CLASSICAL STUDIES
375
INTERPRETING MYTHOLOGY
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Professor Radcliffe G. Edmonds III Office: Thomas 245 Office Phone: 526-5046 redmonds@brynmawr.edu |
Taylor D MW 2:30-4:00 Office Hours: MWF 10-11 or by appointment |
Required Texts:
Feldman, Burton & Richardson, Robert, The Rise of Modern Mythology 1680-1860
Graf, Fritz, Greek Mythology
Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Melville
*Trzaskoma,
Smith, & Brunet, Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation
Recommended Texts:
Brisson, Luc, How Philosophers Saved Myths
Brisson, Luc, Plato
the Mythmaker
Calame, Claude, Myth and History
Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth (2 vols.)
Lincoln, Bruce, Theorizing Myth
Course Description:
The myths of the Greeks have provoked outrage and fascination, interpretation and retelling, censorship and elaboration, beginning with the Greeks themselves. We will see how some of these stories have been read and understood, recounted and revised, in various cultures and eras, from ancient tellings to modern movies and undergraduate textbooks. We will also explore some of the interpretive theories by which these tales have been understood, from ancient allegory to modern structural and semiotic theories.
The student should gain a more profound understanding of the meaning of these myths to the Greeks themselves, of the cultural context in which they were formulated. At the same time, this course should provide the student with some familiarity with the range of interpretations and strategies of understanding that people of various cultures and times have applied to the Greek myths during the more than two millennia in which they have been preserved.
Course Requirements:
Class participation:
Each week's assignment will include both the primary ancient texts and some secondary interpretations. Each student should come prepared with two or three questions or ideas regarding the ancient texts for the day. In addition, one student will be assigned to write and present a one page reaction for each of the secondary readings for the week. Such reactions should consist, not of a summary of the selection, but rather of points of agreement and disagreement and of questions for further discussion. Readings in the Anthology of Trzaskoma etal. are marked with an *asterisk. All readings not in the required course books will be available through the Course Documents on Blackboard.
Written Assignments:
There will be one long final paper for the course on one myth, selected and defined by the student, and its interpretations. In addition, there will be several short (5-8 pages) written assignments designed for the students to demonstrate their understanding of specific interpretive strategies covered in class. These projects will require out of class research in addition to the readings assigned for the class.
Grade Distribution:
Class Participation 35%
Written Assignments 30%
Final Paper 35%
Week 1 Introduction to the Study of Mythology
Readings:
á Graf, Introduction
Supplemental
á Detienne, Creation of Mythology ch. 1-2, 3-5, notes
Week 2 Mythology Case Study: Oedipus
Readings:
á *Apollodorus (M Cadmos and Thebes)
á Levi-Strauss, The Structural Study of Myth
á Propp, Oedipus in the Light of Folklore
á Burnett, Jocasta in the West
á Peradotto, Oedipus and Erichthonius
Supplemental
á Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
á Hamilton, Royal House of Thebes
á Vernant, Oedipus without the Complex
Week 3 The Collectors - Mythographers and Mythology, Folklore and variants
Readings:
á *Palaephatus
á *Konon
á *Apollodorus, Library (excerpts)
á *Hyginus
á Hansen, Ariadne's Thread (Potiphar's Wife/Hippolytus)
á Henrichs, Three Approaches to Greek Mythography
Supplemental
á (begin reading Ovid)
á Gantz, Early Greek Myth, Preface
á Stern, Heraclitus the Paradoxographer
Week 4 Ovid's Metamorphoses of Myths - Myth as plots for literature
Readings:
á *Parthenius
á *Antoninus Liberalis
á *Eratosthenes
á Ovid Metamorphoses
á Gildenhard & Zissos, Ovid's Narcissus
Week 5 Myth and Allegory
Readings:
á *Hesiod, Theogony
á *Sallustius
á *Cornutus
á *Fulgentius
á *Heraclitus, Homeric Allegories
á *Herodorus, On Heracles, fr. 13, 14, 30, 34
á Laks, Provisional Translation of the Derveni Papyrus
á Graf, ch. 4 & 8
á Brisson, Aristotle and the Beginnings of Allegorical Exegesis
Supplemental
á Dawson, Pagan Etymology and Allegory
á Hadot, Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus (Plotinus 3.5.2, 3.8.11.38; 5.1.4.8; 5.1.7.33; 5.9.8.8)
á Laks, Between Religion and Philosophy
Variants Assignment due
Week 6 Myth as Primitive Science or History
Readings:
á Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.49-80
á *Diodorus Siculus (Euhemerus)
á *Lucretius
á Graf, ch. 1 & 2
á Lincoln, History of Myth (ch. 3)
á Modern Mythology selections:
á Fontenelle
á Heyne
á K.O. MŸller
á Grimm
á Max MŸller
Week 7 Myth as Primal Religion
Readings:
á Porphyry, Cave of the Nymphs
á Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride
á Modern Mythology selections:
á Vico
á Herder
á Creuzer
á Schlegel
á German Romanticism
á Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
Week 8 - spring break
Week 9 Myth and Ritual
Readings:
á *Pausanias (excerpts)
á Graf, ch. 5
á Fontenrose, Ritual Theory of Myth
á Versnel, What is Sauce for the Goose (part 1) (part 2)
Supplemental
Week 10 Myth and Psychology
Readings:
á Campbell, Hero with a Thousand Faces
á Jung, The Psychology of the Child Archetype
á Caldwell, Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth
á Olympiodorus on Plato's Gorgias 44-50
á Jackson, Late Platonist Poetics
Supplemental
á Doty, Cosmological Human Body
á Doty, Psychological Approaches
Interpreter Assignment due
Week 11 Myth and History
Readings:
á *Thucydides
á *Herodotus (excerpts)
á Calame, Narrating the foundation of a city (part 1) (part 2)
á Sourvinou-Inwood, Reading a myth, reconstructing its constructions
á Graf, ch. 3 & 6
Week 12 Case Study - Pandora and Prometheus
Readings:
á Hesiod, Theogony and Works & Days
á Vernant, At Man's Table (part 1) (part 2)
á Zeitlin, Signifying Difference: The Case of Hesiod's Pandora
á *Plato, Protagoras
á Olympiodorus on Plato's Gorgias 48.6
á Zosimus of Panopolis on the Letter Omega
Week 13 Myth and Tradition
Readings:
á Tolkien, On Fairy Stories (part 1) (part 2)
á Vidal-Naquet, Athens and Atlantis
á Brisson, Plato the Mythmaker (ch. 1-4)
á Segal, Greek myth as a semiotic and structural system
Supplemental
á Burkert, The Logic of Cosmogony
á Brisson, Plato the Mythmaker (ch. 5-7)
Week 14 Presentations & teaching mythology
Readings:
á Hamilton
á Powell
á Morford & Lenardon
á Trzaskoma etal.
complete draft of final project due
Week 15 – Conclusions: myth and scandal, myth and interpretation, myth and ideology
Readings:
á Detienne, Creation of Mythology (ch. 6-7)
á Calame, The Rhetoric of Muthos and Logos
Final Project due before the end of finals