Classical Mythology in Context provides a contextualized treatment of classical myth, combining ancient sources, comparative perspectives, theoretical approaches, and artistic interpretations. It encourages students to directly encounter and explore ancient myths and to understand them in
broader interpretative contexts. It features a modular structure that coincides with the four main components of a classical mythology course: history, theory, comparison, and reception.

Lisa Maurizio is Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Preface to the Second Edition
About the Author

PART I: Goddesses and Gods
Genealogy of the Greek Gods
Timeline of Classical Mythology
Map: Greece and Greek-Speaking Cities in Anatolia

1. Classical Myths and Contemporary Questions

1.1 What Is a Myth?
Myth, Legend, and Folklore
A Three-Point Definition of a Mythological Corpus

1.2 What Is Classical Mythology?
Myths from Ancient Greece
Myths from the Ancient Near East
Myths from Ancient Rome

1.3 How Do We Make Sense of Classical Myths?
History
Theory
Comparison
Reception

1.4 Why Study Classical Myths in the Twenty-First Century?

2. Creation

2.1 History: A Greek Creation Story
Historical Settings of Hesiod's Theogony
Hesiod's Creation Story: The Theogony
Hesiod, Theogony

2.2 Theory: The Social World Shapes Myth
Ivan Strenski, from “Introduction” to Malinowski and the Work of Myth

2.3 Comparison: Levant: Creation Stories
Genesis 1:1-3:24

2.4 Reception: Titans in Modern Art

3. Zeus and Hera

3.1 History: Order and Rebellion
Zeus
Aeschylus, from Agamemnon
Hera
Hesiod, from Works and Days

3.2 Theory: Universal Questions Shape Myth
Wendy Doniger, from The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth

3.3 Comparison: Levant: Flood Stories
Genesis 6-9

3.4 Reception: Leda and the Swan in Modernist Poetry
Marie Laurencin, Leda and the Swan
William Butler Yeats, “Leda and the Swan”
Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), “Leda”

4. Demeter and Hades

4.1 History: Life and Death
Hades
Demeter
Unknown, Hymn 2: To Demeter

4.2 Theory: Myths Reinforce Social Norms
Helene P. Foley, from “A Question of Origins: Goddess Cults Greek and Modern”

4.3 Comparison: Mesopotamia: Ishtar
Unknown, the Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld

4.4 Reception: Persephone in Contemporary Women's Poetry
Rita Frances Dove, “The Narcissus Flower”

5. Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Ares

5.1 History: Love and Strife

Aphrodite
Hephaestus
Ares
Eros
Unknown, Hymn 5: To Aphrodite

5.2 Theory: Myths Challenge Social Norms
John J. Winkler, from “The Laughter of the Oppressed: Demeter and the Gardens of Adonis”

5.3 Comparison: Mesopotamia: Ishtar
Unknown, The Epic of Gilgamesh

5.4 Reception: Pygmalion in Hollywood

6. Athena and Poseidon

6.1 History: Wisdom and War
Athena's Birth
Athena's Practical Intelligence and Men's Activities
Poseidon
Athena and the City of Athens
Aeschylus, from Eumenides

6.2 Theory: The Mind Structures Myth in Oppositions
Simon Goldhill, from Aeschylus: The Oresteia

6.3 Comparison: Egypt: Neith
Unknown, from “Cosmogonies at the Temple of Esna”

6.4 Reception: Athena as a Political Allegory
Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
François-Charles and Léopold Morice, The Statue of the Republic
Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”
Frédéric Bartholdi, “The Statue of Liberty”

7. Hermes and Hestia

7.1 History: From Herms to Hermes
Hermes's Hills
Ithyphallic Herms
Beardless Hermes
Hestia
Unknown, Hymn 4: To Hermes

7.2 Theory: The Mind Structures Myths in Archetypes
Lewis Hyde, from Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art

7.3 Comparison: Egypt: Thoth
Unknown, “The Hymn to Thoth”
Plato, from Phaedrus

7.4 Reception: Hermaphroditus in Pre-Raphaelite Art
Edward Burne-Jones, “The Tree of Forgiveness”
Aubrey Beardsley, “A Hermaphrodite Amongst the Roses”

8. Artemis and Apollo

8.1 History: From Adolescence to Adulthood
Artemis
Apollo
Unknown, Homer, Hymn 3: To Apollo
Unknown, Homer, Hymn 27: To Artemis

8.2 Theory: Myth, Ritual, and Initiations
Jane Harrison and the Cambridge Ritualists
Arnold van Gennep and Rites of Passage
Ken Dowden, “Initiation: The Key to Myth?”

8.3 Comparison: Anatolia and Rome: Cybele
Artemis and the Phrygian Great Mother
Artemis in Roman Ephesus
Xenophon, from An Ephesian Tale

8.4 Reception: Daphne in Contemporary Women's Poetry
Alicia E. Stallings, “Daphne”

9. Dionysus

9.1 History: Encountering Dionysus
Viticulture, Wine, and Fertility
Theater and Masks
Mystery Cults
Euripides's Bacchae
Euripides, Bacchae
Unknown, Hymn 7 (To Dionysus)

9.2 Theory: Initiations and Inversions
Liminality and Initiation Rituals
Liminality and Dionysus
Eric Csapo, from “Riding the Phallus for Dionysus: Iconology, Ritual, and Gender-Role De/Construction”

9.3 Comparison: Anatolia and Rome: Cybele and Attis
The Great Mother in Greece
The Great Mother in Rome
Catullus, “Attis”

9.4 Reception: Dionysus and Dracula
Bram Stoker, Dracula

PART II: Heroes and Heroines
Five Traits of Greek Heroes and Heroines

10. Heroes at Troy

10.1 History: Heroes in Homer's Iliad
The Trojan War
Heroes in Homeric Society
Agamemnon
Diomedes
Achilles
Hector and Paris
Homer, from the Iliad

10.2 Theory: Heroes and Violence
Simone Weil, “The Iliad, or a Poem of Force”
Sue Grand, Hero in the Mirror

10.3 Comparison: Rome: Aeneas
Anger and Revenge in Vergil's Aeneid
Vergil, from Aeneid

10.4 Reception: Achilles in Contemporary Fiction
David Malouf, Ransom
Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls

11. Heroes at the Ends of the Earth

11.1 History: Heroic Quests and Monstrous Encounters
Heracles
Theseus
Perseus
Euripides, from Herakles

11.2 Theory: Monsters and Heroes
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Thesis V from “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)”

11.3 Comparison: Rome: Hercules
From Heracles to Hercules
Seneca, from Hercules Furens

11.4 Reception: Heracles in Films
Hercules in New York

12. Heroes at Home

12.1 History: The Homecoming Husband
Nostos and Nostalgia
Odysseus
Jason
Oedipus
Homer, from the Odyssey

12.2 Theory: The Quest Hero
Joseph Campbell's Monomyth
Subjective Experience and the External Landscape
W. H. Auden, from “The Quest Hero”

12.3 Comparison: Rome: Aeneas
Aeneas in Avernus
Vergil, from Aeneid

12.4 Reception: African American Odysseus
Sterling A. Brown, “Odyssey of Big Boy”
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

13. Heroines at Home

13.1 History: Heroines' Choices
Heroines and Heroes
Helen
Alcestis
Penelope
Homer, from the Odyssey

13.2 Theory: A Paradigm for Heroines
Apuleius's Tale of Amor and Psyche
Defining Heroism
Lee R. Edwards, from Psyche as Hero: Female Heroism and Fictional Form

13.3 Comparison: Rome: Penelope
Ovid, Letter 1 from Letters of Heroines

13.4 Reception: Penelope's Perspectives
Joanne Kyger, The Tapestry and the Web
Louise Glück, Meadowlands
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

14. Heroines and Revenge

14.1 History: Heroines in an Unjust World
Clytemnestra
Procne
Hecuba
Medea
Euripides, Medea

14.2 Theory: Metamorphosis of the Heroine
Deborah Lyons, from Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult

14.3 Comparison: Rome: Medea
Ovid's Medea
Seneca's Medea
Seneca, from Medea

14.4 Reception: African American Medea
Countée Cullen, The Medea and Some Poems
Owen Dodson, The Garden of Time
Toni Morrison, Beloved

15. Heroines and Honor

15.1 History: Heroines and Death
Iphigenia
Polyxena
Antigone
Sophocles, Antigone

15.2 Theory: The Heroine's Journey
Gail Carriger, from The Heroine's Journey for Writers, Readers and Fans of Pop Culture

15.3 Comparison Rome: Thecla
Saints and Martyrs in Early Christian Communities
Heroines and Martyrs
Thecla as a Christian Heroine
Unknown, from “The Acts of Paul and Thecla”

15.4 Reception: Antigone Around the World
Jeff Ho, Antigone: Fong
Sophie Deraspe, Antigone

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