Ancient Greek Monsters, Giants, Beasts and Mythical Tribes/Creatures (Amazons)
In this 14-week course the students will explore the well known, yet poorly understood world of legendary creatures, mythical tribes, dragons, giants, beasts, and monsters of the Ancient Greek Mythology, with the use of ancient Greek art
Spyridon (Spiros) Loumakis
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:(776)
What's included
14 live meetings
14 in-class hoursHomework
1 hour per week. Homework, designed to take no more than 30 minutes per week, will be assigned in two forms: (a) before each of the ten meetings students will be asked to study the short hand-out which will be distributed in advance as part of their preparation, and (b) the students will be assigned two quizzes (one at the end of week 6 and the second at the end of week 14) in the form of a multiple-choice quiz to be filled out under parental supervision, in order to test their memory, attention and observation. This test may also include one or two questions requiring a very short answer, in order to assess the learners' comprehension.Assessment
I do not believe that a letter grade is meaningful for a summer camp on mythology. However, as I often do with my one-time classes, which are always small classes (up to 7 students), I communication with the parents and the children directly, providing my personal comments, private feedback and an informal assessment.Grading
includedClass Experience
US Grade 6 - 8
Intermediate Level
This is a 14-week course suitable for learners who are genuinely interested in ancient Greek mythology, motivated to learn more, and willing to follow this class in order to acquire a deeper knowledge about all these misunderstood animal, bestial and monstrous characters of ancient Greek mythology. In this 14-week journey through Greek mythology we are going to use ancient Greek art to imagine with the help of ancient Greek artists these imaginary creatures and acquire a deeper knowledge of them. As the great J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) once said about monsters in medieval Anglo-Saxon literature: “I would suggest, then, that the monsters are not an inexplicable blunder of taste; they are essential, fundamentally allied to the underlying ideas of the [story], which give it its lofty tone and high seriousness.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, “Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics” in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (London and Dublin: Harper Collins Publishers, 2006), p. 19) Therefore, with Tolkien's words in our mind, this course is divided into the following eleven thematic subunits: Week 1: Introduction and the Grips (Griffins) Week 2: Chimaera - Colchian Dragon - Ismenian Dragon Week 3: Dragons vs Herakles - Dragons vs Apollo - Legendary Dragons Week 4: Herakles vs Giants Week 5: Zeus and Apollo vs Giants Week 6: Gigantomachy Week 7: Beasts Part 1 (Beasts related to Herakles) Week 8: Beasts Part 2 (Beasts related to Theseus) - The Minotaur Weeks 9 and 10: Monsters of the Forest (especially the Sphinx and the Centaurs) Week 11: Monsters of the Sea (especially Scylla and the Sirens) Weeks 12 and 13: Monsters beyond the Sea (especially the Cyclopses and Medusa) Week 14: The Amazons and other Mythical Tribes The learning process of this class is based on a combination of a power-point presentation, a lecture that asks students to participate, class dialogue, questions based on the ongoing lecture, and new ideas based on the dynamic of the group. There is not one universal solution to teach. Rather I combine techniques to achieve the maximum of my strengths and of my students. Having taught so far young kids, teenagers, University students and mature learners, I know that teachers need to approach students with understanding, and that is why I try to keep my classes small (up to 7 students), in order to work with every single one of the participants. After all, a small class has the advantage of binding the group better, and making the combined technique of ppt presentation-lecture-dialogue feasible and efficient. Thanks to Zoom, engaging students and interacting with them is always possible.
Learning Goals
In this class students will understand that the magic of myths lies not only in the stories themselves, fascinating as they are, but in the logic behind them and in their deeper meaning. Myths will be appreciated as a system of beliefs and a way of thinking about the world, as it was created by the ancient Greeks.
The goal for the students is to learn at an introductory level how Greeks were structuring their myths and some of the narrative patterns that they were employing to tell meaningful stories about their gods.
We will discuss together how were these stories played out in ancient Greek art, and especially in relation to the lifes and deeds of ancient Greek heroes who often, so many of them, fought these creatures.
We will finally delve into an ancient religion with respect, so as to learn from this example two very important lessons: that there is no absolute truth, and that nothing unchangeable in time, when it comes to religious traditions, old and new.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
In the ancient Greek art gods are depicted often (but not always) naked. The Greek word for a naked man is "gymnos" and that is why in English today we say "gymnastics" or "gym" although our children and athletes wear uniforms. This being said, any artistic reproduction in ancient art should be expected to show nude gods. I try to use as less as possible, but it is not always within my hands since this is the nature of the ancient Greek art itself. Since, it is an art that comes from an era where there were no photographs, or videos, the art is found only on painted vases, wall paintings and sculpture. Nudity was never meant to provoke, but to tell to the ancient viewer that gods are not mortal humans and, thus, they do not need clothes. As you may very well understand, I cannot change the history of art, nor my preference as teacher of mythology in showing students the original art from ancient times.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined March, 2020
4.9
776reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
I have a B.A. and M.A. in ancient Greek history and archaeology, as well as an M.A. in history and phiosophy of religions. I have excavated in ancient Greek sites, I speak ancient and modern Greek and I am currently finishing my PhD. Reviews
Live Group Course
$22
weekly or $308 for 14 classes1x per week, 14 weeks
60 min
Completed by 4 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 11-14
3-8 learners per class
