CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL FOR UNDERGRADUATES
GREEK MYTH AND EPIC
Key Information
Module code
Taught during
Module workload
Module leader
Department
Credit
Level
Pre-requisites
Assessment
ISSU1006
Block One: Monday 4 July - Friday 22 July 2016
45 teaching hours plus approximately 100 study hours
Dr Antony Makrinos
Greek and Latin, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
0.5 UCL credits, 7.5 ECTS, 4 US
Level 1, first year Undergraduate
Standard entry requirements
10-minute presentation (30%)
3,000-word essay (70%)
Module Overview
The Greek myths of gods, heroes and heroines have played a crucial role in the history of Western art, literature
and music. This course will examine Greek myths as found in Greek literary sources and it will provide students
with an introduction to the study of Greek mythology in its literary, social, historical and philosophical context.
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Week One – Introduction to Greek Myth (Definition of myth, Creation Myth: Gods and Men, the
Olympians)
Week Two – The Mortals: heroes and heroines (Greek heroes, Women in myth, Myth from Epic and
Tragedy)
Week Three – Reception of Greek Myths (Novelisations of myth – Modern Greek Poetry, Receptions
of Myth: cinema and TV, Greek myth – Epilogue/Conclusions)
Module Aims
The course has two main aims. The first is to familiarize students with the major figures in Greek myth, the
stories associated with them and the culture, which produced them. The second aim is to ask why myths occur
in the first place – what social or psychological function(s) or needs they fulfil and how they manage to
influence our modern lives.
Teaching Methods
Interactive lectures and seminars, open class and small group discussions, excursions, group work and private
study. Reading lists will be available online via the UCL library site. Students will be directed towards class
materials, further support and discussion forums on Moodle.
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, students will:
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Have been introduced to the methodology and terminology of studies in Classics. They will also have
developed their presentation skills through exploring alternatives to traditional presentation
techniques;
Have familiarised themselves with the major figures and the most significant mythological cycles in
Greek myth, the stories associated with them and the culture which produced them;
Understand how classical texts have been appropriated by ancient and modern cultures;
Have developed their independent research and critical thinking in the field of Classics relating to
Greek Myth through different literary theories and in various modes of representation;
Have engaged with interactive ways in which they can reflect on the ancient world and its reception.
Assessment Methods
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10-minute presentation (30%)
3,000-word essay (70%)
Key Texts
Primary Reading
Graziosi, B., and Greenwood, E., Homer in the Twentieth Century: Between World Literature and the Western
Canon (Oxford, 2007)
Finley, M.I., The World of Odysseus (Harmondsworth, 1956)
Hardwick, L., Reception Studies: Greece and Rome (New Surveys in Classics) (OUP, 2003)
Hesiod, Theogony & Works and Days. Transl. by S. Lombardo and R. Lamberton (1993)
Griffin, J., Homer on Life and Death (Oxford, 1980)
Kerenyi, K.The Gods of the Greeks (London,1958)
Kerenyi, K.The Heroes of the Greeks (London,1959)
Kirk, G.S., The Nature of Greek Myths (Harmondsworth, 1974)
Lefkowitz, M. R., Women in Greek Myth (London, 1986)
Silk, M.S., Homer: the Iliad (Cambridge, 2004)
Further reading
Hesiod:
Burns, A.R., The World of Hesiod (London, 1936)
Lamberton, R., Hesiod (Oxford, 1988)
Hamilton, R. The Architecture of Hesiodic Poetry. (Baltimore, 1989)
Foley, J.M. (ed.) A companion to Ancient Epic (Oxford, 2005)
Homer:
Bowra, C.M., Homer (London, 1972)
Griffin, J., Homer (Oxford, 1980)
Jackson-Knight, W.F., Many-minded Homer: an Introduction (London, 1968)
Parry, A.A., Blameless Aegisthus: a study of Homeric amumon and other Homeric Epithets (Leiden, 1973)
Powell, B.B. Homer (Oxford, 2004).
Pucci, P., Odysseus Polutropos: Intertextual Readings in the Odyssey and the Iliad (Ithaca, 1987)
Steiner, G. (ed.), Homer: a Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, 1962)
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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Wace, A.J.B., A Companion to Homer (London, 1962)
Foley, J.M. (ed.) A Companion to Ancient Epic (Oxford, 2005)
William G. Thalmann Conventions of Form and Thought in Early Greek Epic Poetry. (Baltimore, 1984)
Homer - Iliad:
Bespaloff, R., On the Iliad (Washington, 1947)
De Jong, I.J.F., Narrators and Focalizers: the Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (Amsterdam, 1987)
Edwards, M.W., Homer: the Poet of the Iliad (Baltimore, 1987)
Graziosi, B. Inventing Homer. (Cambridge, 2002)
Lynn-George, M., Epos: Word, Narrative and the Iliad (Basingstoke, 1988)
Nagy, G. Plato’s Rhapsody and Homeric Music. (Washington, 2002)
Schein, S., The Mortal Hero: an Introduction to Homer’s Iliad (Berkeley, 1984)
Willcock, M.M., A Companion to the Iliad: based on the Translation of R. Lattimore (Chicago, 1976)
Homer - Odyssey:
Griffin, J., Homer: the Odyssey (Cambridge, 1987)
Jones, P.V., Homer’s Odyssey: A Companion to the English Translation of R. Lattimore (Bristol, 1988)
Murnaghan, S., Disguise and Recognition in the Odyssey (Princeton, 1987)
Strauss-Clay, J., The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey (Princeton, 1983)
Apollonius of Rhodes:
Campbell, M., Echoes and Imitations of Early Epic in Apollonius Rhodius (Leiden, 1981)
Hutchinson, G.O., Hellenistic Poetry (Oxford, 1988) (see index for Apollonius)
Levin, D.N., Apollonius’ Argonautica re-examined (Leiden, 1971)
Aeschylus:
Brooks, O., Cosmos and Tragedy (Chapel Hill, 1981)
Gagarin, M., Aeschylean Drama (Berkeley, 1976)
Herington, J.C., Aeschylus (New Haven, 1986)
Ireland, S., Aeschylus (Oxford, 1986)
Rosenmeyer, T.G., The Art of Aeschylus (Berkeley, 1982)
Taplin, O., The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: the Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy (Oxford,
1977)
Winnington-Ingram, R.P., Studies in Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1983)
Sophocles:
Bowra, C.M., Sophoclean Tragedy (London, 1944)
Buxton, R.G.A., Sophocles (Oxford, 1984)
Knox, B.M.W., Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles’ Tragic Hero and his time (New Haven, 1957)
Knox, B.M.W., The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy (Berkeley, 1966)
Segal, C., Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge (New York, 2001)
Segal, C., Tragedy and Civilization: an Interpretation of Sophocles (Cambridge, Mass., 1981)
Webster, T.B.L., An Introduction to Sophocles (Oxford, 1936)
Winnington-Ingram, R.P, Sophocles: an Interpretation (Cambridge, 1980)
Euripides:
Burian, P. (ed.), Directions in Euripidean Criticism: a Collection of Essays (Durham, N.C., 1985)
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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Collard, C., Euripides (Oxford, 1981)
Conacher, D.J., Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme, Structure (Toronto, 1967)
Foley, H.P., Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides (Ithaca, 1985)
Halleran, M.R., Stagecraft in Euripides (London, 1985)
Michelini, A.N., Euripides and the Tragic Condition (Madison, 1987)
Norwood, G., Essays on Euripidean Drama (Berkeley, 1954)
Segal, C., Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides’ Bacchae (Princeton, 1982)
Winnington-Ingram, R.P., Euripides and Dionysus: an Interpretation of the Bacchae (Cambridge, 1948)
Greek Mythology - general:
Barthes, R, Mythologies (London, 1972)
Bremmer, J. (ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mythology (London, 1987)
Doherty, Lillian E. Gender and the Interpretation of Classical Myth. (London, 2001).
Griffin, J., The Mirror of Myth (London, 1986)
Jung, C.G. & Kerenyi, K. Science of Mythology : Essays on the Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of
Eleusis (London, 1985)
Kerenyi, K., Mann, T., Mythology and Humanism : the Correspondence of Thomas Mann and Karl Kerényi
(Ithaca,1975)
Kirk, G.S., Myth: its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures (Cambridge, 1970)
Morford, M.P.O., Classical Mythology (London, 1991)
Radice, B., Who’s who in the ancient world (Harmondsworth, 1973)
Rose, H.J., A Handbook of Greek Mythology (London, 1958)
Smith, W., (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology (London, 1880)
Vernant, J.-P., Myth and Society in Ancient Greece (Brighton, 1980)
Vernant, J.-P., Myth and Thought among the Greeks (London, 1983)
Veyne, P., Did the Greeks Believe their Myths? (Chicago, 1988)
Myth and tragedy:
Easterling, P.E. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1999)
Goldhill, S., Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1986)
Segal, C., Interpreting Greek Tragedy: Myth, poetry, text (Ithaca, 1986)
Vernant, J.-P. & P. Vidal-Naquet, Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (Brighton, 1981)
Vickers, B., Towards Greek Tragedy (London, 1973)
Silk, M.S. Tragedy and the tragic (Cambridge, 1996)
Myth and art:
Agard, W.R., Classical Myths in Sculpture (Madison, 1951)
Carpenter, T.H., Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (London, 1991)
Schefold, K., Myth and Legend in Early Greek Art (London, 1966)
Myth, religion, and ritual:
Burkert, W., Homo Necans: the Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (Berkeley, 1983)
Burkert, W., Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley, 1979)
Detienne, D. et al, Myth, Religion and Society: Structural Essays (Cambridge, 1981)
Eliade, M. The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History (Princeton, 2005)
Frazer, J., The Golden Bough (Oxford, 1998)
Harrison, J., Themis: a Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1912)
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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Otto, W.F., The Homeric Gods (New York, 1978)
Kerenyi, K. Dionysos: Archetypal Image of the Indestructible Life (London,1976)
Myth and Gender:
Lefkowitz, M.R., Heroines and Hysterics (London, 1981)
Pomeroy, S.B., Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (London, 1974)
The modern reception of Greek myth:
Galinsky, K., The Herakles Theme (Oxford, 1972)
Hall, E. et al (eds.), Dionysus since ’69 (Oxford, 2004)
Jenkyns, R., The Victorians and Ancient Greece (Oxford, 1980)
Miles, G. (ed.), Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology (London, 1999)
Nietzsche, F., The Birth of Tragedy (Oxford, 2000)
Seznec, J., The Survival of the Pagan Gods (New York, 1953)
Stanford, W.B, The Ulysses Theme (Dallas, 1992)
Steiner, G., Antigones (Oxford, 1984)
Turner, F.M., The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (New Haven, 1981)
Winkler, M., Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema (Oxford, 2001)
Winkler, M., Troy: From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood Epic, (Blackwell, 2006)
There are innumerable modern renditions of ancient myths: e.g., Joyce, Ulysses; Goethe, Iphigenia in Tauris;
Anouilh, Antigone, Medée; Pasolini, Edipo Re, Medea; Walcott, Omeros; Heaney, The Cure at Troy: a version of
Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Burial at Thebes: Sophocles’ Antigone; Sartre, Les Mouches; Disney’s Hercules; etc. …
The list is endless. If you would like suggestions for further reading, please see me.
Modern Novelisations:
Gemmell, D., Trojan War Trilogy: 1. Lord of the Silver Bow (2006) 2. Shield of Thunder (2007) 3. Fall of Kings
(2007)
Manfredi, V., The Talisman of Troy (2004); alternative title Heroes (2006)
Atwood, M., The Penelopiad (2005)
General Reference:
Hornblower, S. & A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1996)
Easterling P.E. & Knox, B.M.W. The Cambridge History of Classical Literature (Cambridge 1985)
Boardman, J. The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge 1982)
Other Resources:
1. The British Museum
An extensive collection of ancient sculptures, pots, etc.
2. The National Gallery
Many paintings with mythological themes, not least Titian’s famous ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ (1523-4).
3. All of the Greek texts which we are studying are also available on-line at:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Follow the link to “Classics” on the left-hand side, and then scroll down for the text you want – they are in
both Greek and English.
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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