英美概况-希腊罗马神话教案

《英美概况》教案The Greek and Roman MythologyTeaching Objectives:The students should get to know the stories in the Greek and Roman mythologyTeaching Methods:Presentation, Question-answeringDifficult/Focal Points:The Main Gods and Goddess in the mythologyThe heroes and their storiesTeaching Procedure:Part I Greece& RomeGreece is a country in southeastern Europe. Situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece has land borders with Albania阿尔巴尼亚, the Republic of Macedonia 马其顿and Bulgaria保加利亚to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea爱琴海lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea 爱奥尼亚海to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea 地中海to the south.Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilisation of ancient Greece, generally considered the cradle of western civilization. As such, it is the birthplace of democracy,[7] Western philosophy,[8] the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama,[9] including both tragedy and comedy.Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian leadership successfully repelling the military threat of Persian invasion. The Athenian Golden Age ends with the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilizationPart II Survey of the mythic historyThe mythological "history of the world" may be divided into three or four broader periods:A.The myths of origin or age of gods ("births of gods"): myths about the origins of the world, thegods, and the human race.B.The age when gods and mortals mingled freely: stories of the early interactions between gods,demigods, and mortals.C.The age of heroes (heroic age), where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of theheroic legends is the story of the Trojan War and after.A. The myths of origin or age of gods ("births of gods"): myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race."Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms and explain the origin of the world.( First Dynasty ) He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Gaia Gaea(the Earth). (Second Dynasty) Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Oranos Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans—six males: Coeusk, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, iapetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis,and Tethys. After Cronus was born, Gaia and Oranos decreed no more Titans were to be born.. Cronus castrated his father and became the ruler of the gods with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort, and the other Titans became his court.(Third Dynasty) A motif of father-against-son conflict was repeated when Kronos was confronted by his son, Zeus. Because Kronos had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Kronus ate. When Zeus was grown, he fed his father a drugged drink which caused Kronos to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children and the stone, which had been sitting in Kronos' stomach all along. Zeus then challenged Kronos to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Kronos and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.Zeus was plagued by the same concern and, after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, Metis, would give birth to a god "greater than he"—Zeus swallowed her. She was already pregnant with Athena, however, and they made him miserable until Athena burst forth from his head—fully-grown and dressed for war.The Olympian GodsGreek Name Roman Name Image God or Goddess of... GenerationZeus JupiterKing of the gods and ruler of MountOlympus; god of the sky and thunder.Youngest child of the Titans Cronusand Rhea. Symbols include thethunderbolt, eagle, oak tree, scepterand scales. Brother and husband ofHera, although he had many lovers.FirstHera JunoQueen of the gods and the goddess ofmarriage and motherhood. Symbolsinclude the peacock, pomegranate,crown, cuckoo, lion and cow.Youngest daughter of Cronus andRhea. Wife and sister of Zeus. Beingthe goddess of marriage, shefrequently tried to get revenge onZeus' lovers and their children.FirstPoseidon NeptuneLord of the seas, earthquakes andhorses. Symbols include the horse,bull, dolphin and trident. Middle sonof Cronus and Rhea. Brother of Zeusand Hades. Married to the NereidAmphitrite, although, like his brotherZeus, he had many lovers.FirstHestia VestaGoddess of the hearth and of the rightordering of domesticity and thefamily; she was born into the firstOlympian generation and was one ofthe original twelve Olympians, butstories suggest that when Dionysushad arrived at Mount Olympus shegave him her spot in the twelve toprevent discordFirstApolloApolloGod of light, music, poetry, prophecyand archery. Symbols include the sun,lyre, bow and arrow, raven, dolphin,wolf, swan and mouse. Twin brotherof Artemis. Youngest child of Zeusand Leto.SecondArtemis DianaVirgin goddess of the hunt, virginity,archery and all animals. Symbolsinclude the moon, deer, hound,she-bear, snake, cypress tree and bowand arrow. Twin sister of Apollo.Eldest child of Zeus and Leto.SecondHermes MercuryMessenger of the Gods; god ofcommerce and thieves. Symbolsinclude the caduceus (staff entwinedwith two snakes), winged sandals andcap, stork and tortoise (whose shellhe used to invent the lyre). Son ofZeus and the nymph Maia. Thesecond-youngest Olympian, olderonly than Dionysus. He marriedDryope, the daughter of Dryops, andtheir son Pan became the god ofnature, lord of the satyrs, inventor ofthe panpipes and comrade ofDionysus.SecondAthena MinervaVirgin goddess of wisdom,handicrafts, defence and strategicwarfare. Symbols include the aegis,owl, olive tree, snake and spider.Daughter of Zeus and the OceanidMetis, she rose from her father's headfully grown and in full battle armorafter he swallowed her mother.SecondAres MarsGod of war, violence and bloodshed.Symbols include the boar, serpent,dog, vulture, spear and shield. Son ofZeus and Hera, all the other gods(excluding Aphrodite) despised him.His Latin name, Mars, gave us theword 'Martial'.SecondAphrodite VenusGoddess of love, beauty, and desire .Symbols include the dove, apple, bee,swan, myrtle, rose and seashell.Daughter of Zeus and the OceanidDione, or perhaps born from the seafoam after Uranus' blood drippedonto the earth and into the sea afterbeing defeated by his youngest sonCronus. Married to Hephaestus,although she cheated on himfrequently, most notably with hisbrother Ares. Her name gave us theword 'Aphrodisiac'.eitherSecondor from theTitangenerationHephaestus VulcanMaster blacksmith and craftsman ofthe gods; god of fire and the forge.Symbols include the fire, anvil, ax,donkey, hammer, tongs and quail.Son of Hera, either by Zeus or alone.After he was born, his parents threwhim off Mount Olympus, and helanded on the island of Lemnos.Married to Aphrodite. Unlike mostmythical husbands, it is never statedthat he cheated on her. His Latinname, Vulcan, gave us the word'Volcano'.SecondDemeter CeresGoddess of fertility, agriculture,nature, and the seasons. Symbolsinclude the poppy, wheat, torch, pigand serpent. Middle daughter ofCronus and Rhea. Her Latin name,Ceres, gave us the word 'cereal'. Oneof her surnames is Sitos as the giverof food, ('corn').First|-B. Age of gods and mortalsBridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and mortals moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's Metamorphoses变形记they are often divided into two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment.Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings.The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when Tantalus steals nectar from Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when Prometheus invents sacrifice, when Demeter teaches agriculture and the Mysteries to Triptolemus.Zeus’ consorts and children 配偶及子女By divine mothers Mortal/nymph/other motherC. Heroic ageThe age in which the heroes lived is known as the heroic age.[45] The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence.The Trojan WarThe Trojan War cycle, a collection of epic poems, starts with the events leading up to the war: Eris and the golden apple of Kallisti, the Judgement of Paris, the abduction of Helen, the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis. To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great expedition under the overall command of Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos or Mycenae, but the Trojans refused to return Helen. The Iliad, which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' cousin Patroclus and Priam's eldest son, Hector. After Hector's death the Trojans were joined by two exotic allies, Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of the Ethiopians and son of the dawn-goddess Eos.[63] Achilles killed both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow in the heel. Achilles'heel was the only part of his body which was not invulnerable to damage by human weaponry. Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the Palladium). Finally, with Athena's help, they built the Trojan Horse. Despite the warnings of Priam's daughter Cassandra, the Trojans were persuaded by Sinon, a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the horse inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed, Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings of Odysseus and Aeneas (the Aeneid), and the murder of Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns (the lost Nostoi) and Homer's Odyssey.[64] The Trojan cycle also includes the adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g. Orestes and Telemachus).Part III Influence to western art and literatureThe widespread adoption of Christianity did not curb the popularity of the myths. With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in the Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.[104] From the early years of Renaissance, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, portrayed the Pagan subjects of Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes.[104] Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante in Italy.[2]In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature. The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with Chaucer and John Milton and continuing through Shakespeare to Robert Bridges in the 20th century. Racine in France and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths.[104] Although during the Enlightenment of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the libretti for many of Handel's and Mozart's operas.[105] By the end of the 18th century, Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keats, Byron and Shelley) and painters (such as Lord Leighton and LawrenceAlma-Tadema).[106] Christoph Gluck, Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach and many others set Greek mythological themes to music.[2] American authors of the 19th century, such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne, held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature.[107] In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in America, and T. S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide.[。