| Part I Introduction to Myth and Religion |
Jan. 15 Course Introductions
Discussion of Issues and Ideas Rubric. See the Monmouth
College Curriculum.
Question: What should an Issues and Ideas course be like?
Assignment: Apply for a personal website from the MC Information
Systems Office by clicking on "Computer Assistant" on the
Desktop. Then click on the "Help" tab. Then select "Apply
for a Personal Webpage" and follow the instructions. When the IS
office sends you the address of your webpage, please e-mail it to the
instructor. This web address must be received by the instructor by Jan.
24th. |
Jan. 17 Issues and Ideas, Myth and
Religion
Use these study
questions to prepare for class discussion of ISSI courses. Assignment: Write a reflection on the Monmouth College Curriculum
and this ISSI course. Due Jan. 22nd.
What are "myth" and "religion"? Look especially
at the discussion of the meaning of the word "myth" in The
Web of Myth Theory. Also Myth
and Religion: Some Definitions |
Jan. 22 Cleanthes' "Hymn
to Zeus", images of Zeus;
Anthropomorphism and Xenophanes
of Colophon. Look here especially at the fragments called satires: Xenophanes'
Fragments. Prayer / Lord's
Prayer
Question: How is the Hymn to Zeus a prayer? How is it like the
Lord's Prayer? How is the prayer "myth"? How is it
"religion"? To what extant does your god have anthropomorphic
features?
Assignment: Compare Cleanthes' hymn to a prayer which is important to you personally.
Due Jan. 29th. |
Jan. 24 Homeric Hymns and
Polytheism
Preface and introduction to Athanassakis. See Homeric
Hymns.
See Polytheism,
A Brief
Survey of Christian Polytheism, and Islam
and Polytheism. The
Pantheon / Greek
Pantheon / Classical
Myths: The Ancient Sources. Also read review of A World Full of Gods by Keith
Hopkins (available in Public Documents under All Public
Folders/Departments/Academics/Classics/ISSI402). Here is a quote from
Hopkins: "But I wanted to recover the passion of that time.
Re-create the confusion of voices. Think of it: Religion absolutely
everywhere. Gods and goddesses and demons and nightmares, and sex mixed up
into all of it. Christianity must have seemed so strange, so absurd to
good, decent pagans."
Question: What do these introductory materials tell you about the
Homeric Hymns? What are the advantages and disadvantages of polytheism vs.
monotheism? |
Jan. 29 Homeric Hymn 23 (Zeus)
and the Sacrifice of Prometheus
See Prometheus
(and Hesiod's Theogony, 508-544
and 545-565).
Prometheus
Bound. Also Catalogue of Greek
Animal Sacrifice and Summary
Questions: How is the Homeric Hymn to Zeus similar
to Cleanthes' Hymn? How is it different? In what ways are the Cleanthes and Homeric hymns to Zeus myth? In
what ways are they religion? How is Prometheus' sacrifice a form of worship?
How is it a trick? Compare Greek animal sacrifice to modern forms of
religious sacrifice.
Class discussion: What prayer did you compare to the Hymn to Zeus?
Why?
Assignment: Write a personal reflection on religion. Due Feb.
5th.
Click here
for some helpful questions. Click here
for Prof. Sienkewicz' personal statement. |
| Part II Greek and Roman Religion |
Jan. 31 Human Sacrifice
Read the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 12-22 and the sacrifice
of Iphigenia. Also Iphigenia
as sacrificial victim. Review
of Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece. Minoan
Religion (focus on Anemospilia). Anemospilia. |
| Feb. 5
Class discussion of personal reflections |
Feb. 7
Website Development Period in Trotter
Computer Lab
Ms. Marcie Beintema of the MC Information Systems Office will conduct a
session about getting started with your personal
website. Use this website template
as a model. |
| Feb. 12
Class discussion of personal reflections Cont. |
Feb. 14
Introduction to
Roman Religion
Theories
on the Origin of Religion;
Also read pp. 22-27 of Nagle. Additional materials: Some
Definitions / Beginnings
of Religion / Roman
Divinities in Archaic Period / Religio
Romana
Questions: What do the documents dealing with the sources of Roman
religion suggest to you about the Romans and their religious beliefs? Why do you think
humans have developed religious beliefs? What purposes does religion serve in human life? |
Feb. 19 Roman Religion Cont.
Look for characteristics of Roman Religion described in Some
Notes on Roman Religion in the documents found in the Sources
of Roman Religion.
Assignment: Write a reflection on these characteristics and compare them
to modern religious views. Due Feb. 21
|
Feb. 21 Ovid's Fasti: Introduction; January Bellini's
Feast of the Gods
Read preface and introduction to Nagle. See
Ovid's Fasti Overview / Fasti
Outline
/ Fasti
I:
January / The Roman
Calendar / Christian
Liturgical Calendar
Questions: How is the Fasti organized? What were Ovid's
purposes in writing this poem? How is it religious? Why do the Romans sacrifice
an ass to the god Priapus? Why does Ovid tell this story? What does Ovid tell you about
the emperor's attitude towards religion? How does a Christian
artist like Bellini use the ancient deities? To what extent
is our calendar religious?
|
Feb. 26 Apollo and
Artemis
Homeric Hymns 3, 21 (Apollo) and Artemis 9, 27 Outline
of Hymn / Study
and Discussion Questions
Sacred
Places: Delphi
and Delos
Questions: What kind deities are Apollo and Artemis? Compare the
story of Apollo to the life of Jesus Christ. What characteristics does Artemis have in
common with Mary the Mother of Jesus? How does he compare to your beliefs about deity? How
is Artemis similar to and different from her brother Apollo? How is a goddess different
from a god? What makes Delphi and Delos sacred places?
Assignment: Compare Apollo to your god. Be sure to deal with
issues of anthropomorphism, forms of worship, and ethics. Due March 12
|
Feb. 28 Fasti: Read Homeric Hymn 5, 6, 10 (Aphrodite)
Sappho's
Prayer to Aphrodite
Focus on the encounters between Aphrodite and the
mortals Anchises and Sappho. Compare these encounters that of Apollo and
the sailors. What do these episodes suggest about the Greek attitude
toward deity in general? Human interaction with deity? Human free will?
What ethical issues are suggested in these episodes? What do you think
about all of these issues?
Question: Why do you think the Greeks had a goddess like
Aphrodite? What do you think about a goddess who seduces mortal men? How is the Fasti religious?
Mid-Course
Evaluation Due |
March 12 Read Fasti:
February and March; See Fasti
II: February , Lupercalia;
Fasti
III:
March / Fasti
III: Study Questions
/ Some
Characteristics of the Fasti
Juno Sospita: Coin
/ Church of San Nicola in Carcere in Rome: 1
/ 2/
3 /
See Midwinter
(and scroll to Juno Sospita)
Tommaso
Laurenti Siciliano: The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism (1585) /
For more on this painting, see the Raphael
Rooms of the Vatican / Babri
Masjid (mosque) at Ayodhya / The
Ayodhya Dispute
Questions: Why does the
Temple of Juno Sospita become the Church of San Nicola in Carcere? What
other examples of such religious building/site conversions can you think
of? Why do such things occur? Whose apotheosis
does Ovid describe in February? How does such an event compare to modern
religious beliefs? How many stories does Ovid tell to explain why the
Luperci run naked? Why does Ovid
tell the story of the Sabine Women in March? What is the feast of the toga
virilis and what might be some modern equivalents? |
March 14 Fasti:
April, May
and June See Fasti
IV: April
/ Study Questions for
IV / Fasti
V: May
/
Fasti
VI: June
Mars Ultor
/ Claudia Quinta
Questions: How is the Fasti a poem? How is the Fasti like
an encyclopedia? What elements of political propaganda can you find in the Fasti? How religious do you think Ovid was? Why? Where does Ovid
sound religious in Fasti? Where does he sound less sincere? What myth does Ovid tell
for the Feast of Cerealia in April? What does this myth have to do with the
powers of the goddess Ceres?
For March 19th, write a reflection on
characteristics of Roman religion in the Fasti compared to modern
religious views.
|
March 19
Homeric
Hymn 4, 18 (Hermes).
Outline
and Study
Questions for the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. Also read hymns #8, 11, 15-17,
19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 28-33
Questions: What kind of god is Hermes? How does he compare to your
idea of deity? Which gods are honored in these hymns? How are these
hymns different from the Homeric Hymns to Apollo, Dionysus, Hermes, Aphrodite, and
Demeter? Why do you think these gods received different hymns? What do the Homeric Hymns
as a group tell you about Greek religion and especially belief in god?
|
| Part III Mystery Religions |
March 21 Read the
introduction to Meyer
and consult study questions. (Click on authors' names.) See Some
Definitions of Terms, Some
Notes on Mysteria, Brief
History of Greco-Roman Religion.
Questions: How are these books organized? How are they related to
each other? How are they different? What is a mystery religion? What personal needs does religion satisfy?
Prospectus
for Individualized Project Due.
See Individualized
Project Guidelines |
| March 26 Introduction to Burkert
. Christianity and Mystery Religions |
March 28 Homeric Hymn
2, 13 (Demeter)
Read Meyer, chapter 2.
Sacred Places: Eleusis
/ Eleusinian
Mysteries: Some Documents / Demeter
Laughed
Questions: What personal needs does the mystery religion of
Demeter satisfy? Compare the Homeric Hymn to Demeter in Athanassakis to the
version in Meyer (pp. 20-31). How are these two versions similar? How are they different?
How is Demeter similar to and different from your concept of a deity? Compare her to
Artemis and Aphrodite. |
April 2 .Read Meyer, chapter 4
and Homeric Hymns
1, 7, 26 (Dionysus) .
Outline of Homeric Hymn to
Dionysus / Dionysian
Mysteries: Some Documents / Some
Dionysian Terms / Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus (the Inscription
/ Latin
text / English
translation; Livy
XXXIX)
Questions: What divine powers Bacchus (Dionysus) have? How does he seem less divine to you? To what
extent does Dionysus fit his modern stereotype? What personal needs does the mystery religion of Dionysus
satisfy? Why do you think that ancient Greeks and Romans were afraid of this cult?
Villa
of the Mysteries / Villa
of Mysteries 2 / Take a
Virtual Tour of the Villa |
| April 4 NO CLASS |
April 9 Read Burkert, chapter
1-3 Study
Questions
Questions: How were the ancient mystery religions organized? How
does this organization compare to the organization of established churches in the modern
world? What is theologia? What do myth and allegory have
to do with mystery religions? Apply these concepts to the religions of Demeter and
Dionysus
Statement due on the Dionysian Mysteries |
April 11 Read Meyer, chapter 5.
Also
Cybele
/ Catullus'
"Attis" / Study
Questions about Cybele
Questions: Compare the Great Goddess to deities like
Demeter and Aphrodite? How is she similar and different?
For April 18th write a statement in which you use
some of the documents on Cybele in Meyer in order to reflect on what was
attractive in her worship to the ancients and what is attractive and not
attractive in her worship today. |
| April 16 Founder's Day. NO CLASS |
April 18 Read
Venus of
Willendorf Website / Dove"s
"Venus of Willendorf"
Question: How does the cult of the Great Goddess appeal to
modern feminism?
Cybele statement due |
April 23 "The
Extraordinary Experience" (Burkert, chapter 4) Study
Questions
Question: What does Burkert mean by the
"extraordinary experience"? How did the ancients talk about this experience? Do we
talk about it today? |
April 25 Some
Issues and Ideas Raised in ISSI402
Isis. Read Meyer, chapter 6.
Questions: Compare Isis to other goddesses you have studied. Also
compare her to Mary the Mother of Jesus.
Individualized Project due at 3:30 P.M.
|
April 30 Mithras, Read Meyer, Chapter 7.
Also Mithras
in Roman Britain
Questions: Why would this deity especially appeal to males?
To what extant is your religion a mystery religion?
|
May 2 Christianity and Judaism.
Read Meyer, Chapter 8
Evaluation of Individualized Projects due |
May 5 (SUNDAY) 1 P.M.
EXAM PERIOD
Group Presentations, Course
Evaluations, etc. |
