Honors | Myth and Image in Ancient Greece
H203 | 0014 | Glowacki
This course fulfills the COAS Topics Requirement.
The myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome provide some of the
most familiar metaphors and symbols in Western literature and art.
While most surveys of Classical mythology concentrate on the preserved
literary accounts, we need to remember that art and archaeology are
also rich sources of information which can and should be studied in
their own right. As much as the ancient Greek or Roman city was a
world of poets and texts, it was also a world of images--sculpture,
architecture, painting, vases, terracottas, textiles, and
metalwork--which surrounded the inhabitants of the city with familiar
and meaningful representations of their gods and ancestors. How can we
make sense of these images? What do they tell us about ancient
culture, society, and ideas? Does the meaning of an image change over
time? And what is the significance of the ancient myth-image in our
own cultural traditions?
This course is an exploration of Greek mythology using an
archaeological and art historical approach, focusing on the ways in
which the traditional tales of the gods and heroes were depicted,
developed, and transmitted in the visual arts such as vase painting
and architectural sculpture. The course is divided into three parts.
In the first part, we will survey the myths associated with the major
Greek gods & goddesses, paying attention to modes of visual
representation and learning to recognize attributes. In the second
part of the course, we will focus on the legendary Greek heroes and
heroines and examine the phenomenon of narrative as it first appears
in Greek art, exploring various types of narrative and the
significance of the mythological themes depicted. In the third part of
the course we will discuss several myths in detail, concentrating on
aspects of public display and political symbolism.