In this lecture, Prof. Vandiver discusses the Greek hero Heracles and his life.

Obtained from archive.org.

Suggested readings:
"The Library, or Bibliotheca" by Apollodorus trans. Hard: a.co/2kP0V1A
Bilingual Loeb edition, Vol. I: a.co/bgTEGGA
Bilingual Loeb edition, Vol. II: a.co/gqv1N1h
"The Shield of Heracles" by Hesiod trans. Lattimore: a.co/8C2Ruy6
Bilingual Loeb edition: a.co/f6dUrGr
"Heracles, or The Madness of Heracles" by Euripides trans. Arrowsmith: a.co/ipTDM4a
Bilingual Loeb edition: a.co/a2Zq83h
"The Children of Heracles" by Euripides trans. Griffith: a.co/7ynclCX
Bilingual Loeb edition: a.co/dJXKo5R

1. Introduction to Classical Mythology
2. What is Myth?
3. Why is Myth? by Elizabeth Vandiver
4. "First Was Chaos" by Elizabeth Vandiver
5. The Reign Of The Olympians
6. Immortals and Mortals by Elizabeth Vandiver
7. Demeter, Persephone, and The Conquest Of Death
8. The Eleusinian Mysteries and The Afterlife
9. Apollo and Artemis
10. Hermes and Dionysus
11. Laughter-Loving Aphrodite
12. ulture, Prehistory, and the "Great Goddesses"
13. Humans, Heroes, and Half-Gods
14. Theseus and the "Test-and-Quest" Myth
15. From Myth to History and Back Again
16. The Greatest Hero Of All
17. The Trojan War
18. The Terrible House Of Atreus
19. Blood, Vengeance, Justice, and The Furies
20. The Tragedies Of King Oedipus
21. Monstrous Females and Female Monsters
22. Roman Founders, Roman Fables
23. Gods Are Useful
24. From Ovid To The Stars

Classical Mythology is an introduction to the primary characters and most important stories of classical Greek and Roman mythology. Among those you will study are the accounts of the creation of the world in Hesiod's Theogony and Ovid's Metamorphoses; the gods Zeus, Apollo, Demeter, Persephone, Hermes, Dionysos, and Aphrodite; the Greek Heroes, Theseus and Heracles (Hercules in the Roman version); and the most famous of all classical myths, the Trojan War.