Course Description and Objectives

Classical mythology provides a rich abundance of traditional stories that simultaneously entertain and pose difficult, and at times uncomfortable, questions about human nature and the cosmos, justice and injustice, communities and individuals, power and helplessness, life and death and what might transcend mortality. These are universal questions that we still ask today, and part of the power of myth has been its ability to provide a space for people throughout the history of western civilization and in the present day to renegotiate their positions on those questions. We shall examine these myths both as they were told and in their cultural and historical contexts, interrogate them and understand both what they have to say and what forces shaped their diverse perspectives. We shall also consider the impact of these stories on subsequent generations in Rome, in Europe, and in today's world.

In addition to considering multiple works of Greek literature and visual examples of material culture related to those works of Greek literature, you will engage in writing exercises and discussions on Canvas to explore ethical concerns of ancient literature and the complex relationship between ancient mythology and the modern Western cultures that often claim descent from ancient Greece. Exercises on Canvas will also teach you new skills that will help you better understand myth through the sciences of botany and astronomy.

General University Requirement Credit

Classical Studies 350 provides you with five of the twelve necessary General University Requirement (GUR) credits in Humanities (HUM).

Whenever you tell a story, see a film or a work of art, or ponder an ethical question, you are encountering the humanities. The humanities include academic disciplines that use critical, historical, and aesthetic approaches to explore how people experience and document their lives, examine and question the values of their societies, and creatively engage with their world. Currently, our courses in the humanities address the languages, literatures, fine arts, history, philosophies, and religions of Western cultural traditions.

This course addresses social, cultural, and historical literacy and communicative and interpretative literacy:

Social, Cult­ural and Histor­ical Liter­acy:

Courses in this cluster focus on the foundational knowledge and æsthetic, theoretical, and methodological approaches for studying the diversity of human experience.

Com­muni­ca­tive and Inter­pret­ive Liter­acy:

These literacy practices focus on reading, interpreting, and communicating information through oral, print, and digital media and genres for audiences, both specialized and general.

On Keeping an Open Mind

While many people say that ancient Greece lies at the roots of modern western civilization, the ancient world also differs from the modern in may ways. Likewise, within ancient Greece, different cities and people within those cities held diverse views on social and cultural questions, just as the modern world is no monolith. Some of the ancient ideas that you encounter in this class will seem very alien, and some may be shockingly different from your own views. We shall encounter myths about heterosexuality, homosexuality, transexuality, rape, incest, pederasty, bestiality, and many other configurations of sex and power. Rape is an especially frequent theme, and Greek myth treats it far more lightly than our society does. Greek and Roman art also often depicts the human form in the nude, especially the male form, so you will encounter depictions of genitalia, especially the male member, in vase paintings, sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, and other works of art.

Instructor

Miller Krause

Office

Miller Hall 122D

Office Hours

Mon­days, Wednes­days, and Fri­days

12:00–1:00 PM

Tues­days and Thurs­days

2:00–2:30 PM

Email

miller.krause@wwu.edu

Office Phone

(360) 650-4269‬ (email is better)

Class Time and Location

This lecture meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 PM to 5:10 PM in Fraser Hall 101.  The easiest way to find the room is to think of it as the "downstairs room": there are three lectures halls in Fraser, of which one is accessible directly from the lobby, one by climbing a set of stairs, and one by descending another set of stairs, and this classroom is the one you reach by going downstairs.  There are also large and confusing green numbers painted inside the main lobby: "two" is the downstairs room, and that correlates to the elevator button for the room as well.  There is no room "one" by that scheme, which is why it's confusing, as well as because the room is officially numbered 101.

The first lecture is on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, and the last on Thursday, March 6. No holidays impinge on the University's Tuesday-Thursday schedule for Winter, 2025. The final examination will be on Canvas, so the class will not meet during exam week.

Textbook

You will need a copy of any edition of Morford, Lenardon, and Sham's Classical Mythology. The University Bookstore carries the following:

Morford, M., Lenardon, R. and Sham, M. 2023. Classical Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

ISBNs for all twenty-first century editions:

• twelfth edition (2023, current): 978-0197653920
• eleventh edition (2018): 978-0190851644
• tenth edition (2013): 978-0199997329
• ninth edition (2010): 978-0195397703
• eighth edition (2006): 978-0195308051
• seventh edition (2002): 978-0195153446

You can use any edition—the stories that are thousands of years old have not changed in the last fifty years (the first edition of the book was published in 1971).  If you use an older edition, you might find the chapters in a slightly different order, but the basic material is there.

The University bookstore has tried to get copies of the book, but the publisher is trying to push students into buying e-books.  The current paper edition costs $103 new and $78 used at the bookstore, while older editions somehow cost more.  There's also an e-book for $36, which seems a high price for a digital file but much better than $103.  If you look online at used book sources like Abebooks or Half Price Books, you can find them for as little as $6.05 including shipping (as of December 2024).  In the past, students paid on average $25 for the textbook, so anything under that is a good price.

Because many people add into the course after the first class, I have made the readings for the first lecture available on Canvas as PDF files. Click on the readings in the syllabus below or in the modules list for the link to each PDF file.

The library also has a physical copy of the textbook, which should be on one-day course reserves at the circulation desk on the second floor of the library in Haggard Hall.

Other readings will appear in the modules list from time to time to supplement Morford. They are required, and they are never boring.

Grading

Grading Scale

Course Requirements

Reading

The readings for each class are listed below on the syllabus and on the modules list, which doubles as a course checklist to help you keep track of readings, quizzes, and assignments. You should read the day's readings before coming to class: the lecture will make more sense when you have read in preparation for class, and the lecture should in turn help clarify the reading. I have made sure that longer reading assignments (double chapters) are due on Tuesdays and shorter assignments on Thursdays, so that you have the weekend to read the longer assignments.

Greek Alphabet

In class and on quizzes, names and other Greek words will appear in Greek. If you are unfamiliar with the Greek alphabet, you should work through the Greek Alphabet Workbook on Canvas. You can work through those pages as often as you like; except for the two required practices which help review for the midterm and final, they do not count for or against you in the grades.

Attendance (10%)

You should come to class. I realize, however, that sometimes Things Happen, so you have two free, unexcused absences: Canvas is already set up to handle those automagically. After that, your absences need to be documented with a doctor's note or some other valid excuse to avoid losing points.

At the beginning of each class, you'll pick up a small slip of paper with a question on it. Usually this will ask you to write down what you find most interesting, most important, or most difficult to understand in the day's class: the point of these papers is to give me instant, daily feedback to help me improve future lectures. They also serve as a way of taking attendance.

Athletes and anyone planning on missing class for athletics, university-sponsored events, military duty, or religious holidays should inform me of absences in advance. That lets me excuse absences and add time to Canvas assignments for those students in advance. Within the first two weeks of class, give me a letter listing the games/matches/meets, events, military service, or holidays requiring absences for the quarter, so that I can plan ahead to help you stay on track. I like planning ahead.

Assignments (25%)

The assignments category has two components: three workbooks that you can complete by yourself, and five discussion assignments that require you to write about Greek mythology and share your thoughts with your classmates.

Independent, asynchronous workbook assignments have their own modules in Canvas. While there may be many components to a workbook module, only the last one or two will be graded; the rest are there if you need the practice. They take the form of multiple-choice or matching assignments, with no time limit and with infinite attempts allowed. While the graded workbook assignments have suggested due dates to work them into the course where they seem to make the most sense, they remain open until the last day of exam week, so you are free to work on them all quarter, whenever you like. If you complete an entire workbook, you'll get a badge in Badges.

The earlier discussion assignments are more objective, asking you to give facts and an interpretation of those facts. Later discussion assignments become more subjective and creative, emulating ancient rhetorical exercises by which Greek and Roman students learned to make arguments from a variety of perspectives. In each discussion, you'll write a brief amount (fewer than 250 words, please) and post it to your discussion group, a small, randomly selected sample of the class (drawn from both sections). Others will be doing the same. They'll comment on your assignment, and you should comment on at least two other people's assignments. Make your comments meaningful—not, "Wow, I like this almost as much as I like kittens," but instead, "Wow, I hadn't realized that Hermes was acting as a psychopomp in book 24 of the Iliad; does that mean that Achilles is a personification of death?" The point is to get a conversation started about myth. Remember that in any conversation other people might express opinions that are different from yours, and that's okay: you should remain polite even when someone says something that seems mind-numbingly stupid to you. On each discussion assignment, you'll earn up to eight points for your initial post and one each for the two required comments, for a total of ten points in all.

Quizzes (25%)

There are eight quizzes, all available on Canvas. Each quiz has ten questions and a time limit of ten minutes. You get only one chance at each quiz, so make sure that you've done the reading and reviewed your lecture notes before you take the quiz. You should not use your notes or textbook during a quiz: the time limit is there to prevent you from looking for answers that you should instead know.

Watch the due dates and deadlines: quizzes become available on Thursday immediately after class and are due Friday. If, by chance, some terrible disaster or the wrath of the gods keeps you from being able to take the quiz by then, it will remain open for another day after that. After Saturday, however, Canvas will close down the quiz forever.

Midterm Examination (20%)

The midterm examination will cover the introductory material and the gods of divine myth. The examination is on Canvas, not in class, so you will be able to pick a time convenient to you to take the final. Check the schedule below or the Midterm Examination page for the dates when the midterm becomes available for your section. The midterm examination has fifty questions; the time limit is one hour.  You should not use your notes or textbook during an exam: the time limit is there to prevent you from looking for answers that you should instead know.

Final Examination (20%)

The final will focus on the material covered since the midterm: legends. The final, like the midterm, is on Canvas, not in class, so there is no need for you to come to a final exam period held in the classroom. Check the schedule below or the Final Examination page for the dates when the final examination becomes available. The final examination has fifty questions; the time limit is one hour.  You should not use your notes or textbook during an exam: the time limit is there to prevent you from looking for answers that you should instead know.

Per University policy, no student may take a final examination before the final examination week. Because the examination is on Canvas, you do have the flexibility of taking it when and where you want during finals week, but you cannot take the examination earlier than the final examination week.

Help

If you have questions about how to use Canvas, first read the Canvas Student Guide and the ATUS help page on Canvas. If you still need help after that, contact the ATUS Help Desk:

Web: atus.wwu.edu/help-desk
Email: helpdesk@wwu.edu
Phone: (360) 650-3333.

I have gathered other resources on the Help and Frequently Asked Questions page. For other questions, e-mail me at miller.krause@wwu.edu or stop by my office during office hours.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity means more than not copying answers, a negative definition that only tells you what integrity is not. Think of what academic integrity actually means in the positive sense: put into your classes in the work that your studies demand, so that you grow in your knowledge and skills. Explore the University's Academic Integrity website for more on the University's philosophy and regulations.

Weekly Schedule

Below you will find a schedule of all exams, quizzes, assignments, readings, lectures, and the film. You may find the Modules page easier to navigate, but the schedule below is strictly chronological.

Boilerplate: This syllabus is subject to change. Changes, if any, will be announced in class. Students will be held responsible for all changes.

Reality: The Plan™ was carefully conceived. There will be no changes except under extraordinary circumstances (i.e. if snow cancels classes).

Canvas provides feeds to which you can subscribe, to keep all your course info in your favorite calendar program like Apple's Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. For details, see the Canvas Guide on subscribing to the Calendar Feed. Or, if you want, you can subscribe to just this course alone—you can put each of your courses into your calendar separately to color them differently or to turn them on or off individually.