Monsters, Dragons, Giants, Beasts and Mythical Tribes in Ancient Greek Mythology

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. 

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. 

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 class 5 and the second at the end of class 10) 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 a few questions requiring a very short answer, in order to assess the learners' comprehension. 

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.

2 hours per week in class, and an estimated 0 - 1 hours per week outside of class.