Myth and Legend
Syllabus
Fall ‘14
Unit #1- Hero Unit
“Gilgamesh”- Babylonian Myth
The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
Jung’s Archetypes (the mentor, the hero, the herald, shadow, trickster, etc)
Heracles- Greece --- watch Hercules (Disney) for comparison
Quetzalcoatl- Aztec/Toltec
Theseus- Greece
The Ramayana- India
Perseus
Unit #2- Creation Myths
Greece – The Creation of the Titans and The Gods
Babylonia – Enuma and Elish
Egypt – Osiris, Isis, and Horus
Focus on values inherent in these myths
-nurturing mother
-fighting evil
-concerned father
Paper using Campbell’s Four Functions that applies a function to a specific myth
-mystical (spiritual), cosmological (how time, space, and science work), social (order-governance),
psychological (individual harmony)
-paper must have citations and works cited
Unit #3- Greek Theater--emphasis on how mythology influences the lives of people.
“Oedipus the King”--focus on themes of fate (you can’t escape it), blindness (ignorance), and hubris (overconfidence and
bad decisions)
“Antigone”- focus on hubris and themes from Oedipus
-Tragedy -- the enactment of a deed that is important and complete, and of a certain magnitude
Communal for the Greeks
project/assignment throughout-- journaling
Final Essay
Unit #4- Fairy Tales
Brothers Grimm (Germany) fairy tales as compared to
-“Hansel and Gretel”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Snow White”, “Rapunzel”
Hans Christian Anderson (Denmark)
-"The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", and "The Ugly Duckling".
Northern Europe and Celts
-Ireland
-Scotland
Unit #5- Legends
Robin Hood or King Arthur
-valor
-loyalty
Urban Legends
Unsolved Legends - Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, Chupacabra, etc.
-why legends persist