Lecture 1: Introduction to Classical Mythology

●​ Course Goal: To analyze Greek and Roman myths within their historical and cultural
contexts, exploring their deeper significance rather than just storytelling. Key themes
include heroism, women's roles, social norms, and religion.
●​ Key Terms:
○​ Myth: A traditional story that provides an explanation for natural phenomena,
religious beliefs, or a society's worldview, often involving gods.
○​ Folktale: An anonymous, timeless story transmitted orally among common
people, usually for entertainment.
○​ Legend: A traditional story popularly believed to have a historical basis,
concerning figures or events from the past.
●​ Key Concepts:
○​ Sources: Myths are known from literary sources (epics, plays) and visual
sources (vases, sculpture), and exist in many different versions.
○​ Polytheism: The belief in multiple gods, like the Greek and Roman pantheons.
○​ Attributes & Iconography: Gods and heroes are identified by symbolic objects
(e.g., Zeus’s thunderbolt, Poseidon’s trident) and visual themes.
●​ Major Deities:
○​ Olympians: The main pantheon, including Zeus/Jupiter (King), Hera/Juno
(Queen), Poseidon/Neptune(Sea), Ares/Mars (War), Aphrodite/Venus (Love),
Athena/Minerva (Wisdom), Apollo (Sun/Prophecy), Artemis/Diana (Hunt),
Hermes/Mercury (Messenger), Hephaestus/Vulcan (Forge), Hestia/Vesta
(Hearth), and Dionysos/Bacchus (Wine).
○​ Chthonic (Underworld) Deities: Hades/Pluto (King), Persephone/Proserpina
(Queen), and Demeter/Ceres (Agriculture).
●​ Case Study (Hymn to Hermes): On the day of his birth, the infant god Hermes invents
the lyre from a tortoise shell, steals his brother Apollo's cattle, and invents fire-making
and sacrifice. The myth explains the origin (aetiology) of the lyre and sacrifice, and
establishes Hermes’s character as a clever trickster and his role as psychopompos
(guide of souls).

Lecture 2: Hesiod's Theogony & Works and Days

●​ Hesiod: An early Greek poet (c. 750-700 BC) who, unlike Homer, has a distinct authorial
personality. His major works are the Theogony and Works and Days.
●​ Theogony (The Birth of the Gods):
○​ Cosmogony: The universe begins with Chaos (void), followed by Gaia (Earth),
Tartarus (underworld abyss), and Eros (Desire).
○​ Succession Crises: The central theme is the violent overthrow of successive
generations of gods.
1.​ Ouranos (Sky) is castrated by his son, the Titan Chronos. From the sea
foam of his genitals, Aphrodite is born.
 2.​ Chronos swallows his children to avoid a prophecy but is overthrown by
his son Zeus, who was hidden on Crete.
3.​ Zeus secures his rule by defeating the Titans (Titanomachy), the
monster Typhoeus, and swallowing his first wife Metis (Wisdom) to give
birth to Athena from his head, thus ending the cycle of succession.
○​ Prometheus: A trickster Titan who steals fire for mankind. As punishment, Zeus
creates Pandora, the first woman, as a "beautiful bane" for men.
●​ Works and Days:
○​ A didactic (instructional) poem on the importance of justice and hard work.
○​ Pandora’s Jar: The story is retold to explain the origin of human suffering.
Pandora opens a jar releasing all evils upon the world, with only Elpis (Hope)
remaining inside.
○​ Five Generations of Man: A myth of decline: Golden (paradise), Silver
(impious), Bronze (warlike), Heroic (a noble interruption), and Iron (Hesiod's
own age of misery and toil).

Lecture 3: The Trojan Cycle and the Iliad (Part 1)

●​ The Trojan Cycle: All myths related to the Trojan War.

○​ Cause of the War: The Judgement of Paris, where the Trojan prince Paris
chooses Aphrodite as the "fairest" goddess. His reward is Helen, whom he
abducts from her husband Menelaus, violating the sacred guest-host bond of
xenia.
○​ Oath of Tyndareus: All of Helen’s former suitors are bound by an oath to defend
her marriage, compelling the Greeks to unite against Troy.
●​ Homer's Iliad: An epic poem that focuses not on the entire war, but on a few weeks in
the ninth year, centered on the "RAGE" (mēnis) of Achilles.
●​ Key Events:
○​ Book 1 (The Quarrel): Agamemnon seizes Achilles’s war prize, Briseis, publicly
dishonoring him. Enraged, Achilles withdraws from the war and asks his mother,
Thetis, to have Zeus favor the Trojans so the Greeks will suffer.
○​ Book 3 (The Duel): Paris and Menelaus agree to a duel to end the war, but
Aphrodite intervenes to save Paris, breaking the truce.
○​ Book 6 (Hector and Andromache): In a famous, poignant scene, the Trojan
hero Hector explains to his wife Andromache that he must fight for honor and
glory, even though he knows it will lead to his death and the fall of Troy. This
humanizes the Trojans and highlights the tragic cost of war.

Lecture 4: The Iliad (Part 2)

●​ Book 9 (The Embassy): The Greeks are losing badly. Agamemnon sends an embassy
to offer Achilles vast treasures to return, but Achilles refuses, declaring that no amount of
glory is worth his life—a direct challenge to the heroic code.
 ●​ Book 16 (The Death of Patroclus): Achilles allows his beloved companion Patroclus to
fight in his armor but warns him not to pursue the Trojans. Patroclus, in a battle frenzy
(aristeia), ignores the warning and is killed by Hector.
●​ Book 22 (The Death of Hector): Achilles, consumed by grief and a new, monstrous
rage, returns to battle. He chases down and kills Hector, then mutilates his body by
dragging it behind his chariot, an act of extreme impiety.
●​ Book 24 (The Ransom of Hector): The Trojan king Priam secretly enters the Greek
camp and begs Achilles for his son’s body. Priam’s appeal to Achilles’s own father
moves him to tears. His rage abates (catharsis), and he returns the body for a proper
funeral. The poem ends with the burial of Hector.
●​ Aftermath: Achilles is later killed by Paris. The Greeks win the war by using the Trojan
Horse.

Lecture 5: The Odyssey (Part 1)

●​ Theme: The nostos (homecoming) of the Greek hero Odysseus. The story is told in
medias res (in the middle of things), with Odysseus narrating his past adventures to the
Phaeacians.
●​ Key Concepts:
○​ Xenia (Guest-Friendship): A central theme. Odysseus's journey is a series of
encounters with good and bad hosts.
○​ Odysseus's Character: Defined by his epithet polytropos ("man of many
turns"). He is a clever, resourceful hero who relies on trickery and is focused on
his own survival.
●​ Major Wanderings:
○​ The Cyclops (Polyphemus): Odysseus blinds the giant after calling himself
"Noman" (Outis). In a fatal act of hubris, he reveals his real name, allowing
Polyphemus to curse his voyage through his father, Poseidon.
○​ Circe: A sorceress who turns Odysseus’s men into pigs. With help from Hermes,
Odysseus overpowers her and stays for a year.
○​ The Nekyia (Journey to the Dead): Odysseus consults the prophet Tiresias and
speaks with the shades of Agamemnon (who warns him about women) and
Achilles (who says he’d rather be a living slave than king of the dead).
○​ Sirens, Scylla & Charybdis: Odysseus survives the Sirens' deadly song by
being tied to the mast and navigates between the six-headed monster Scylla and
the whirlpool Charybdis, sacrificing six men.
○​ The Cattle of Hyperion: His men disobey his orders and eat the sacred cattle of
the sun god. As punishment, Zeus destroys their ship, killing everyone but
Odysseus.

Lecture 6: The Odyssey (Part 2) & Agamemnon

●​ The Return to Ithaca:

 ○​ Odysseus returns in disguise as a beggar to find his home overrun by suitors
trying to marry his wife, Penelope.
○​ Penelope holds them off with the ploy of the loom (weaving a shroud by day,
unraveling it by night).
○​ Odysseus wins an archery contest by stringing his own bow, reveals himself,
and, with his son Telemachus, slaughters all the suitors.
○​ He proves his identity to a skeptical Penelope by describing their immovable bed,
which he built from a living olive tree.
●​ Aeschylus' Agamemnon:
○​ The first play in the Oresteia trilogy, a 5th-century Athenian tragedy exploring
justice and revenge.
○​ Backstory: The family is under the Curse of Atreus. Agamemnon had sacrificed
his daughter, Iphigenia, to sail for Troy.
○​ Plot: His wife, Clytemnestra, has plotted revenge for ten years with her lover,
Aegisthus. When Agamemnon returns, she persuades him to walk on a crimson
carpet (an act of hubris) and then murders him and his Trojan captive,
Cassandra, in the bath. She emerges gloating, claiming her act was just.

Lecture 7: The Theban Cycle (Oedipus & Antigone)

●​ The Theban Cycle: Myths surrounding the city of Thebes, which chronologically
precede the Trojan War. The plays were written by the Athenian tragedian Sophocles.
●​ Oedipus Rex:
○​ Theme: The inescapable nature of fate vs. freewill.
○​ Plot: A plague strikes Thebes. The Oracle reveals it is punishment because the
murderer of the former king, Laius, lives there. King Oedipus vows to find the
killer. Through a series of tragically ironic revelations, he discovers that he
himself is the killer, and that Laius was his father and his wife, Jocasta, is his
mother. Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus gouges out his own eyes.
●​ Antigone:
○​ Theme: The conflict between divine law (family/religious duty) and state law
(civic duty).
○​ Plot: After Oedipus’s sons kill each other in a civil war, the new king, Creon,
decrees that the traitor Polynices must not be buried. His sister, Antigone, defies
the order, believing her duty to the gods is higher. Creon condemns her to be
entombed alive. After warnings from his son and the prophet Tiresias, Creon
relents, but it is too late. Antigone, his son, and his wife all commit suicide,
leaving Creon utterly broken by his own tyrannical pride (hubris).

Lecture 8: Jason and Medea

●​ The Myth: The hero Jason leads the Argonauts on a quest for the Golden Fleece in
Colchis. The goddess Hera aids him.
 ●​ Apollonius' Argonautica: A Hellenistic epic focusing on the love story. To help Jason
complete an impossible trial, the goddesses make the sorceress Medea, daughter of
Colchis’s king, fall madly in love with him. She betrays her family, uses her magic to help
him win the fleece, and flees with him.
●​ Euripides' Medea: A 5th-century BC tragedy.
○​ Plot: Years later in Corinth, Jason abandons Medea and their sons to marry a
princess. Medea, consumed by rage at his broken oaths, plots a horrific revenge.
○​ She murders the princess and her father with a poisoned gown and crown.
○​ To completely destroy Jason, she commits the ultimate act: she murders their two
sons.
○​ The play ends with Medea escaping unpunished in a flying chariot sent by her
grandfather, the sun god Helios, taunting the broken Jason.

Lecture 9: The Three Great Heroes

●​ Herakles (Hercules):
○​ The quintessential Greek hero: Son of Zeus, persecuted by Hera.
○​ Crime & Atonement: Driven mad by Hera, he kills his wife and children. As
penance, he must perform the Twelve Labors for King Eurystheus.
○​ The Labors: A series of impossible tasks that take him across the known world,
including slaying the Nemean Lion, cleaning the Augean Stables, and capturing
Cerberus from the Underworld (katabasis).
○​ Apotheosis: He is killed by a poisoned tunic but is made a god and taken to
Olympus.
●​ Perseus:
○​ A fairy-tale hero: Son of Zeus and Danaë. A prophecy states he will kill his
grandfather.
○​ Quest: Sent on an impossible quest to kill the Gorgon Medusa. With divine aid
(winged sandals, invisibility cap), he beheads her using the reflection in his
shield.
○​ Aftermath: He rescues and marries Princess Andromeda from a sea monster
and later accidentally kills his grandfather with a discus, fulfilling the prophecy.
●​ Theseus:
○​ The great hero of Athens: Son of King Aegeus.
○​ Major Feat: He volunteers to go to Crete, where he kills the Minotaur in the
Labyrinth with the help of the princess Ariadne. He forgets to change his ship's
sails from black to white, causing his father to commit suicide, thus naming the
Aegean Sea.
○​ As King: He unites Attica, defeats the Amazons, and fights centaurs,
symbolizing the triumph of civilization over barbarism.

Lecture 10: The Aeneid (Part 1)

 ●​ Context: Rome’s national epic, written by Virgil under the emperor Augustus. It
legitimizes Augustus's rule by linking his family to the Trojan hero Aeneas and the
goddess Venus.
●​ Aeneas: The hero is defined by his pietas—a sense of duty to his family, gods, and
country.
●​ Book 1: Aeneas and his Trojan refugees are shipwrecked in Carthage by the wrath of
Juno. Jupiter delivers a grand prophecy of Rome's future glory, culminating in
Augustus. Aeneas meets and falls in love with the Carthaginian queen, Dido.
●​ Book 2 (The Fall of Troy): Aeneas recounts the story of the Trojan Horse and the sack
of the city. His defining moment of pietas is when he escapes carrying his father on his
shoulders and leading his son by the hand.
●​ Book 4 (The Tragedy of Dido): Aeneas is reminded of his destiny in Italy by the gods
and resolves to leave Carthage. Dido, feeling betrayed, delivers a powerful curse
prophesying eternal hatred between their peoples (the mythological origin of the Punic
Wars) and then kills herself.

Lecture 11: The Aeneid (Part 2)

●​ Book 6 (The Underworld): The turning point of the epic. Aeneas journeys to the
underworld (katabasis) to speak with his father, Anchises.
○​ Anchises's Prophecy: Anchises shows Aeneas a parade of future Roman
heroes, culminating in a vision of Caesar Augustus, who will bring a new Golden
Age.
○​ The Ivory Gate: Aeneas exits the underworld through the Gate of Ivory, the path
for "false dreams," creating a powerful ambiguity about the vision of Rome's
glory.
●​ Books 7-12 (The War in Italy):
○​ The Trojans land in Latium. Aeneas is betrothed to the princess Lavinia,
angering the local prince, Turnus.
○​ Juno incites a brutal war between the Trojans and the Latins.
○​ The young warrior Pallas, Aeneas’s ally, is killed by Turnus, who takes his sword
belt as a trophy.
○​ Enraged, Aeneas becomes a merciless warrior. In the final duel, he has Turnus
defeated and begging for his life. Aeneas hesitates until he sees Pallas’s belt on
Turnus’s shoulder. "Blazing with wrath," he kills Turnus. The epic ends abruptly
on this act of furious vengeance.

Lecture 12: Roman Foundation Myths (Livy & Ovid)

●​ Livy's History of Rome: A "mytho-historical" account of Rome's founding.

○​ Romulus and Remus: The twin sons of the god Mars and the Vestal Virgin
Rhea Silvia. Ordered to be exposed, they are saved and nursed by a she-wolf
(lupa).
 ○​ Founding of Rome: They decide to found a city, but argue over who should rule.
The dispute leads to fratricide, with Romulus killing Remus.
○​ Reign of Romulus: He populates his city by opening an asylum for outcasts
and orchestrates the Rape of the Sabine Women to provide wives for his men.
After a long reign, he vanishes in a storm and is deified (apotheosis).
●​ Ovid's Metamorphoses: An epic poem based on the theme of transformation.
○​ Creation: An unnamed creator god brings order to Chaos.
○​ The Four Ages: Ovid retells Hesiod's myth of humanity's decline from a Golden
Age to a corrupt Iron Age.
○​ The Great Flood: Jupiter, disgusted by humanity's wickedness (exemplified by
King Lycaon, who is turned into a wolf), destroys the world with a flood.
○​ Deucalion and Pyrrha: The two pious survivors are told to "toss the bones of
your great mother" behind them. They throw stones (the "bones" of Earth), which
transform into a new, hardy race of humans.