CLAS 215 Dangerous Women : Figures of the threatening Female in Greek and Latin Literature.

Julie Nishimura-Jensen

This course examines the construction of female mythological figures whose
power makes them dangerous to men and patriarchal society. We will read sections of
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, Aeschylus' Oresteia, Euripides' and Seneca's Medea, Apollonius' Argonautica, and sections of Ovid's Metamorphoses, to focus on such figures as Medea, Clytemnestra, Helen, and monstrous females such as the Sirens, Harpies, and Scylla. We will examin how these characters have been constructed in various ways that challenge, subvert, but ultimately validate gender ideologies. Poems and essays by some modern authors will supplement our methodology and analysis.