Ancient Greek Mythology

Dr. Bella Vivante
Spring 2015
TUESDAYS |  
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jan. 27, Feb. 3. 10, 17, 24, March 3, 10, 24, 31, April 7, 2015
Course Format: Hybrid
Location: Main Campus
Tuition: $195

Perennially fascinating, ancient Greek mythology has inspired and continues to inform creative activity from “highbrow” literature to popular media. This course will explore major mythological events and characters beginning with the creation tale, which features a succession of generations of gods embroiled in gender and generational conflict. We will examine the gods’ importance in ancient Greek ritual and cultural life and then hero tales—Herakles, Oedipus, the Trojan War cycle, and more. By appreciating the diversity and complexities of ancient Greek mythological tales, we can move beyond the merely entertaining stories to learn that these myths touch on virtually every aspect of human relationships and activities. The stories reveal ancient Greek thinking on profound human issues, and these insights will in turn illuminate our contemporary values and beliefs.

Required Reading

Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. 8th ed. Longman, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0321967046.

Please note: This is the newest edition, but earlier esitions are acceptable, too.

Meet Your Instructor

Professor Emerita

Honored to receive 2018’s Ted & Shirley Taubeneck Superior Teaching Award, Bella brings her enthusiastic love of Ancient Greek poetry and culture to her HSP classes: Homer’s brilliant epics, select themes in Greek drama, Ancient Anatolia, more. See this dynamic antiquity in her Daughters of Gaia: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean, translation of Euripides’s Helen in Women on the Edge: Four Plays by Euripides, or Women and Family in Ancient Greece DVD.

Location

POETRY CENTER
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

Street map image of Poetry Center

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