Monsters, Clauses, and
Political Causes:
Exploring Content Issues in Secondary English
K. McDermott
Fall 2010
Essential Questions:
• What types of mythologies are required by the
curriculum and what are their conventions?
• What are the plots of major Greek
mythologies?
• How can I relate literary texts to current
events and popular culture?
• What are the most crucial grammatical conventions and
terms that students must understand in order to develop
strong writing and comprehension skills?
Choose the correct way to edit the following sentence, using
dashes:
The scholarship jacket a gold and green jacket was awarded to the
best student
1. The scholarship jacket a gold and green
jacket was awarded—to the best student.
2. The scholarship jacket—a gold and green
jacket was awarded—to the best student.
3. The scholarship jacket—a gold and green
jacket—was awarded to the best student.
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Course Goals: SWBAT…
• Describe and analyze plots, themes and
conventions of commonly taught myths
– Create mnemonic devices to remember myths
• Find similarities between myths across cultures
• Identify current news articles that relate to
classroom content
Product:
Greek and Western Mythology Poems
• Limericks as
mnemonic
devices
• Plot summary
“Oedipus and the Sphinx,” after a Greek pottery image
(1890s?)
Persephone
Persephone, picking some flowers
Was abducted by Hades, the coward
Demeter was sad,
He made wheat-fields go bad,
And all the Greeks starved by the hour
Helios saw with his eye
When Persephone let out her cry
“Hades has got me!
He’ll rape me and rob me!
Send Hermes to save me or I’ll die!”
Hades had tricked her to eating
The seed of a fruit from the ceiling
“You eat underworld grub,
Well, now, here’s the rub:
Each winter you’ll visit me, sweetie!”
The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton, oil painting, (1891)
For You Math Folks!
Archimedes, the very good thinker,
Found solutions to mathematical stinkers
When taking a bath
He let out a laugh:
“Eureka! The volume is silver!”
(Greek legend)
200 BCE
Dear Daedalus, (Dad),
I thought you were smarter—
You crafted a dance-path
for King Minos’ daughter;
Inventor and master of artisan feats
You built Minotaur’s Labyrinth
on Island of Crete
But Icarus, I,
flew too near to the sun
On your wings made of wax
Gee thanks, Dad,
You’re dumb!
Love,
Your dead son,
Icarus
“Daedalus
constructs wings for Icarus,”
after a relief in the Villa Albani, Rome
(Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888).
Product: Greco-Roman
Deity Comparison
The Romans, they thought themselves chic:
They stole all their legends from Greeks
Their gods were the same,
But they had different names—
‘cept Apollo, the only un-tweaked
Major Gods and Goddesses
Greek Name:
Roman (Latin)
Name:
Aphrodite
Apollo
Ares
Artemis
Athena
Demeter
Hades
Hephaestus
Venus
Apollo
Mars
Diana
Minerva
Ceres
Pluto
Vulcan
Hera
Hermes
Hestia
Kronos
Persephone
Juno
Mercury
Vesta
Saturn
Proserpina
Poseidon
Zeus
Neptune
Jupiter
Product: Comparative Mythology Chart
Mythologies that are Similar Across Cultures and Faiths
Sacred
Creation
The Flood
Texts
Stories
Egyptian
No unified
scripture
Mesopotamian
The Beginnings
The
Afterlife
The
Apocalypse
Hero-Quest
Myths
Osirus
Enuma Elish –
humans from clay
Utna-pishtim
Gilgamesh
Greco-Roman
Hesiod’s
Theogony
Gaia & primordial
gods emerge from
Chaos
Deucalion &
Pyrrha
Lands of
the Dead,
Underworld
Generations of
man
Theseus,
Odysseus,
Oedipus,
Aeneas
Judeo-Christian
The Torah
The Bible
Genesis - Adam &
Eve
Noah & the
ark
Heaven, Hell,
Purgatory
Day of Yaweh;
Book of
Revelations
Abraham,
Moses
Muslim
The Qur’an
(Koran)
Qur’an - Adam &
Eve
Noah & the
ark
Heaven, Hell
Day of
Resurrection
(Qiyama)
Abraham
Hindu
The Vedas,
Upanishads
Lord Vishnu and
the egg Anda,
Brahma
Manu
Reincarnation
& Nirvana,
samsara
End of Kali age,
Vishnu return as
Kulki
Krishna
Buddhist
Mahayana
sutras;
Pāli Tipitaka
Samsara
(Chines Yu)
Reincarnation
& Nirvana,
samsara
Shambhala –
good triumphs
over evil, no
destruction
Gautama
Buddha, the
Bodhi tree
Native American
Multiple
Various: Navajo =
Spider Woman,
Mayan = Popol
Vuh
Popol -Vuh
(Hopi) The
emergence of
the 5th world
Scientific
Big Bang Theory
Wunzh,
Kutoyosis,
Quetzalcotl
meteorites,
environmental
disaster, entropy
Product: Newspaper Binder
Future Research
• All about the Greeks
• Continue to collect
newspaper articles
• Cross cultural mythology;
Religion & relevance to
Literature and social studies
• ELLs and interpreting
“collective” American culture