Rebels in Myth: From Antigone to the Joker

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Be content with what you have! Accept your human and social limits, and never try to overcome them! In their attempt to create a peaceful world (cosmos), ancient Greeks put a high premium on humans' acceptance of their natural condition. Those who asked for more were deemed guilty; their arrogance (hubris) was condemned and punished by the gods. Did ancient Greeks succeed in creating this peaceful world? Many scholars say yes; this course will say no. Ancient Greece is filled with stories of rebels who challenge the established order, and, despite being condemned by their societies, subtly win admiration. Prometheus disobeys the gods to provide mankind with fire. Antigone and Medea blame the male-centric Athenian society for not giving a voice to women and foreigners. Plato condemns his contemporaries for failing to be interested in the truth. Through their lives and suffering, these rebels were making an important statement: We are unhappy with what we have! We want more, and we are not ashamed to say this! The voice of these ancient rebels still resonates today. In this class, the discussion of Prometheus, Antigone and Plato will be combined with modern and contemporary renderings of their myths, from Shelley's Frankenstein and Nolan's Oppenheimer to cinematic re-makings of Plato's myth of the Cave, such as The Truman Show, Inception and the TV-series Chernobyl. The final classes will be devoted to recent movies about the Joker, the famous rebel from DC Comics. In this way, we will discover how myth serves as an expression of human rebellion and desire across different eras.