Module description
Topic: Who Needs Myth in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
If the inhabitants of the ancient Mediterranean — a huge melting pot of ethnic groups and peoples— lived in a universe full of gods, they also lived in a world full of myths, traditional stories deeply meaningful to the communities that told them. This module will use the category of “myth” as a lens through which to look at how the ancients themselves looked at their world, both the natural world that surrounded them as well as the socio-cultural universe they themselves created. Rather than being designed as an introduction to the great myths or as a “who is who” in ancient mythology, the module hopes to help you address a much more challenging question: how did myth as an intellectual category function in antiquity and how did the Greeks and the Romans use their myths? Indicative areas covered in this module (precise selection will vary from year to year) include: myths of ordering the world and myths offering hope for a blissful afterlife; tragic myth; myth and collective memory; site-specific myths in literature, ritual and art; landscape and mythic memory; myths embodied in corporeal practices, such as dancing or ritual role-playing; myths of metamorphosis in poetry, theatre and art; myths as/in performance; myths as storyworlds and the inter-medial ‘circulation’ of mythical material; heroic and anti-heroic myths; Hellenistic poets “playing” with myths; tales of migration and the forging of links between distant communities; foundation myths, providing a community with fictive heroic genealogies; myth, politics and civic diplomacy; education in and by means of myth; aetiological myths, explaining origins of natural phenomena or human customs; living, loving and dining with myths in the ancient house and garden; erudite collectors of myth (mythographers) and the transmission of cultural heritage. We will work with a broad variety of literary, historical and iconographic sources throughout.
Assessment details
2 hour exam (100%)
Alternative assessment for study abroad Semester 1 only students: 1 x 2500 word essay (100%)
Teaching pattern
10 x 1 hour lectures and 10 x 1 hour seminars (weekly)
Suggested reading list
Absolutely no book purchase will be required at any point during the course. All reading materials will be provided on Keats. For those who would like some food for thought prior to the start of teaching, you can find some inspiration in:
- H. Morales, Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2004)
- S.I.Johnston, The Story of Myth (Cambridge, Mass. and London 2018)