Part 1: Lecture 1. Introduction -- Lecture 2. What is myth? -- Lecture 3. Why is myth? -- Lecture 4. First was chaos -- Lecture 5. The reign of the Olympians -- Lecture 6. Immortals and mortals -- Lecture 7. Demeter, Persephone, and the conquest of death -- Lecture 8. The Eleusinian mysteries and the afterlife -- Lecture 9. Apollo and Artemis -- Lecture 10. Hermes and Dionysos -- Lecture 11. Laughter-loving Aphrodite -- Lecture 12. Culture, prehistory, and the "great goddess" -- Part 2: Lecture 13. Humans, heroes, and half-gods -- Lecture 14. Theseus and the "test-and quest" myth -- Lecture 15. From myth to history and back again -- Lecture 16. The greatest hero of all -- Lecture 17. The Trojan war -- Lecture 18. The terrible house of Atreus -- Lecture 19. Blood vengeance, justice and the Furies -- Lecture 20. The tragedies of King Oedipus -- Lecture 21. Monstrous females and female monsters -- Lecture 22. Roman founders, Roman fables -- Lecture 23. Gods are useful -- Lecture 24. From Ovid to the stars.