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Some of these topics are predominantly, or at least begin with, *English Word Searches*; others start from a *Keyword Object Search*, or from the Encyclopedia. In some you will be looking primarily for concepts illustrated in texts, in others you will first search for images. But once you get started you will want to go in new directions, exploring the databases where you suspect there may be something relevant to your topic. These are only suggestions.
Choose one of the topics listed or propose to me your own, so I can advise you on its feasibility with the databases in Perseus 1.0. Detailed suggestions are given for the first couple of topics, so no matter which topic you choose, read all the instructions. There are several interesting suggestions in Perseus UserD5s Guide, especially, for those who don't read Greek, on pp 106-107. You may choose one of those topics for your paper.
*English Word Search*: Search for the words in the topic and other related notions that occur to you, e.g, (always choosing "Starting Characters," not "Words," so you will get different parts of speech, in singular and plural, derivatives, and so on: "mean--", "warn--," "belie--," "soothsayer," etc.
Suggested inquiries: Compare and contrast examples you find, whether they correspond to myth, drama, or purported history, and consider some of the following issues. What gives credibility to dreams, prophecies, etc.? Are they considered true or not, in the texts you locate? Do you find references to skeptical people? Are there suggestions that language, or visions, are ambiguous? How is the authority of the prediction substantiated? How does belief in these dreams, prophecies, etc., influence the thoughts and actions of the characters? Do gods, by means of them, cancel human will and responsibility?
This search can be done on the Iliad, the Odyssey, plays of Aeschylus (e.g., Clytemnestra's dream in Aeschylus' Agamemnon.) and Sophocles, and/or Herodotus, and/or Apollodorus. The last two authors are linked to the Encyclopedia in Perseus, and parts of their text can be understood even without having read either book in its entirety.
A few suggestions: birds were omens; after a sacrifice a soothsayer might "read" the entrails of the animal, or interpret the way they burned e.g. in Sophocles' Antigone); deities gave "signs." Look up the names of Teiresias or Calchas.
A working definition of a monster is: an imaginary composite of two or more species. Begin with chapter 5 in Morford and Lenardon, to create a brief initial list of monsters. There are monsters galore in Hesiod's Theogony, and in many of the myths that we will study separately, e.g., the Sphinx, Medusa, the Minotaur, griffins, centaurs, the monsters killed or overpowered by Heracles, those that threatened Odysseus, etc., etc.
Under the names of the specific monsters you will find information in the Encyclopedia, and doing *English Word Searches* you will find their names, proper or generic, in Herodotus, in the Odyssey, in Plutarch, and of course, in The Library of Apollodorus, what we would call an encyclopedia of myth, written in late antiquity.
You may explore the following issues: how does the collective imagination envision monsters, what traits does it project upon these creatures? What do they have in common? Can you create some groups or categories, and if so, which monsters tend to appear in what kinds of stories? Are monsters embodiments of the Other, are they evil because they are different, are they aggressive by nature, or just made marginal and excluded by declaring them monstrous? A separate question, which may prove productive: why are some beautiful maidens transformed into monsters (e.g., Scylla, Medusa)?
For this topic I suggest starting from the Encyclopedia, which offers a long list of texts as illustrations of the term "sacrifice." Once you call them to the screen and read them, try to identify the most salient elements or characteristics of each, and then classify them into categories that you will accordingly create.
For instance, put together the representations you find in Perseus and several myths concerning human sacrifice (of which there are many), and studying the context of those that you find most interesting, form an opinion on this question: why is there such recurrence of the representations of human sacrifice in the Greek culture? Since there is no evidence of any such ritual in the prehistoric civilizations we know something about, think about it as symbolic.(1)
(1) Footnote: Some controversial views are heard from time to time, but since we are working in this course on general issues and on the basis of generally accepted evidence, I suggest you take as a premise that if there was human sacrifice in some remote past of what we call the Greek civilization, we cannot speak intelligently about it, since we have no evidence. Myth per se should not be taken as proof of social behavior.
Go to the *Keyword Object Search* and, looking at vase paintings, see how much you can learn about the ritual of sacrifice: what were the appurtenances, who conducted the ceremonies, what can you observe concerning the victims, etc.? You would need a much larger collection of vases and other evidence to rediscover all that information, so I will provide some bibliography to guide you in the analysis of the ritual. Yet I will ask you to relate what you read to the images found in Perseus, and to discuss it.
You may or may not end this paper by concentrating on a particular myth of sacrifice, say, the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis, or the death of Hippolytus in the play of that name by Euripides. If you need suggestions to find examples, ask me.
You may start from an *English Word Search*, looking up Graces, Muses, Nereids, Nymphs, maidens, goddesses, virgins, or proper names such as Nausikaa, Penelope, etc., and then search for vases that represent them. There will be stories or references to them in a number of texts stored in Perseus.
Use the Overview for objective information (if any) concerning trade in the fifth century BCE, go to both kinds of searches in order to find references to and images of the olive tree. Consider the gift that victorious athlete received in the Panathenaic games; find the myth on the contest of Poseidon and Athena and her gift; read the passages of the Odyssey 24 that relate to the famous bed built on the stump of an olive tree; search Herodotus for the miracle of the olive tree on the Acropolis. Draw conclusions on the role of this tree in real life and its symbolic value.
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