This document can be found at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/classes/myth.html

Spring 1996
Halpern

Texts:

Aeschylus, tr Fagles. Oresteia. Penguin.
Apollonius of Rhodes. Voyage of the Argo. Penguin.
Athanassakis, A., tr. Homeric Hymns. J. Hopkins.
Catullus, ed Radice. Poems of Catullus. Penguin.
Euripides, tr Hadas. Ten Plays by Euripides. Bantam
Grimal, P. Penguin Dictionary of Mythology. Penguin.
Hesiod, tr Wender. Hesiod and Theognis. Penguin.
Homer, tr Fagles. The Iliad. Penguin.
Mason, H., tr. Gilgamesh. Mentor.
Ovid, ed Radice. Metamorphoses. Penguin.
Plato. Timaeus/Critias. Penguin.
Sophocles, tr Fagles. Three Theban Plays. Penguin.
Theocritus. Idylls. Penguin.

Syllabus:

January:

18 Introduction: Approaches to Myth

22 Gilgamesh

23 Background to Myth: popular religion vs. Greek theology

29 Theogony (Hesiod)

30 Vegetation Rites: Homeric Hymns: Demeter; Apollo; Hermes

February:

1 Reports

5 Atreus/Tyndareus: Homer,Iliad 1-6

**Quiz 1**

6 Iliad 7-12

8 Iliad 13-18

12 Iliad 19-24

13 Reports

15 Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides (Aeschylus)

20 Oresteia

22 Thebes: Theban Plays: Antigone, OT, OC (Sophocles)

26 Theban Plays

27 Theban Plays

29 Reports

March:

4 Alcestis (Euripides)

**Quiz 2**

5 Athens: Hippolytos (Euripides)

7 Iolcus: Medea (Euripides): Presentation by Krista Woodbridge

11 Dionysus: Bacchae (Euripides)

12 Plato, Timaeus/Critias

14 Apollonius Rhodius, Voyage of the Argo

25 Heracles: Theocritus,

26 Idylls 24, 13, 22

28 Reports

April:

1 Death & Inspiration
**Quiz 3**

2 Virgil, Aeneid 6, 8 [shield] (handout) 4 Georgics IV (Virgil)

8 Metamorphoses (Ovid) 1 & 2

9 Metamorphoses (select passages)

11 Reports

15 Metamorphoses 15

16 "Cupid & Psyche" (handout from Apuleius' Golden Ass)

18 Reports

22 Parallel Myths: Yin-Yang

**Quiz 4**

23 Christianity/Mithraism; Judeo-Christian/Hopi (Kachina)

25 Reports

29 India: an overview (Krishna, Buddha, Cosmic Tree)

Requirements:

1 oral report - 30%

Final Exam - cumulative - 35%
(covers, in detail and synthesis, the readings assigned, class lectures and discussions, and oral reports)

Related Sites:

• Greek Mythology
• Diotima, Materials for the Study of Women & Gender in the Ancient World
• Women in Classical Mythology
• Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology Home Page
• Women and their roles

For information regarding this course, contact Jim Caprio.
For information regarding this web page, contact Jennifer Goodall.