ANCW20015: Classical Mythology

Document analysis (15%), Research essay (40%), Take home exam (35%), Weekly quizzes (10%)

Overall, I really enjoyed this subject. It's brilliantly coordinated and delves into really interesting topics such as heroes and monsters of the ancient world and sexual violence. No prior knowledge of the classics is needed, but it does help, especially because greco-roman mythology has a lot of characters and names being thrown around, so I would recommend reading some re-tellings before taking this subject, those by Stephen Fry are a great start.

I recommend taking this as an intensive in the winter, mainly because you get it done in 4 weeks, but it is intensive. There are quite a lot of readings to do before every seminar, and all the assessments rely on them. The primary readings are the most important and will be the ones discussed in the seminars, so for the love of god, read them. You will get called out if you don't and it's just a bad situation all around; if you do the readings you get to interact with the class and join in really interesting discussions, which makes this subject so much better. Personally, I didn't find it hard to do the readings because unlike other subjects, these I found genuinely interesting. You're basically reading stories about heroes and monsters, Odysseus and Apollo, Athena and Dionysus, literally the best readings you could ask for. The secondary readings are less of an issue, but you should still know what they talk about for the assessments.

Speaking of assessments:

- Document analysis: a 750 word assignment analysing a primary text, likely Hesiod's Theogony. Pretty much go through it in the seminars, so do the reading and join the discussion and you will be a-okay.

- Research essay: 1750 word essay researching a topic. You basically have to choose a topic (you can choose your own) and form an argument for a question and back that argument up with both primary and secondary sources of your own finding. All the topics were really interesting and the tutors are always open to discuss your ideas and help you along the way. It did take work, but it was also very rewarding and a genuinely fun experience (as someone from science, writing arts essays is a whole different ball game, but this one was really fun).

- Take home exam: 1500 word essay on topic given. No research necessary, but not penalised. You're meant to use the resources given and discussed in class to show what you took from the subject. The topics are quite broad which allow you to take in many different directions and didn't find it particularly challenging, though still requires a fair amount of work and reading.

- Weekly quizzes: alternate between mcq and 1 saq worth 100 words. Pretty easy, just watch the content videos and you'll be fine.

This is probably my favourite breadth I've ever done and recommend it 100%. But please do the readings, I feel like I missed out on a lot that this subject could offer because my peers never did their readings so a lot of our seminars were just the tutor asking people what they thought and them either saying they didn't read them or fully ignoring them (gotta love zoom). So many awkward silences. And I felt like my tutor was really invested in getting everyone involved, which I appreciate, but that meant those of us that did do the readings got to discuss less and just sit there in silence. I also felt at times that my tutor was a bit tone deaf. When you're teaching about a sensitive subject like colonisation, you can't say Alexander the Great colonised the Indians to "share" his culture and "improve" civilisation. The staff were very conscious of trigger warnings and issues surrounding the content, there were just some comments that didn't quite fit, and I truly don't believe they meant anything bad with them. So be aware that there are quite a few trigger warnings.

All that aside, it's a fantastic subject with fun assignments and really well coordinated. Monique was super engaging in the content videos and all tutors are super interactive and engaging in the seminar discussions. Also, if I managed to get H1, so can you. I went from 67 on my previous arts breadth to 84 by just doing the readings and putting in some work in the essays. And it was all done in a month. Highly recommend.

Arts

Yes, with screen capture etc.

Dr. Monique Webber

Some past exams available from the library.

4.5 Out of 5

All texts are provided.

1 set of short lecture videos every week + 1x2h seminar per week (3 seminar per week in winter)

2021 Winter

84