Essay on a Myth

The Final Project
The Final Project is an opportunity to demonstrate your critical and creative thinking skills as you reflect on our course material. Please adhere to these instructions as you craft your project:
Step One: Choose one myth to read and study carefully. While the myth can be one that was not assigned in class, it must be taken from our textbooks: Ovid’s The Essential Metamorphoses or Thury and Devinney’s Introduction to Mythology.
Step Two: Using your myth as the basis for this project, select one of the four project options listed below and complete your project, uploading it to this assignment page in the acceptable format.
Final Project Options (Choose One)
Option 1: Re-visioning the Myth.
Rewrite an episode of the myth (or the entire myth if it’s short) from the point of view of a different character (not the protagonist or primary character). In doing so, generate and suggest new insights (list found on page 14) with your original content.
For example, you might re-write parts of Epic of Gilgamesh through Enkidu’s point of view, giving him a fuller voice in the story.
Option 2: Explicating the Myth.
The more traditional option, Option 2 is to write a thesis-driven academic essay on the myth of your choice. Select two of the “Insights Obtained from Myths” found on page 13, and demonstrate their presence in the myth that you choose. An explication calls for a detailed, in-depth explanation of the myth in question.
For a brief example, you might write a paper on the psychological and anthropological insights to be found in the Gilgamesh’s loss of the prize in the Epic.
Option 3: Myth and Memoir.
Drawing from Campbell’s stages of the Hero Quest (aka “Hero’s Journey”) and at least two examples from a myth (or myths) from our textbooks, offer a memoir (autobiographical telling of events in your life) that includes in-depth, detailed explanations why the myth (or myths) and stages that you chose are especially meaningful.
For a brief example, you might relate a story in which you “Crossed the Threshold” or found “Supernatural Aid” in your own quest for something meaningful. You might then include some parallels to stories from our textbooks. [Academic Integrity Note: this paper must be original to this class: do not re-purpose an English essay, for example, written on a similar topic].
Option Four: Expansion of the Myth.
In this creative writing option, you “pick up the story where it left off” by writing an original sequel or continuation of the myth. Please do not introduce characters outside of the mythology of the culture that produced it, and adopt a similar tone to the original. Figurative language, attention to detail, and shaping of theme are called for in this writing.
For a brief example, you might write the further adventures of Pandora. What is her life like after the events Hesiod describes? How does she feel about what has happened?
Formatting/In-Text Citation Style
MLA formatting (Links to an external site.)
MLA In-Text Citations (Links to an external site.)
MLA formatting for list of Works Cited (Links to an external site.)
Page Length Requirements and Due Date
The Final Project must be at least five full, double-spaced, MLA formatted pages of writing in length.
The Final Project is due on Thursday, July 28 at 11:59 p.m. As this date marks the conclusion of the course, no late projects can be accepted.
Academic Honesty
Special Note: Please offer your original work in this Final Project. The embedded anti-plagiarism software is both active and effective. A Final Project showing evidence of plagiarism will receive no credit, and administrative action may also be taken.
Prof’s Note:
Offer your best work on this Final Project, challenging yourself with choices that will enrich your educational experience. Trust that you are indeed prepared, having studied many examples of mythological and critical approaches, and participated in several in-depth discussions that called upon your creative and critical energies. I strongly recommend you review your notes and Written Responses: an idea worth expanding might reveal itself!
Best Wishes for this Final Project!

Last Completed Projects