Classical Mythology: Images and Insights

Stephen L. Harris is Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento, where he served ten years as department chair. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. A member of the Society of Biblical Literature, his publications include Understanding the Bible (8th edition, 2011); The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (with Robert Platzner); Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (with Gloria Platzner); Exploring the Bible; and Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, a survey of volcanic hazards on the U.S. Pacific Coast; and for National Geographic Books, Restless Earth, a study of global earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. He contributed the chapter on Archaeology and Volcanism to the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (Academic Press, 2000). Gloria Platzner teaches in the English and Humanities programs at California State University, Sacramento, including courses on Classical Mythology and World Mythology.

• Preface PART ONE The Nature and Function of Myth CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Greek Myth CHAPTER 2 Ways of Interpreting Myth PART TWO Epic Myths and the Heroic Quest CHAPTER 3 In the Beginning: Hesiod’s Creation Story CHAPTER 4 Alienation of the Human and Divine: Prometheus, Fire, and Pandora CHAPTER 5 The Divine Woman in Greek Mythology CHAPTER 6 The Olympian Family of Zeus: Sharing Rule of the Universe CHAPTER 7 In Touch with the Gods: Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi CHAPTER 8 Dionysus: Rooted in Earth and Ecstasy CHAPTER 9 Land of No Return: The Gloomy Kingdom of Hades CHAPTER 10 Heroes of Myth: Man Divided Against Himself CHAPTER 11 Heroines of Myth: Women in Many Roles CHAPTER 12 Heroes at War: The Troy Saga CHAPTER 13 A Different Kind of Hero: The Quest of Odysseus PART THREE Tragic Heroes and Heroines CHAPTER 14 Myth and the Tragic Vision in the Theater of Dionysus: Euripides’ Bacchae CHAPTER 15 The House of Atreus: Aeschylus’s Oresteia CHAPTER 16 The Tragic House of Laius: Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle CHAPTER 17 A Different Perspective on Tragedy: Euripides’ Medea PART FOUR The World of Roman Myth CHAPTER 18 The Roman Vision: Greek Myths and Roman Realities CHAPTER 19 Virgil’s Roman Epic: The Aeneid CHAPTER 20 The Retelling of Greek Myths: Ovid’s Metamorphosis PART FIVE The Western World’s Transformations of Myth CHAPTER 21 The Persistence of MythGlossary Selected Bibliography Credits Index