Anyone doing the Coursera class on Greek Mythology?

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Anyone doing the Coursera class on Greek Mythology?

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1JDHomrighausen
Bearbeitet: Sept. 13, 2012, 8:25 pm

Over at The Green Dragon we've been reading through Coursera's wonderful class on fantasy and science fiction. Coursera is a new experiment in education: the MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) for free, available to anyone around the world. The idea is to get a lot of people focusing on one subject and learning from one another. The mythology class, like the fantasy/sci-fi course, has lectures available from the professor and class discussion forums.

The class starts September 24 and runs for 10 weeks. I'm hoping to get other LTers involved. The_Hibernator and I are already up for it. Anyone else?

Course info:

"Myths are traditional stories that have endured over a long time. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? Or are they just entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? This course will investigate these questions through a variety of topics, including the creation of the universe, the relationship between gods and mortals, human nature, religion, the family, sex, love, madness, and death."

"Week 1: Homer, epic poetry, and Trojan legends
Week 2: Heroes and suffering
Week 3: This World and other ones
Week 4: Identity and signs
Week 5: Gods and humans
Week 6: Religion and ritual
Week 7: Justice
Week 8: Unstable selves
Week 9: Writing myth in history
Week 10: From myths to mythology"

Reading list:
Homer, Odyssey
Hesiod, Theogony
Homeric Hymns to Apollo and Demeter
Aeschylus, Oresteia
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Euripides, Bacchae
Vergil, Aeneid
Ovid, Metamorphoses

Recommended translations:
Greek Tragedies, Vol. I, ed. by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)
Greek Tragedies Vol. III, ed. by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)
Hesiod, Theogony, M. L. West, trans. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988)
Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2005)
Homer, The Odyssey, Robert Fagles, trans. (New York: Penguin, 1997)
Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans. (New York: Vintage, 1990)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Mary Innes, trans. (New York: Penguin, 1982; orig. pub. 1955)

Link to the course page where you can sign up.

Link to the Librarything Discussion Page for the class.

2MarysGirl
Sept. 14, 2012, 10:44 am

Thanks for the link!

3jmnlman
Sept. 15, 2012, 4:21 am

A cool concept but I'm the other hand there is no way I'm going to do assignments. :)

4JDHomrighausen
Sept. 15, 2012, 10:04 am

> 3

In the fantasy and sci fi class that I'm taking with my mom, neither of us are doing the assignments. I actually don't think they're well set-up, and the peer grading system is atrocious.

So maybe just think of it as a massive group read, with good video lectures to go along with it. I'm enjoying the discussion on the books we've read on LT.

5brianjungwi
Sept. 15, 2012, 12:33 pm

Yup! Signed up already, I'm also taking the modern poetry course. I'm enjoying the poetry course, great format

6richardbsmith
Bearbeitet: Sept. 15, 2012, 12:37 pm

Glad to learn about the site. I have listened to some of the online open courses with Yale and Harvard. I signed up for astronomy.

The Greek mythology course though looks very interesting for me, maybe at another time.

7PhaedraB
Sept. 15, 2012, 9:20 pm

I'm intrigued, but my health is not good right now so I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up. But now that I know about the site, I can watch for something interesting when the timing is better. Thanks for the tip.

8winderin
Sept. 16, 2012, 8:51 am

I'm up for it! And i can't wait for it to start!!

9groovykinda
Sept. 16, 2012, 3:19 pm

Is there one on ancient religions? I'd do a Roman religion course in a heartbeat (if I had the time!)!

10JDHomrighausen
Sept. 16, 2012, 11:44 pm

I don't think there is one, groovykinda. Most of the Coursera classes are more STEM-related subjects. There is only one category for "Humanities and Social Sciences" so I take what I can get. :)

11Oryphany
Sept. 25, 2012, 2:41 am

Just signed up and ready to go! This should prove interesting.

12JerryMmm
Aug. 13, 2013, 11:44 am

Thanks for the link. I've found the link to the video lectures, it won't be with assignments now because the course isn't running, but you can still watch the video and read the texts. There's a wiki with links to the free texts as well.

13JerryMmm
Nov. 10, 2013, 10:01 am

Thanks for pushing me to finally read Homer and the Greek myths properly.

I love that I recognize turns of phrase and expressions that come back in other works.
like "rosy-fingered Dawn" or its derivatives/translations, I've seen it come back in completely different works. The Machine Stops for example.