Aglaia

[Jdvn1]

You're lucky. My high school, as good as the courses were, constantly enfuriated me by refusing to teach us Ancient Greek stuff. We just skipped it in every history and literature class.

Fortunately, I am the best expert I know on the subject of Greek mythology, so I didn't really lose out as much as the other students did.

We learned it first semester of Freshman English. It was required for everyone. We had to read the Illiad and a book called Mythology and some other stuff, I don't remember everything. We were supposed to know all of the gods and their relations to the others. I just remember there being so much... I had read the Illiad before -- when I was 10 or 12, but having to do it for class sucks.

Y'know, you can major in Greek mythology. One of my college teachers in my first or second year was a grad student who was supposed to teach Rhetoric... basic stuff I already knew... I ended up teaching some of the class because he didn't know anything about grammar since his focus was Mythology. Actually, I know two people that did that. Hm.

 

[Rystil Arden]

We learned it first semester of Freshman English. It was required for everyone. We had to read the Illiad and a book called Mythology and some other stuff, I don't remember everything. We were supposed to know all of the gods and their relations to the others. I just remember there being so much... I had read the Illiad before -- when I was 10 or 12, but having to do it for class sucks.

Y'know, you can major in Greek mythology. One of my college teachers in my first or second year was a grad student who was supposed to teach Rhetoric... basic stuff I already knew... I ended up teaching some of the class because he didn't know anything about grammar since his focus was Mythology. Actually, I know two people that did that. Hm.

I'm sure at some schools you can majour in Greek mythology, but such is not an option at MIT, nor is it one that I would take were it presented (I'm a Computer Science majour who just does humanities things on the side), although admittedly, I did take an excellent Ancient Greek History course, wherein the professor could read the Illiad aloud in ancient Greek, which was pretty cool, but I wound up knowing more about mythology than he did. Then again, a lot of people who claim to know it simply don't have a clue. Like when I was in Greece, and someone asked a tour guide, "Why is Greece called Hellas?" and he made up some incorrect circular rubbish about Hellenistic, at which point I spoke up, "Prometheus had a son named Deucalion, who married Pyrrha, the daughter or Pandora and Epimetheus. There son was named Hellen, and Hellas was named for him." And the tour guide said, "You're confused, son. Helen is a girl's name. Its my wife's name." Pretty sad :\

 

[Rystil Arden]

We learned it first semester of Freshman English. It was required for everyone. We had to read the Illiad and a book called Mythology and some other stuff, I don't remember everything. We were supposed to know all of the gods and their relations to the others. I just remember there being so much... I had read the Illiad before -- when I was 10 or 12, but having to do it for class sucks.

Y'know, you can major in Greek mythology. One of my college teachers in my first or second year was a grad student who was supposed to teach Rhetoric... basic stuff I already knew... I ended up teaching some of the class because he didn't know anything about grammar since his focus was Mythology. Actually, I know two people that did that. Hm.

Oh, and reading the Iliad for class was pretty darn fun for me because I just ignored the reading assignments. Then again, its probably easier if you've written a 20-page paper called "Women in the World of Homer and Hesiod"

 

[Jdvn1]

I'm sure at some schools you can majour in Greek mythology, but such is not an option at MIT, nor is it one that I would take were it presented (I'm a Computer Science majour who just does humanities things on the side), although admittedly, I did take an excellent Ancient Greek History course, wherein the professor could read the Illiad aloud in ancient Greek, which was pretty cool, but I wound up knowing more about mythology than he did. Then again, a lot of people who claim to know it simply don't have a clue. Like when I was in Greece, and someone asked a tour guide, "Why is Greece called Hellas?" and he made up some incorrect circular rubbish about Hellenistic, at which point I spoke up, "Prometheus had a son named Deucalion, who married Pyrrha, the daughter or Pandora and Epimetheus. There son was named Hellen, and Hellas was named for him." And the tour guide said, "You're confused, son. Helen is a girl's name. Its my wife's name." Pretty sad :\

Well, I figured if you know it better than anyone else, it might be a good idea to get a degree in it just in case. Maybe you should do your own tours of Greece, though.

 

[Jdvn1]

Oh, and reading the Iliad for class was pretty darn fun for me because I just ignored the reading assignments. Then again, its probably easier if you've written a 20-page paper called "Women in the World of Homer and Hesiod"

20-page papers as a Freshman? At the time, anything above 5 was scary.

I used to hate essays.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Well, I figured if you know it better than anyone else, it might be a good idea to get a degree in it just in case. Maybe you should do your own tours of Greece, though.

I certainly don't know it better than everyone else, by any stretch of the imagination. I simply have yet to meet the person who knows more

 

[Rystil Arden]

20-page papers as a Freshman? At the time, anything above 5 was scary.

I used to hate essays.

Ah, but see, I didn't read it in high school, as I said before. This was in college when it was assigned

 

[Jdvn1]

I certainly don't know it better than everyone else, by any stretch of the imagination. I simply have yet to meet the person who knows more

I meant to say something more like, "Since you know Greek mythology so well," but I'm tired. Since you know at least some people who get related degrees in mythology... well, you might enjoy it at least.

 

[Jdvn1]

Ah, but see, I didn't read it in high school, as I said before. This was in college when it was assigned

... Yes, that makes a big difference. If I would've read it my junior year of high school, it wouldn't have been nearly as intimidating. And I'd've had a big-ish paper under my belt too.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I meant to say something more like, "Since you know Greek mythology so well," but I'm tired. Since you know at least some people who get related degrees in mythology... well, you might enjoy it at least.

I can't say I wasn't toying with the idea when I had to choose between here (where we don't have that majour) and Harvard, which does have a Folklore and Mythology majour. Unfortunately, though, Harvard does not allow double majours, only joint-majours where you have to prove that the two subjects can be combined together intelligently. So I was chatting with a Harvard prof about their department, and he said that a lot of people Joint-Majoured, so I said, "Can you joint-majour *anything* with CS?" and he said, "Well as long as you don't try to do something silly and crazy like, I don't know, Computer Science and Folklore+Mythology, you should be OK."