Mortals & Immortals
The seminars in this course are differentiated from the formal lectures, in that students gather in small groups to discuss a mythological theme, rather than learn about a particular myth. Each group is sub-divided into three presentation groups, who are expected to research ahead before the session and produce a presentation on one aspect of this theme, which is then discussed by the class.
There are 5 of these sessions, and the first looked at the different kinds of relationship that existed in myth between gods and humans. Each presentation group studied a different kind of relationship: tutorial relationships (focusing on representations of Odysseus and Athena); adversarial relationships (Heracles and Hera); and divine-mortal ‘doubles’ (Iphigenia and Artemis).
Questions to look at included ‘How are gods and mortals represented as interacting?’ ‘What kinds of myths are told about these pairings?’ and ‘What are the results?’
This worked better in some groups than others. Some students clearly knew their primary texts, and could compare myths both intratextually and with other, similar stories. Some quoted verbatim from the secondary literature and made no attempt at exegesis or comparison. All seemed to take away that these are potentially volatile mythical relationships, and not consistently represented across sources – nor, indeed, are these types of relationship mutually exclusive. I think in future I will focus more on the primary sources, with one or two items of ‘general’ bibliography to help students understand some of the theory behind these stories.
Tags: Greek gods, Greek myth, mythological theory
