General genealogy of Greek-Mediterranean mythology

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Extract (approx. 5%) from the genealogy

A general genealogy of Greek-Mediterranean mythology was compiled by Dieter Macek (* 1942 in Bludenz ). This genealogy was shown in various exhibitions, among others in Bregenz , Berlin , Salzburg and Linz .

Dieter Macek

History of origin

Dieter Macek completed an apprenticeship as a chef and then worked for the Austrian Federal Railways , most recently as a station director. He has been interested in Greek mythology since his youth and began to compile his first family trees based on his reading. From 1975 he proceeded systematically and planned an overall graphical genealogy. In addition, Macek described the names of the individual gods, demigods and heroes in a lexicon that grew to over eleven thousand pages over time. For important figures, such as Achilles or Aeneas , he summarized some extensive résumés.

Macek temporarily completed the work for the graphics and the lexicon in 2003 and checked them for factual accuracy over several years using Pauly's Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity . Then he put the complete genealogy on a 55 meter long and 1.7 meter high cardboard box in fair copy. In the meantime, the total length of the illustrated version has increased to 73 meters. The original is in the depot of the Vorarlberg State Library . The graphic was then recorded digitally. In 2015 Dieter Macek was awarded the professional title of "Professor".

The general genealogy

The listing of the genealogy of 5,771 mythological gods and heroes from the Greek-Mediterranean area was put together on a display board. There are thousands of pages of explanatory text. The author made both an image of the genealogy and the explanations of around 7,700 names available to the public on the Internet.

In general, a general genealogy of Greek mythology is not possible, as numerous different traditions have been passed down that contradict each other in many details. When creating his genealogy, Dieter Macek also pointed out contradictions on the display board and in the documentation of his general genealogy he pointed out the variants occurring in the literature. He clearly states that his compilation is not a scientific work in the narrower sense, but a work of art. The documentation of his general genealogy contains references to variants.

Dieter Macek carried out his work for thirty-three years as part of private endeavors. The original end product (still without pictures) had 55 linear meters of pedigree.

Exhibition in the Berlin Pergamon Museum

Macek gives works of Greek and Roman literature as well as Paulys Realencyclopadie of classical antiquity as the basis for the creation of the general genealogy.

Exhibitions

The genealogy was shown at different exhibitions in a specially created form. The images used in genealogy are interchangeable. In this way, a reference to the respective exhibition location or occasion can be established; for example, existing works of art in the respective city or region were used for illustration.

A section of the genealogy was used as a set for Albert Lortzing's opera Der Wildschütz at the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy University for Music and Theater in Leipzig . Dieter Macek presented the first exhibition in Bregenz together with the Vorarlberg writer Michael Köhlmeier .

First exhibition in the Bregenz dome hall

See also

Family tree of the Greek gods and heroes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. history on the website for general genealogy and Dieter Macek: general genealogy of the gods and heroes of Greek-Mediterranean mythology. In: cursor. No. 12, March 2016, p. 20 ff. (Myth-gen.eu , accessed on June 3, 2019)
  2. ↑ a b Gudrun Pichler: Heavenly family ties. Article of the University of Graz on the exhibition v. September 27, 2018 (news.uni-graz.at , accessed June 25, 2019)
  3. ↑ Press release Vorarlberger Landeskorrespondenz v. October 26, 2015 (June 3, 2019)
  4. ↑ Jutta Berger: A marathon for the divine ancestors. In: The Standard . January 16, 2009, p. 10.
  5. ↑ Urs Willmann: By Zeus! In: The time . January 15, 2009, p. 29.
  6. ↑ Martin Gantner: The Enlightenment begins with the “Odyssey”. In: Falter . N5. 4/2009, p. 33.
  7. ↑ Reinhard Kriechbaum: Cybele, the original mother goddess from Kaigasse. In: DrehPunktKultur. May 15, 2014. (Drehpunktkultur.at , accessed June 3, 2019)
  8. ↑ Long Night of the Museums. In: Vorarlberg Online. October 5, 2017 (www.vol.at , accessed June 3, 2019)