CLASSICS 30: Classical Mythology
Summer '10 (Session A)
MWF 10-11:50
Dodd 167
Rob Groves
rob.groves@gmail.com
Office Hours: MW 12-1
(or by appointment)
About the course: The traditional stories of the Greeks and Romans are not only fun tales which we
enjoy reading, hearing about, or watching unfold on a movie screen. Those same stories have been
used by some of history's greatest artists and writers to describe the human condition, and by politicians
and propagandists to achieve their political ends. Psychologists and anthropologists have put forward
one explanation for these stories' popularity and endurance: they tap into some of the most fundamental
and universal aspects of society.
In this course, we will occupy ourselves with 3 basic goals:
1. To learn (some of) the Greeks'/Romans' myths and mythical characters
2. To examine why and how artists, musicians, writers, and politicians have made use of these
myths
3. To evaluate the claims of theoreticians about why these myths exist, and why they continue to
be popular.
Mythology, not just myth: Note: the course does NOT end at goal #1. Knowing the stories and
characters is an important part of the class, but is really only the beginning. I hope that students who
are prepared to seriously read, think, grapple, and write about the issues we discuss will find this class
fun and rewarding. Those who are hoping to just passively listen to stories will not succeed.
Texts: The following textbooks are available at the UCLA bookstore in the Ackerman Union. NOTE:
You are free to buy copies of these books from online booksellers or elsewhere too. But be sure to get
the correct version.
Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation (Trzaskoma et al.)
This will be our main textbook and features some rather long texts as well as a large number of
shorter fragments and texts. We will spend some time orienting ourselves to this book early on in the
course. Make friends with it as soon as possible.
Ovid:Metamorphoses (Charles Martin)
The Complete Aeschylus: Volume II: Persians and Other Plays (Burian/Shapiro)
Seneca Six Tragedies (Wilson)
Four Plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae (Esposito)
Trojan Women (Shapiro)
Homer's Odyssey (Lombardo)
These books mostly contain plays (and one poem) from ancient Athens and Rome which will help
provide us with longer treatments of myths. I strongly encourage you to use these versions of the texts
as these translations have been carefully chosen for their readability and low price. Using a different
version may confusing and you are warned to do so only at your own risk.
Downloadable Materials will also be available in PDF format on the course website. You are
welcome to print these out or just read them from your computer/kindle/phone. These materials
are NOT optional and are very much integral to the course.
Basis of Evaluation:
Day to Day activities (22%):
Participation
Reading Quizzes
Discussion Forum participation
Exams (48%):
Intro Exam
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Papers (30%)
Essay #1
Essay #2
Total:
8%
8%
6%
8%
15%
25%
(Monday 6/28, beginning of class)
(Monday 7/12, first half of class)
(Friday 7/30, all class)
12.5%
17.5%
100%
(Saturday night, 7/3 by Midnight)
(Saturday night, 7/24 by Midnight)
Participation means actively contributing to the class. This does not mean “attendance” or “sitting
silently and watching.” If you are not regularly talking in class or posting on the course's discussion
forums, you are not participating. Prepare to participate by doing the readings thoughtfully and coming
to class with your own ideas, questions, or reactions to the texts.
Fairly often, I will give you (pop) reading quizzes which will be short and simply require you to have
read and thought about the readings before class.
Your weekly reading guide will contain questions to think about before discussion. Each of you should
post your thoughts on one of those questions on our course Discussion forums once a week. Your post
can be either your own original idea or a response to a fellow student's post, but should be clear and
well articulated with reference to the readings.
The Intro Exam will be a brief, fact-based exam which will cover the material of week 1. The purpose
of this exam is to make sure everyone has mastered the basics of this course, the relevant time, places,
and major characters. The Midterm Exam and Final Exam will test both facts and interpretation.
They will aim to test your knowledge of both readings and lecture, and your ability to recall the stories
and to think critically about myths and the texts in which they appear.
The Papers will both be relatively short papers which focus on analysis of texts. These will be
submitted to turnitin.com via myucla. Topics will be available at least 1 week in advance. Although
the pace of this summer course is quick, be sure you don't start your paper at the last minute.
Except in documented cases of emergency, no make up quizzes or exams will be given. Late Papers
will be penalized 5% per 12 hours late. (1 minute late: -5%, 13 hours late: -10%, etc.).
Contacting you:
I will make regular announcements via the course website (ccle.ucla.edu) which you should also
use to find texts, read the discussion board etc. Be sure your email is updated with URSA and that you
check it regularly.
Contacting me:
Email (rob.groves@gmail.com) is the best way to get a hold of me. I check it often and will
reply as quickly as I can. That said, Do not count on me responding to my email immediately on the
night before an exam or a paper deadlines.
Office hours are also a great opportunity for you, which I hope you'll make use of!
Schedule of Topics and Readings
Still under development—subject to change
Note: Readings should be done before class. I will post a “reading guide” on the course website for
each day's readings. This will explain what you should read for, and any necessary context for the
readings. Note that the reading the readings in the order suggested by the guide is highly
recommended.
Legend: Items marked with a star are in the Anthology of Classical Myth textbook. Items marked
with a circle are in another of the courses' books. Items marked with a arrow are available for
download on the course website.
Week 1:Introductions and Establishment of the Divine Order:
Mon, 6/21: A Brief History of Time and Space
Note to Students (page xvi-xxiii)
Wed, 6/23: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Gods!
Homeric Hymns 3, 4, 6, 8-13, 20-25, 27-29
Callimachus Hymn to Zeus
Diodorus of Sicily 5.68-69
Fri, 6/25: Successions of Gods, Successions of Cultures
Near Eastern Cosmognies
Hesiod Theogony
Week 2: Being Human
Mon, 6/28: Prometheus, Humanity, and its place in the world
INTRO EXAM
Hesiod Theogony 509-620
Hesiod Works and Days
Semonides 7
Lucian “On Sacrifices” section 10-12
Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound
Ovid's Metamorphoses 1.1-5, 1.336-577 (Proem, Flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha)
Wed, 6/30: Death, Dying, and Living Forever
Aeschylus 161
Homer, Odyssey Book 11, 24.1-16, 4.583-599
Vergil “Aeneid” 6. 299-1073
Inscription G and H (Appendix 2)
Vergil “Georgics”
Ovid X.1-122, XI.1-94 (Orpheus)
Fri, 7/2: The Mystery of Life
Homeric Hymns 2, 7, 19
Callimachus 6
Cornutus 30
Fulgentius
Euripides' Bacchae
PAPER 1 DUE SATURDAY NIGHT, Midnight
Week 3: Mortals and Immortals
Mon, 7/5: NO CLASS—HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY
Wed, 7/7: Love and MarriageMadness
Homeric Hymn 5
Sappho 1
Papyrus E (Appendix 3)
Sophocles 941
Euripides' Hippolytus
Metamorphoses 10.618-857 (Adonis and Atalanta)
Fri, 7/9: Love and Marriage Rape
Sophocles 583
Lucian “Dialogues of the Gods 16”
Ovid's Metamorphoses I.628-1037, IV.372-533, VI.590-1038, X.150-283,XII.216-312
(Daphne, Io, Syrnix, Salmacis, Philomela et al., Boreas, Cyparissus, Ganymede, Hyacinth,
Caenis)
Selections from Ovide Moralisé
Week 4: Heroes and their Uses
Mon, 7/12: Heroes and Monsters
Ovid's Metamorphoses 3.1-3.162; 4.767-5.361 (Cadmus and Perseus)
Iliad 6.103-245 (Bellerophon)
Wed, 7/14: Too Many Heroes (Trouble at Thebes)
Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes
Hyginus 66-73
Pausanias N, O
Fri, 7/16: Heracles and Theseus
Euripides' Heracles
Apollodorus K1-21 (Heracles)
Apollodorus N1-7 (Theseus)
Xenophon (the choice of Heracles)
Week 5: The Trojan War, and its Aftermaths
Mon, 7/19: The Trojan War
Proclus Chrestomathy A-F[~5 pages]
Hyginus 91-98, 102, 106-108 [~5 pages]
Lucian, “Judgment of the Goddesses” [6 pages],
Homer's Iliad books 1, 16, 24 [~60 pages]
Ovid, “Heroides 3” [5 pages]
MIDTERM
Wed, 7/21: The Horrors of the Trojan war
Euripides' Trojan Women
Seneca's Trojan Women
Fri, 7/23: Jason and the Argonauts
Eurpides' Medea [65 pages]
Apollonius, Argonautica Book 1 [~35 pages+maps]
PAPER 2 DUE SATURDAY NIGHT, Midnight
Week 6: The End of Myths?: Coming Home
Mon, 7/26: Getting Home 1: the monsters and the meanwhile
Homer's Odyssey Selections (TBD) from books 1,2, 4,5, 8-10
Ovid, “Heroides 1”
Theocritus, “Idyll 11”
Wed, 7/28: Getting Home 2: home and family
Homer's Odyssey Selections (TBD) from books 12, 16, 18, 21-24
Hyginus 127 (Telegonus)
Fri, 7/30: FINAL EXAM (in class)
FINAL EXAM