Professor: Ralph Hexter
Lecture MWF 12:10 PM 1:00 PM PITZER 01010
This course introduces the principal stories, characters, and contexts of myths of the ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome. We begin with the earliest known written stories of gods, in the Sumerian tradition. We read of fierce battles between divine entities, of the origins of the world and its near destruction, of gods and goddesses, of mortals, heroes, monsters, of the seasons and of death itself. While most of the early texts focus on the succession of rival generations of gods, with the advent of mortals attention turns to the deeds of men and women of the earliest times, legendary heroes and heroines, some with divine parentage. How do they interact with the gods? How do they interact with their fellow mortals and the communities they sometimes rule, sometimes disrupt? How do myths and stories of heroes reflect political, social, and religious values and concerns at different historical stages of the cultures that create and transmit them? The course focuses primarily on ancient Near Eastern and Greek myths, but we also consider the case of Rome, which had its own myths even as it adapted much from Greece, as Greece did at a much earlier time and in different ways from the yet older civilizations of West Asia. Readings include (translations of) complete texts – The Epic of Gilgamesh, Hesiod’s Theogony, three Greek tragedies – as well as excerpts and summaries by later mythographers. Familiarity with these myths enables a richer understanding of the many later literary and visual representations that continue to draw inspiration from ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman mythology. Even more importantly, confronting stories from such radically different cultures will expand and deepen your historical awareness and at the same time encourage you to explore, even test, the limits of your own imagination and capacity for empathy and understanding of people in times, places, and situations far removed from our own.
GE credit: AH, VL, WC.