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Remember, it's never too late to register for a class, even after it's begun. You can always catch up with any sessions you may have missed by watching the video recordings of previous sessions. The time remaining to register before the first class session is below, so stop hesitating and get to it!

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Offered:

as in-person classes, live-streamed Zoom sessions and video recordings

  • • This course is offered in 2024 Term 2 (May-June), pending sufficient enrolment.

    • This course is offered as an in-person course at the EarthDiverse Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand, live-streamed via Zoom if you live elsewhere, and as video recordings of the live sessions if you cannot attend the regularly scheduled class.

Date & Time:

Begins Thursday 9 May 2024

  • • Our 2024 Term 2 ‘Getting to Know the Real Greek Gods’ course meets on Thursdays evenings from 7:00-8:30pm beginning on 9 May 2024 (New Zealand time). The course meets for 8 consecutive weekly sessions. The final session will be held on Thu 27 June 2024.

  • • If you live outside of New Zealand and wish to Zoom in to our live class sessions, check the nearest local Time Zone equivalents below:

Time Zone equivalents:

for live-streaming Zoom Sessions from New Zealand. If your Time Zone doesn't suit our live-streamed class, you can also access our courses by watching the live-recorded sessions that are posted to the course webpage each week, usually within 1-2 days.

  • Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Wed 8 May 2024, 9:00-10:30pm

  • US Pacific: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 12:00-1:30am

  • US Eastern: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 3:00-4:30am

  • London, UK: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 8:00-9:30am

  • Paris, France: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 9:00-10:30am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 12:30-2:00pm

  • Bangkok, Thailand: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 2:00-3:30pm

  • Singapore/Hong Kong: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 3:00-4:30pm

  • Tokyo, Japan: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 4:00-5:30pm

  • Sydney, Australia: begins Thu 9 May 2024, 5:00-6:30pm

Description:

HIS305: Getting to Know the Greek Gods

  • • You’ve probably met the Greek gods in popular fiction and films, but…have you ever wondered how the Ancient Greeks really worshiped their gods? In this class, we’ll go back in time and get to know the real Greek gods.

  • • As we shift through archaeology, art and literature, you’ll learn: how to identify the Olympian gods, how to build an altar, how to ‘feed’ a god, the working of feasts and festivals, what to do (and not to do) inside a Greek sanctuary, and how the Greek gods became Roman (…it’s complicated).

Week 1: The Birth of the Gods

Thursday 9 May 2024

Topics: What does it mean to be ‘Greek’, and why do we focus on Athens? Making a Greek god: The earliest appearance of Greek gods in archaeology. How Greek gods split and merge. Epithets and their importance. What is religious syncretism, and why does this matter? The mythological origin of the Greek gods: Why is Zeus in charge? Gods vs. Titans. Outside of Olympia: Chthonic gods: the gods of the underworld. Minor gods and goddesses: fates, muses and nymphs; many personifications Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Zeus and Poseidon.

Week 2: Sanctuaries and Sacred Spaces: Sports & Health Spas

Thursday 16 May 2024

Topics: Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Hera and Heracles. Sacred Spaces: Hera’s sanctuary at Samos. Demigods and the many offspring of Zeus. Heroes and Hero Shrines. Olympia and the Panhellenic Games: who, what, when and where?

Week 3: Sanctuaries and Sacred Spaces: Oracles & Medicine

Thursday 23 May 2024

The politics of Greek religion: the importance of Panhellenic Sanctuaries. Keeping ‘Barbarians’ in their Place: Greek gods vs. Centaurs. Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Apollo and Asclepius. The Oracle of Delphi (and some of her riddles). Purification Rituals. Healing Sanctuaries after the Great Plague.

Week 4: Ritual Sacrifice

Thursday 30 May 2024

Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Artemis and Hestia. Ritual Sacrifice: What, where and how? Minoans and Mycenaeans: Evidence from Early Greek Religion. Festival: Brauronia. Human sacrifice? The tragedy of Iphigenia, and other grisly early evidence.

Week 5: In Gods We Trust: Money Matters

Thursday 6 June 2024

Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Athena and Hephaestus. Votives and Treasuries. How did the gods accumulate wealth, and how was it managed? Festival: Panathenaea. Despite Athena…Gods vs. Amazons (or: keeping women in their place).

Week 6: Life After Death

Thursday 13 June 2024

Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Demeter, Persephone and Hades. The Care and Feeding of the Dead. Festival: Thesmophoria (a celebration for women). Eleusis and other Mystery Cults (also: Isis and Io).

Week 7: Comedy & Tragedy

Thursday 20 June 2024

Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Dionysus and Hermes. The Many ‘Masks’ of Dionysus: an example of religious syncretism. Dionysus as a god who crosses the boundary of gender. Classical Theatre in Greece, and the Theatre. Festivals: Lenaia and Dionysia. Suppression of the Bacchanalia: Europe’s First Documented Religious Persecution.

Week 8: How the Greek Gods became Roman

Thursday 27 June 2024

Personalities and Sacred Symbols: How to distinguish Aphrodite, Cupid and Ares. How the Greek Gods became Roman: a continual process of adaption and syncretism. Early Phoenician influence in Southern Italy: cults of Ba’al and Astarte. The religion of the Etruscans: examination of myths on bronze mirrors. Greeks in Southern Italy: Greek literature in Italy, and its Italian adaption. Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age: when men became god-like. Roman Conquest of Greece: a flood of Greek art. Roman citizenship and the assimilation of slaves. Make him an offer he can’t refuse: a Roman method for luring foreign gods into Rome. The Roman gods are not Greek: Julius Caesar as a descendant of Venus: maternal associations for Aphrodite. Hestia to Vestia, and importance of the sacred flame. When the god of war sired twins with a vestal virgin: Romulus and Remus as the mythical founders of Rome.

Course curriculum

New material is posted weekly throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings and PDFs from each weekly session will be posted here 1-2 days after each class.

    1. EarthDiverse Course Information

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom instructions

    1. The Birth of the Gods

    1. Sanctuaries and Sacred Spaces 1: Sports and Health Spas

    1. Sanctuaries and Sacred Spaces II: Oracles and Medicine

    1. Ritual Sacrifice

    1. In Gods We Trust: Money Matters

About this course

  • Video and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboard notes are uploaded weekly after each live session
  • Begins Thu 9 May 2024
  • NZ Time: Thursdays 7:00-8:30pm

Meet our Instructor:

Graduate Student, MA Classical Archaelogy Lisa Marie Haasbroek

Lisa Marie is a graduate student working towards an MA in Classical Archaeology with Unitelma Sapienza/La Sapienza of Rome, and a Graduate Diploma in Greek Language and Literature with Victoria University in New Zealand. When not studying ancient Greeks and Romans, she dabbles in viticulture and wine making, tends her family’s little food forest, and does endurance walking events around New Zealand’s beautiful landscape.

Location:

This is a hybrid class with both in-person sessions in our classrooms and streamed live via Zoom.

EarthDiverse, 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton East, Hamilton or online via Zoom. We're located just a couple of shops north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station on the same side of the Street. We're located on the first floor, above Copier Word. Our Entrance is on the left side of the building. Those looking for parking for our evening classes can park just in front of the building in any of the available car parks. Daytime parking can be found in our dedicated car parks, or free 2-hour on-street daytime parking can be found just in front of Anglesea Street.
Location

Distance Learning:

This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:

  • Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.

Distance-Learning options:

Live Zoom sessions and Video-Recordings

  • • In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.

  • • Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.

  • • Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.

Pricing options:

• All prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST. • Unwaged includes students, seniors, retirees and unemployed. • Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course.

Notes:

Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are usually posted within 1-2 days of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning on a day and time of your choosing.

  • • This class has no assignments, quizzes, tests or exams.

  • • All materials are included in the course fees. These are developed by our instructors and distributed as PDF files on the course webpage.

  • • All classes encourage questions and group discussion.

  • • PDF copies of each class presentation are posted on the course webpage each week (along with the recorded videos) and are available for all registered participants. You are most welcome to come, sit back, relax, take part in and enjoy the discussions!

  • • Course fees include tea/coffee/snack at each session. Help yourself!

  • • There are no refunds for missed classes.

  • • Guests of registered participants are welcome to attend a single session without registering.

  • • Certificates of Completion for any particular Term Course or Series are available for Professional Development purposes upon request at the end of each Term or Series.

Prerequisites:

A keen desire to learn!

  • • There are no prerequisites for this course.

    • Open to adults of any age.