Today I wanted to share some of my favorite resources for teaching mythology! Let’s dive right in!
I’ve been using this website for 15 years! I remember when I first discovered it, it wasn’t free. I actually bought everything on a CD Rom! Does that date me or what?!? Now everything is free and you can make a donation if you wish.
They have the creation myths in animated videos from all over the world. The videos have captions as well as a print retelling. On the website you can also find teaching materials such as a list of the major gods, history and culture, and activity ideas.
I use this in my own World Creation Myth unit as a resource – why rewrite the creation myths when The Big Myth has done such a great job?
These graphic novels are engaging, visually stunning, and accurate to the myths.
I always use the Zeus graphic novel – the first in the series – when I am teaching the Greek Creation story. The beginning of the graphic novel retells the creation and the battle between the titans and Uranus and later the Olympian Gods and Kronos.
This picture (see above) shows Kronos on his throne after killing Uranus. Notice the eyes – Uranus as the sky is now in Kronos’s eyes foreshadowing that like his father, he will kill his children to protect his power.
I mean – Wow! See what I mean when I say that they are beautiful!
He also has a page for educators teaching his graphic novels with short reader’s theater scripts and a more detailed Greek Gods family tree than mine – which is perfect for your students who are REALLY into Greek Mythology.
When I would read these to the class, I would show them under my overhead projector. But still – the colors weren’t as amazing as they were in print. So I recommend buying the Kindle editions and showing them on your screen using your iPad to project from the app. You can zoom in and scroll or zoom out to show the double page spread.
Have you heard of the monomyth – the myth of all myths? Also known as the Heroic Journey. Yes, that myth. The myth that almost all modern literature and movies use as an archetype – especially Marvel, Disney, George Lucas, DC Comics, well, really almost everything.
Joseph Campbell was a professor at Sarah Lawrence college and theorized that “all myths are the creative products of the human psyche, that artists are a culture’s mythmakers, and that mythologies are creative manifestations of humankind’s universal need to explain psychological, social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.” (source)
In his lifetime he published many works – all about mythology. But he is most known for his first publication – The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In this book, Campbell outlined what we now call the Heroic Journey or Monomyth. It encompasses 18 stages or “a universal pattern that is the essence of, and common to, heroic tales in every culture.” (source)
I believe that if you are going to teach mythology, you need to read Campbell. I recommend The Power of Myth which is much more conversational along with A Hero with a Thousand Faces.
If you don’t want to read these, the Joseph Campbell Foundation has his audio lecture series and videos for free on their website, as well as links to youtube videos that are shorter and can be used in class when teaching about specific mythologies.
4. D’Aulaires’ Myths
Who doesn’t love a good children’s book? I tell you – even my Seniors in high school loved when we would read from these books. I would stand at the front of the class, book in hand, and read aloud. Or I would put the book under the overhead projector to show the images as I read.
Written by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire, they have a book of Greek Myths and a book of Norse Myths.
Though these books are written for children, they clearly retell the myths and give details I think are important. And they are accurate! Their Norse Myths are based on Prose Edda and Poetic Edda (think of these as similar to Homer’s Odyssey and Hesiod’s Theogony) – and believe me, they aren’t the easiest to read. Most importantly, they create a story structure with the myth, that is lacking in translated versions of the myths. The gods are characters with feelings and motivations.
I liked to intermix these myths into my curriculum so that students don’t get burnt out by reading the formal language of Edith Hamilton or the archaic language of Homer’s Odyssey.
They also have great children’s books for teaching Norwegian folktales – Ola, Children of the Northlights, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
What hidden gems and resources do you use to teach mythology?
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*Contains affiliate links, so I do make a small commission if you purchase using this link. However, I only include links to the things I love, use in my own class, or books I have in my own classroom library.
