Classical Mythology

by Elizabeth Vandiver

Streaming video, 2000

Status

Available

Call number

292.08

Collections

Publication

Teaching Company (2000), Audio Cassette, 12 hours, 24 lectures, 12 cassettes, 168 page guidebook

Description

In this set of 24 lectures, Professor Elizabeth Vandiver, University of Maryland, introduces the student to the primary characters and most important stories of classical Greek and Roman mythology. She also surveys some of the leading theoretical approaches to understanding myth in general and classical myth in particular.

User reviews

LibraryThing member etxgardener
This audio book is part of the Great Courses Series and not only tells the stories of the classical Greek myths, but also gives historical context into their origin and their meaning to those of us living today.

Very interesting for those of us whose introduction to myths was many years ago,
LibraryThing member themulhern
Fascinating. Covers theories of mythology, classifications of myth, Greek and Roman culture, the fact that we know a lot of the mythology only through the literature of those times, and so forth.
LibraryThing member shirfire218
Great Courses Classical Mythology by Professor Elizabeth Vandiver is a tremendously informative course of 24 lectures, each about 30 to 45 minutes long. Professor Vandiver is adept at covering this subject and her lectures are fascinating and highly educational. She is a distinguished professor and
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has received many honors.

So much information is to be found in this course! It covers Classical Mythology in both its Greek and Roman forms and gives us an overview and introduction to some of the main gods and heroes, along with a timeframe and ending with a summary of how classical mythology is present in many modern day books, films, etc.

Learning the actual story of these gods from mythology and some of their interactions was so interesting and, I realized, something I should have done many years ago. I have always enjoyed the watered down books of mythology, or the children's versions, and the movies that have appeared from time to time. And though I thought I had a very basic understanding of some of the main classical mythology stories, I did not. The factual historical tales are not for the faint of heart. They are filled with violence of every kind, sexual perversion and deviance galore, incest, cannibalism and you name it. And the descriptions get very graphic and unimaginably horrific and gross. Modern horror movies and serial killers have nothing on gods and heroes from classical mythology. I was shocked to find out that I had gone all these years without being aware of that. Or definitely the extent of that. And, by the way, "hero" does not always refer to a great personage of good intention. Great personage and amazing deeds perhaps, but they can be a bad person or bad deeds. All-in-all, I highly recommend Great Courses Classical Mythology. It is very educational and gives us so many facts about something that we should all be familiar with.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2000

ISBN

none

Local notes

[01] Introduction [02] What is myth? [03] Why is myth? [04] "First was Chaos" [05] Reign of the Olympians [06] Immortals and mortals [07] Demeter, Persephone, and the conquest of death [08] Eleusinian Mysteries and the afterlife [09] Apollo and Artemis [10] Hermes and Dionysos [11] Laughter-loving Aphrodite [12] Culture, pre-history, and the "Great Goddess" [13] Humans, heroes, and half-gods [14] Theseus and the "test-and-quest" myth [15] From myth to history and back again [16] Greatest hero of all [17] Trojan War [18] Terrible House of Atreus [19] Blood vengeance, justice, and the Furies [20] Tragedies of King Oedipus [21] Monstrous females and female monsters [22] Roman founders, Roman fables [23] "Gods are useful" [24] From Ovid to the stars

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