The purpose of these summer seminars is to provide teachers with the framework and materials to teach these topics. If you’re thinking about teaching any of these topics in 2022-2023, these seminars should help.
Introducing the Homeric Hero. Sunday July 10. 7pm.
How do Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey define the hero? This seminar will explore who the hero is and what the hero means in Homer’s epics and lead teachers through a lesson plan for introducing the concepts to high school students.
Introduction to Oral Storytelling. Monday July 11. 7pm.
Unlike later epics like Apollonius of Rhodes’ Jason and the Golden Fleece and Virgil’s Aeneid, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were likely composed orally in performance. In this session, we will explore some of the features of Homer’s epics that mark them as works of oral performance. Teachers will be led through an exercise for introducing high school students to oral storytelling.
Introduction to Greek Mythology. Tuesday July 12. 7pm.
Where do the stories that are collected under the banner ‘Greek mythology’ come from? This seminar will introduce teachers to the primary ancient texts that inform our understanding of ‘Greek’ mythology, including Hesiod and Homer from archaic Greece, the tragedians from classical Athens, the Alexandrian poets of the Hellenistic period, and Virgil and Ovid from Augustan Rome.
Seminar Registration.
All times are U.S. Eastern/New York City. A video link will be emailed to you a few days before the seminar.