The Creation of the World in Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek Mythology and Art
In this 14-week course students will be introduced to various stories about the creation of the world as was imagined by some of the most important ancient cultures (Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Greeks)
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 day, will be assigned in two forms: (a) before each of the twelve meetings students will be asked to study a short hand-out which will be distributed in advance as part of their class preparation (each hand out will be uploaded 24 hours in advance), and (b) at the end of the course students will be assigned an (optional) multiple-choice quiz, 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 course on mythology. However, as I often do with my one-time classes, which are always small classes, I communication with the parents and the children directly, providing my personal comments, private feedback and an informal assessment, especially if they complete the (optional) quiz assigned at the end of the course.Grading
includedClass Experience
US Grade 6 - 9
Intermediate Level
This is an *educational* course, suitable for learners who are genuinely interested in ancient mythology, motivated to learn more, and willing to follow this camp in order to acquire a deeper knowledge about a few major (and often vexing) questions all ancient mythologies tried to answer: How was the world created? Who created the world? Why was the world created? What kind of world was created in the beginning? And many more.. This is a course for those learners who believe that learning mythology is fun. In this twelve-week journey in the world of the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians we are going to use art, archaeology and mythology to imagine and understand with the help of ancient artists and ancient authors some of the answers their cultures tried to give to the above questions. Therefore, these twelve weeks are dedicated to the following thematic subunits: Week One: Introduction to the Class - The Nile - The Egyptian Sky god (as a Heavenly Ocean) - Khepri (the Rising Sun) Week Two: Ra-Horakhty (the Sun of the Horizon) - The Sun in its full splendor Week Three: Khonsu (The Moon) - Tatenen (The Ppimordial Mound) - Cosmic Geography (= The World on a Map based on Egyptian Mythology) Week Four: His Day Journey in the Sky and his Night Journey in the Underworld - His Battle against the Forces of Chaos Week Five: The Creation of the World by the Ogdoad or by the Ennead (Atum-Ra) Week Six: The Creation of the World by Amun-Ra and the Supremacy of Thebes Weeks Seven: Creator Gods Khnum and Ptah Week Eight: Creator Aten - the Creation of Humans - Rituals and Other Beliefs of the ancient Egyptians related to protecting the World and keeping it from falling back to Chaos Week Nine: Introdution to Mesopotamia - The Mesopotamian Geography of the World - The God of Underground Fresh Water Ea Week Ten: The Creator God Enlil of the Sumerians Week Eleven: The Creator God Marduk of the Babylonians - Enuma Elish Week Twelve: The Creation of the World based on Hesiod - Gaia Week Thirteen: Alternative Creation Stories of the Greeks Week Fourteen: Fusion of Mythical and Philosophical/Scientific Creation Stories by the ancient Greeks * Cosmogony = it is a Greek word which means "the creations of the world" (cosmos = world; gonos = genitor) * Cosmology = it is a Greek world which means "the knowledge about the world" (cosmos = world; logos = word, speach, knowledge) 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 people (Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians).
The goal for the students is to learn at an introductory level how ancient people were structuring their myths and some of the narrative patterns that they were employing to tell meaningful stories about how the world was created acocrding to each ines observation and imagination.
We will discuss together how were these stories played out in ancient art, and especially in relation to a world that is inhabited by living beings and, in particular, by humans; often the latter depicted as a creature superior to animals and plants, favored by the creator gods, as in the Greek mythology.
We will finally delve into ancient religions with respect, so as to learn from theses examples 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
(a) I use only and exclusively ancient art, original artworks created by the ancient people whose stories I teach in my classes, and this is the reason why I spend hours finding images that are from museums and collections of art from all over the world;
(b) this course is based on what some of the ancient civilizations believed, which means that their ideas may have been based on their observations, their imagination or their fears and hopes, but not on facts;
(c) the class is about the ancient world and not modern religions, which means that I approach the ancient world, based on the work of scholars (like me) who study it historically from a secular perspective;
(d) specifically the topic of the Creation of the World is approached from the perspective of the ancient imaginaton, artistic creativity and mythical universe, and has nothing to do with the individual beliefs of modern people and contemporary cultures. Parents and learners should feel safe that this class is not about scientific, theological or metaphysical approaches of the Creation of the World. This is a class strictly about ancient mythologies and often about ancient art (inspired by these mythologies)
I have a special note to make for Greek art:
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.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Sources
A great source of information created by a group of leading scholars of ancient mythology and literature is the book Ancient Cosmologies, edited by Carmen Blacker and Michael Loewe (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1975), based on lectures given at Cambridge University in 1972 by prominent scholars such as W.G. Lambert (Cosmology of Sumer and Babylon), G.E.R. Lloyd (Greek Cosmologies) and J.M. Plumley (Cosmology of Ancient Egypt).
Any recent scientific contributions in the study of cosmologies (especially through the translation and publishing of more ancient texts since 1975) will be incorporated in my lectures and power-point presentations.
A few more advanced books are the following:
David Sedley, Creationism and Its Critiques in Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)
Andrew Gregory, Ancient Greek Cosmogony (London: Duckworth, 2007)
Wayne Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2011)
Jan J. W. Lisman, Cosmogony, Theogony, and Anthropogeny in Sumerian Texts (Munster, Germany: Ugarit Verlag, 2013)
James P. Allen, Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts (Yale Egyptological Studies 2; Yale University Press, 1988)
Eric Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999) [note: the tombs are the greatest textual and artistic sources for Egyptian stories about the world]
Joined March, 2020
4.9
776reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
I have a B.A. and M.A. in ancient Greek and Roman history and archaeology, as well as an M.A. in history and phiosophy of religions (especially ancient religions). I have excavated in ancient Greek sites, I speak ancient and modern Greek, as well as archaic and classical Latin and I have some knowledge of ancient Egyptian (Coptic script) and I am currently finishing my PhD. Reviews
Live Group Class
$25
weekly or $350 for 14 classes1x per week, 14 weeks
60 min
Completed by 8 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 12-15
3-7 learners per class
