February Schedule
Download: Myth Syllabus - February (mysyllabus-feb.doc)

(read all texts at least twice; highlight articles & keep track of ideas)

2 Theogony: text analysis of plot (narrative structure), character types/tokens, symbols -7 groups

4 Theogony: gender analysis: focus on power dynamics; also evolutionary reading? allegorical reading? Pick up Packet at Athens Blueprint & Copy, 260 W. Dougherty St, 548-0656

6 Theogony: Freudian analysis: focus on family dynamics and alliances; on mental health of Zeus

9 Read Enuma Elis (Pkt #1) - Debra & _____, help lead discussion.
Genetic analyses; comparative mythology; intertextuality between Fheogony and other cosmogonies. Genesis of O.T. (Pkt # 3)

11 Quiz on approaches we've used: basic terminology & illustrations/examples; one page essay on finding your feet in period's Theogony

13 Prometheus:champion or rebel? Read Theog 507-616 again, Works & Days 1-285., and Pkt #12 (Gantz)

16 Prometheus: read Pkt #11 (Vernant; assess what is structureless, what etymological, what any other approach in Vernant's essay. I'll review Levi-strauss (espec. the idea of codes and transformations) & V. Propp & the Paris school.

18 Pkt # (Aeschylus, Prom. Bound 436-510) - intertextuality with Hesiod's two texts

20 crises and recoveries: Hom. Hymn to Demeter (in Shelmerdine) text analysis of plot (narrative structure), character types/tokens, symbols - 7 groups

18 Pkt #21 (Felson/Deal, Demophoon Episode ) and #22 (Rudhardt) - how would you characterize each approach?

20 Paper due: your approach to H. Demeter- 2 pages of analysis, 1 page of rationale read Telepinu (pkt. #2) as an antecedent for and interest with H. Demeter

23 Creation of woman: Hesiod's Theog. (unnamed first woman) and WD (Pandora) Genesis, birth of Eve (Pkt. #3)

25 Semonides, Fragment 7 (pkt #10, On Races of Women) Pkt # 13 Loraux, (''On the Race of Woman": What are her premises? What is her methodology?)

27 Film on Pandora exhibit; cultural values and feminity; control of the female; the female as 'untamed'

CLAS 4240/6240
Dr. Nancy Felson, Classics, Park Hall 231. Phone: 2-2153; nfelson@uga.edu
MWF 2:30-3:20 pm
Student Learning Center 147
Office hours: Tu/Thu 2-3 pm or by appointment

Books
Off Campus Bookstore, 696 Baxter, 548-9376
Shelmerdine, Susan, Homeric Hymns (Focus Press)Sandars, N.K., Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin)Lombardo, Stanley, Essential Homer (Hackett)Athanassakis, A. Hesiod: Theogony, Works & Days (Johns Hopkins)Powell, Barry, A Short Introduction to Greek Myth.Packet: ready in the third week of class. Primary and secondary readings.
Bookshelf in 222: several tragedies (Sophocles= Trachineae and Aeschylus= Oresteia)
optional: Richard Martin, Myths of the Ancient Greeks (New American Library) - for background on the stories themselves that make up Greek myth.

Objectives
to develop tools for understanding mythic symbols and story patterns
to consider problems arising in the myth-interpreter as a result of >blind spots= and cultural bias
to consider problems arising from the variety of genres in which ancient mythic stories survive
to develop criteria for evaluating interpretations of ancient myth
to develop our own ways of approaching the interpretation of ancient myth

Format
Careful preparation for class, including the use of the web-site for Powell=s Introduction www.prenhall.com/powell)
Thoughtful discussion of the reading materials.
Integrative and cumulative understanding of the process of myth analysis.
Creative work of your own in the analysis of ancient myths.

Projects: WIP

• Two group presentations of an article (25 minutes)
• Two >post-mortems= of an article presentation and discussion
• Several low stake assignments based on Powell=s essays on his web-site
• Two 7-10 page essays on two or our three large themes: cosmogony & stability; birth of the female and her life-cycle; birth of the male and the hero tale. Each essay will apply methodologies developed in class to specific texts/myths. For each, there will be opportunities to confer with Sarah Frederick and to rewrite. Deadlines will be at the end of the appropriate thematic unit.

Grades
Daily performance, including attendance and homework 10 % (3 absences = absolute limit)
Group presentations 10%
Shorter papers 20%
Two substantive papers 35%
Final 25%