• Course Description:

    Greco-Roman culture has had an immeasurable impact on our culture. Since antiquity, Western cultures have used classical mythology to express and model moral lessons, as a common cultural language and reference point, and as a subject in the arts. As such, we should all to recognize and understand these references.

     

    This course will offer an overview of the major Greco-Roman myths:  the deities, heroes, their stories, their iconography and cultural context.  Surveyed are the Olympians, the archetypal heroic quests of Hercules, Perseus and others, stories of transformation, the Theban and Mycenaean sagas, and the adventures of Achilles and Odysseus in the epic of the Trojan War. Students will appreciate various representations, interpretations and depictions of classical mythology throughout the centuries through readings of primary and secondary sources, creative projects, art, and film.