Classical mythology is the greatest collaborative tale ever told, spanning a millennium and two cultures with characters and themes so powerful that they remain cultural archetypes today. This course demonstrates both how individual myths fit into the story, and how mythology itself fitted into Greek and Roman religion and culture.
Course Dates
Course details
Tutors
Key Features
Aims of the course
- To introduce the ancient Greek and Roman myths and show how they developed and absorbed elements of different Mediterranean cultures.
- To show that individual myths are contained within a meta-narrative which has a beginning, middle and end
- To analyse the nature of the myths, common themes and what the myths tell us about the societies which created them
- To learn something of the ancient approach to religion and religious thought.
Course content overview
The course will largely concentrate on translations of the original ancient texts and will attempt to understand the nature of myth in a non-technical and jargon free manner.
Welcome week (Week 0)
Purpose:
- personal introductions
- introducing the course
- useful reading
- personal objectives
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- become familiar with navigating around the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and from VLE to links and back
- test your ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sort out any problems with the help of the Technology Enhanced Learning team
- learn how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
- contribute to a discussion forum to introduce yourself to other students and discuss why you are interested in the course and what you hope to get out of your studies
Week 1: The nature of ancient gods
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- a knowledge of how Greek and Romans saw their Gods
- an appreciation of how classical culture interacted with the divine
- a grasp of the henotheism, polytheism and monotheism and what differentiates a religion from a cult
Week 2: The nature of Creation myths
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- a knowledge of the key Greek texts, particularly Hesiod
- an understanding of the common elements of a creation myth
- an appreciation of ancient understanding of time
Week 3: The Gods
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- familiarity with gods Olympian, cthonic and foreign
- an understanding of the nature of ritual and prophesy in the ancient world
- an appreciation of the complementary nature of myth and religion
Week 4: The heroes
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- an understanding of the basic heroic quest
- a knowledge of the main Greek heroes and the concomitant chronology and ancestry
- an appreciation of the social questions and conflicts that the myths tried to identify and explain
Week 5: The Trojan war and the aftermath (Aeneid and Odyssey)
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- a good understanding of three of the most important texts in literature
- an appreciation of the effect of these texts on ancient and modern society
- an understanding of the world of Odysseus
- an appreciation of how the material studied earlier in the course comes together in the final week
Week 6: what next?
- assessment of student learning
- assessment of student satisfaction
- encouragement of further study
This course is open to everyone, and you don’t need any previous knowledge or experience of the subject to attend.
Our short courses are designed especially for adult learners who want to advance their personal or professional development. They are taught by tutors who are expert in both their subjects and in teaching students of all ages and experiences.
Please note that all teaching is in English. You should have near-native command of the English language to get the maximum benefit from the course.
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours of self-study time, for example, reading materials, although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the VLE so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (using discussion boards etc).
Fees
The course fee includes access to the course on our VLE, personal feedback on your work from an expert tutor, a certificate of participation (if you complete work and take part in discussions), and access to the class resources for two years after your course finishes.
Concessions
For more information, please see our concessions information page.
Alison Fordham Bursary
University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education is proud to offer the Alison Fordham bursary, which is awarded to students who wish to study on one of our short online courses via our VLE, reducing the fee paid by 50%. The bursary is limited to a single award for each set of online courses.
Application criteria:
- applicants should set out their personal learning motivations since priority will be given to those who are returning to learning after an extended break, or have not previously engaged with fully online learning, or are seeking to use the online short course as a bridge towards undergraduate award-bearing study
- applicants who can demonstrate financial need
For more information, please see our bursaries information page.
A certificate of participation and a digital credential will be awarded to those who contribute constructively to weekly discussions, exercises and assignments for the duration of the course.
