FSEM 167   Ancient Myths, Modern Reflections

Faculty Profile for Professor Ammerman

Why do stories handed down through the centuries continue to captivate our imagination and inspire new retellings of age-old tales? Students explore this question by focusing on texts that preserve some of the oldest myths and legends from the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean worlds. Readings include the exploits of Gilgamesh preserved on fragmentary clay tablets, sacred stories recorded in the scriptures of Genesis, epic narratives about the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus, and other classical myths. Close reading of the ancient texts are accompanied by an exploration of creative works in literature, art, and cinema that offer a modern response to the ancient tales. Students consider how ancient myth is reflected in contemporary literature, such as Gilgamesh’s Snake by Ghareeb Iskander, Messengers of God by Elie Wiesel, and Circe by Madeline Miller, as well as in the visual and cinematic arts. Students contemplate how the knowledge they have gained about the ancient sources deepens their appreciation of the modern works and, in turn, how the modern treatment of the myths enhances their own understanding of the ancient narratives. The course offers a rich intellectual feast for students with an active curiosity in literature, art, archaeology, cinema, religion, history, and ancient Greek and Latin, and helps them develop their skills in close reading, creative writing, and academic research. Students who successfully complete this seminar receive credit for a 200-level CLAS course and can satisfy the human thought and expression areas of inquiry requirement or the artistic practice and interpretation liberal arts practice requirement.

Rebecca Miller Ammerman is the Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of The Classics and director of excavations at the Temple of Athena at Paestum in southern Italy. She is an archaeologist whose research and excavations center on the religious life of the Greek settlements in southern Italy, where she is currently leading Colgate students on their own modern-day odyssey, visiting the ancient sites of Sicily and Magna Graecia as part of one of the classics department’s extended study groups to the Mediterranean.