Welcome to Myth! This course meets twice per week for an hour and fifteen minutes. The class period will typically be divided between lecture, small group discussion, and class discussion. Questions and comments are encouraged at all times.

Societies have been telling, interpreting, re-telling, and re-interpreting myths since ancient times. This course will provide an overview of the principal characters, stories, and themes of the myths of the ancient Mediterranean, with a focus on Greek literature as well as adaptations of Greek myths in Roman and later literature and in art. We will ask, first and foremost, “What is myth?”, and seek to answer this question through exploring the ways that myths have appeared in art and literature through time, influenced each other, and moved their readers and listeners.

The course is designed to sharpen your critical thinking, close reading, and writing skills. You will learn to draw on evidence from a close reading of a text to make a broader interpretive argument about its meaning. You will also learn to ask good questions. As the course progresses, we will together seek a deeper understanding of the many different ways in which myths have been meaningful across a variety of historical and cultural contexts, including our own. 

In short, you’ll dive into…

• Literary representations of myth (plays, poems…) and how to analyze them
• The wide range of sources scholars use to learn myths…and how there’s rarely One True Version
• Art and architecture tied to the stories: how did they make their literal mark on the world around them?
• Religious, cultural and historical context of these myths—they were used for more than entertainment!
• Reception and adaptation of Ancient Greek myths to speak to other times and cultures
• Some cross-cultural comparison: are there universal themes? How were Ancient Egypt, the Near East, and Biblical stories different and why?
• A bit of theory and methods: what lenses have scholars used to interpret these stories? What can we contribute ourselves?