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Classical Mythology
- In the beginning
- Creation myths
- Before the Olympians
- Family Tree
- Source 1 – The Creation – Hesiod
- Source 2 – The Creation – Ovid
- Source 3 – Typhoeus
- Source analysis – sources 1 to 3
- Research task
- Source 4 – Pandora
- Source 5 – The Punishment of Prometheus
- Source analysis – sources 4 & 5
- Research task
- Source 6 – The Ages of the World
- Source 7 – After the Flood
- Source analysis – sources 6 & 7
- The Underworld
- Visiting the Underworld
- Underworld Source 1 – Circe’s Instructions to Odysseus
- Source Analysis – source 1
- Underworld Source 2 – Pausanias (ekphrasis)
- Research
- Underworld Source 3 – Dionysus visits the Underworld
- Underworld Source 4 – The punishment of the wicked
- Source Analysis – source 3 (Aristophanes)
- Source Analysis – source 4 (Plato)
- Underworld Source 5 – Lucretius
- Source Analysis – source 5
- Underworld Source 6a – The Entrance to Hades
- Underworld Source 6b – The Ferry across the River Styx
- Underworld Source 6c – The Sibyl helps Aeneas cross the Styx
- Underworld Source 6d – Tartarus
- Underworld Source 7 – Orpheus & Eurydice
- Source Analysis – sources 6 & 7
- Names and characters from Classical Mythology
- Reading 1 – Interpretation and definition of classical mythology
- Reading 2 – historical background to Greek mythology
- Reading 3 – myths of creation
- Reading 4 – Zeus’ rise to power
- Reading 5 – the twelve Olympians
- Reading 6 – the nature of the gods
- AUDIO – classical mythology 1-6
- AUDIO – classical mythology 7-12
- VIDEO – Overview of Ancient Greek history, religion and culture
- VIDEO – Overview of Greek art – warning – mature content and nudity
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Classical Literature - Course Guide
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Classical Drama
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Classical Literature - Antigone
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Classical Literature - Medea
A study of Euripides' tragedy, Medea. A play performed in Athens, based upon the myth of Medea, Jason and the Argonauts and the aftermath of the quest for the Golden Fleece.
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Classical Literature - Aeneid
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Life in Classical Greece - Power and Freedom
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Life in the Roman World - Power and Freedom videos
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Life in the Roman World - Religion & Belief - Introduction
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Life in the Roman World - State Religion
- The nature of religion – contractual, ritualistic
- The nature of the gods – polytheism, anthropomorphism and no moral code
- Rituals of worship – prayer, sacrifice, libation and votive offerings
- Festivals – Lupercalia and the Saturnalia
- Divination and interpretation – omens, birds, entrails, weather signs, dreams, Sibylline books and associated priesthoods: the augurs, quindecemviri and haruspices
- Vestal Virgins
- Imperial Cult
- Importance of state religion
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Life in the Roman World - Domestic Religion
- Role and worship of Vesta, the Lares, the Penates, Janus, and genius
- Religious rituals associated with birth and coming of age
- Rituals at birth — Juno Lucina, father’s acceptance of child, name giving and the bulla
- Rituals to mark coming of age — religious rites at lararium for boys and girls, the age at which the ritual took place, dedication of bulla, presentation of adult toga and dedication of toys
- Importance of domestic religion to Roman life
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Life in the Roman World - Mystery Religions
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Life in the Roman World - Religious tolerance in the Roman world
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Life in the Roman World - Philosophical attitudes to religious beliefs
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Life in Classical Greece - Religion & Belief - Introduction
- General introduction
- VIDEO – Introduction to Greek Religion
- Sources of knowledge for Greek religion
- What religion meant to the Athenians
- Recap questions
- The main principles of Greek religion
- Athens – the Main Gods
- Embeddedness
- Recap questions
- Polytheism and piety
- Recap question
- The limitations of the Olympian gods
- Divine justice
- The gods and morality
- The gods and pity
- Source analysis – sources
- Source analysis – questions
- Source analysis – note on sources
- Source analysis – making comparisons
- VIDEO – Anthropomorphism
- The origins of Greek religion – Homer and Hesiod
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Life in Classical Greece - State Religion
- Contact with the gods – Introduction
- RITUALS OF WORSHIP
- Contact with the gods – Prayer
- Contact with the gods – Sacrifice
- Contact with the gods – Libation
- Contact with the gods – Votive offerings
- BUILDING OF WORKSHIP – The Parthenon
- DIVINATION & INTERPRETATION
- Divination & interpretation – Oracles
- Divination & interpretation – Omens
- Divination & interpretation – Entrails
- Divination & interpretation – Weather signs
- Divination & interpretation – Dreams
- Divination & interpretation – Delphi
- Divination & interpretation – Dodona
- SELECTION & ROLE OF PRIESTS
- Contact with the gods – Priests
- Contact with the gods – Temples
- Contact with the gods – Essay and extracts
- FESTIVALS
- Festivals – Panathenaia
- Festivals – City Dionysia
- VIDEO – hero cults
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Life in Classical Greece - Mystery Religions
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Life in Classical Greece - Domestic Religion
- Religion in the home – Introduction
- Religion in the home – Household gods
- Religion in the home – The Herm
- Religion in the home – Hekate
- Religion in the home – Apollo of the Streets
- Ceremonies connected with the family:
- Birth
- Coming of age
- Marriage
- Death
- Domestic Religion – Essay and extracts
- Religion in the countryside
- Festivals – Monthly & Agricultural
- Festivals – In honour of the dead
- Festivals – Stages in a person’s life celebrated
- Festivals – Essay and extracts
- Contact with the gods – Ecstatic cult – Dionysus
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Life in Classical Greece - Gender Roles within Religious Worship
- Parthenoi – virgins
- Priestesses
- Priestesses – Pythia, priestesses of Athena
- Participation in cults
- Midwives
- Tending corpse and grave
- The role of women in festivals – Skira
- The role of women in festivals – Thesmophoria
- The role of women in festivals – Haloa
- The role of women in festivals – Panathenaia
- The impact of women on religion
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Greek and Roman Views on the After-Life section 1
Treatment of the dead
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Greek and Roman Views on the After-Life section 2
The mythological Underworld and the attitude of philosophers to the Underworld
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Life in Classical Greece - Death and the Afterlife
- The Afterlife
- Hades – the traditional view
- Other beliefs – Plato
- Other beliefs – Conversion of dead into stars
- Other beliefs – Transmigration of souls
- Other beliefs – Orphism
- Burial customs – recap
- Traditional beliefs about the afterlife including reward and punishment — Elysian fields, Asphodel plains and Tartarus
- Remembrance of the dead — funeral rites, Genesia and Anthesteria
- Alternative beliefs — Orphism and Pythagoreanism
- Attitudes towards the dead
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Life in Classical Greece - Challengers of traditional beliefs
Eleusinian Mysteries
These were held in honour of Demeter at Eleusis where the goddess had been received kindly in her time of sorrow at the ‘loss’ of her daughter. In return for the kindness shown her, Demeter taught the Eleusinians the secret mystery rites of her cult. Anyone was welcomed into the Mysteries as long as they could speak Greek.
Initiation took place in two stages.
- January-February: The Lesser Mysteries were held at Agrai outside Athens and were dedicated to Persephone. The ‘mystai’ wore wreaths and carried myrtle branches. A woman carried the sacred basket of seeds and grains on her head to symbolise Demeter’s gifts.
- August-September: The Greater Mysteries. A truce of 55 days was allowed so that all could travel to the festival from different parts of Greece.
The ceremonies included:
- youths of 18-19 years escorted sacred things to Athens
- a gathering
- purification rites: initiates bathed in the sea, each with a sucking pig to be sacrificed later
- initiates spent time indoors
- initiates went in procession to Eleusis, led by Iakhos, the personification of the initiates’ cry; they carried myrtle branches, food, bedding and new clothes
- they reached Eleusis and presented the basket to Demeter
- sacrifices to Demeter and Persephone
- revelations took place through the night in the Teleusterion which could hold 10,000
- revelations were based on ‘things said’, ‘things done’, ‘things revealed’
- perhaps light appeared from darkness
- perhaps an ear of corn carried around.
Because of the secrecy involved, we know little about the Mysteries. Our evidence comes from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and from writers mocking and criticising the rites. So our information can be biased and confused. What seems clear, however, is that the Mysteries provided intense personal involvement, emotional experience and a happy afterlife.
Appeal of the mysteries:
- promise of a happy afterlife
- perhaps based on moral code in life
- open to all: different classes, different states
- family-centred: based on mother-child relationship
- idea of resurrection, life after death
- suggestion of unhappy afterlife for those not involved
- outlet for women.