Dear Cinemythologists,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, September 22, our second unit, on Heracles\/Hercules, officially begins. As is customary, we’ll begin with some primary sources: all reading, no viewing (apart from some optional videos in our Classical World series).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
READING<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is an excerpt from the Bibliotheca<\/em> or Library<\/em> of Greek myth, an ancient encyclopedia dedicated to cataloguing and sorting out the vast body of legends and lore associated with the Greco-Roman world. The author was thought to have been the famous scholar, Apollodorus of Athens (2nd century BCE), but the work is now thought to date to the 2nd century CE \u2014 hence “Apollodorus” in scare quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although you won’t need to know every last detail about Heracles’ life and career, you should try to appreciate the sheer quantity of his exploits, and what that quantity might mean. In class we’ll use “Apollodorus” as the basis for generating a rough outline of the hero’s legend, as we did for Perseus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophocles, the premier playwright of Athens in the 5th-century BCE, presents a tragic episode from late in Heracles’ life. If you’ve never read a Greek play before, the dynamic between the speeches of the actors and the songs of the Chorus (which you should not ignore) will likely seem odd and artificial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, this tragedy affords us an excellent point of comparison with the all-inclusive, encyclopedic approach of “Apollodorus.” In particular, consider the genre itself. What should a tragedy about Heracles focus on? Also pay attention to how Sophocles navigates the vast trajectory of Heracles’ career. What does he place in the past? In the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE: You can read the translation in your browser, or download a PDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are new to Athenian tragedy, these videos (part of our flipped classroom in CC 200: The Classical World) will provide some orientation into the performative and civic context of the genre. Of course, entries in the the Oxford Reference database<\/a> would do just as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In class we’ll discuss these versions of the Heracles legend, and then take a tour of how the hero appears on screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Tuesday, September 22, our second unit, on Heracles\/Hercules, officially begins. As is customary, we’ll begin with some primary sources: all reading, no viewing (apart from some optional videos in our Classical World series). “Apollodorus” on Heracles. This is an excerpt from the Bibliotheca or Library of Greek myth, an ancient encyclopedia dedicated to cataloguing … <\/p>\n
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