Ancient Mysteries and the Environment: Religion and Mythology of Sacred Nature - AGLV00168

• Title: Ancient Mysteries and the Environment: Religion and Mythology of Sacred Nature
• Guaranteed by: Institute for Greek and Latin Studies (21-URLS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2023
• Semester: winter
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unlimited (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: you can enroll for the course repeatedly; course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Krešimir Vuković, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): Krešimir Vuković, Ph.D.
• Class: Exchange - 08.1 Philosophy; Exchange - 08.3 History; Exchange - 08.9 Others-Humanities; Exchange - 09.5 Classical Philology

Annotation

Last update: doc. Mgr. Lucie Pultrová, Ph.D. (10.05.2023)

Greek and Roman mythology has been an infinite source of inspiration for authors, artists, and thinkers throughout the centuries. This short course reveals a fascinating world of stories that are fundamental to our cultural heritage and that focus on the environment. The course explores famous Greek and Roman myths in their ancient context, demonstrating how they developed in relation to the environment.

Natural phenomena played a crucial role in the stories that the Greeks and Romans told about their gods. Divine intervention was believed to be the cause of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and pandemics. The ancient mysteries developed as a response to natural cycles of human and animal life, taking their structure from the rhythm of the seasons.

The course analyses the stories of Greek and Roman divinities, the titan Prometheus, and Roman heroes and heroines. It also addresses specific texts such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses from an ecological perspective, demonstrating how ancient myths not only delight the imagination but also offer insights into the human condition and thus remain just as relevant in the modern world.

Course completion requirements

Last update: doc. Mgr. Lucie Pultrová, Ph.D. (13.05.2023)

seminar paper (30%), class activity (20%), final oral exam (50%)

Literature

Last update: doc. Mgr. Lucie Pultrová, Ph.D. (10.05.2023)

Aldrete, G.S. (2007) Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome. (Baltimore)

Bowden, H. (2010) Mystery Cults of the Ancient World (Princeton)

Dougherty, C. (2006) Prometheus (New York), introduction and chapter 1

Grant, M. (1962) The Myths of the Greeks and Romans (London), pp. 99-141

Harari, Y-N (2015) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (London)

Hughes, D.J. (2014) Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans, (Baltimore).

Martelli, F.K.A. (2021) Ovid. (Leiden, Boston)

Morford, M.P.O. and R.J. Lenardon (2003) Classical Mythology, Seventh edition, (Oxford, New York) pp. 51-57, 61-71, 108-133

Schliephake, C. (2020) The Environmental Humanities and the Ancient World: Questions and Perspectives. (Cambridge)

Segal, R.A. (2004) Myth: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford)

Staples, A. (1998) From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins (London)

Vuković, K. (2020) Initiation into the mysteries of Augustus: the Liberalia and Forum Augustum. In Gremium, 14, 7-18.

Vuković, K. (2023) Wolves of Rome: The Lupercalia from Roman and Comparative Perspectives (Berlin).

Vuković, K. (forthcoming) River and Gender: An Ecocritical Reading of the Myths of the Tiber. In Schliephake, C. & Eidinow, E. (eds.) Conversing with Chaos: Writing and Reading Environmental Disorder in Ancient Texts. (Bloomsbury, London)

Syllabus

Last update: doc. Mgr. Lucie Pultrová, Ph.D. (01.09.2023)

Week 1: Introduction: the key concepts

Week 2: Titans, Prometheus’ Fire and technology

Week 3: Gods, goddesses and the forces of ‘Nature’

Week 4: Eleusinian mysteries and the cult of Delphi

Week 5: Pan, nymphs and Dionysus

Week 6: Acropolis and Athenian myths of origin

Week 7: Wolves of Rome: Romulus, Remus and the Luperci 

Week 8: The mysteries of Etruscan mythology

Week 9: Fire and Water: the mythology of the Vestals

Week 10: Rivers and the cult of the Tiber 

Week 11: The mythology of plagues and pandemics

Week 12: Ovid’s Metamorphoses from an ecological perspective