated from the Greek, it states - ‘This man, named after Apollo, and shining forth from Tyana, extinguished the faults of men. The tomb in Tyana (received) his body, but in truth, heaven received him so that he might drive out the pains of men’.

​Make what you like of Apollonius but he was just one of many Soter (Saviours) who appeared around the time of the prophecy.  Mani and Mithras are two more Soter whose success threatened early Christianity.

​John Barry

This session, we explored the hidden and relentless competition that lay behind the pursuit of a good life or excellence - ‘arete’ if you were a Greek or ‘virtus’ if you were a Roman.  Others judged your excellence within a social context.  Your own assessment of your own worth was irrelevant.  It was how others saw you that was all important. 
 
No wonder Romans liked the arena.  There, they could see this competition out in the open.  They could also judge how well a man died – one of the indicators of a man’s worth. No wonder too that Romans spent their own money in building public buildings.  This generosity to their community improved their excellence, their value, in the eyes of others. 
 
At this time, any moral code was limited to achieving the best image of yourself within society, a dutiful worship of the Olympian gods as part of this, and looking after your family.
 
This pursuit of being the best as others perceived it was the absolute goal in life for men. Women were expected merely to behave chastely and modestly.  Greek men even veiled their women in public much like the the Afghanis do today.  Only prostitutes and Spartan women were free of this veiling.
 
In the relentless competition by men to be the best, the ‘aristos’, there were many who came second in this great contest.  For them, there was nothing but heartbreak, shame and self loathing. 
 
In the fourth century BC, all began to change.  The four ancient philosophy schools outlined the beginning of a moral code.  Sadly, this code tended to be adopted only by the intellectual elite.  Also, at this time, Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics outlined a softer ‘arete’ that incorporated virtues, other than those of excellence particularly in war.  These were values like justice and self-restraint.  However, these were values that were still judged only within a social context.
 
The most important change around this time was the rise of the various Mystery Religions.  The most famous was the Eleusinian Mysteries held once a year at Eleusis near Athens.  Everyone who was anyone, who could speak Greek and who could affort the trip became an initiate.  Women, men and even slaves became initiates of a Mystery Religion.  The Eleusinian Mysteries revolved around Persephone and her time in the underworld as the unwilling bride of Hades.  Others revolved around the death and resurrection of Dionsyos. 

​This month saw us review the twelve tasks of Heracles imposed on him as a result of his killing his wife and children.  He had killed them in a madness sent by Hera, because Zeus, her husband, had seduced Heracles’ mother.  Hera, the ever rational goddess, over and over sought to kill Heracles for Hera’s husband’s frailties.  This madness was yet another punishment sent by Hera to bedevil Heracles.
 
The successful completion of these tasks and his many other adventures made Heracles the greatest of all heroes.  He was eventually brought undone by his second wife Deianira who foolishly believed the dying words of a centaur killed by Heracles.
 
‘My blood, mixed with a little olive oil and smeared on your husband’s clothing, will keep him faithful.’
 
Well, it was true – sort of.  Deianira means ‘man destroyer’ in Greek so her name gives away the ending. ​

​Then we looked at Aeneas, a minor Trojan prince who appears in ‘The Iliad’ and who had escaped from the flames of burning Troy carrying his crippled father.  Virgil took this character from ‘The Iliad’ and built a literary hero who had his own epic adventures in ‘The Aeneid’.  In this literary propaganda work, Aeneas became the true founder of Rome long before Romulus and Remus.  Through it, Virgil burnished the grubby and dubious credentials of Octavianus (later to be the Emperor Augustus) and prophesised that Rome’s destiny was to rule the world under the rule of Augustus and his successors.  Virgil also explained the causes of the wars between Rome and Carthage (the three Punic Wars).  It was not because of economic competition.  No, it was because of a love affair in which Dido, the Queen of Carthage, was jilted by Aeneas.

​Finally, we travelled with Jason and a stellar cast of heroes aboard the Argonaut to recover the golden fleece at Colchis.  After adventures and battles, Jason and his heroes returned with the golden fleece and Medea, princess of Colchis and an accomplished sorceress.

When Jason later threw Medea over for Creusa, princess of Corinth, Medea killed her two children by Jason, killed Creusa and her father and then fled to Athens. 
 
One of the most intriguing female characters in Greek mythology, Medea left a trail of death in her wake wherever she went, starting with her brother whom she cut in pieces to force her father to slow down in pursuit and pick up the bits.  Thus the Argonauts (and Medea) escaped Colchis. 
 
Unlike all other characters, male or female, in Greek mythology, Medea was never punished for her murders by the gods.  Indeed, she retained their favour throughout her life, as demonstrated by their aid and support of her.
 
Next time, I intend to review how a Greek or Roman believed that he or she could live a good life and how this changed over time.  

​John Barry

Class 5 of ‘In the Lap of the Gods’ saw us review stories of the first three great Heroes – Perseus, Theseus and Orpheus.​
​
In the times of the Romans and ancient Greeks, almost every writer wrote about the heroes.  In many ways, their stories were the equivalent of our ‘Home and Away’ or ‘Neighbours’.  Their stories were at least as tangled and just as much soap opera as any modern soap opera.  These stories were mass entertainment when there was little other entertainment. 

A hero in the ancient world did not just mean a brave person.  Heroes were demi-gods, mortals with supernatural powers. Their stories tend to follow a standard formula – a boy was born of one mortal parent and one divine. Heroes were always male, except Atalanta.  She sailed with Jason. A hero undertook prodigies as a child, went on a quest forced on him by a jealous king or god and achieved great deeds.  When he returned, he was recognised as a king usually by some oddity of his clothing. The hero meets his wife on his quest but is utterly faithless towards, her fathering children everywhere.  He eventually dies in a way related either to his infidelity or as a belated consequence of his quest.

​If you like a good yarn, there is nothing more entertaining than the stories of the heroes.  I guess that it is why these stories have been retold for millenia and are still being told today in the form of books or films.

The group decided that we would spend another class on the great heroes.  This time, we will look at Heracles/Hercules, Aeneas a Trojan prince who founded Rome long before Romulus and Remus, and Jason and his Argonauts in quest of the Golden Fleece. Even Atalanta will get her own story. 
 
John Barry

​The Romans had a multitude of minor gods of place and purpose with overlapping duties and functions.  For us, it is difficult to resolve which one should be worshipped in any particular situation. For example, the goddess Concordia(Harmony) shared her duties with the goddesses Pax(Peace), Salus(Safety), Securitas(Security) and Fortuna(Fortune).  Their images were generic; none had origin stories or back stories.  To us, they are a blur of inchoate divinities with poorly delineated functions and overlapping duties.

A Roman, on the other hand, picked one, offered sacrifice to her and entreated that one to appease the others as well as granting his or her wish.

For public worship for the Roman State, the College of Pontiffs kept a book called the Indigitamenta that laid out the names of all the gods and goddesses, their functions and the invocations that should be used to worship them.

An interesting minor goddesses is Panda.  The background of the goddess Panda is so vague that the sources are unclear whether she is a goddess or Panda is merely an epithet of Juno or perhaps an aspect of Ceres.  There are no surviving images of her.

Described as a dea paganorum, ‘goddess of the rustics.’, Panda had a temple near the Roman walls.  Her temple was an asylum that was always open. Needy supplicants who came there were supplied with food from the resources of the temple.

Although, from the late Republic, Romans were given a measure of free bread, free bread was limited to Roman citizens.  Otherwise, there was no social welfare at all.  Non-citizens, women and slaves were utterly dependent on their own efforts to survive. 

The goodness of Panda must have been appreciated. 

The minor gods that lasted longest in the face of growing christianity were those of the countryside, gods like Faunus the god of cattle fertility or Tellus, the goddess of earth and its cultivation.

​For insight into Roman life and politics in the late Republic, one cannot do better than read ‘The Masters of Rome’ series by Colleen McCullough or the ‘Cicero’ trilogy by Robert Harris.  Both are available in the Benalla library.

 
John Barry

What did the Romans ever do for us?  Apart from bringing us law, roads and plumbing?  However, the Romans lost interest when it came to stories about the origins of their gods and stories about creation.  Ever the intellectual, Cicero attempted to write stories about the primordial gods but his heart was just not in the task.  Being a secret atheist also did not help his enthusiasm. 
 
So the Romans adopted creation and origin stories unchanged from the Greeks.  The Romans always regarded the Greeks as slippery, devious and far too clever for their own good but the Romans acknowledged that they knew a thing or two.
 
According to the Greeks, the gods emerged out of darkness and chaos.  First came Gaia (the Earth), Eros (Love) and then Tartarus (the Underworld).  Gaia produced Uranus (the Sky) and Pontus(the Sea).  She lay with Uranus and produced eighteen children.  Six of them were useful monsters.  She lay with Pontus and  produced 3,000 Oceanids or sea nymphs.   
 
That is only the start.  It got more twisted and bizarre as it goes on.  Castration of Uranus; birth of the Giants from his blood; birth of Aphrodite from the foam thrown up from his testicles when they landed in the sea near the island of Cythera, birth of Athena fully grown and fully armoured from Zeus’ head after he ate her mother. 
 
No wonder the Romans left these sorts of things to those clever Greeks. 
 
The Romans even adopted a universal flood story from the Greeks.  Deucalion and Pyrrha were the only survivors who survived by building a chest after Deucalion’s father, Prometheus, warned them of the coming flood.  But he would, wouldn’t he.  Prometheus’ name means ‘forethought’. 
 
When the waters rose, 82 year old Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha climbed into the chest.  After the floodwaters subsided, the two repopulated the earth after being instructed to cover their head and throw the bones of their mother behind them.  I have always thought that a very oblique reference indeed.  However, Deucalion knew rocks meant the bones of mother earth.  The rocks thrown by him turned into men; the rocks thrown by Pyrrha turned into women.
 
Next time, we are going to visit the minor gods of place and purpose and I can promise plenty of interesting Roman weird as we visit my favourite minor gods and their priesthoods.
 
John Barry
​

'In the Lap of the Gods' - there is no report for April as the class fell on Easter Friday..

John Barry

​The most recent class dealt with the ‘A’ team of the Graeco-Roman gods.  These are the twelve larger-than-life anthropomorphic gods who lived on Mt. Olympus.  Their Latin names are familiar to most people – Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Apollo and Diana, Mars, Venus, Vulcan, Bacchus, Neptune, Ceres and Mercury.  However, their conduct was nothing to be imitated by humans.
 
Jupiter was always seducing human women; Juno was forever trying to kill the women that her husband Jupiter had seduced.  Diana often played cruel pranks on humans while Apollo and Minerva brought disease and sickness to them.  Mars and Minerva brought brutal war.  Neptune caused earthquakes and Mercury was a thief who stole from both the gods and humans.  Venus was the promiscuous goddess of sexual desire but in Roman eyes she was also the goddess of agreements.  Perhaps these are much the same thing really.  Bacchus was the god of abandoned intoxication.  Only Ceres, the goddess of cereal crops, was unreservedly good. 
 
Vesta, the other good goddess, she who ruled the hearth, the family and domestic life, left Olympus so that Bacchus could take her place.
 
The only Olympian god who did not live on Mt. Olympus was the chthonic god of death, riches and the underworld.  No-one liked to mention him.  Who knows?  He might take into his head to appear.  Euphemistically, the Greeks called him Pluton, the god of riches; the Romans called him Dis Pater, the father of spirits, or Pluto, the god of riches.  We, who do not believe in such superstitions, know him as Hades or Thanatos, the god of death.

​John Barry

​Our first class focussed on the little gods, the archaic peasant gods of Rome who were so central to everyday family worship.  These originated from the Etruscans.  The Etruscans gave Rome many of its early traditions. Few of these little gods had a face or even a body but sacrifices were made to them at every meal.  Every god of Greece and Rome, big or little, was transactional.  They expected sacrifices and prayers in order that they might give their favour. 
 
The Lares were gods who were family ancestors or eponyms who gave their name to the family. The Penates were the little gods who protected a family’s goods and stores. Rome had public Lares and Penates too.  The worship of the public Lares and Penates was overseen by the Vestal Virgins under the supervision of the Chief Priest, the Pontifex Maximus.  Most priests in Rome were not full time.  Instead, they were members of the elite who governed, made war or ascertained the will of the gods, all as part of a day’s work.  For example, Julius Caesar was appointed as Pontifex Maximus when just a young man.
 
The ancient world was crammed full of these little gods.  Every action or place had a Numen or Daemon, all needing propitiation.  For example, Janus and five little gods watched over every household entrance. 
 
Next time, we will deal with the big gods.  These were the twelve or so anthropomorphic gods who lived on Mt Olympus in northern Greece.


John Barry

This course in Graeco Roman Religion and Mythology will explain Graeco Roman mythology in the context of religion as a whole and differentiate it clearly from modern religions. 

​Convenor John Barry is keen to “infuse those attending with the same sense of joy that I had when I read my first book on Graeco-Roman mythology at the age of ten.”