Classical Mythology/Myth and Symbol Syllabus

CC 3001/English 2014, Fall 2008, TTh 1010-1130, AL14
Dr. Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Professor of Classics
Office 327 Anderson, Phone 204 -3672, email: robin@temple.edu

Office Hours: T&Th 9-10, F 1130-1230, and by appointment
Course web site http://www.temple.edu/classics/mythdirectory.html
TA Daniel Morse tua65390@temple.edu, Anderson Hall 934
updated 3 September 2008

1.Course goals and purposes. An overview of the major myths and religion of Classical Greece and, to a lesser extent, Rome, mainly through primary sources, both literary and visual, with a particular focus on the role of heroes. We will also examine the nature and social function of mythology, studying different ancient and modern theories, and the legacy of classical mythology in modern art and literature, including popular culture. Students will learn how mythic narrative patterns and symbols function in Western culture. While we will stress the reading of primary texts and images, we will be reading them quickly because of the need to see myth as a whole; the Department also offers separate courses on Greek Drama and Classical Epic for students wanting a more in-depth study of those subjects. This course has no prerequisites in Classics, but all CLA courses at this level require that students have passed English 1002.

2.Methods: Myths from classical antiquity do not exist outside of their artistic embodiment. Thus, while we will use our books and computer resources to provide a base of information, our primary concern, once we have mastered the basics during the first few weeks, will be with how artists, both literary and visual, use myths. There will be a fair amount of reading, but I'll help you as much as I can; the course web site has guides for every section. Classes will be a mixture of lecture and discussion and students are encouraged and expected to contribute frequently. Students have the opportunity and responsibility to make class meetings as lively and interesting as possible. Don't be shy; Socrates was considered the wisest Greek because he admitted his ignorance. Moreover, please come see me in my office whenever you want; I am often there outside of official hours, but an appointment will insure my presence. I am also very accessible through email.

There is no standard textbook for this class. Textbooks provide oversimplified versions, often wrong, of Greek myth, and they do not provide an accurate, educationally sound, or stimulating curriculum. If you want a nice, clean packaged version of Greek myth, please do not take this course. But if you want to be challenged, to learn what these myths really were and how to think about them, then you are in the right place.

3. Mythology and Classics at Temple. This course fulfills part of the requirements for majors and minors in Classics and Classical Civilizations, as well as a minor in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. See me for details. If you are interested in Classics, subscribe to the listserv of the Classics student society Eta Sigma Phi. Directions and information are found on www.temple.edu/classics/etasigmaphi.html

4. Requirements and Grading

  • 49% Seven biweekly quizzes (every other week starting 9/11). These will either consist of short answers or brief essays. In these quizzes you will typically be asked to answer factual questions, synthesize the materials read and discussed in class or interpret them. Review materials will be on Blackboard under "Course Documents." You must be on time the day of a quiz as the size of the class prevents the accommodation of stragglers. Quizzes cannot be made up unless you contact me before the quiz occurs. NO EXCEPTIONS.
  • 11% Museum report on myth and art either at the Penn Museum or the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Look under Assignments in Blackboard. Due by the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. No exceptions.
  • 10% Attendance and participation: I take this seriously. Each class Daniel Morse will distribute index cards for you to sign and return; you must submit these cards in order to receive credit for attendance. My experience has been that students who miss classes have difficulty doing well on exams. If you are having problems which affect attendance, then you need to talk to me about them. Every student gets two "free passes," and after those passes are used up, each absence, for whatever reason, your attendance score will suffer proportionally. NO EXCEPTIONS.
  • 30% Final exam, research paper or creative project (requires approval; see below)

Research or creative project option:

1. Research. A student with at least a 7.75 (out of 10) quiz average may, instead of the final exam, write a research paper of 10-12 pages. This may be on any aspect of ancient Greek myth and religion, or on modern versions of an ancient Greek or Roman myth. A 2-page proposal, including initial bibliography, must be submitted by 31 October. The final paper would be due at the last class meeting.

2. Creative. If a student has skill and experience in some area of the creative or performing arts and has at least a 7.75 (out of 10) quiz average-, that student can replace the final exam with a creative project based on some classical myth (an actual one, not one you have imagined). A brief narrative description should accompany the project. The student must clear this in advance with me by 17 November. The final version of these projects should be submitted at the last class meeting.

5. Blackboard There is Blackboard course site (tuportal.temple.edu) to accompany and organize this course. You will be enrolled automatically. I will post Powerpoint files in the Course Documents section. Please try to log on to Blackboard regularly to keep track of announcements. There will be an online forum for questions, comments, and shared information under Discussion Board.

6. Texts: We will be reading mainly primary sources. This might be initially more confusing, as we will sometimes use several volumes at once, so please pay attention to the codes in bold type for each volume. Do not take this course unless you plan to acquire the texts and read them; class notes will not provide enough knowledge to pass.

Available at University Bookstore under "GR Classics". The bold letter after each item is a code for the schedule of readings.

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, edited by Price and Kearns (OUP) O
  • An Anthology of Classical Myth (Hackett) A
  • The Essential Homer (Hackett) H
  • Euripides, Four Plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae (Focus) E
  • Sophocles, Theban Plays (Hackett) S

We will use O and A every week, though O is a reference work primarily for home study. Pay close attention to the syllabus and class announcements so you know which texts to bring to class meetings. The Anthology is a fantastic compilation of a huge range of ancient sources. Use O to get the basics for the major myths and figures. There are study guides online for most of the major readings. "BB" indicates a brief text available in Blackboard under Course Documents.

You will find immediately that there are multiple versions of every myth. Try to keep the core version of each myth separate from the variations in each text. Think of the texts as being in dialogue with one another. Some, such as Ovid's Heroides, provide feminine responses to the masculine heroic world, while other authors, such as Lucian, parody early Greek myth.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Blackboard will have notes for every class meeting, often with important images taken from the ancient world. You will be responsible for understanding these images. That means that you should be able to differentiate, based on what the notes provide, between images of Apollo and images of Zeus. Iconography is extremely important to understanding Greek myth, and the Web allows me to provide this to you without a textbook (thus saving you $15-20).

7. How to succeed in this class

  1. Turn off your iPod. No, it doesn't help you relax and concentrate better, but it does take up part of your available brain space. Your brain is wired to take on one task at a time. I have known students whose grades declined after acquiring an iPod.
  2. Read what I assign before class. Read it again after class if at all possible.
  3. Use the online study guides and Powepoints available at Blackboard.
  4. Attend class.
  5. See 2-4. All three are needed for you to do well.
  6. Ask questions about what you do not understand.
  7. Turn off your iPod.

8. Schedule: ALWAYS READ YOUR ASSIGNMENT BEFORE CLASS Class discussions build on and supplement the readings. If you wait until after the discussion to read, you will miss much. Since this schedule is printed from the web site, it still shows the links as underlined passages. There are a few brief required online readings. The recommended online readings should stimulate those of you who are particularly interested or ambitious. Schedule is subject to modification, so please stay alert.

Week

Readings

Topics

 Part I: The Gods and the Nature of the Cosmos

Sept 2-4

Familiarize yourself with introductory materials in A, as well as the maps on xxxiii, xxxvi-vii, xl. A433-4: Xenophanes on the gods; A96-101: Diodorus on Euhemerism; A404-9:Thucydides on myth and history; A363-7: Plato on poets and myth; A356-60: Pindar on myth and the Olympics. O entry on "Olympics." (Recommended Nagy reading online about myth and the Olympics.)

Introduction to ancient Greece and myth. Myth and the Olympics. Discussion of theories of myth and myths of creation.

Sept 9-11

Hesiod, Theogony A129-60 , comparison with A17-22 . Key passages on Zeus and Hera in H17-19, 138-9, 146-7. For background read O entries on "Zeus," "Titans" and "Greek religion" (Recommended article about new findings on Greek religion before Zeus.) Quiz 1 Thursday

Creation and the Succession Myth. Zeus and the Rise of the Olympian Gods. An overview of the nature and functions of the Olympian gods. Near Eastern sources.

Sept 16-118

A178-87 Homeric Hymns to Apollo and A188-97 Hermes. Read O entries on "Apollo," "Hermes," "Ares," "Hades," "Hephaestus," "Poseidon". Online reading on Ares and Aphrodite (read lines 340-461).

Gods. Patterns of heroism among divine initation myths.

Sept 23-25

A169-78, 197-202 Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Tues.) and Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (Thurs.). A385-86: Sappho and Aphrodite. Read O entries on "Aphrodite," "Artemis," "Athena," "Demeter," "Hera," "Hestia." Quiz 2 Thursday

Goddesses. Fertility, anger and mortality.

Sept 30-Oct 2

No class Tuesday. Hesiod, Theogony, A146-49, and Works and Days A162-67; Aeschylus, selections from Prometheus Bound (BB). A7, 23, 267#176, 280-1, 361-3. Read O entries on "Io," "Prometheus," and "sacrifice, Greek."

Man in the cosmos: The challenge of Prometheus and the structure of sacrifice. Comparison of different Prometheus myths.

Oct 7-9

Homeric Hymns to Dionysus and Euripides, Bacchae. A47-8 (Thebes), 169, 203, 207-8. Read O entry on "Dionysus" and "Dionysia." Quiz 3 Thursday.

Dionysus and the Dionysian.

 Part II: Heroes, Heroines and Humans

Oct 14-16

Tues: Perseus. A 31-33, 354-5. Heracles. A, 33-45, 63-9. Read O entries on "Perseus" and "Heracles." Maps on xxxviii-xxxix.
Thurs: E Heracles.

The Hero I (Heroes, Centaurs and Amazons). Heracles. The mythic hero in movies.

Oct 21-23

Tues: A5-6, 45-7, 54-7, 69-72, 94-5, 265#166, 318-22, 344. Read O entries on "Aegeus," "Amazons," "Cecrops," "Erechtheus," "Erichthonius," "Theseus," "Attic myths and cults"
Thurs: E Hippolytus. A 314-18. Quiz 4 Thursday.

The Hero II (Theseus, Crete and the Myths of Athens). The mythology of the Parthenon

Oct. 28-30

Tues: The House of Laius (A46-53, 352-3) S. Oedipus Tyrannos Read O entries on "Oedipus" and "Antigone". Online reading, the prologue of the Phoenissae (4 screens, through line 86)
Th: S Oedipus at Colonus . O entry on "hero-cult"

The Hero III: Oedipus -- Type and Anti-Type

Nov 4-6

Tues: Antigone S and reread Hymn to Demeter
Thurs: Medea E Medea, A25-30, 322-8, 345, 393. Read O entries on "Argonauts," "Medea" and "Jason". Quiz 5 Thursday

The Hero IV: Antigone, Medea and the Heroic Model

Nov 11-13

Background and alternative versions: A123-8, 378-80, 288-93, 395-8. Maps on xxxiv-v. Iliad Books 1-12, H; Read also O entries on "Troy," and major heroes. Recommended Nagy reading on Achilles and heroic glory .

The Trojan War and Heroic Epic

Nov 18-20

Tues: Finish Iliad. A309-13 (Briseis to Achilles) 381-2, 410-20 (Aeneas and Troy's fall)
Thurs: Begin Odyssey in H. Quiz 6 Thursday

The Fall of Troy and the End of Traditional Heroism

Nov 25

Continue Odyssey. Recommended Nagy reading on Odysseus and Achilles.

Odysseus and heroism. Odysseus in film

Dec 2-3

Continue Odyssey. Other readings on the afterlife: A179-80, 367-72, 421-32, map on xli. Pindar Olympian 2 Online. Quiz 7 Thursday

Discussion of ancient beliefs on nature of afterlife

Dec 9

Finish Odyssey. A306-9.

The end of myth

Dec 16

Final exam 1130-130 in the classroom

Important Dates: Monday 9/15 is the last day to drop any course. Monday 11/3 is the last day to withdraw.

Disability disclosure statement: Any student who has a need for accomodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. Contact Disability Resources at 215-204-1280 in 100 Ritter Annex to coordinate reasonable accomoations for students with documented disabilities.

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