Classical Mythology
En 118
Autumn 2019

Prof. Kristine Haugen
215 Dabney Hall
haugen@hss.caltech.edu

Office hours: 
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-5 p.m., Dabney 215

Book list (you need to use only the exact editions listed)
Collaboration policy (.pdf)
Forum

Ancient poetry is called "mythology" because in the eyes of its audience, a poem wasn't even a poem unless it retold the same stories about gods and heroes that they already knew.  In the words of Callimachus, the librarian poet of ancient Alexandria, "I sing nothing unattested"--that is, nothing in my poems lacks a footnote.

Yet ancient poets also had a concept of originality, even if its scale was very different from ours. Their audiences savored the smallest innovation added to familiar stories, including new ideas and questions about what those stories meant or even about the ancient gods themselves.  In this competition to tell old tales in the most subtle way, it was better to gain an elegant inch than to gain a mile. 

This entire vanished world, with its superhuman stories, encyclopedic knowledge, and changing beliefs, is what we'll study in this course.

There are three kinds of requirements for joining the course. 

First, a 1-page written problem is due by email each week before class; I ask a question about the reading, you answer it.  These are evaluated and handed back the following week.  In addition, there's a final project in two parts.  I'll distribute an essay about one of our readings, and you'll (a) write a 2-page response to it, then (b) imagine that you are the essay's author and write a 2-page comment on a classmate's response.  The due dates for these are the last week of class and Monday of finals week. 

Second, you must come to class with printed copies of the correct editions of our readings – that is, the editions I’ve chosen for you – which include the correct translations, editors’ notes, page numbers, line numbers, and so on.  (See the list of required books, which it's best to get through a different source than the Caltech bookstore.)  I am aware that dozens of other Homers, Ovids, and so on exist, including in the Caltech library, but none of these is acceptable unless it is exactly the same as the one assigned for the class.  E-books that have different translations – that is, essentially all of them – are also unacceptable.  I have the right to ask you to leave if you don’t bring the correct book to class.  The reason why I am so serious about this matter is that both written work and class discussion are very hard if you are not using the book that the class is using, and you will deprive yourself of helpful prefaces, indexes, and glossaries as well; I'll show you the great differences between translations in the first class session.  You may be surprised.  It should also be obvious that I can't grade homework if I can't check on your passages.

Third, a continuing experiment.  Because Caltech's culture of collaboration is the envy of other universities, and because I will stop at nothing to promote lively discussion in class, I'm asking each student to post twice a week on our online discussion board (enrollment key:  haugen), at least twelve hours apart.  You can either discuss the homework assignment or raise other comments and questions about the reading.  I might contribute if a serious misunderstanding arises, but the point is simply for you to get started and collaborate on the homework, and you're graded only for participating in a substantive way.

We’ll split the 3-hour class session into discussing the day’s reading and homework, activities in small groups, and sometimes a short lecture, with a break in the middle.  I will hold open office hours for four hours each week, and I’m available by appointment at other times.  Especially because I've only taught this class a few times, I’ll be relying on questions and comments from students to get a finer sense of what is interesting and new to you.  So definitely speak up, both in and out of class.


Reading schedule

October 1
First class
Ancient fans of poetry, repetition, and change

October 8
Homer, Odyssey (9th-8th centuries BCE), books 5-13
Greek-speaking part of present-day Turkey or nearby islands (Ionia)
Due:  Problem 1, click to see assignment (by email at 6 p.m.)

October 15
Hesiod, Theogony (around 700 BCE) and Pindar, odes (5th century BCE):  photocopies will be distributed
Hesiod:  supposed to be born in the region of Boeotia in central Greece, but note that this is also the location of Mount Helicon, home of the Muses, mentioned in his poems
Pindar:  born near Thebes in Boeotia
Due:  Problem 2

October 22
Aeschylus, Oresteia trilogy of tragedies (458 BCE)
Athens, dominant city in mainland Greece during what we call the classical period, first of the three most famous tragedians
Due:  Problem 3

October 29
Euripides, Bacchae (405 BCE) you can skip the other plays in our book, though you might be entertained by and Iphigenia in Aulis (405 BCE)
Also Athens, also classical period; notice that Euripides is more than a generation younger than Aeschylus
Due:  Problem 4 

November 5
No class

November 12
Plato (about 429-347 BCE), Symposium
Athens, classical period; Plato is younger than Euripides.  Note that Socrates was a real person, but he didn't write down any of his philosophy
Due:  Problem 5
Final project distributed

November 19
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautika
3rd century BCE, Alexandria, where Apollonius was head of the large and prestigious library
Due:  Problem 6 

November 26
Ovid, Metamorphoses (about 8 CE), books 1-7:  strong possibility that we will discuss parts of book 3 (Bacchus) and book 7 (Medea)
Rome during the reign of Augustus Caesar, the first emperor following centuries of rule by representative bodies (the "Republic")
 Due:  Problem 7
December 3 (last class)
Seneca (about 1-65 CE), Medea
Also Rome, perhaps during the reign of Seneca's student and patron the Emperor Nero
Due:  First part of final project (2 pages):  bring 4 printouts to class

The second part of the final project (2 pages), responding to your classmates' papers, is due by email to me at 11:59 p.m. on Monday of finals week, December 9.