Rev. 11-6-08
Editorially revised 04-23-09
Undergraduate University Curriculum Committee
Course Proposal Form for Courses Numbered 0001 – 4999
(Faculty Senate Resolution #8-16, March 2008)
Guidelines for submission may be accessed via the web at:
www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/fsonline/cu/curriculum.cfm.
Note: Before completing this form, please carefully read the accompanying instructions.
1.
Course Prefix and Number:
2.
Date:
3.
Requested Action (check only one box):
CLAS 1500
11/17/2009
New Course
Revision of Active Course
Unbanking of a Banked Course
X
Renumbering of Existing Course from:
CLAS 3460
to
CLAS 1500
4.
Justification for new course, revision, unbanking, or renumbering:
Assessment of student knowledge in upper-division courses has indicated a lack of basic
knowledge about the traditional tales of Greek and Roman mythology, which is necessary
for understanding most classical literature. The course needs to be offered earlier in our
students’ curriculum.
5.
Course description exactly as it should appear in the next catalog:
1500. Classical Mythology (3) (FC:HU) Formerly CLAS 3460 Major myths of ancient
Greece and Rome, their meanings and functions in ancient cultures and literatures.
6.
If this is a course revision, briefly describe the requested change:
The new course description accurately reflects that this course, as taught in the Classical
Studies Program, does not deal with the reception of myths in British and American
literature.
7.
Page number from current PDF undergraduate catalog:
347-348
1
8.
The Writing Across the Curriculum Committee must approve Writing Intensive
(WI) Credit for all courses prior to their consideration by the UCC. If WI credit is
requested, has this course been approved for Writing Intensive (WI) credit (yes/no)?
If Yes, will all sections be Writing Intensive (yes/no)?
9.
The Service-Learning Advisory Committee must approve Service-Learning (SL)
Credit for all courses prior to their consideration by the UCC. If SL credit is
requested, has this course been approved for Service-Learning (SL) credit (yes/no)?
If Yes, will all sections be Service-Learning (yes/no)?
10.
The Academic Standards Committee must approve Foundations Curriculum Credit
for all courses prior to their consideration by the UCC. If FC credit has been
approved by the ASC, then check the appropriate box (check at most one):
X
11.
English (EN)
Science (SC)
Humanities (HU)
Social Science (SO)
Fine Arts (FA)
Mathematics (MA)
Health (HL)
Exercise (EX)
Course Credit:
3
=
Credit Hours
3
Weekly
or
Per Term
Lab
Weekly
or
Per Term
=
Credit Hours
s.h.
Studio
Weekly
or
Per Term
=
Credit Hours
s.h.
Practicum
Weekly
or
Per Term
=
Credit Hours
s.h.
Internship
Weekly
or
Per Term
=
Credit Hours
s.h.
Lecture Hours
s.h.
Other (e.g., independent study):
Total Credit Hours
12.
Anticipated yearly student enrollment:
13.
Affected Degrees or Academic Programs:
s.h.
3
s.h.
200
2
Degree(s)/Course(s)
Classical Studies Minor
14.
PDF Catalog Page Change in Degree Hours
83
No
International Studies Minor
90
No
Religious Studies Minor
100
No
English Minor
119
No
English Education Concentration
183
No
BS in English, Secondary Education
196
No
BS in Middle Grades Education, English
Concentration
BA in Art History and Appreciation
199
No
208
No
Overlapping or Duplication with Affected Units or Programs:
Not Applicable
X
15.
Applicable (Notification and/or Response from Units Attached)
Approval by the Council for Teacher Education (required for courses affecting
teacher education programs):
X
Not Applicable
Applicable (CTE has given their approval)
16.
Instructional Format: please identify the appropriate instructional format(s):
X
Lecture
Online
Lab
Seminar
Studio
Clinical
Practicum
Honors
Internship
Colloquium
Student Teaching
Other
3
17.
Statements of Support:
(Please attach a memorandum that addresses the budgetary and staff impact of this
proposal.)
X
Current staff is adequate
Additional staff is needed (describe needs in the box below):
X
Current facilities are adequate
Additional facilities are needed (describe needs in the box below):
X
Initial library resources are adequate
Initial resources are needed (in the box below, give a brief explanation and
estimate for cost of acquisition of required resources):
X
Unit computer resources are adequate
Additional unit computer resources are needed (in the box below, give a brief
explanation and an estimate for the cost of acquisition):
X
ITCS Resources are not needed
Following ITCS resources are needed (put a check beside each need):
Mainframe computer system
Statistical services
Network connections
Computer lab for students
Describe any computer or networking requirements of this program that are
not currently fully supported for existing programs (Includes use of classroom,
laboratory, or other facilities that are not currently used in the capacity being
requested).
Approval from the Director of ITCS attached
4
18.
Syllabus – please insert course syllabus below. Do not submit course syllabus as a
separate file. You must include (a) the name of the textbook chosen for the course,
(b) the course objectives, (c) the course content outline, and (d) the course
assignments and grading plan. Do not include instructor- or semester-specific
information from the syllabus.
Course Objectives
As a course that fulfills the Humanities requirement in the ECU Liberal Arts Foundations
Curriculum, this course has the following objectives:
1. Students will learn the discipline subject matter.
 Students will master details of the traditional tales of ancient Greece and Rome, from
the creation stories up to the epic cycle of the Trojan War, including their
development in ancient literature and art.
 Students will come to know the predecessors of the classical stories in the ancient
Near East, and will be able to discuss the similarities and differences between GrecoRoman stories and Near Eastern stories.
 Students will be able to trace the development of a single tale through the GrecoRoman periods.
2. Students will learn the research methodology applied by the discipline.
 Students will be able to identify and discuss the different theoretical approaches that
have been used and are currently used to critically interpret myths. These will include
literary criticism, structuralist anthropology, psychoanalysis and others.
 Students will be able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of approaching
mythology research from synchronic and diachronic perspectives.
3. Students will learn about the discipline’s contribution to general knowledge.
 Because the study of mythology is, at heart, an interdisciplinary endeavor, students
will be able to recognize the contributions that other disciplines (literary studies,
anthropology, etc.) have on myth studies and vice versa.
 Students will also learn, through comparison with myths in other cultures (the ancient
Near East, modern Hollywood), how myths transcend time and space and yet are
uniquely inscribed in a given time and space. That is, they will learn why myth
studies are, paradoxically, both synchronic and diachronic.
Required Books
Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth (Prentice Hall, 6th ed., 2008). ISBN 978-0-13-606171-7.
Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, trans. M. L. West (Oxford, 2009 reprint). ISBN 978-019-953831-7.
Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1999). ISBN 978-0-14-026886-7.
Sophocles, Sophocles II: Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra & Philoctetes, ed. David Grene
and Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press, 1969). ISBN 978-0-22-630786-2.
Other readings will be made available via Blackboard.
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Evaluation
On the first day of each week, we will begin class with a five-minute quiz that covers all material
from lectures and readings of the prior week. In addition, there will be two in-class exams and a
final exam.
Quizzes:
25%
First Exam: 25%
Second Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 25%
Letter grades will be assigned as follows:
A
90–100
B
80–89
C
70–79
D
60–69
F
0–59
Schedule of Classes
Week #1
Introduction: What is Myth?; Greek Literature Overview; Hesiod’s Theogony:
The Greek Creation Myth
Read: Hesiod’s Theogony
Week #2
Near Eastern Parallels; Humans in the Cosmos
Read: Babylonian Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish); Genesis 1–4; Hesiod, Works
and Days
Week #3
Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and Hades; The Male Olympians: Apollo, Hephaestus and
Ares
Read: Classical Myth 135–179
Week #4
The Female Olympians: Aphrodite, Artemis and Athena; Myth and Cult: Demeter
and the Eleusinian Mysteries; The Golden Bough: The Ultimate Synchronic Myth
Read: Classical Myth 195–238, 656–658; selections from The Golden Bough
Week #5
Fertility and Death: Dionysus, Orpheus and their Cults; Exam #1
Read: Classical Myth 254–256, 262–283, 285–289, 297–302
Week #6
The Hero and the “Classical Monomyth”; Heracles the Mighty, Elusive Hero;
Heracles the Great Civilizer: The Twelve Labors
Read: Selections from Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces;
Classical Myth 351–385
Week #7
Theseus and Athens; Introduction to Jason and the Argonauts; Jason and the
Argonauts—and Medea; Myth at the Movies
Read: Classical Myth 400–417, 469–495;
Watch: Clips from: Jason and the Argonauts and Disney’s Hercules
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Week #8
Myth on the Psychoanalytical Couch: Oedipus, Sophocles and Freud; The War to
Begin All Wars: Troy
Read: Classical Myth 451–467, 504–529, 534–538, 660–664.
Week #9
Wrap-up of Troy: The Iliad, Its Heroes and Its Narratological Influence;
The Aftermath of War: The Orestes Cycle; Exam #2
Read: Classical Myth 540–562
Week #10
Introduction to Odysseus Stories; Rites of Passage; The Hero Longs to be Homer
Read: Odyssey Books 1–12
Week #11
The Hero as Trickster; Justice Restored?
Read: Odyssey Books 13–24; Homeric Hymn to Hermes
Week #12
Odysseus, the Sophoclean Hero and Villain
Read: Sophocles, Ajax and Philoctetes
Week #13
Odysseus, The (Even Worse) Sophistic Villain; Ulysses (and Greek Myth) in the
Roman World
Read: Euripides, Hecuba; Gorgias, Defense of Palamedes; Ovid, Metamorphoses
Book 13 (Ulysses vs. Palamedes)
Week #14
Myth in the Imperial Court; Odysseus: The Diachronic Tradition. Conclusion.
Read: Seneca, Trojan Women
Watch: Clips from: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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