5/28-6/16
Alex Dressler
Literature, Elementary
3 credits
This course investigates the myths of ancient Greece and Rome from the earliest epic reflections on life, the universe, and everything to the latest Roman remakes and the Christian critiques of “Pagan” craziness. With a special focus on what myths were and how the Greeks and Romans themselves interpreted them, the course includes extensive readings from Homer’s conflicts of Achilles and the wanderings of Ulysses, from Sophocles’ story of poor Oedipus (and poor humanity?), and the military myths of immigration and imperialism in Romulus and Remus and other Roman originals. In addition to studying the major cycles of ancient myth and their most canonical characters, students will consider, not only how the ancients interpreted myth, but also how some moderns (such as Freudians, science fiction writers, or feminists) have too.