Greek Mythology Course

Lesson 1 • Defining Myth and Its Functions

Myth is distinguished from legend, folktale, and history using scholarly definitions. This grounding enables students to analyze stories critically rather than treat them as mere entertainment.

Lesson 2 • Primary Sources and Ancient Texts

Key ancient authors—Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Pindar—are introduced alongside their works. Students learn to evaluate source reliability and recognize how authorial perspective shapes mythic narratives.

Lesson 3 • Geography and the Greek World

The physical landscape of ancient Greece—mountains, seas, city-states—is mapped onto mythological settings. Students connect geography to narrative logic and regional cult variations.

Lesson 1 • The Titans and the First Divine Age

Uranus, Cronus, and the twelve Titans are introduced as the first ruling generation. Students analyze the power dynamics and family violence that define this era.

Lesson 2 • The Titanomachy: War of the Gods

The ten-year war between Titans and Olympians is examined for its narrative structure and symbolic meaning. Students identify how this conflict establishes cosmic order.

Lesson 3 • Division of the Cosmos

Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide sky, sea, and underworld by lot after victory. Students interpret this division as a model of Greek political and theological order.

Lesson 4 • Primordial Beings and Chaos

Chaos, Gaia, Tartarus, Eros, and Erebus are analyzed as the universe's first entities. Their relationships establish the metaphysical framework underlying all subsequent Greek myth.

Lesson 1 • Athena, Apollo, and Artemis

Wisdom, light, and the hunt are embodied in three powerful Olympians with rich mythological portfolios. Students trace their birth myths and major cult centers.

Lesson 2 • Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Hermes

War, love, craft, and commerce are personified in four Olympians whose myths often intersect. Students analyze their interrelationships and narrative functions.

Lesson 3 • Zeus, Hera, and Divine Kingship

Zeus as sky-king and Hera as queen of heaven are examined through their attributes and marital conflicts. Students analyze how their relationship models divine and human power structures.

Lesson 4 • Poseidon, Demeter, and Hestia

The older Olympian siblings govern sea, harvest, and hearth respectively. Students connect their domains to Greek agricultural, maritime, and domestic life.

Lesson 1 • Underworld Figures and Death Deities

Hades, Persephone, Charon, and the Furies govern the realm of the dead. Students map the underworld's geography and its moral logic of reward and punishment.

Lesson 2 • Monsters and Hybrid Creatures

The Minotaur, Medusa, Sphinx, Chimera, and Hydra are analyzed as narrative obstacles and symbolic threats. Students decode the cultural anxieties monsters represent.

Lesson 3 • Titans and Primordial Remnants

Prometheus, Atlas, Helios, and Selene persist as active mythological figures after the Titanomachy. Students trace their ongoing roles in post-Olympian narratives.

Lesson 4 • Nature Spirits: Nymphs and Satyrs

Nymphs of water, trees, and mountains are categorized alongside satyrs and sileni. Students understand their narrative roles as intermediaries between gods and mortals.

Lesson 1 • Pandora and the Origin of Evil

Pandora's creation as Zeus's counter-gift introduces suffering and hope into the human world. Students interpret this myth as a Greek theodicy explaining mortal hardship.

Lesson 2 • The Five Ages of Man

Hesiod's sequence—Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron ages—charts humanity's moral decline. Students use this framework to interpret Greek pessimism about historical progress.

Lesson 3 • Deucalion's Flood and Human Renewal

The Greek flood myth parallels Near Eastern traditions while asserting Greek cultural identity. Students compare Deucalion's story to other flood narratives and identify shared structures.

Lesson 1 • The Hero Archetype in Greek Culture

The Greek hero is defined by divine parentage, exceptional ability, tragic flaw, and cult worship after death. Students apply this template to evaluate any heroic figure.

Lesson 2 • Heracles: The Quintessential Hero

Heracles's twelve labors, madness, and apotheosis are examined as the fullest expression of Greek heroism. Students trace his narrative arc from birth to deification.

Lesson 3 • Perseus, Theseus, and Athenian Heroes

Perseus and Theseus are examined as foundational heroes tied to specific city-state identities. Students compare their quest structures and political symbolism.

Lesson 4 • Bellerophon, Orpheus, and Lesser Heroes

Secondary heroes illustrate variations on the heroic pattern, including failure and artistic heroism. Students identify how these figures expand the archetype's boundaries.

Lesson 1 • The Odyssey: Journey and Return

Odysseus's ten-year homecoming is analyzed as a myth of identity, temptation, and restoration. Students trace the narrative structure and its embedded mythological episodes.

Lesson 2 • Aftermath: The Nostoi and Oresteia

The returns of Greek heroes and Agamemnon's murder launch the Oresteia cycle. Students trace how the war's consequences extend across generations through divine justice.

Lesson 3 • The Iliad: Rage, Honor, and War

Homer's Iliad is analyzed through Achilles's wrath, the heroic code, and the tragedy of Hector. Students interpret the poem as a meditation on glory, mortality, and grief.

Lesson 4 • The Fall of Troy

The Trojan Horse, the sack of Troy, and the fates of its inhabitants are reconstructed from the Epic Cycle. Students assess the moral ambiguity of Greek victory.

Lesson 1 • Greek Tragedy and Mythological Drama

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides transform myth into dramatic art that critiques society. Students analyze how tragedy reinterprets traditional myths for civic audiences.

Lesson 2 • Interpreting Myth: Analytical Frameworks

Allegorical, structuralist, psychoanalytic, and feminist approaches to myth are compared. Students select and apply appropriate frameworks to analyze specific mythological texts.

Lesson 3 • Mythology in Popular Culture Today

Greek mythology permeates film, video games, advertising, and brand identity in the modern world. Students identify and critically evaluate mythological allusions in contemporary media.

Lesson 4 • Greek Mythology in Western Art and Literature

Renaissance, Romantic, and modern artists and writers have continuously reinterpreted Greek myths. Students trace specific mythological themes across centuries of Western creative production.