Mythos as MythUs

Overview

This 10-day program offers students the opportunity to dive into myth and popular narrative, from antiquity to the present, as these are the long-shared humanity’s voice, with which people respond to harsh realities and times of crisis, and deal with the distress that impacts entire communities. In times of transition and upheaval, myth and narrative serve to counter the inimical stereotyping, bigoted notions, and segregation that these challenging circumstances inevitably bring. In its role of healing, narrative has been not just preserved but also transformed, in all its oral, written, digital, and, of late, even contemporary literary forms, not just in terms of its atavistic world of archaic symbolism but in fact most markedly through being called on in confronting, via poetic means, problems, ideas, and emotions that are communal as well as individual – as a result of which transformative therapeutic dimension, narrative continues to update, on an ongoing basis, in altogether dynamic ways.

Topics

• Myth in Ancient Greek and Other Ancient Cultures

• The Role of Myth in Response to Dread, Disruption, and Disaster

• Narrating in Modern and Contemporary Society

Teaching staff

Scholars of international acclaim in classics and folklore studies:

William Hansen (Indiana University), Carl Lindahl (University of Houston), Camilla Asplund Ingemark, (Uppsala University),  Licia Masoni (University of Bologna), Dominic Ingemark (Uppsala University), Gail Cooper, Ioannis Konstantakos (NKUA), Sophia Papaioannou (NKUA), Christos Zafiropoulos (University of Patras), Marianthi Kaplanoglou (NKUA), George Katsadoros (University of the Aegean), Aphrodite-Lidia Nounanaki (NKUA).

Mode of Study

Blended-learning that consists of an online preparation class and a ten-day in- person instruction in Athens as well as fieldwork on the island of Antiparos, Cyclades, and five group and/or guided tours in and around Attica and Athens.