Ancient Greeks and Romans organized their social, civic, religious and spiritual ways of life around myth. This course will survey the origins and significance of the ancient Greco-Roman gods and heroes as a way of understanding ancient attempts to organize society and thought. Why, for example, are there multiple versions of myths, and what do these multiple versions say about the structures of ancient Greek society in terms of gender and religion? By looking at ancient religious practice and ritual as well as various myths, dominant patterns of Greek and Roman thought will emerge, and we will survey contemporary approaches to ancient mythology in an effort to understand these patterns and their influence on subsequent western thought— including Christianity.