Ancient Greek Mythology and Archaeology: From Chaos to Deified Humans
In this 19-week class the students explore the mythological system of ancient Greeks which was meant to explain "cosmos", uniting together gods, humans, spirits, animals, plants, the natural world around them, the planets and the stars
Spyridon (Spiros) Loumakis
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:(776)
What's included
19 live meetings
19 in-class hoursHomework
1 hour per week. Homework will be assigned in various forms: (a) at certain points of the nineteen meetings students will be asked to study a short hand-out which will be distributed in advance as part of their preparation (each hand out will be uploaded a few days in advance), (b) at certain points of the nineteen meetings students will be assigned a short (optional) multiple-choice test to be filled out under parental supervision, in order to test their memory, attention and observation (six of them in total), (c) in case students love to express themselves in writing, I can assign, upon request, some writing assignments, as I do in my historical classes, in the form of an essay, and (d) students can also choose to express themselves in an artistic way, like writing poetry, and even present their work in the class if they feel comfortable about.Assessment
I do not believe that a letter grade is meaningful for an on-going class on mythology. However, as I often do with my one-time classes, which are always small classes (up to 5 or 6 students), I communicate with the parents and the children directly, providing my personal comments, private feedback and an informal assessment.Grading
includedClass Experience
US Grade 4 - 7
(A) Required Experience: This is an *educational* mutli-day class, suitable for learners who are genuinely interested in ancient Greek mythology or/and history, have zero or basic prior knowledge of mythology but are motivated to learn more, and willing to follow this multi-day class in order to acquire a deeper understading of the ancient Greek gods. It is a mutli-day course that takes mythology out of our modern (artificial) collections of myths and puts it back into its original context: the ancient Greek society. In this mutli-day course we combine mythology with the classical Greek archaeology and history of ancient Greek art, as well as with the ancient Greek intellectual creations (literature, philosophy and history). (B) Teaching style and students interaction: 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 participants. 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. After all, such a small class has the advantage of making the combined technique of ppt presentation-lecture-dialogue feasible and efficient. Thanks to Zoom, engaging students and interacting with them is always possible. (C) The topics to be covered in nineteen classes are the following: 1) Primordial Gods (special focus on the nocturnal and infernal creator goddess Nyx) 2) The great creator goddess Gaia, the Titans and the Fall of Uranus 3) The Children of the Titans and the fall of Cronus 4) Alternative Ancient Greek Creation Stories 5) Other Titans - Titanomachy - Zeus 6) The Olympian Gods, Part 1 (Zeus) 7) The Olympian Gods, Part 2 (Poseidon -Hades) 8) The Olympian Gods, Part 3 (Hera - Hestia - Demeter) 9) The Olympian Gods, Part 4 (Ares - Aphrodite - Apollo - Artemis) 10) The Olympian Gods, Part 5 (Athena - Dionysos - Hephaistos - Hermes) 11) Lesser Gods of Death (Persephone - Fates) 12) Lesser Gods of Life 1/3 (Hekate - Asklepios - Hygieia - Asklepiads - Healing gods) 13) Lesser Gods of Life 2/3 (Tyche [Good Luck in Life] - Hours [The Right Time to Do Something] - Graces [Happy Times]) - Nemesis [Balanced Life] - Dike [Just-Righteous Life]) 14) Lesser Gods of Life 3/3 (Nike [Success and Victory in Life] - Eros/Anteros/Hermaphrodite [The Power to Create New Life] - Hebe [Young Life]) 15) Eileithyia [Goddess of the Beginning of Life] - Muses (Wild Nymphs of Divine Inspiration) - Nymphs (Aggressive Female Personifications of Nature) 16) River Gods - Pan - Chiron 17) Spirits/Demons of the Forest (Silenoi - Satyrs - Mainads) - Spirits/Demons of Death, the Underworld, and After-life Punishment 18) Spirits/Demons of the Sky (Winds, Harpies, Iris) - Spirits/Demons of War - Spirits/Demons of Desires/Feelings/Passions 19) Battle of Gods vs Giants; Making of Humans by Prometheus; Pandora's Box; The Flood of Deucalion
Learning Goals
In this multi-day 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 the sanctuaries of the gods, and in their worship, and how ancient Greek artists depicted them. What did they mean to priests and to worshippers, as well as to the political and social elite of ancient Greece.
We will finally delve into an ancient religion with respect, so as to learn from this example two very important lessons: that there is nothing unchangeable in time, when it comes to religious traditions, old and new.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
(A) In the ancient Greek arts 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 to show students the original art from ancient times.
(B) From my experience at Outschool the past couple of months and after having taught around 200 classes on mythology to many young students, I make sure the class material is age-appropriate. All ancient mythologies, without exception, contain important stories that are violent or sexual in nature, and often touch on sensitive social questions of their times, such as the place of women, slavery-based economy, immoral behavior and the ethics of war. I have never received a negative feedback because I touched upon any of the previous topics, despite the fact that there were times when the class dynamic and the maturity of students in fact allowed their discussion. Sometimes the students themselves started a discussion on one or more of these serious subjects. I never forced them into this discussion, but I also never stopped them. On the contrary, I guided them in order to balance their judgement between an ancient society and our own experience. If this happens during this multi-day class, I will, once again, guide them on how to understand myths that concern sensitive aspects of the ancient Greek society. This is the whole point of mythology. As a specialist in the scientific understanding of mythology and a trained historian of ancient societies, I teach that the myths are not just to amuse, but also to explain the world. If there is something wrong in the ancient Greek world, the myths will reflect it.
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. in History and Archaeology (Athens, Greece), an M.A. in Archaeology and History of Art (Athens, Greece), as well as an M.A. in History and Philosophy of Religions (Concordia, Montreal, Canada). I speak modern and ancient Greek, archaic and classical Latin and I have worked on many aspects of the material world of ancient Greece (art, architecture, coins, ppayri, inscriptions). Reviews
Live Group Class
$17
weekly or $323 for 19 classes1x per week, 19 weeks
60 min
Completed by 43 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 9-14
4-7 learners per class
