GREEK SOURCES OF MYTH: LITERATURE AND ICONOGRAPHY
- Academic year
- 2018/2019 Syllabus of previous years
- Official course title
- FONTI GRECHE SUL MITO: LETTERATURA E ICONOGRAFIA SP.
- Course code
- FM0446 (AF:274293 AR:161484)
- Modality
- On campus classes
- ECTS credits
- 6
- Degree level
- Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
- Educational sector code
- L-FIL-LET/05
- Period
- Annual
- Where
- VENEZIA
- Moodle
- Go to Moodle page
Contribution of the course to the overall degree programme goals
Expected learning outcomes
- to display a good knowledge of some seminal myths from the archaic to the imperial age
- to grasp the typical elements and the main features in the mythical narrative as well as the innovations, the experimentation and variants both in literature and iconography
- to show familiarity with the use and abuse of myth in Greek literature and iconography
- to become acquainted with the towering figures of scholars who have investigated myth in literature and iconography
As regards the knowledge and comprehension skills, students will be able:
- to understand the literary texts and the value of the mythical variants they offer
- to grasp the significant details in the mythical narrative conveyed by literature an iconography
- to tell the different styles and modes of expression of mythical narrative within both literary genres in poetry and prose, and the various typologies of manufacturing and monuments (vases, friezes and metope of temples , sculptures or other containers such as the Tabulae Iliacae)
- to comment on the literary texts and on the images, and also be aware of their debt towards tradition and of the influence of the context in which they are produced
Regarding their skill in evaluating the texts, students shall be able to prove:
- they can detect the various problems presented by a myth in a specific medium and comment on the various aspects pertaining to the subject
- to grasp the various aims and modes of expression in the written versions and/or in their representation through images such as, for instance the political or religious purpose/function, and the deliberate allusion and intertextuality
Communication skills. At the end of the year students will prove, by means also of a final paper on a specific text and group of images they will present at the end of the year, they can produce a commentary on images and text, present it and discuss it in a public performance.
Pre-requirements
Contents
Referral texts
Here below students will find a bibliographical support for the class.
Translations, commentaries and editions of ancient authors.
For the Library of Apollodorus: Apollodoro. I Miti Greci. a cura di P. Scarpi. Traduzione di M. G. Ciani, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla-Mondadori 2008, con Introduzione, testo greco, traduzione e commento; Apollodoro. Biblioteca, traduzione di G. Guidorizzi, note di J, G. Frazer, Adelphi 1995 (2.a ed.).
For Pausanias: Pausania. Guida della Grecia, traduzione, introduzione, ampio commento di autori vari, 10 voll., Fondazione Lorenzo Valla-Mondadori 1982-2017; Pausania. Viaggio in Grecia, trad. di S. Rizzo, testo greco a fronte, 9 voll., Rizzoli.
Readings for the study of Greek myths and mythography: E. Pellizer, 'La mitografia', In Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica. Vol. 1.2. a cura di G. Cambiano et al., Roma 1993: 283–303; T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, 2 voll., The Johns Hopkins University Press 1993; D. Castriota, Myth, Ethos, and Actuality. Official Art in Fifth- cent. BC Athens, Madison 1992, cap. 2-3; S. Woodford, Images of myths in classical Antiquity, Cambridge 2003, cap. 2, 4.
For the Tabulae Iliacae: A. Sadurska, Les tables iliaques, Varsavia 1964; N. Horsfall, Stesichorus at Bovillae?, «JHS» 99, 1979, 26-48; M. Squire, The Iliad in a Nutshell: Visualizing Epic on the Tabulae Iliacae, Oxford University Press, 2011.; D. Petrain, Homer in Stone: The 'Tabulae Iliacae' in their Roman Context. Greek culture in the Roman world, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Programme for students unable to attend the class: Pausanias 3.18.6-19.6 (description of the throne at Amyclai; Pausanias 5.17.5 – 19.10 (description of the ark of Kypselos); Pausanias 10.25.5-27.2 (Ilioupersis in the Cnidian lesche at Delphi); Apollodoro, Library 3.4.4-7.7 (Oedipus and the war at Thebes); Apollodorus, Epitome 2-7 (la guerra di Troia). F. Graf, Il mito in Grecia, Roma-Bari 1987: E. Pellizer, 'La mitografia', In Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica. Vol. 1.2. a cura di G. Cambiano et al., Roma 1993: 283–303; N. Himmelmann, 'Narrative and figure in archaic art', in Reading Greek Art Princeton 1998, 67-90; C. Isler-Kereny, 'Immagini di Medea', in Medea nella letteratura e nell'arte , a cura di B. Gentili - F. Perusino, Venezia 2000, 117-38.
Assessment methods
A basic knowledge of Greek is strongly recommended for a better understanding of the texts and of the key words still lingering in Italian language. Students are reminded that at Ca' Foscari they have the opportunity to take up Greek from scratch by attending the Laboratorio di greco, taught by prof. O. Tribulato (see her website).
Teaching methods
ELIMINATO DA RECUPERARE
Teaching language
Type of exam
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals
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