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Myths are traditional stories that have endured for a long time.
Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation.
Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their deeds and courage in the face of adversity.
Still others are simple tales about otherwise insignificant people getting into trouble or doing some great deed.
What are we going to do with all these tales and why do people seem to like hearing them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome as a way to explore the nature of myth and the role it plays for individuals, societies, and nations.
We will also pay attention to how the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths.
Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window into the deepest corners of a particular culture? Are they a pair of blinders that we all wear, even if we don't realize it? Or are they just entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over again? This course will investigate these questions through a variety of topics, including the creation of the universe, the relationship between gods and mortals, human nature, religion, family, sex, love, madness, and death.
************************************************** ** ************************************************ **** ******* COURSE SYLLABUS • Week 1: Introduction Welcome to Greek and Roman mythology! This first week we will introduce the class, paying attention to how the course itself works.
We're also going to start thinking about the topic at hand: myth! How can we begin to define "myth"? How does the myth work? What have ancient and modern theorists, philosophers, and other thinkers said about myth? This week we will also begin our foray into the world of Homer, looking at how we can best approach epic poetry.
Readings: There are no texts this week, but it would be a good idea to start with next week's reading to get ahead of the game.
Video conferences: 1.
1-1.
7 Quiz – Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 2: Becoming a Hero In Week 2, we begin our intensive study of myth through Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey.
Not only does this central text give us an exciting story to appreciate on its own merits, it also offers us a kind of laboratory where we can investigate the myth using different theoretical approaches.
This week we focus on the tour of the young Telemachus as he begins to come of age; we also accompany his father Odysseus on his journey back home after the Trojan War.
Along the way, we'll examine questions of heroism, relationships between gods and mortals, family dynamics, and the Homeric values of hospitality and ingenuity.
Readings: Homer, Odyssey, Books 1-8 Video Lectures: 2.
1-2.
10 Quiz – Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 3: Adventures to and fro This week we will follow the exciting pilgrimages of Odysseus, "man of twists and turns", by sea and land.
The hero's travels abroad and when he re-enters his homeland are fraught with danger.
This part of the Odyssey features unforgettable monsters and exotic witches; we also follow Odysseus to the underworld, where he meets shadowy comrades and relatives.
Here we meet some of the best known stories from all the ancient myths.
Readings: Homer, Odyssey, Books 9-16 Video Lectures: 3.
1-3.
10 Quiz – Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 4: Identity and Signs As he gets closer and closer to reclaiming his place in Ithaca and with his family, Odysseus in disguise must use all his resources to take back his kingdom.
We will see many instances of reunion as Odysseus carefully begins to reveal his identity to various members of his household: his servants, his dog, his son, and eventually his wife Penelope, while also scheming against those who have usurped his place.
Readings: Homer, Odyssey, Books 17-24 Video Lectures: 4.
1-4.
8 Quiz – Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 5: Gods and Humans We will take a closer look at the most authoritative story of the origin of the cosmos from ancient Greece: Hesiod's Theogony.
Hesiod was generally considered the only poet who could rival Homer.
The Theogony, or "birth of the gods," tells of an older order of gods, predating Zeus, who were driven by powerful passions and strange appetites.
This poem presents the beginning of the world as a time of fierce fighting and violence as the universe begins to take shape and order out of chaos.
Readings: Hesiod, Theogony *(Works and Days are NOT required for the course)* Video Lectures: 5.
1-5.
9 Quiz: Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 6: Ritual and Religion This week's readings give us the opportunity to take a close look at Greek religion in its various forms.
Myth, of course, forms an important aspect of religion, but so does ritual.
The way ancient myths and rituals interact teaches us much about these two powerful cultural forms.
We will read two of the greatest hymns to the Olympian deities that tell up close and personal stories about the gods while providing complex descriptions of the rituals they like us humans to perform.
Readings: Homeric Hymn to Apollo; Homeric Hymn to Demeter (there are two surviving hymns of each, only the LONGER Hymn to Apollo and the LONGER Hymn to Demeter are required for the course) Video Lectures: 6.
1-6.
7 Quiz – Complete the quiz by the end of the week.
• Week 7: Justice What counts as a just action and what counts as unjust? Who can decide? These are more complicated questions than some would have us think.
This unit looks at one of the thorniest justice issues in the entire ancient world.
In Aeschylus' Oresteia, the only surviving example of tragedy in its original trilogy form, we hear the story of Agamemnon's homecoming after the Trojan War.
Unlike Odysseus' eventual joyous reunion with his wife and children, this hero is betrayed by those he considered closest to him.
This family's cycle of revenge, of which this story is just one episode, takes questions of justice and competing loyalties far beyond Agamemnon's immediate family, ultimately ending on the Acropolis of Athens itself.
Readings: Aeschylus, Agamemnon; Aeschylus, Eumenides Video Lectures: 7.
1-7.
10 Quiz: Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 8: Unstable Selves This week we meet two famous tragedies, both set in Thebes, that focus on questions of guilt and identity: Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Euripides' The Bacchae.
Oedipus is confident that he can escape the unthinkable fate predicted by the oracle at Delphi; we see how he finally realizes the horror of what he has done.
With Ulysses, we saw how a great hero can rebuild his identity after struggles, while Oedipus shows us how our identities can dissolve before our very eyes.
The Oedipus myth is one of transgressions, intentional and unintentional, and about the limits of human knowledge.
In Euripides' Bacchae, the identity of gods and mortals is under scrutiny.
Here, Dionysus, the god of wine and tragedy, and also of madness, appears as a character on stage.
Through the dissolution of Pentheus, we see the dire consequences that can occur when a god's divinity is not properly recognized.
Readings: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Euripides, Bacchantes Video Conferences: 8.
1-8.
9 Quiz: Complete the quiz by the end of the week.
• Week 9: The Roman Hero, Remade Fast forward several centuries, we jump to a different part of the Mediterranean for the Romans to give us their version of the myth.
Although many poets tried to rewrite Homer for their own time, none succeeded more than Virgil.
His epic poem, the Aeneid, recounts a powerful reconstruction of a culture that identifies with the myths recounted above and defines itself against them.
In contrast to the paucity of information about Homer, we know a great deal about Virgil's life and historical context, which allows us to understand mythmaking in action.
Readings: Virgil, Aeneid, books 1-5 Video lectures: 9.
1-9.
10 Quiz – Complete the quiz at the end of the week.
• Week 10: Roman Myth and Ovid's Metamorphoses Our consideration of Virgil's story closes with his journey to the underworld in Book 6.
We next turn to a more playful Roman poet, Ovid, whose genius is evident in almost every type of record.
At once profound, witty, and satirical, Ovid's powerful narratives of many ancient myths became the versions most familiar to us today.
Finally, through the lens of the Romans and others who "remythologize," we end the course with a look back at myth.
Readings: Virgil, Aeneid, book 6; Ovid, Metamorphoses, books 3, 12 and 13.
Video conferences: 10.
1-10.
9.
Quiz – Complete the quiz by the end of the week.
************************************************** ** ************************************************ **** ******* READINGS There are no required texts for the course, however, Professor Struck will reference the following texts in the lecture: • Greek Tragedies, Volume 1, David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, trans .
(Chicago) • Greek Tragedies, Volume 3, David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, trans.
(Chicago) • Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, ML West, trans.
(Oxford) • Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans.
(Hackett) • Homer, The Odyssey, Robert Fagles, trans.
(Penguin) • Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans.
(Harvest) • Ovid, Metamorphoses, David Raeburn, trans.
(Penguin) These translations are a pleasure to work with, whereas many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, trans.
(Chicago) • Greek Tragedies, Volume 3, David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, trans.
(Chicago) • Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, ML West, trans.
(Oxford) • Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans.
(Hackett) • Homer, The Odyssey, Robert Fagles, trans.
(Penguin) • Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans.
(Harvest) • Ovid, Metamorphoses, David Raeburn, trans.
(Penguin) These translations are a pleasure to work with, whereas many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, trans.
(Chicago) • Greek Tragedies, Volume 3, David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, trans.
(Chicago) • Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, ML West, trans.
(Oxford) • Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans.
(Hackett) • Homer, The Odyssey, Robert Fagles, trans.
(Penguin) • Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans.
(Harvest) • Ovid, Metamorphoses, David Raeburn, trans.
(Penguin) These translations are a pleasure to work with, whereas many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
West, trans.
(Oxford) • Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans.
(Hackett) • Homer, The Odyssey, Robert Fagles, trans.
(Penguin) • Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans.
(Harvest) • Ovid, Metamorphoses, David Raeburn, trans.
(Penguin) These translations are a pleasure to work with, whereas many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
West, trans.
(Oxford) • Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans.
(Hackett) • Homer, The Odyssey, Robert Fagles, trans.
(Penguin) • Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans.
(Harvest) • Ovid, Metamorphoses, David Raeburn, trans.
(Penguin) These translations are a pleasure to work with, whereas many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
while many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
while many of the freely available translations on the Internet are not.
If you don't want to buy them, they should also be available in many libraries.
Once again, these texts are not mandatory, but they are useful.
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