This module is not currently running in 2023 to 2024.
This module is intended to provide a general introduction to myth in the Ancient World and the nature of subsequent responses to it. Scholarship on approaches to mythology, as well as reception studies (if desired), will inform the analysis of myth in both its ancient and modern setting.
In the first term the aim is to introduce students to a working repertoire of a large span of ancient (e.g. Greek) mythology and to its meanings and functions within its original context. A selection of case-study myths (represented in literature and/or iconography) will be used to examine the potential meanings and social functions of myth in general. In the second term, subsequent responses to these myths will be explored; this might include, for example, the use of Greek myths in the Hellenistic, Roman and/or the modern period, and could include appropriations of myths across a range of media.
2 hours per week
75% coursework 25% exam
Indicative Reading List
Anderson, Graham, 2000. Fairytale in the Ancient World. London: Routledge.
Bremmer, Jan N., 1990. Interpretations of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
Csapo, Eric, 2005. Theories of Mythology. Malden, Ma., Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Davidson-Reid, Jane. 1993. Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts 1300-1990s. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dowden, Ken, 1992. The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
Griffin, J., 1986. The Mirror of Myth: classical themes & variations. London: Faber & Faber.
Hard, R. 2000. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
Hardwick, L. and C. Stray, eds. 2007. A Companion to Classical Receptions. Malden, Ma., Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Moog-Grünewald, M. ed. 2010. The Reception of Myth and Mythology. Leiden: Brill.
Morford, Mark P. O. and Lenardon, Robert J., 2003. Classical Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
11.1 show a broad knowledge of myth and an understanding of its importance in the ancient world and responses to it;
11.2 critically evaluate the function of myth from antiquity;
11.3 employ academic skills fundamental to their future learning – including the evaluation of myth and the evaluation of modern scholarship;
11.4 locate the material studied in the context of European intellectual, cultural and historical traditions;
11.5 understand the opportunities offered by the polysemic nature of myth and the challenges involved in the analysis of it;
11.6 show increased ability in thinking critically and communicating about mythology and its functions.
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