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Welcome back, now, in this orientation[br]module, we're going to do a few more

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little videos and exercises, just to get [br]started, so we can all feel like we're

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figuring out what's going on in this[br]class.

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This is of course an online class. So[br]we'll be doing just about all of our

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work here on Canvas, and so there[br]are a few things we want to just

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get through first of all.

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But we wanted to talk a little bit[br]about what we're doing in this

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class as well.

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This is an introduction to [br]classical mythology.

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And so we probably want to make sure [br]we're on the same page of what

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classical mythology is.

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It after all can mean a few different [br]things to different people and so

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there are things we can lay out [br]definitionally.

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Now, in particular, the idea of[br]classical mythology tends to land

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in the area of Greek and Roman[br]antiquity.

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So some students come into the class[br]thinking that this is a broad eclectic

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class that's going to touch on things[br]like say Norse mythology, or Hindu

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mythology, or various other mythological[br]traditions that are of course very

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important and exciting, but this really[br]squares on Greco-Roman Mythology

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of the period of classical antiquity.

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Now, just as a helpful visualization, when[br]we talk about Greece and Rome,

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you might think of say the modern state[br]of Greece or Rome, the city, the capitol

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city of Italy.

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When we use those terms, we're talking[br]about much larger cultures that cover

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enormous expanses.

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Here's a map of the Roman Empire [br]at its largest extent.

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In 117 A.D. or C.E. that's 117 years[br]after the date ascribed to the birth

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of Jesus.

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And this was the largest extent of [br]conquests that the Romans achieved

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during that period.

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So you can see that the Romans [br]pushed the boundaries of empire

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all the way to northern Britain,[br]where I'm from.

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Actually, I'm from southern Britain,[br]but that's my accent,

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all the way down to the middle east

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to Egypt in the south and over[br]to what we would say is Morocco

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in the west.

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So a huge amount of area, and this[br]is roughly speaking, the parts of the

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world where these cultures have [br]their greatest influence and exerted

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various kinds of power.

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And there are lots of different ways that[br]historians and archaeologists and

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literary critics have studied these[br]cultures.

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For example, Lizzie I know that you --[br]which - first of all,

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which side do you, we usually split[br]into two sides, you know, Roman

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and Greek or Latin and Greek.

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Do you have a particular one or the other?

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>> I do, I do, I have a particular[br]fondness for Latin, so--

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>> Oh hey, me too!

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>> Yeah, I tend to study Latin poetry [br]in particular.

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I'm really interested in how language[br]reflects ideas of gender and of sexuality.

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So really how language brings the cultural[br]context into the forefront

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of what people are saying.

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>> And we've talked about this before,[br]that you have a particular interest in

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sort of Roman comedy. In Claudius and[br]stuff like that?

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>> I do, I do. I'm growing fonder of[br]Claudius as I work more on Claudius,

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um, I - right now I'm doing research[br]on Roman wordplay generally.

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So Claudius is involved because[br]he has lots of puns and insults

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and uh, yeah.

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>> Cool. I wonder if there will[br]be any puns or wordplay in this class?

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Moving on. I've studied, as an [br]intellectual historian, I've looked - I've

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also looked at language, I've looked at [br]the way that philosophies about

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language can express various kinds of[br]political or ideological commitments,

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particularly as Rome was becoming[br]a bigger and bigger empire.

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But these are really sort of social [br]linguistics, or say politics, or um,

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you know cultural questions. Uh,[br]lots of different kinds of ideas.

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We can also study the ancient[br]Greek and Romans for their

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mythological legacy.

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And that's really what we're doing[br]in this class.

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So we're going to be looking at[br]figures, many of which you've

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probably already heard of.

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You've probably already[br]heard of the king of the gods

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in Greek and Roman mythology,[br]that's Zeus for the Greeks,

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or Jupiter for the Romans.

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And here is a picture of that figure[br]wielding his mighty thunderbolt.

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That's one of his iconic weapons[br]that we'll often see him depicted with.

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You might also have heard of [br]one of Jupiter or Zeus's

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many hero sons.

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The hero Hercules, that's his Latin name.

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In fact, he's probably more commonly known[br]by his Greek name, Heracles.

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And here he is in the Disney movie[br]that is actually more than 20 years old.

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(laughter) Would you believe?

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There are, of course,[br]sagas that these heroes belong to,

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that they participate in,

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and Hercules wasn't at the Trojan War,[br]he was slightly before that,

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but it was descendants[br]or people coming after Hercules

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that fought at Troy [br]and used the Trojan Horse

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to deviously make their way into the city.

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This is where fighters like Achilles and [br]Odysseus and Agamemnon and Hector

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all fought, and we're going to be reading [br]more of that as the course progresses.

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So you can see that these stories, [br]even if you have only a cursory knowledge

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of classical antiquity, these are names[br]that have filtered their way through

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to modernity and are constantly being[br]reevaluated, reconsidered,

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criticized, reused.

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A couple years ago, the movie Wonder Woman[br]was a big hit in summer blockbusters,

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and Wonder Woman is an Amazon, who is--

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they're a tribe of women[br]in classical mythology.

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I don't want to give out any spoilers,[br]but Diana's main rival

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in the Wonder Woman comics is [br]the god Ares, who is the Greek god of war.

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Now, once we start to look [br]more and more at this,

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the idea of classical mythology [br]starts to become a lot more clear.

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We could just call this class

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"Introduction to Ancient Greek [br]and Roman Mythology,"

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but for a long time, [br]it's been called "classical" mythology.

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And that might have something to do [br]with the fact that

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the idea of "classical" connotes [br]something that's exemplary,

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that is given a high [br]kind of cultural value,

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and that is considered enduring in a way [br]that these stories still have

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a kind of resonance, [br]even 2,000 years after their retelling.

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Is that what you think of when you[br]think of the idea of "classical?"

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>> Yeah, I mean, I do, I think there's [br]definitely the element of classics as

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very foundational, but I think there's[br]also a problematic element to classics

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in that calling something "foundational"[br]or "ideal" and idealizing the past

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really contributes to kind of othering[br]the other cultures

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that we're overlooking to look at these.

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>> Absolutely. And that's, I think,[br]something that we're going to look at

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over the next couple of weeks,[br]that-- in fact, the original use

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of "classic," the word "classic"[br]or "classicus" in Latin

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to denote something[br]of being high value

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was precisely in opposition to[br]the word "proletarian".

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There was a sort of guy,[br]and we'll look at this later,

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called Aulus Gellius[br]who was saying,

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well you know the good authors,[br]the classical authors because

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they used language in this way,[br]but the proletarian authors

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use them this way.

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And he was saying that-- making[br]that distinction as a matter

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not merely of aesthetic judgement,[br]but also sort of social judgement.

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And sure enough, throughout history[br]people have used the idea of

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a classical precisely as you say,[br]to create in and out groups,

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to say that some people belong[br]and some people don't,

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and also to draw lines of inheritance[br]from antiquity to the present

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that may not be justified when[br]we look at the historical record.

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So there's a lot that we[br]can dig into there,

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and we want to be able to use[br]this idea of classical not simply to

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investigate cultures that are[br]long removed from us,

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but cultures that are still--[br]that still have stakes today.

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And we want to join in that discussion[br]with you throughout the semester

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and find out where classical mythology[br]might show up in your lives.

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So we'll be doing that in videos here,[br]you're going to be seeing a lot of me

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in videos that we've recorded[br]before this semester.

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As you're watching this video,[br]I'll just say right now,

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occasionally you will see a question[br]show up, and that's one way that we can

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see how you're getting on in the class.

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We call those instapolls, and an example[br]of that is showing up right now.

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So that's not worth any credit, we want[br]to make sure that everything's working.

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For now we've got a few more things[br]we want you to take a look at,

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and we'll come back and talk some[br]more about classical mythology.