CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY: The Heroic Journey

The theme of CLAS230 Classical Mythology this semester is the archetype of the heroic journey. The course begins with questions like what is a myth and what is a hero and uses Odysseus' encounter with the Cyclops in Odyssey 9 to consider the multifunctionalism of myth. The journeys of Greco-Roman heroes like Odysseus and Aeneas will be compared with mythic journeys from other cultures, such as those of the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, the Biblical Jonah, and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.