Welcome to the Home Page of
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Mark F. Williams (H361, x6293; email WILM@calvin.edu)
Office hour: 13:00 daily, and by appointment
Welcome to the Home Page of
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|---|
Mark F. Williams (H361, x6293; email WILM@calvin.edu)
Office hour: 13:00 daily, and by appointment
Course goals: This course is an introduction to the mythology of the ancient Greeks and (to a lesser extent) of other Mediterranean peoples as well; if time permits, some attention will be devoted to the reasons why Christianity displaced paganism by the fourth century A.D.. Your main task in this course will be to learn the basic outlines and significance of the major myths of the ancient Greeks. By the end of this course you will be able to recognize the various gods and goddeses in art by their mythical attributes, discuss the nature of ancient polytheistic religion, and have a better understanding of the pagan milieu in which Christianity arose.
Click for more information on the topics below:
Appendices and Miscellaneous Course Materials
Click on the following topics to see the outline and other information associated with that particular unit of Classics 231. The units below are correlated with the chapters of our main textbook, Barry Powell, Classical Mythology (fourth edition), with some modifications.
Please note: CLAS 231, Section A, will be using different textbooks, including the third edition of Powell. Please make sure you have the proper books for whatever section of CLAS 231 you are taking!
How to use the following materials: The links below are to my own outlines of the chapters in Prof. Powell's book. They are intended for the use of students in CLAS 231B at Calvin College; if you are a visitor from off-campus, you are welcome to look around, but you may not find this stuff all that useful (especially if you do not own Powell's book). If, however, you are indeed a student in CLAS 231B at Calvin College, I will expect you to know the material that is outlined below, and will feel free to include it the tests that you will take in this course. Ideally, you will have at least a cursory idea of who or what the items in the outlines are by the time those topics are coverend in class; if you do, we will be able to spend more time in class actually discussing the myths and their importance.
Please note: the following links are under reconstruction for Fall term, 2003, and not all of them may work properly. Revised pages are marked with a graphic of the current (fourth) edition of Powell's textbook at the beginning of the document. Many thanks for your patience.
Timeline: Peoples and Civilizations
Chapter One: The Nature of Myth
Chapter Two: The Cultural Context of Classical Myth
Chapter Three: The Development of Classical Myth
Chapter Four: Myths of Creation: The Rise of Zeus
Chapter Five: Myths of Creation: The Origins of Mortals
Chapter Six: Myths of the Olympians: Zeus and Hera
Chapter Seven: Myths of the Olympians: The Male Deities
Chapter Eight: Myths of the Olympians: The Female Deities
Chapter Nine: Myths of Fertility: Demeter
Chapter Ten: Myths of Fertility: Dionysus
Chapter Eleven: Myths of Death: Encounters with the Underworld
Chapter Twelve: Introduction to Heroic Myth
Chapter Thirteen: Perseus and Myths of the Argive Plain
Chapter Fifteen: Theseus and the Myths of Athens
Chapter Sixteen: The Myths of Crete
Chapter Seventeen: Oedipus and the Myths of Thebes
Chapter Eighteen: Jason and the Myths of Iolchus and Calydon
Chapter Ninteen: The Trojan War
Chapter Twenty: The Fall of Troy
Chapter Twentyone: The Return of Odysseus
Chapter Twentythree: Theories of Myth Interpretation
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You are cordially invited to visit Mark Williams' Homepage.
Last modified on 26 August, 2003.