Religious Foundations of Greek Culture

GHR CLASSICS 260 (Honors)
Special Topics in Classical Culture
Religious Foundations of Greek Culture
Spring 2000, TTh 2:40-4:10
Instructor: Janice Siegel (jsiegel@nimbus.temple.edu)
Ketels IH Teaching Award Winner, 1999

Exposing a culture whose festivals involved strapping on large phalluses and dancing drunk for an eager audience might sound like a course in frat life, but this is a Greek course of a different kind. Fifth century B.C. Greeks lived in a world where political leaders consulted religious oracles on matters of State, athletes competed at games dedicated to Olympian gods, and philosophers attracted cult followers. Come learn about the religious core of those cosmopolitan Greeks of the Golden Age: their Eleusinian Mysteries, Panathenaic Festival, Olympics, the grand institution of theater, which sprang from the very ceremony described above (no quarter-kegs, but plenty of wine!), and more!

Using the internet, we will go on virtual tours...and then during Spring Break we will see the real thing! Our tour will include visits to museums and archaeological sites in Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae, Epidavros, Eleusis, Sounion, and Marathon.

CLASS TRIP TO GREECE!


Theater of Dionysus in Athens	Acropolis in Athens	Parthenon in Athens

Temple of Athena Pronaia, Delphi	Temple of Apollo in Delphi	Pedimental sculpture of the Temple of Zeus, Olympia


Entry to the underworld, Eleusis	Temple of Poseidon, Sounion	soros in Marathon

If you can't go on the trip, you can still take the class. Greece will wait for you.