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Mythoi Koinoi: An Open Access Anthology of Greek and Roman Myth

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Mythoi Koinoi: An Open Access Anthology of Greek and Roman Myth

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Free, easy access to primary source texts and images for Greek and Roman mythology. Mythoi Koinoi means “Mythology for the People” in Ancient Greek, and it is intended to give everyone who engages with it access to the writings and artistic creations of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

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Author(s):
Kate Minniti, Tara Mulder, Pippa Rogak, Luoyao Zhang

Description:
Mythoi Koinoi: An Online, Open-Access Anthology of Greek and Roman Myth provides undergraduate university students with free, easy access to primary source texts and images for Greek and Roman mythology. Mythoi Koinoi means "Mythology for the People" in Ancient Greek, and it is intended to give everyone who engages with it access to the writings and artistic creations of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Subject Area:
Humanities

Faculty/Department:
Faculty of Arts, Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies

License Type:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Audience:
Undergraduate Lower Division, Undergraduate Upper Division

Technical Format:
Website/HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, ODT

Persistent Identifier:
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/2vm2-wx30

Development Location:
UBC Vancouver

Funding Affiliation:
Open Educational Resources (OER) Implementation Grant

Course Adoptions:
CLST 105

Keywords:
Ancient Greek Religion and Mythology, Ancient Rome Religion and Mythology

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Mythoi Koinoi - An Open Access Anthology of Greek and Roman Myth - UBC OER Collection

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Author(s):Kate Minniti, Tara Mulder, Pippa Rogak, Luoyao Zhang Description:Mythoi Koinoi: An Online, Open-Access Anthology of Greek and Roman Myth provides undergraduate university students with free, easy access to primary source texts and images for Greek and Roman mythology.

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Met Museum - Greek Gods and Religious Practices

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Met Museum - Greek Gods and Religious Practices

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an Open Access policy that makes images of public-domain artworks and certain data freely available for unrestricted use under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation

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The ancient Greeks worshipped many gods, each with a distinct personality and domain. Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind. The art of Archaic and Classical Greece illustrates many mythological episodes, including an established iconography of attributes that identify each god. There were twelve principal deities in the Greek pantheon. Foremost was Zeus, the sky god and father of the gods, to whom the ox and the oak tree were sacred; his two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, reigned over the Underworld and the sea, respectively. Hera, Zeus's sister and wife, was queen of the gods; she is frequently depicted wearing a tall crown, or polos. Wise Athena, the patron goddess of Athens , who typically appears in full armor with her aegis (a goatskin with a snaky fringe), helmet, and spear , was also the patroness of weaving and carpentry. The owl and the olive tree were sacred to her. Youthful Apollo , who is often represented with the kithara, was the god of music and prophecy. Judging from his many cult sites, he was one of the most important gods in Greek religion. His main sanctuary at Delphi, where Greeks came to ask questions of the oracle, was considered to be the center of the universe . Apollo's twin sister Artemis, patroness of hunting, often carried a bow and quiver. Hermes , with his winged sandals and elaborate herald's staff, the kerykeion, was the messenger god. Other important deities were Aphrodite, the goddess of love; Dionysos, the god of wine and theater; Ares, the god of war; and the lame Hephaistos, the god of metalworking. The ancient Greeks believed that Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in mainland Greece, was the home of the gods.

Ancient Greek religious practice, essentially conservative in nature, was based on time-honored observances, many rooted in the Bronze Age (3000-1050 B.C.), or even earlier. Although the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, believed to have been composed around the eighth century B.C., were powerful influences on Greek thought, the ancient Greeks had no single guiding work of scripture like the Jewish Torah, the Christian Bible, or the Muslim Qu'ran. Nor did they have a strict priestly caste. The relationship between human beings and deities was based on the concept of exchange: gods and goddesses were expected to give gifts. Votive offerings, which have been excavated from sanctuaries by the thousands, were a physical expression of thanks on the part of individual worshippers.

The Greeks worshipped in sanctuaries located, according to the nature of the particular deity, either within the city or in the countryside. A sanctuary was a well-defined sacred space set apart usually by an enclosure wall. This sacred precinct, also known as a temenos, contained the temple with a monumental cult image of the deity, an outdoor altar, statues and votive offerings to the gods, and often features of landscape such as sacred trees or springs. Many temples benefited from their natural surroundings, which helped to express the character of the divinities. For instance, the temple at Sounion dedicated to Poseidon, god of the sea, commands a spectacular view of the water on three sides, and the Parthenon on the rocky Athenian Akropolis celebrates the indomitable might of the goddess Athena.

The central ritual act in ancient Greece was animal sacrifice, especially of oxen, goats, and sheep. Sacrifices took place within the sanctuary, usually at an altar in front of the temple, with the assembled participants consuming the entrails and meat of the victim. Liquid offerings, or libations , were also commonly made. Religious festivals, literally feast days, filled the year. The four most famous festivals, each with its own procession, athletic competitions , and sacrifices, were held every four years at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia. These Panhellenic festivals were attended by people from all over the Greek-speaking world. Many other festivals were celebrated locally, and in the case of mystery cults, such as the one at Eleusis near Athens, only initiates could participate.

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Greek Gods and Religious Practices - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Ancient Greek religious practice, essentially conservative in nature, was based on time-honored observances, many rooted in the Bronze Age (3000-1050 B.C.), or even earlier.

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Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome

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Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome

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Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome.

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Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology

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Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology

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Alphabetical entries covering major Greek myths and mythological figures, accessible as a free online textbook

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Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology

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Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology - Simple Book Publishing

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Today people often use the word "myth" to mean an untrue story or false rumor. For example, if one person asked, "Is Friday the 13th an unlucky day?" another person might answer, "No, that is just a myth." But the ancient Greeks did not use the word mythos (μῦθος) in this way.

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The Perseus Digital Library (also known as the Perseus Project), an academic endeavor launched by Tufts University to provide free access to a rich collection of humanities resources—most notably ancient Greek and Latin texts, translations, commentaries, artifact images, and analytical tools

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Read more on the Welcome to Perseus 4.0, also known as the Perseus Hopper.
Perseus version history.
New to Perseus? Click here for a short tutorial.

Perseus News and Updates

Please visit the Perseus Updates blog for news on project activities, research, and initiatives. We invite you to contact us via email to the Perseus webmaster if you have any comments, questions, or concerns.

November 22, 2022: A great deal has happened since our last update!

The most up-to-date versions of the Greek and Latin sources in Perseus are available on the Scaife Viewer, which, as of this date, now hosts 2,412 works in 3,192 editions and translations (1,639 in Greek and 636 in Latin) and 69.7 million words: 32.1 million in Greek, 16.3 million in Latin, with the rest consisting of English translations and sources in other languages.

Beyond Translation is developing a next generation reading environment for Perseus that will combine the deeper coverage of the Scaife Viewer, new versions of services from Perseus 4.0, and a new generation of resources. Along with P4 component upgrades, such as dynamic maps and convenient access to lexica and commentaries, Beyond Translation incorporates exhaustive syntactic explanations and alignments at the word and phrase level between source text and translation; explanations of meter; recorded performances linked to the text; and interactive textual variants.
Support from the Mellon Foundation, Tufts University, Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies and, above all, the National Endowment for the Humanities have made the Beyond Translation project possible.

April 24, 2019: Current Projects and Initiatives

Work continues on the Scaife Viewer, our first new reading environment in nearly 15 years. For more, please read About the Scaife Viewer and send us your comments.

The Perseus Digital Library is a partner and supporter of Open Greek and Latin, an international collaboration committed to creating an open educational resource featuring a corpus of digital texts, deep-reading tools, and open-source software. Look for new OGL materials in the Scaife Viewer.

News, help and support-related content for this site ("Perseus 4.0") will be updated periodically, but the site collections and infrastructure are no longer under active development as we begin the transition to the next phase of Perseus.

Read older announcements...

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Read more on the Welcome to Perseus 4.0, also known as the Perseus Hopper. Perseus version history. New to Perseus? Click here for a short tutorial. Perseus News and Updates Please visit the Perseus Updates blog for news on project activities, research, and initiatives.

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An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology

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An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology

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An etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology

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An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology

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A digital library from a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh

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Folklore, Folktales, and Fairy Tales from Ireland: A Digital Library

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Unless otherwise noted all links lead to books digitized by books.google.com.

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This non-profit organization provides thousands of free history articles with a writing style that is accessible for students at the middle school level and up, making it a great source for background information on myths and their cultural contexts

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Latest Content

Free for the World, Supported by You

World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide.

Become a Member Donate

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The free online history encyclopedia with fact-checked articles, images, videos, maps, timelines and more; operated as a non-profit organization.

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Ancient literature and language textbook

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CHAPTER 1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION

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A guide to the mythology of the Ancient Greeks. A "detailed reference to all things in Greek Mythology, including a bestiary of Greek mythological creatures such as the centaur and nymph and a collection of Greek stories."

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Greek Mythology - Wikibooks, open books for an open world

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This website provides an outline for a semester-long or year-long mythology course. It includes units on Greek and Roman mythology, as well as a unit on World Mythology that covers stories from under-represented regions like Africa, Oceania, and Mesoamerica.

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Need a free curriculum to set up a high school mythology course for grades 9-12? Look no further! This page contains a semester of coursework dedicated to Greek mythology as well as a second semester dedicated to world mythology. Each day is mapped out in this course’s scope and sequence.

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Course: Icarus: Entering the World of Myth

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Course: Icarus: Entering the World of Myth

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This free course "will introduce you to one of the best-known myths from classical antiquity and its various re-tellings in later periods. You will begin by examining how the Icarus story connects with a number of other ancient myths, such as that of Theseus and the Minotaur. You will then be guided through an in-depth reading of Icarus’ story as told by the Roman poet Ovid."

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This free course, Icarus: entering the world of myth, will introduce you to one of the best-known myths from classical antiquity and its various re-tellings in later periods. You will begin by...

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A free course offered by MIT's Open Learning platform.

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Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism | Anthropology | MIT OpenCourseWare

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Human beings are symbol-making as well as tool-making animals. We understand our world and shape our lives in large part by assigning meanings to objects, beings, and persons; by connecting things together in symbolic patterns; and by creating elaborate forms of symbolic action and narrative. In this introductory subject we consider how symbols are created and structured; how they draw on and give meaning to different domains of the human world; how they are woven into politics, family life, and the life cycle; and how we can interpret them. The semester will be devoted to a number of topics in symbolism. 1. Metaphor and Other Figurative Language
2. The Raw Materials of Symbolism, especially Animals and The Human Body
3. Cosmology and Complex Symbolic Systems
4. Ritual, including Symbolic Curing and Magic
5. Narrative and Life
6. Mythology

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From Khan Academy. "In this activity, you will become familiar with the idea of an origin story. Cultures around the world have their own origin stories, ways in which they believe and describe how the Universe came to be. It’s important that you understand that all origin stories should be respected, as they often relate to people’s cultures and beliefs."

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If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

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ACTIVITY: Intro to Origin Stories (article) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Activities: J. Paul Getty Museum's Resources to Connect Mythology with Art

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Activities: J. Paul Getty Museum's Resources to Connect Mythology with Art

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One example shows students how to analyze a 17th-century painting that depicts a Greek myth and then challenges them to create their own illustrations of myths in a contemporary setting

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Greek and Roman Myths in Art--A Set of 7 Activities (Education at the Getty)

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Seven activities take your students into the world of Greek and Roman myths--ancient stories about heroes, monsters, gods, and goddesses.

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A curated collection of over 4,700 public domain illustrations from vintage books, magazines, and catalogs

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A growing collection of free copyright free images depicting stories from Greek Mythology.

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Use search terms to find illustrations of Greek gods, mythological creatures, and classical scenes—all free to download and reuse

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a search engine for free high-resolution images of artworks