https:/.../2019-01-15_cc303_intro_1.2.mp4

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

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

figuring out what's going on in this
class.

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

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

get through first of all.

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

class as well.

This is an introduction to
classical mythology.

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

classical mythology is.

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

there are things we can lay out
definitionally.

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

in the area of Greek and Roman
antiquity.

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

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

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

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

of the period of classical antiquity.

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

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

city of Italy.

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

enormous expanses.

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

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

of Jesus.

And this was the largest extent of
conquests that the Romans achieved

during that period.

So you can see that the Romans
pushed the boundaries of empire

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

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

all the way down to the middle east

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

in the west.

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

world where these cultures have
their greatest influence and exerted

various kinds of power.

And there are lots of different ways that
historians and archaeologists and

literary critics have studied these
cultures.

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

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

and Greek or Latin and Greek.

Do you have a particular one or the other?

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

>> Oh hey, me too!

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

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

So really how language brings the cultural
context into the forefront

of what people are saying.

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

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

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

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

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

and uh, yeah.

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

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

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

language can express various kinds of
political or ideological commitments,

particularly as Rome was becoming
a bigger and bigger empire.

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

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

We can also study the ancient
Greek and Romans for their

mythological legacy.

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

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

probably already heard of.

You've probably already
heard of the king of the gods

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

or Jupiter for the Romans.

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

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

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

many hero sons.

The hero Hercules, that's his Latin name.

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

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

(laughter) Would you believe?

There are, of course,
sagas that these heroes belong to,

that they participate in,

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

but it was descendants
or people coming after Hercules

that fought at Troy
and used the Trojan Horse

to deviously make their way into the city.

This is where fighters like Achilles and
Odysseus and Agamemnon and Hector

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

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

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

to modernity and are constantly being
reevaluated, reconsidered,

criticized, reused.

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

and Wonder Woman is an Amazon, who is--

they're a tribe of women
in classical mythology.

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

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

Now, once we start to look
more and more at this,

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

We could just call this class

"Introduction to Ancient Greek
and Roman Mythology,"

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

And that might have something to do
with the fact that

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

that is given a high
kind of cultural value,

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

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

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

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

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

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

really contributes to kind of othering
the other cultures

that we're overlooking to look at these.

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

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

of "classic," the word "classic"
or "classicus" in Latin

to denote something
of being high value

was precisely in opposition to
the word "proletarian".

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

called Aulus Gellius
who was saying,

well you know the good authors,
the classical authors because

they used language in this way,
but the proletarian authors

use them this way.

And he was saying that-- making
that distinction as a matter

not merely of aesthetic judgement,
but also sort of social judgement.

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

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

to say that some people belong
and some people don't,

and also to draw lines of inheritance
from antiquity to the present

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

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

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

investigate cultures that are
long removed from us,

but cultures that are still--
that still have stakes today.

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

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

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

in videos that we've recorded
before this semester.

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

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

see how you're getting on in the class.

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

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

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

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