Great Courses: Classical Mythology- Course Guidebook

Starring: Elizabeth Vandiver

The Great Courses presents : Classical Mythology. Includes paperback course guidebook and 4 DVDs accompanying it in their original case. 24 lectures of 30 minutes per lecture, taught by Professor... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: The Teaching Company
• Director: The Great Courses
• Starring: Elizabeth Vandiver
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Opinionated but pulls no punches (DVD set 243, “Classical Mythology.”)

I have had other presentations of Classical Mythology and read several Greek and Roman classics, so it helps with the steep learning curve from this course. The course is split into two sections that consist of 24 (approx. 30 minutes) lectures. I will not bore you with all the lecture titles here. We start with what is a myth, and you will want to pay attention as Professor Vandiver redefines and narrows many terms, including “Myth”, “Hero”, and so forth. You just think you know the stories, but she places them in a bigger context, and all of a sudden, things that did not make sense or seemed to be left out now make sense and were left out. We get the skinny on most of the gods and half-gods down to the Iron Age beings. And soon you will want to reread the classics to see what you glossed over without even knowing it. I learned that she does not consider the Oedipus Trilogy a trilogy, as each play has substantial time in-between each writing. She does have opinions, and soon you find out that she disses Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) and ignores Immanuel Velikovsky (1895–1979) completely. Occasionally, she will include other opinions but ensures that her opinions prevail. Be sure to look at the bibliography that comes with the book. I found that I had most of the books in my library and DVDs of the plays in my video library. Some plays never got made on the media, so you will have to settle for reading them.