Hesiod proposed five stages in human development, which started with the Golden Age and, passing through the Silver, Bronze, and Heroic Ages, ended with the Iron Age, which he thought was the period in which he himself lived. This arrangement in four (or five) sessions is not random, but chronological: for the ancient Greeks, most myths were indeed historical. I usually stop with the return of Odysseus and avoid the whole messy bit where he gets killed, as many of these stories are usually not the most upbeat of tales, adventurous though they may be. The final class is devoted to the Trojan War, based largely, of course, on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, with other information supplied by whatever scraps we have for other epic poems that were part of the Trojan Cycle. In Leiden, there’s an extra class devoted entirely to Heracles, since my time with the hero last year has given me plenty of fuel for thought. The third part deals with hero myths, such as the story of Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts, and the Theban Cycle (Cadmus, Oedipus, the Seven against Thebes). The second class is entirely devoted to the Olympian gods, from Zeus and his brothers and sisters to the younger generation of gods, such as Ares, Athena, and Aphrodite. It always ends with the victory of the Olympian gods over the Titans. I also briefly deal with Greek myths about the creation of the world and the earliest gods, based largely on the Theogony by Hesiod. The first class is devoted to a brief overview of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age down to the Classical age, the timespan during which the Greek myths were created, transmitted orally for some time, and finally written down. My course usually consists of four sessions or classes of two hours each. It’s therefore of interest not only to those studying the ancient world, but also to art lovers in general. It served as a source of inspiration for a lot of (early) modern literature and art. the totality of stories ( mythoi) from ancient Greece, always draws a lot of interest. I also wrote a book on the subject, in Dutch, that was published last year in Amsterdam. This month I’m giving a course on Greek mythology for two different organizations here in the Netherlands, in Leiden and in Bussum.
Since 2006, I’ve regularly given courses and lectures on a variety of topics related to the ancient world for various institutions specialized in adult education.
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