TGC – Life Lessons from the Great Myths

Great myths and grand tales educate folks about the hopes and values of their cultures, they usually impart invaluable life classes that may educate, information, and encourage. The methods during which the human creativeness can remodel historic occasions, folks, and themes into highly effective myths that endure by way of the ages is nothing in need of awe-inspiring. And to look at the core of the world’s biggest myths and tales—and the bigger-than-life characters who determine in them—is to confront a few of historical past’s most simple human truths. It is also an attractive alternative to raised perceive them, be taught from them, and presumably even apply them to your individual on a regular basis life.

Change the manner you concentrate on a few of the biggest tales ever informed with Life Lessons from the Great Myths by award-profitable Professor J. Rufus Fears of the College of Oklahoma. A strong work of storytelling prowess and historic perception, these 36 fascinating lectures discover occasions and people that so gripped civilizations, they transcended to the degree of fantasy and performed an vital position in shaping tradition, politics, faith, and extra. Taking you from the battlefields of Alexander the Great and the ships of Viking explorers to the conquests of Napoleon Bonaparte and the tough-and-tumble drama of the American West, that is the form of participating, personally rewarding Great Course that solely Professor Fears can ship.

Stroll the Common Path to Knowledge

Mythology, in keeping with Professor Fears, is an important a part of the common path to knowledge. We examine myths and the heroes who populate them for the identical purpose we examine any topic in the humanities: to achieve knowledge. Utilizing his a long time of educating expertise and his extremely well-liked perspective on historical past, Professor Fears exhibits you the way to discover, hidden inside these breath-catching tales, the core units of ideas for the lives of individuals from round the world and throughout time.

To make the epic scope of world mythology extra approachable, Life Lessons from the Great Myths focuses on what Professor Fears considers the most vital and well-liked myths from key eras and cultures from greater than 3,000 years of historical past.

• Myths from historical Greece and Rome: You may journey again to the veritable cradle of Western civilization and examine how views on warfare, heroism, household, justice, and different human values have been formed by myths and tales about the Trojan Conflict, the adventures of Jason and Theseus, the tragedy of the Home of Atreus, the founding of Rome, the rule of Julius Caesar, and extra.
• Myths from the Close to East and the Center East: Specializing in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh and the books of Genesis and Exodus, you may uncover how historical tales and occasions—together with Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality, the calling of Moses, and the bestowal of the Ten Commandments—can function the spine for politics, tradition, and spirituality.
• Myths from early and fashionable Europe: Europe can also be rife with its personal mythologies and tales that constructed the foundations of the fashionable West and that also impart classes on management. Amongst these you have a look at are chivalric Arthurian legends, Viking travels to North America, the Battle of Kosovo, and the close to-mythic lifetime of Napoleon Bonaparte.
• Myths from the United States: America, you may be taught, was a fertile discipline for reworking historical past into fantasy and shaping the nation’s distinctive method to freedom and self-reliance. Right here, you may discover out what you may be taught from the lives and deeds of George Washington, Davy Crockett, Jesse James, Common Armstrong Custer, and different daring American figures.

All through the course, you method every fantasy from a perspective that considers each its (doable) historic roots and its hidden kernels of knowledge. Not solely will you get a stronger sense of how myths work collectively to create a broad ethical framework for civilizations, you may see how in some instances—resembling Julius Caesar’s life serving as a direct inspiration for Napoleon Bonaparte’s army profession—earlier mythic and historic exploits inform and affect subsequent generations.

Uncover Enduring Sources of Knowledge

Each fantasy and story you discover in Life Lessons from the Great Myths—whether or not a very unfounded story, resembling the sinking of Atlantis, or one that may be verified by the historic document, resembling the battle of the Alamo—have lengthy since transcended into legend. And every story conveys increased truths too profound to be described in unusual, factual language.

Decoding them, Professor Fears reveals how they function vibrant and enduring sources of knowledge.

• Oedipus, Agamemnon, and Orestes: The tragic lives of those historical Greek figures supplied Athenians pointed classes on topics resembling determination making, management, and household values.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh: The wealthy tapestry of supernatural occasions on this riveting epic supplied assist for Mesopotamian politics, together with the want for a divinely appointed kingship.
• Beowulf: The livid battles between this daring hero and a bevy of monsters performed an vital position in cementing Germanic concepts of braveness, heroism, glory, and honor.
• Napoleon Bonaparte: Promoted by the army chief himself, the fantasy of this French emperor exhibits what it takes to attain army and political success—but additionally to overreach and lose all of it.
• The battle of the Alamo: The dramatic final stand of Davy Crockett and different People at this Texas fort emphasizes the concept that liberty is price any worth, it doesn’t matter what the odds of victory.

Relive the World’s Great Myths

Professor Fears has gained greater than 25 awards for educating excellence all through his illustrious profession as an teacher, lecturer, and historian. And with Life Lessons from the Great Myths, you may see for your self (if you happen to aren’t already a fan of this masterful orator) simply why he has obtained such acclaim—from each his college students and our personal neighborhood of lifelong learners.

Professor Fears does extra than simply ship insightful lectures. He tells vibrant tales with ardour and drama, a lot so that you’re going to end up not simply studying about these myths and tales, however truly reliving them. You may

• watch the brothers Romulus and Remus battle over the place to construct the metropolis of Rome and, in the course of, give delivery to an iconic historical empire;
• stroll with Moses and the Israelites as they escape from Egyptian bondage and set up spiritual traditions that proceed to this present day;
• cost with Jesse James as he commits his daring crimes and transcends right into a veritable folks hero of the American frontier;
• observe alongside American troops as they elevate the U.S. flag over Iwo Jima for {a photograph} that will encourage the nation;
• and rather more.

The seek for knowledge is, in keeping with Professor Fears, the paramount function in life. And there’s a lot knowledge to be gleaned from the world’s nice myths. By the ultimate highly effective and stirring lecture of this course, you are positive to seek out your self wiser than you have been earlier than you began.