| Description: | The traditional stories about the Greek gods and heroes have always been a fundamental part of Western art and literature, especially since their "rediscovery" by Renaissance humanism. A selection of the great works of ancient Greek literature will present the most important stories, and will also show how the Greeks used myth to express the traditional ideals and personal reflections that captivated and shaped subsequent European culture. The pictorial narratives, so common in Greek and Roman monuments and objects, will introduce the sophisticated visual language created by the Greeks to tell such elaborate tales, the first such iconographic system and one which was to some extent "revived", together with the gods, heroes and heroines, in Renaissance art. To know Roman mythology and understand its similarities and differences with Greek mythology is to understand the real essence of the ideals and aspirations of a great people that built a great empire. In particular, Virgil and Ovid, the most widely known writers of Roman mythology, and also other Roman writers, will help students develop a new interest for Roman myth, history and art. |