AHIS1200 Assessment 2

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AHIS1200 Assessment 2: Research Essay: Due: Sunday 31st October (end of week 12), 11:59pm Weighting: 50% Length: 2,000 words (+/- 10%) For this assessment task, students are to write an essay of no more than 2,000 words. Students are encouraged to watch/listen to Lecture 24 (Wednesday 27th October) in week 12, as this lecture will cover tips on essay writing and techniques. Students must choose ONE of the following topics listed below for their essay: 1. Discuss the extent to which theories of myth provide an explanation for Greek myth. Feel free to focus your essay on structuralism, post-structuralism, functionalism, OR phenomenology. 2. Discuss the extent to which Greek mythology was influenced by myths from other cultures. 3. Discuss the extent to which Roman mythology was influenced by myths from other cultures. 4. Ancient Greek myth embraces religion, science and philosophy, in contrast to nowadays tendency to differentiate between these lines of enquiry. Discuss our approach(es) of Greek mythology in relation to the above statement. 5. Discuss the notion of kinship in aboriginal mythology. 6. Discuss the myth of Pandora in light of the ancient Greek view on women. 7. Discuss the main aspects of Babylonian divine kingship. 8. Motifs of cosmogony in aboriginal myths. 9. Death and Afterlife in the Homeric Epics. 10. The Heroic King: Models of Kingship in Homer. 11. Explain the factors that made for Zeus’ success in winning and retaining sovereign power in the universe. How secure is Zeus’ Olympian order? Discuss with reference to episodes from Hesiod’s Theogony. 12. Examine the profile of Zeus as king of the gods in Prometheus Bound. 13. Ancient Greek gods were often attributed human qualities which distance them significantly from nowadays perceptions about the divine. What impact did this have to the sense of piety the ancient Greeks adopted towards their gods? Dionysus 14. “Monsters exist in order to be killed.” Consider this remark in the light of your knowledge of the Odyssey. 15. In the light of some of the stories you have studied consider the significance of trickery and deception in Greek myth. Discuss with reference to famous bearers of these qualities. 16. In the light of some of the stories you have studied consider the significance of eating and swallowing in Greek myth. 17. Ritual patterns in ancient Greek drama: Antigone and Iphigeneia. 18. Compare Heracles and Dionysus as mystery gods. What do their similarities and differences tell us about the ideal Greek man? 19. The role of ritual in aboriginal culture. 20. Analyse rites of passage and discuss their social importance in ancient Greece.

21. Discuss male ritual rites in ancient Greece: from the Black Hunter to Hippolytus 22. Discuss the popularity of the Eleusinian rites in Greek/ Greco-Roman antiquity. 23. Discuss in what ways the legend of Alexander the Great complies with the traditional Greek myths you studied until now. 24. The Romans did not have a mythology of their own, but simply appropriated the Greek traditional stories about gods and heroes. Do you agree with this view? 25. Vergil, Aeneas, and Augustan Propaganda. 26. Discuss Ovid’s Metamorphoses: is his work an epic, in your opinion? 27. The use of myth in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the didactic tradition. 28. The use of myth in Plato’s philosophy Students must also submit a bibliography of all ancient and modern sources which they use in their analysis. Please refer to the various guides available on the ilearn site (the Tele’s Angels referencing guide, he ACADEMIC WRITING – ACADEMIC INTEGRITY folder under week 7) for referencing and essay preparation and presentation. Submissions which exceed the prescribed length by more than 10% (+/-) will not be marked. Submissions are to be made electronically via the ‘AHIS1200 ESSAY’ Turnitin link, found in week 12, and on the right side of the iLearn page. Please submit your Myth Analysis paper as: QuestionnumberSurname.StudentIDnumber (e.g. 6.Smith94587671). Students may submit their essay as either a word document or a PDF. REFERENCING: Students must follow a clear and consistent form of referencing. Students may choose to use in-text citations or footnotes; the latter is strongly encouraged, though not mandatory. Footnotes ARE NOT included in the final wordcount, but any in-text references WILL be included. Students may also choose their referencing style, but must remain consistent. In in-text/footnote referencing, the Ancient History discipline requires author name, date, and page number for secondary literature. For ancient texts, the author’s abbreviated name (see Oxford referencing guide), the author’s work, and book/verse/line numbers must be included (i.e. Aesch. [=Aeschylus] PB, [=Prometheus Bound] 1-5; OR Hdt. [=Herodotus] His. [=Histories] 2.53). There are a number of referencing guides available for students to browse (see above). Upon completing this assessments, students should be able to: • Demonstrate knowledge of select representative examples of myths from the ancient world. • Identify theoretical approaches taken in the study of myth.

• Analyse source material, including ancient sources and modern scholarship; the critiquing of texts and application of knowledge. • Create and communicate evidence based critical and reflective judgements about ancient myths. • Synthesize acquired knowledge and understanding to produce a critical analytical essay. Please see the following for a breakdown of the rubric for this assessment (note the slight difference in this rubric in comparison with the Myth Analysis): Argument: (20%) – how well students formulate their arguments. Understanding: (20%) – the quality of the student’s argument, i.e. whether students have applied critical thinking to their chosen sources. Sources: (20%) – how well students make use of BOTH primary and secondary sources. Structure: (15%) – how well students have structured their essay, including whether the argument(s) follow a clear, flowing pattern, and arguments are interconnected, rather than disjointed and clunky. Language: (15%) – whether students have consistent spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, and formal language. Citations: (10%) – students must follow a consistent and clear form of referencing. Students must also have a complete bibliography containing all referenced sources (alphabetised), with a separate ‘ancient sources’ and ‘secondary literature’ sections.

PLAN: Intro: Almost conclusively, everything is subjective – only problem is the ultimate contradistinction – there is no truth? LANGUAGE CHANGES AS SOCIETY CHANGES. Truth is what society makes it. Focus on one area/novel Define post structuralism: Post structuralism decides that language is a structure or relative code, whose parts derive their meaning from “language is not a transparent medium that connects one directly with a “truth” or “reality” outside it but rather a structure or code, whose parts derive their meaning from their contrast with one another and not from any connection with an outside world.” Para 1. https://www.britannica.com/art/poststructuralism  The meaning the author intended – secondary to the meaning that the reader perceives  Rejects the idea of a literary text having one purpose, one meaning or one singular existence  To utilize a variety of perspectives to create a multifaceted/conflicting interpretation of text  To analyse how the meanings of a text shift in relation to certain variables (usually the identity of the reader) – WHAT IS TRUTH? BODY 1: Herodotus: - known to shape his stories to suit his purposes – language and history is what we make it – historians are not subjective. - His text does not have a single purpose but multiple – entertainment, bolster Greek perception of superiority, relay his own version of myths. (Curthoys & Docker, 2009). - ‘Seduce readers with the magic of the narrative.’ Pp2 - Herodotus ‘established Western historical writing.’ Pp12 - Value of Herodotus = ‘revealing Ancient Greek historical consciousness,’ pp13 - Herodotus claims that the Iliad is dramatized to exhibit divine retribution due the unwise move by the Trojan King Priam to not return Helen to Menelaus, allowing war to rage and his own sons to be killed. Herodotus instead believes a story relayed to him by Egyptian priests where Helen is detained by the Egyptian ruler, later to be joined by her husband Menelaus, who was met ‘with the utmost hospitality, received Helen back unharmed, and recovered all his treasures’ (Herodotus 2.119). p20 - Herodotus chooses a procedure where he permits multiple stories to surround an event, so that the notion of historical necessity is always open to question. P20 - Herodotus says Homer knew the story of Helen not leaving Egypt with - Alexander, but discounted it because he wished his epic to show the harsh - divine retribution that necessarily follows when great wrongs are done - (2.116). pp20

- Herodotus does not confine history to any area or field or focus, rather establishing historical writing as freely economic, political, diplomatic, social, cultural, sexual, religious, military, naval. Pp30 - Ultimately, in agreeing with Baragwanath & de Bakker, mythic and legendary material ‘functions as important to the work, ’ and must not be entirely discredited when interpreting Histories . 1 Interpretation must recognise the dramatic implementation of myths and legends to achieve his political purpose and analyse the work in terms of its contextual importance. - Furthermore, Book VII reveals Leonidas’ supposed genealogical connection to Heracles in the quotation: “he that was most regarded and was leader of the whole army was Leonidas of Lacedaemon, whose descent was from… Heracles. ” 2 Moreover, this connection is again solidified by Herodotus’ alterations to the king’s genealogical lists when he was placed in charge of them. 3 This clever genealogical association to mythic Gods often justified territorial possession for political leaders, further cementing Greek valour. 4 Additionally, this solidified Leonidas’ heroic sacrifice as a symbol of Greek persistence against the invader, enhancing the growing perception of Greek aretē 5 to achieve his political purpose. Thus, one can argue in favour of Herodotus’ mythological inclusions as central to understanding the text in its context. - BODY 2: NOW THAT we are removed from that context of hating the Persians, we can view both sides of the story??? Meanings of texts change due to society changing & the reader’s characteristics. hall – language changes to shape society’s need. “The flower of the Persians has fallen and perished!... the whole barbarian host is lost.” 6 “Barbarian” initially denoted someone who did not speak Greek. Edith Hall maintains that while notions of foreigners being inferior existed prior to the Persian wars, the wars resulted in greater unity within Greece and the conception of all foreigners as a universal “other.” In fact, the term “barbaros,” originally meaning one who does not speak Greek, entered mainland Greece from the eastern Aegean during the Persian Wars. At first, “barbaros” referred to only Persians, but later to all foreigners that the Greeks encountered. In this way, the “polarization of Hellene and barbarian” emerged under these historical circumstances primarily through Athens. But after the Persian Wars in which Athens was victorious, the word becomes associated with eastern peoples. 1 Baragwanath, E & de Bakker, M (2012: pp68). 2 Herodotus (Book VII: 204). 3 Prakken (1940: pp470). 4 Patterson, L. E. (2021: pp419). 5 Finkelberg (2002: pp35). 6 Aeschylus (lines 249-255).

They live a luxurious life, are cowards, have no sense of freedom and are servile. The representations on the metopes of the Parthenon epitomise the superiority of the Greeks versus the barbarians. The use of negative mirror-images is an essential element: 'barbarians' serve to tell what Greeks or Athenians are not. Sancisi-Weerdenburg (1993: pp127). The barbarian, as created in Aeschylus' historical drama (and possibly in similar tragedies now lost), is then perceived by Hall as penetrating the territory of myth , a natural development, since mythical stereotypes often function conceptually in the same diametrical opposition to the dominant cultural and political forces as do ethnic outsiders. Both groups therefore tend to share traits that characterise them as inferior. Pp127 Therefore, it is argued by Hall, "the Persian wars were turned into myth [on the tragic stage]" and by a reverse process "the tragedians suggested that the language of their mythical Trojans was that of the Persian court" (p. 121). Tragic drama is the most efficient medium for the development of this Athenian rhetoric by implication. - Moreover, despite his seemingly objective initial stance, Herodotus politically colours the ‘barbarians’ 7 to heighten Greek valour & solidify implementation of his purpose. Herodotus is revealed to employ myth to help familiarise foreign customs and historical origins of the Persian empire with the Greek audience. 8 However, in doing so, ‘fabricates and exaggerates’ aspects of his Persian stories to amplify Histories’ political effectiveness. 9 - the tragedian invented a new vocabulary of significant words, themes, symbols and actions with which to characterise the persians of historical tragedy. pp101 - the invented barbarian world of greek literature had developed an internal dynamic, and became in its own right a source of theatrical inspiration. pp113 - threnodic role of the chorus was particularly suggestive of femininity and barbarism. this can be no better illustrated than by aeschylus’ choice of chorus for his dramatic realisation of Ajax’s suicide at troy. sophocles preferred salaminian sailors, but aeschylus selected thracian women after whom the tragedy, Threissae, was named. pp116 - barbarian tyranny became a rhetorical topos pp154 - the persian kings practice of mutilation, like that performed on Ciçantakhma, deeply disturbed the Greeks; in classical times they performed mutilations ‘only’ on slaves, ‘for the bodily integrity of the citizen must be preserved.’ p159 - hartog 1988 p142 - and so the playwright recast their myths so as to bring mythical mutilation into association with the barbarian ethnicity of the perpetrators p159 Bremmer, J. (1987). Interpretations of Greek Mythology . for their gender-opposite parent and feel jealous and envious of their same-sex parent BODY 3: 7 Herodotus (Book I: 1). 8 Chiasson, Baragwanath, & de Bakker (2012: 214). 9 Chiasson, Baragwanath, & de Bakker (2012: 216).

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