Fall, 1996
11:15 - 12:05 MWF
005 Kirkbride Hall
Below you will find the first portion of the course syllabus. You can jump to the different sections by clicking on one of the headings shown.
Classical Mythology
FLLT/CMLT 316 Fall, 1996
CLASSES: MWF at 11:15 am in 005 KRB
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Gerald R. Culley. Office, Smith Hall 450. Hours, 12:15
Wednesday, 10:00 Friday, or by appointment. Phone, 831-6551
(office, with voicemail) or 325-2970 (home).
TEXTS: Morford and Lenardon, Classical Mythology, 5th ed. (NY: Longman)
Ovid: Metamorphoses, transl. by Rolfe Humphries (Indiana U. Pr.)
Seven Famous Greek Plays, ed. by Oates & O'Neill (Random House)
ATTENDANCE: In accordance with University policy. Freshmen may incur no more
than three unexcused absences without penalty. Upperclassmen
have the privilege of voluntary attendance, but the privilege may
be withdrawn if abused. NOTE: The student is responsible for
all material assigned and/or treated in class.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:*
Sept. 4 Introduction (1-18)
6 Greece: Land and People
9 Books and What's in Them (25-34)
11 Creation (37-40)
13 The Old Gods (40-52)
16 The Rise of Zeus (53-60, 90-98)
18 The Rebel (60-75)
20 Discussion: Prometheus Bound
23 Troy and Homer: Legend and Poetry (350-390)
25 Troy and Schliemann: Fact and Zeal (18-25)
27 Religion of Light: Apollo and Delphi (169-191)
30 Religion of Mystery: Demeter and Eleusis (251-270)
Oct. 2 Religion of Mystery: Orpheus and Orphism (298-311)
4 HOUR EXAM
7 Poseidon, Ares, Hermes (108-115, 89-90, 200-217)
9 Athena and the Parthenon (116-127)
11 Aphrodite and Artemis (128-151, 157-168)
14 The Greek Pantheon: Olympus (76-89)
16 The Greek Pantheon: Underworld (271-297)
18 Heroes: Achilles, Odysseus (367-368, 391-408)
21 Heroes: Heracles (420-448)
23 Heroes: Jason (472-489) and discussion: Medea
25 Heroes: Theseus (449-471)
28 Heroes: Cadmus and Thebes (315-337)
30 Sophocles and Thebes
Nov. 1 Discussion: Antigone
4 Heroes in Perspective
6 HOUR EXAM
8 The Oresteia and Aeschylus: Legend and Drama (338-349); and
discussion: Agamemnon
11 The Oresteia and Schliemann: Fact and Inference
13 Back to Troy: Aeneas and Rome (536-546)
15 Romulus and the Tarquins (513-536, 546-555)
18 Ovid's Metamorphoses
20 Myth and the Subconscious: Perseus (409-419)
22 Myth and the Subconscious: Dionysus (218-244)
25 Myth, Taboo and Society
27 Now You See It: Mithraism (308-309)
Dec. 2 Now You Don't: Atlantis as Crete
4 Now You Don't: Atlantis as Troy
6 The Sacred Marriage
9 The Dying God
11 Cupid and Psyche (151-155)
FINAL EXAMINATION Friday Dec. 13, 1-3 pm; "Flight reservations" are not
a basis for an early final exam!
* Numbers in parentheses refer to pages in Morford and Lenardon which should
be read before the class session. Discussions are based on plays from the
Oates-O'Neill text. Ovid's Metamorphoses should be read in its entirety
during the term.
Course Mechanics
TESTS AND GRADING: There will be two hour exams and a final exam. The hour
exams will count 30% each and the final will be 40%. You
may substitute a paper on an approved topic (see below)
for the second hour exam if you prefer.
PAPER: Students who wish to may write a 6-10 page paper in lieu of the second
hour exam. The paper must be on a topic which is approved by the
instructor. If you intend to write a paper, notify me of your topic
by Nov. 1. The due date is Dec. 11. A later page has subject sugges-
tions.
PRIORITIES: There are about 1100 pages of reading and forty-one class
sessions in this course; no one can be expected to master all of
the details presented in the texts and the lectures.
The lectures and discussions will NOT be simply a
rehash of the textbook or a retelling of the stories you
may have read in the sixth grade. We will look at ways to
study the myths: perspectives on them that are provided
by archaeology, psychology, anthropology, and the like.
This course is primarily concerned with the basic content of the
Greek and Roman myths/legends and how to interpret them. You
will be tested primarily in two areas:
1. Do you know the main gods and heroes and the chief
tales that involve them?
2. Have you understood the points treated in lecture and
discussion?
How to study for this course:
1. Read the assignment before class. You will not have to master all
of the details mentioned in it, but you will need to have read it
attentively in order to understand the lecture or discussion that is
based on it.
2. Attend every class and take careful notes. Watch for interpretations
of myths, explanations of legends. If anything is written on the
blackboard or shown on the screen, get it.
3. You should also check the syllabus before each class for material
pertinent to that day's subject. You will be responsible for every-
thing in the syllabus.
4. In preparing for a test, concentrate on material in your syllabus and
your notes. A quick scan of chapters in the text you have read
should be sufficient.
A Brief Bibliography for Myth
General:
BL715 Pierre Grimal, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, New York,
G713
1987
The Greek Myths:
BL781 H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology, Including its
R65 Extension to Greece and Rome, New York, 1929
BL781 Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, New York, 1957
G65
BL722 M. Grant, Myths of the Greeks and Romans, Cleveland, 1962
G7
DF93 P. E. Slater, The Glory of Hera. Greek Mythology and the Greek
S55 Family, Boston, 1968
BL781 W.K.C. Guthrie, The Greeks and Their Gods, Boston, 1951
G8
BL782 G. S. Kirk, The Nature of Greek Myths, Baltimore, 1974
K57
Greek Religion:
BL781 M. P. Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion, New York, 1940
N5
BL782 Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, transl. by John Raffan,
.B8313 Cambridge, 1985
JC51 F. de Coulanges, The Ancient City, Garden City, NY, 1873
F96
BL782 Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, transl. by John Raffan,
.B87 Cambridge, 1987
1987
BL304 Claude Levi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked, transl. by J and D.
.L4813 Weightman, Harper & Row, 1969
On Legends:
DF220 J. V. Luce, Lost Atlantis, New York, 1969
L76
DF901A. G. Galanopoulos & E. Bacon, Atlantis: The Truth Behind the
T67 Legend, Indianapolis, 1969
DF220 Marianne Nichols, Man, Myth, and Monument, New York, 1975
N45
This list is only intended to offer a few routes into the jungle of
scholarship on myths. For an idea of the complexities of the subject, glance
at Sir J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough, a multi-volume study you will find on the
shelves of the Reference Room.
Grimal's book includes numerous illustrations; Slater's is a psychiatrist's
view of mythology, and quite provocative. The Nilsson book has the advantage
of being both readable and authoritative. Burkert's Greek Religion is the
primary authority, though tougher going. Fustel de Coulanges' book, now a
century old, is still a classic treatment of how the religions of the Greeks
and Romans helped to shape their whole culture.
Browse in the BL and DF sections of the stacks, or call up DELCAT and try
"Mythology Greek"; there is much, much more.
Suggestions for a Paper
1. Study a single deity as portrayed in Greek and Roman literature. This may
involve treatment of origins, nature, and place of the deity in the soci-
ety. Some deities were markedly different from place to place or century
to century; different aspects of their character were emphasized. For
such a paper you would have recourse to the basic works on the gods such
as those in the bibliography (above), and would employ footnotes.
2. Do a study of one hero (or other legendary figure) along the same lines as
indicated above (including footnoting). In some cases a narrower topic
will work; for example, a good paper could be done on the cult of Heracles
among the Romans. He meant something quite different to them than he had
meant to the Greeks. In addition to the standard works on the myths, see
L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, and
Greek Hero-Cults and Ideas of Immortality; or
Sir J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough
3. Review (with footnotes!) how one deity or legendary figure has continued
to appear in the Western literary tradition, with special attention to the
changes in the image that different ages have produced. A good starting
point for this would be: Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition, or
J. A. K. Thomson, The Classical Background of English Literature
4. Make a critical study of a single book. After a careful reading, analyze
the book along the following lines:
a. summarize the basic thesis of the author and show briefly how it is
developed;
b. take one portion of the book for dissection and examine its argument in
detail; and
c. criticize the book. Is the thesis sound? Are the arguments one-
sided? Which parts do or do not seem reasonable, and why? Assume you
are writing for the benefit of an intelligent layman who is interested
in the subject but unfamiliar with the book.
Here are books which are suitable for such a treatment:
Jan H. Schoo, Hercules' Labors
Donald J. Sobol, The Amazons of Greek Mythology
Martin Nilsson, The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology
Gilbert Murray, Five Stages of Greek Religion
Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero
David Miller, The New Polytheism
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Philip Slater, The Glory of Hera
Rhys Carpenter, Folk-Tale, Fiction and Saga in the Homeric Epics
Henrietta Mertz, The Wine-Dark Sea. Homer's Heroic Epic of the North
Atlantic
Gilbert Pilot, The Secret Code of the Odyssey
Denys Page, Folktales in Homer's Odyssey
Eberhard Zangger, The Flood from Heaven
Michael Wood, In Search of the Trojan War
Jean Shinoda Bolen, Goddesses in Everywoman, A New Psychology of Women
David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries
Introduction
I. Why Study Mythology?
II. Scope of the Course
A. "Classical"
1. Excludes Norse, Indian, Eastern and others
2. Includes Greek and Roman
3. Emphasis is on Greek
B."Mythology" will be broadly interpreted to include:
1. Myths--stories originating in the mind
a. Activities of Gods & Goddesses ("Myth")
b. Fabulous Tales of Monsters, Demons, Magic ("Fairy Tale")
c. Aetiological Myth
d. Allegory
2.Legends--stories originating in objective reality
a. Tales reflecting some event, like the Trojan War ("Legend")
b. Tales of heroic exploits, like Jason's ("Saga")
III. Approaches to Interpreting Myths
A. Historical (what event or events do they reflect?)
B. Psychological (what do they tell about the subconscious?)
C. Comparative (what parallels do other cultures provide?)
D. Cultural (what do they tell about the views and values of antiquity?)
E. Aesthetic (artistic treatment of mythic themes through the ages)
F. "Existential" (study of myth for the satisfaction it provides)
Without trespassing too far into other disciplines, this course will
touch upon each of these approaches to some degree.
IV. The Problem of Belief
A. Difficulty of determining what any ancient people "really believed"
1. Views varied from place to place, person to person
2. View changed as centuries passed
B. Legends
1. Some few critics recognized exaggeration (Thucydides)
2. Legends accepted as basically factual throughout antiquity
C. Myths
1. About very early times it is hard to say
"belief" will be discussed at length later in the course
2. The fifth century BC saw many questions raised
(Zeus' act of binding his father, Cronos)
3. By Hellenistic times the myths were largely just literary devices
A Historical Chart
B.C. Peoples Eras Key Events
[] []
[]M[]
2000 [] []
[]I[] [] First Greek-Speakers
[] []
[]N[] [] Enter the Balkans
1900 [] []
[]O[] []
[] []
[]A[] []
1800 [] []
[]N[] []
[] []
[]S[] []M[]
1700 [] [] [] []
[] [] []Y[]
[] [] [] []
[] [] []C[]
1600 [] [] [] []
[] [] []E[]
[] [] [] []
[] [] []N[]
1500 [] [] [] []
[] [] []A[]
[]_[] [] [] - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mycenaeans in Knossos (1450)
[]E[]
1400 [] []
[]A[]
[] []
[]N[]
1300 [] [] "Age of
[]S[]
[] [] Heroes"
[] []
1200 [] [] Trojan War (ca. 1200)
[] []
[] []
[] []
1100 []_[] - - - - - - - - - - - Dorian Invasion (ca. 1100)
[]D[]
[] [] []
[]O[]
1000 [] [] []
[]R[] Greek
[] [] []
[]I[] Dark
900 [] [] []
[]A[] Age
[] [] []
[]N[] Colonization
800 [] [] []
[]S[]
[] [] []
[] []
700 [] [] [] - - - - - - - - - - - -
[] []
[] [] []
[] []
600 [] [] Archaic
[] G []
[] [] Period
[] R []
500 [] []
[] E [] - - - - - - - - - - - -Battle of Marathon (490)
[] []
[] E [] Classical Peloponnesian War (432-404)
400 [] []
[] K [] (Hellenic)
[] []
[] S [] Period
300 [] [] - - - - - - - - - - - -Death of Alexander (323)
[] []
[] [] Hellenistic
[] []
200 [] [] Period
[] []
[] []
[] []
100
Sources for Myth and Legend
I. Greek
Homer (9th-8th c. BC)
Iliad
Odyssey
Hesiod (8th-7th c. BC)
Theogony
Works and Days
Epic Cycle of Poems (7th-6th c. BC) LOST. Summarized by:
Cypria Proclus (5th c. AD)
<Iliad> Photius (9th c. AD)
Aithiopis
Little Iliad
Sack of Ilion
Returns (Nostoi)
<Odyssey>
Telegony
Stesichorus (6th c. BC)
Palinode on Helen
Pindar (early 5th c. BC)
Victory Odes (Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, Isthmian)
Tragic Poets (5th c. BC)
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides
Herodotus (late 5th c. BC)
Histories (of the Persian Wars)
Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd c. BC)
Argonautica
Apollodorus (2nd c. BC?)
The Library
II. Latin
Vergil (late 1st c. BC)
Georgics
Aeneid
Livy (late 1st c. BC)
From the Founding of the Ci