Classical Mythology
Part I
Professor Elizabeth Vandiver

THE TEACHING COMPANY ®

Elizabeth Vandiver, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Maryland Elizabeth Vandiver did her undergraduate work at Shimer College, Mt. Carroll, Illinois, where she matriculated in 1972 as a sixteen-year-old “early entrant.” After receiving her B.A. in 1975, she spent several years working as a librarian before deciding to pursue graduate work in Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her M.A. in 1984 and her Ph.D. in 1990. In addition to teaching at the University of Maryland, Professor Vandiver has held visiting professorships at Northwestern University, where she taught from 1996 to 1999; the University of Georgia; The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, Italy; Loyola University, New Orleans; and Utah State University. Her course on Classical Mythology has been particularly successful. In 1998, Dr. Vandiver received the American Philological Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching award available to American classicists. Other awards include the Northwestern University Department of Classics Excellence in Teaching award for 1998 and the University of Georgia’s Outstanding Honors Professor award in 1993 and 1994. Dr. Vandiver has published a book, Heroes in Herodotus: The Interaction of Myth and History, and several articles, as well as delivering numerous papers at national and international conferences. She is currently working on a second book that examines the influence of the classical tradition on the British poets of World War I. Her previous Teaching Company courses include The Iliad of Homer, The Odyssey of Homer, and Virgil’s Aeneid. Dr. Vandiver is married to Franklin J. Hildy, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre at the University of Maryland.

©2000 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership

i

Table of Contents Classical Mythology Part I
Instructor Biography........................................................................................................i Foreword.............................................................................................................................1 Lecture One Lecture Two Lecture Three Lecture Four Lecture Five Lecture Six Lecture Seven Lecture Eight Lecture Nine Lecture Ten Lecture Eleven Lecture Twelve Introduction .......................................................................4 What Is Myth? ................................................................. 8 Why Is Myth? .................................................................12 “First Was Chaos”..........................................................16 The Reign of the Olympians..........................................20 Immortals and Mortals ....................................................24 Demeter, Persephone, and the Conquest of Death.................................................................................29 The Eleusinian Mysteries and the Afterlife ................33 Apollo and Artemis .........................................................36 Hermes and Dionysos ....................................................40 Laughter-Loving Aphrodite ..........................................45 Culture, Prehistory, and the “Great Goddess”............49

Timeline ...........................................................................................................................54 Glossary…………………………………………………….(see Booklet, Part II) Biographical Notes.........................................................................................................58 Bibliography……………………………………………… (see Booklet, Part II)