Classics 270: Classical Mythology

In Classical Mythology we study the literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans in order to understand how these cultures approached the world and what their stories can tell us about their societies. This course takes a thematic approach, considering “big ideas” such as love, death, and warfare as they are represented in classical myth. We will study some of the most well known stories from ancient myth, such as excerpts from the Odyssey and Iliad, and the stories of Prometheus, Antigone, and Orpheus and Eurydice. Students will be invited to compare these ancient myths to modern stories in order to better understand the functions of mythology and storytelling in society both in history and today.