"Achilles: The Making of a Hero," Maurizio, Chapter 10

• Key Names & Terms:
  • background: 5 traits, Hero cult, Hero shrine, Cleomedes, 4 key conventions of epic
  • Heracles, Zeus, Hera, Megara, Heracles's labors, Alcestis, Admetus, Deianira, Nessus, Hyllus
  • Theseus, Aegeus, Poseidon, Minotaur, Ariadne, Hippolytus, Phaedra
  • Oedipus, Jocasta, Laius, Sphinx, Antigone, Colonus
  • Homer, The Iliad, Achilles, Thetis, Priam, Hector, anger
  • The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Ishtar, Utnapishtim
  • Vergil, the Aeneid, Aeneas, Venus, Anchises, Pallas, Turnus

Hercules, the movie:

• Key names & terms: Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Hades, Pain, Panic, the fates, Hercules, Alcmene, Amphitryon, Phil, Pegasus, Meg, the titans, the cyclops, Thebes, "go the distance", "true hero"
• web site for script: click here

"Medea: The Making of a Heroine," Maurizio, Ch 11:

• Key Names and terms:
  • background: 5 traits, Charilla, Heroine Shrine, Keres, Poene
  • Helen, Zeus, Leda, Menelaus, Hermione
  • Clytemnestra, Leda, Tyndareus, Agamemnon, Erinyes
  • Hecuba, Priam, Hector, Cassandra
  • Euripides, Medea, Ovid, Metamorphoses, Medea, Aeëtes, Cruesa, Jason, Hera Acraia
  • Antigone, Creon, Haemon, 2 brothers

Odysseus and Quest Heroes

• Key Names & Terms:
  • Ovid, the Metamorphoses, Perseus, Danaë, Dictys, Gorgon, Medusa, Andromeda, Pegasus
  • Bellerophon, Chimaera, Pegasus
  • Apollonius, the Argonautica, Jason, Golden Fleece, Argo, Aeëtes, Medea, Apsyrtus
  • Homer, the Odyssey, Odysseus, Penelope, Polyphemus, Circe, Scylla, Sirens, Agamemnon, Achilles
  • the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, Uruk, Enkidu, Utnapishtim
  • Vergil, the Aeneid, Aeneas, Anchises, Romulus, Augustus

Iphigeneia and new Heroines

• Key Names & Terms:
  • Tyrannicides
  • Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Iphigenia, Orestes, Agamemnon, Artemis
  • Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Amor, Psyche, Venus
  • Thecla, Paul

The Movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

• Key Names & Terms: Everett (Ulysses), Pete, Delmar, Big Dan T, Pappy O'Daniel (Menelaus), Homer Stokes, Tommy, "Baby Face" George Nelson, Penny, Sirens, the sheriff
• the script of the movie (click here)

Reminder: The only acceptable answers for the fill-in-the-blank questions are the names/terms/etc listed above.

Possible Essay Questions:

Reminder 1: Unless the topic specifically says so, use only the primary material (i.e. the actual stories) in Maurizio's Classical Mythology in Context, Disney's Hercules, and the Coen brothers' Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Reminder 2: You can't cover individuals in the in-class exam essay that you covered in Paper 6 (if you did paper 6); e.g. if you write about Meg for Paper 6, you can't write about Meg in an exam essay.

• Edwards' on Female Heroism: see Maurizio, pp 623–629.
  • Source Material:
    — For Meg: Disney's Hercules.
    — For Penny: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
    — For Medea: Euripides' Medea, (Maurizio, pp 511–519) and/or Ovid' Metamorphoses, VII (Maurizio, pp 529–537)
  • Prompt: Examine one of the characters (Meg, Penny, Medea) with regard to the Edwards' ideas. Either in your introduction or in the main body of your essay, detail what Edwards' ideas are.


• "Survivor: Mythology II" on the "Myth" channel. Determine, based on the evidence and the criterion below, who would win and who not and why.
  • Admissible Evidence:
    — The movies for Hercules and Everett
    — the primary source material in Maurizio for Odysseus (Ch 12), Aeneas (Ch12), and Gilgamesh (Ch 12), and the secondary material in Maurizio for Amor (Ch13).
    — If you need extra source material, you may use the primary and secondary source material in Maurizio's Chapter 10 & 12 for Aeneas and Gilgamesh, and the secondary source material in Maurizio's Ch 12 for Odysseus.
  • Sole Criterion: the definition of honor/shame as given in the pdf in Moodle (start your paper with a brief definition or include as you go along)
  • Two Contestants from: Hercules, Everett, Odysseus, Aeneas, Gilgamesh, Amor


• The Doctor's Companion:
  • Source material: Their audition material consists of
    — the movies for Meg and Penny,
    — the primary source material in Maurizio for Circe (Ch 12), Iphigenia (Ch 13), and Thecla (Ch 13),
    — and the secondary material in Maurizio for Psyche (Ch13).
    — If you need extra, you may use the secondary source material in Maurizio's Chapter 13 for Circe & Iphigenia.
  • Prompt: You are the new casting director for the show Doctor Who and, with the upcoming departure of the current showrunner Steven Moffat, the new showrunner Chris Chibnall has decided to cast a new person for the role of "the Companion." As casting direction, you need to narrow down the possible canditates whom you will present to the new showrunner for consideration. If you've never watched the show, here is a BBCAmerica article about the top 10 companions that does a good job describing the characteristics of a good companion (click here). Make sure you have good argumentation with solid facts to back up your arguments.
    • 2 from the following: Circe, Iphigenia, Thecla, Meg, & Penny.


• Song: In Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou, the Odyssey, and Hercules, song plays a pivotal role.
  • Source Material:
    — the song "I am a man of constant sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys in the movie (lyrics click here) (youtube video from Academy Awards performance: click here).
    — Odysseus' "song" , i.e. Odysseus' recounting of his travels to the Phaeacians (books 9–12; use either the selections in Maurizio or at least one book from books 9-12 from Ian Johnston's translation click here).
    — Songs from Herecules such as "Go The Distance" and "I Won't Say (I'm In Love)", or other such songs from the movie
  • Prompt: Compare and contrast the contents and role of the song(s) from one of the movies and the Odyssey
  • Reminder: This is a compare/contrast topic—see pdf in Moodle for how to organize!