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Language
Arts Lesson 1
Word Analysis, Fluency and Vocabulary Development (Grades 9-12)
Instruction 1-3
Etymology of Significant Terms | Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Roots and Affixes | Greek, Roman, and Norse Mythology | Analogies | Literal and Figurative Meaning of Words | Denotative and Connotative Meaning | Summary
You’ve been learning about how words are made and where they come from. Well, one of the most interesting sources of words is mythology -- the study of the ancestors, gods and heroes of various cultures and people.
Ancient peoples did not worship one God, as most of us do. They worshipped a whole group of deities. These deities served to explain the forces that shaped their lives -- the elements, the weather, nature. Although these deities had super-human powers, they also had the strengths and weaknesses of ordinary people. And, best of all, they were interactive. If you honored them and made the proper sacrifices, they would help you out.
This instruction is going to be mostly about Greek, Roman and Norse mythology – because that’s where so many of our words came from. You’ll probably recognize a lot of words as you read the stories of these amazing characters.
Let’s start with the Greeks. Greek myths are all that’s left of their ancient religion. Beginning about 1200 BC, the Greeks came to share a common belief in a group of gods and goddesses called The Olympians (who lived in a place called Mount Olympus). The Olympians did not discourage the pursuit of knowledge but encouraged the pursuit of beauty, poetry, love and other creative activities. We’ll tell you more about them in a minute, but first we need to give you a little history.
These myths weren’t written down until the time of Homer (about 800 BC) but were passed down from generation to generation by gifted storytellers. Most of what we know comes from a period known as Classical Greece (about 500 BC). And most of these myths were eventually stolen by the Romans – so Greek and Roman mythologies are almost identical. We’ll mostly refer to the characters by their Greek names but we’ll tell you their Roman (Latin) names as well.
If you have trouble keeping all this straight, just pretend you’re trying to keep track of the characters and events in the Star Wars movies. The main difference is that these characters are far more violent, oversexed and bloody!
The Creation of the World (According to Greek Mythology)
In the beginning, all that existed was Chaos (the god of the void). Then Night appeared, along with the unknowable place of the dead, Erebus. Then Love was born, bringing order out of Chaos. From Love came Light and Day. Then Gaea (the goddess of the earth) appeared. Alone, Gaea gave birth to Uranus (the god of the heavens), who became her husband. But Uranus was a terrible husband and father, so Gaea and her son Cronus conspired to overthrow him. One night as Uranus slept, Cronus castrated him with a stone sickle and became ruler in his place. The dripping blood from Uranus’s wound was cast into the sea and created many beings including Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and The Furies (avenging goddesses who gave their name to the words “fury” and “furious”).
Cronus, now ruler, married his sister Rhea and conceived many children (Cronus’s
name in Latin is Saturn). Having been warned that he would be overthrown by
a son,
he swallowed each child at birth. This, understandably, made Rhea
angry -- so she hid her sixth child when he was born and sent him be raised
by nymphs on the island of Crete. This child was Zeus, who eventually
returned to kill his father and restore life to his previously-swallowed
brothers and sisters. He and his brothers Poseidon and Hades drew lots to
see which one of them would rule over which part of the universe. Zeus won
and became the supreme ruler of the gods and lord of the sky and heavens.
Poseidon, who ended up with the sea, and Pluto, who ended up with the
underworld, got very angry – and stayed that way.
Zeus’s weapon was a thunderbolt, which he hurled at anyone who displeased him (and many did). He married many wives, including his sister Hera, had many children and numerous lovers – including some mortals (mortals are human beings who, of course, must die; the gods are immortal). From these unions came the semi-mortals Minos, Perseus, Dionysus, Pan and others. One of Zeus’s lovers was Ganymeade, a young Trojan prince noted for his beauty. To seduce him, Zeus turned himself into an eagle and carried Ganymeade off to Mount Olympus. Still with us?
Most of the important Greek myths begin with Zeus. The major players are the Olympians. We’ll give you their Greek names first, followed by their Roman (Latin) ones. We’ve put the Roman names in bold face and in parentheses. All the Olympians were related to one another – a dysfunctional family of truly epic proportions.
Each god or goddess represents a number of different things -- but scholars can’t seem to agree on exactly what. So we’ve listed the attributes that most scholars do agree on.
The Olympians (The Immortals)
| Zeus (Jupiter) | God of the sky and supreme ruler of Olympus, usually shown with a thunderbolt. Married to Hera (Juno) but wildly unfaithful. | |
| Hera (Juno) | Goddess of marriage and supreme goddess of Olympus. She was Zeus’s wife and sister and often sought revenge when he betrayed her with one of his many lovers. | |
| Poseidon (Neptune) | God of the sea, brother of Zeus, and the second most powerful god on Olympus. His symbols include the horse and the trident (a three-pronged pitchfork). | |
| Hades (Pluto) | God of the underworld, brother of Zeus and husband of Persephone (Demeter’s daughter), whom he had kidnapped. | |
| Aphrodite (Venus) | Goddess of love and beauty who may have been Zeus’s daughter or may have been born when the blood of Uranus was cast into the sea. One of the most famous paintings in the world, “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, shows this goddess rising naked from the sea on top of an open seashell. | |
| Apollo (Apollo) | God of beauty, poetry, music and healing, twin of Diana. Apollo was an archer who hunted with a silver bow and is often shown with a golden lyre (a musical instrument). | |
| Ares (Mars) | God of war, son of Zeus and Hera. He was more widely worshipped in Rome than in Greece and is considered the father of the Roman people since his sons, Romulus and Remus, supposedly founded Rome. In later mythology, he came to represent the creative energy uniting people into cities. | |
| Artemis (Diana) | Goddess of the moon and the hunt, twin sister of Apollo, Her symbol is a bow and arrow. | |
| Athena (Minerva) | Goddess of wisdom and chastity, also war. Athena sprung full-grown (and fully armed) from the forehead of Zeus and was his favorite child. The Parthenon in Athens is dedicated to her and the city of Athens is named for her. | |
| Hephaestus (Vulcan) | God of fire and the forge (a furnace where iron is heated). Although he made weapons, he loved peace. He was the son of Zeus and Hera and was married to Aphrodite. | |
| Hestia (Vesta) | Goddess of the hearth (a fireplace in the center of the home). She never married and her worshippers, the Vestal Virgins, took vows of chastity in order to serve her. | |
| Hermes (Mercury) | The messenger god, very clever, and the ruler over good fortune and sleep. He wears winged sandals and a winged hat and was the fastest god in Olympus. | |
| Demeter (Ceres) | Goddess of the harvest. The word “cereal” comes from her Roman name. Her daughter, Persephone, was abducted and forced to live underground as queen of Hades during the winter, so Demeter never let crops grow during that time of year. Persephone came back to earth after each winter and was the goddess of spring. | |
| Dionysus (Bacchus) | God of wine, which he invented. Dionysus was also the god of fertility and represents liberation from the effects of the strict control of reason. He was the son of Zeus and and a mortal, Semele. Needless to say, he was a popular god with both Greek and Roman people. The words “bacchanal” and “bacchanalia” come from his name. |
Besides these heavy hitters, there were many other players in Greek and Roman mythology. At the end of this instruction, we’ll list a number of web sites where you can explore the subject at your leisure. But we’ll tell you about a few other characters now: especially those whose names have become part of our language. One of these is Eros (Cupid), the archer of love whose name (“erotic”) means “sexual.” Others include Echo, a nymph who loved the youth Narcissus so much that she faded away until only her voice remained; Nike, the goddess of victory; the Pleiades, seven sisters who were turned into a constellation; and the Muses. The Muses were nine deities who ruled over the arts and sciences. Two of the most famous were Polyhymnia, who ruled over sacred poetry, and Terpsichore, who ruled over dance. From their names we get the words “hymn” and “choreography.”
Norse Mythology
Although not all Greek and Roman deities have direct counterparts in Norse myths and legends, many do. Odin, the supreme leader of the Norse gods, has much in common with Zeus. Freya, the Norse goddess of love, is quite similar to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. And both mythologies even contain giant ferocious dogs. In Norse mythology. Garm (a giant ferocious dog) guards the gate to Hel’s realm, the underworld. In Greek mythology, Cerberus (a giant ferocious dog) is given to Hades to guard the entrance to the underworld: to keep live people out and dead people in. The only difference is that Cerberus has three heads – just like Fluffy, the monstrous three-headed dog in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Who says we don’t have anything to learn from mythology?
There are a number of interesting web sites which explore Greek, Roman and Norse mythology. Here are a few of them:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0197622.html
http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/The_Creation/the_creation.html
Now let's do Practice Exercise 1-3 (top)
Next Page: Analogies (top)