Instructor:  John Gruber-Miller, 312 College Hall; phone: x4326; email: grubermiller

Class meetings: M-F 9-11:15 a.m.; three afternoons each week, usually M T W 1-3 p.m.

Office Hours: M W F 11:15-12 noon and always by appointment.

Required Texts:

Goals:

• Introduction to the some of the most famous and most important myths, legends, and folktales of the ancient world.
• Introduction to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome.
• Understanding of how to read various types of literature and how to interpret myths, legends, and folktales.
• Understanding of the relationship between ancient and modern myth, and why myths continue to speak to us today.
• Opportunity to explore important human questions about divinity and humanity, life and death, female and male, rational and irrational, freedom and necessity, etc.
• Opportunity to improve both your verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to gather, use, and evaluate materials both from the library and the World Wide Web.
• Ability to create and publish a project on the WWW using basic HTML code.

Requirements:

Class discussion: I hope to foster an atmosphere in which students are free to speak their minds. We all (myself included) bring different backgrounds, preparation, theoretical perspectives, and values to this course. We all will learn from many sources: our common readings, each other, our discussions, and our research. It is, therefore, crucial to the success of the course that everyone show respect and courtesy to everyone else in the class, and a willingness to help each other learn and approach this material from new perspectives.

Informal writing assignments of various types based on class readings (approximately one for each section of the course). These essays are meant to be a chance to examine your own views, values and biases within the light of various readings. These topics will be announced in advance. Always make sure you keep a copy of your papers until after the course is over. I will not be responsible for losing the only copy of your paper.

Metamorphoses Project on the transformation of myth through time. In order to understand mythology in antiquity and its enduring relevance, groups of four students each will research one divinity or hero. More detailed instructions will be handed out later, but basically the project will involve the following steps:

1. research (both in the library and on the WWW) and analysis of the various Greek myths concerning a particular divinity or hero;
2. research (both in the library and on the WWW) and analysis of the various later transformations of myth concerning the same figure;
3. exploration (both in the library and on the WWW) of the intersection between cult and mythology for the same figure, or discovery of a parallel figure in another society's mythology;
4. creative project by the group showing their response to the divinity or hero they have researched. It may take the form of artwork, drama, music, story, video, etc. Ideally, it should engage one's mind, heart, and spirit.

Grading:

Schedule of Topics and Readings

Section I: The Experience of a Hero:

Section II: Creation

Section III: Metamorphoses of Myth