Welcome to Classics 10 Greek Roman and Near Eastern Mythology Professor Rex Stem rexstem hotmail com Summer 2013 I Syllabus and Course Details II Mythos vs Logos III Myth and Mythos Leonidas King of Sparta is here challenging you to study Ancient Greece I Syllabus and Course Details Classics 10 Greek Roman and Near Eastern Mythology CRN 70924 Mostly Greek with a few Near Eastern parallels and one day on Rome at the end TWTh 10 11 40am Wellman 126 TA Katie Hager krhager ucdavis edu Exams are written jointly but grading is overseen by Katie talk with her first if you have a question regarding grading My Contact Information Rex Stem Associate Professor of Classics i e I primarily teach Latin and Greek 716 Sproul Hall my office rexstem hotmail com email is best way to reach me Office Hours T 1 2 Th 1 2 and by appointment or just talk with me right before or after class I am happy to advise about readings and exams Textbook Barry Powell Classical Myth 7th ed This is the only text it is important that you have it see the readings on the syllabus One copy is on reserve at Shields Library Note the companion website for the text www pearsonhighered com powell Reading notes power points quizzes on key names and terms pronunciation help etc Purpose of Class As on syllabus This course introduces the major myths of the ancient Mediterranean world stories about creation tales of the Olympian goddesses and gods myths of fertility encounters with the underworld and legends of heroes including Gilgamesh Hercules Theseus Jason Achilles Odysseus and Aeneas The class emphasizes common themes and motifs in these myths their origins and development and their relationship to political cultural and religious movements in the ancient world Format of Class Primarily lecture The lectures will selectively reinforce the readings assigned for each class Success in this course thus requires you to keep up with the reading which averages 100 pages per week come to lecture regularly take intelligent notes and study those notes to the point of mastery and memorization This course has only one textbook but you will have to read it carefully and you may want to use the textbook website to review the key names and terms listed at the end of each chapter Plan to spend about two hours in preparation for each class reading new material and reviewing previous reading and lecture notes Grading Breakdown Exam 1 Chapters 1 9 67 questions 33 3 Exam 2 Chapters 10 17 67 questions 33 3 Exam 3 Chapters 18 23 67 questions 33 3 The exams will be multiple choice for which you will need to bring a UCD 2000 scantron sheet Lectures will directly prepare you for the exams You are responsible for making it to class on time with a scantron sheet on test days Rare exceptions may be considered if you provide written proof that your absence on that day was absolutely unavoidable Grading Scale A B C D F 98 100 A 93 97 A 90 92 87 89 B 83 86 B 80 82 77 79 C 73 76 C 70 72 67 69 D 63 66 D 60 62 below 60 Gradebook will be maintained on the course site on Smartsite All course documents and power point lectures will also be posted to our SmartSite course site ANY QUESTIONS SO FAR II Mythos vs Logos The history of early Greek culture shows the shift from oral to written stories When the Greek alphabet was invented ca 800 750 BCE most of the body of Greek myths seem already to have existed The first stories written down we think were Homer s Iliad and Odyssey They were already at least 400 years old Forever after the greatest stories of Greece Hesiod s account of creation written soon after Mythos vs Logos In the Archaic period roughly 800 490 BCE Greek culture matures into a very distinct world culture city states political freedom fine arts The Greek defeat of Persia in 490 480 propelled Greece into its maturity as a civilization Greeks began to ask specifically who they were and why they had achieved what they had They became self conscious of their status as free and independent human beings and as citizens of their community They invented the study of the humanities Mythos vs Logos Athens was the center of Greek learning and art the School of Greece esp 450 400 BCE The disciplines of history philosophy oratory and tragic poetry all begin there The Greeks and especially the Athenians embraced human reason as the key to their cultural success I e they did things well because they thought through them studied them and therefore made the right choices in how to act Yet this progress led to an educational crisis Mythos vs Logos During the great war between Athens and Sparta 431 404 BCE which would exhaust Athens this educational crisis became very divisive in Athens On one side were the believers in the old ways in the old stories in the old poets They had a simpler cultural perspective for they thought that too much self analysis led to moral slipperiness and self justification They were the advocates of mythos the traditional stories of collective importance Mythos vs Logos On the other side were those who believed that the old stories were simplistic and not logical or consistent often not even morally sound They felt that only things that could be irrefutably proven were real and that self advantage was the natural way Man is the measure of all things says Protagoras one of their famous teachers They were the advocates of logos rational selfanalysis that celebrated the superior intellectual power of the human on the earth Mythos vs Logos Logos seems to have won over the younger generation by ca 415 or so but then the Athenians began to lose the war and the pressure of that overwhelmed everything else But after the war ended a teacher named Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth by not believing in the gods of the city He gave a defense speech that was noble in its principles but that challenged the Athenian jury to acknowledge his superiority of mind Socrates declared that the unexamined life was not worth living and that citizens who do not question the authorities are doomed to ignorance Mythos vs Logos The jury was divided but the majority voted to convict 280 220 we think in 399 BCE His death a victory for mythos quieted the debate between mythos and logos temporarily but Athens seems later to have regretted the vote Socrates student Plato spent the rest of his life teaching the questions of Socrates Plato in turn taught Aristotle who rejected Platonic thinking but kept on asking the questions Mythos vs Logos Intellectually