Zeus, Hades, Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus, Demeter, and Aphrodite—these enduring figures stand at the heart of the myths that have shaped Western imagination for millennia. This seminar explores the gods of Olympus through the poems, hymns, and plays of ancient Greece and Rome, enriched by close study of visual art that depicted and reinterpreted them across time. Together, these sources illuminate how the ancients understood divine presence in the world and the forces that governed human life.
Our work will move beyond familiar stories to consider each deity’s sphere of influence, attributes, and distinctive iconography, while also examining how myth and religious practice intertwined in everyday Greek experience. We will explore the cultural debts the Greeks owed to their Near Eastern neighbors, the political uses of divine myth in both Athens and Rome, and the ways these narratives expressed evolving ideas about fate, justice, desire, and the limits of human agency. Through this inquiry, students will gain a deeper understanding not only of the ancient gods themselves, but of the rich imaginative world that shaped—and continues to shape—conceptions of love, life, and death.
Summer Registration Opens
Monday, March 30, 2026 at 8 AM (AZ Time)
