Classics 1B03 aka
Myths: Trojan War is an introductory first year course taught by Dr. Daniel McLean and is usually offered in the first semester. The course consisted in 2008 of three one-hour lectures and a one-hour tutorial, although apparently this year it has been changed to only two hours of lectures, tutorials being the same.
I do not have the course outline, but the following materials were required for purchase and consist of what we basically covered:
- Theogeny, Works and Days, by Hesiod (covers origins of the Greek gods and goddesses from the very beginning)
- The Iliad, by Homer (covers a part of the Trojan War, mainly focusses on Achilles)
- Oresteia, by Aeschylus (covers the story of Electra and Orestes after the Trojan War)
- The Aeneid, by Virgi (covers the story of Aeneas after the Trojan War)
He also provided some readings about Helen of Troy, from what I can remember. The readings were not extensive (he picks chapters/pages to read). The books are inexpensive and worth keeping.
Dr. McLean is an excellent lecturer and a good speaker. He makes the class enjoyable through his enthusiasm (he is VERY enthusiastic) and jokes, and he is pretty approachable. If you have got an interest in the material itself, this class is one of the more enjoyable classes at Mac. He makes an admirable effort to ensure that the class does well, and he actually used WebCT (or ELM) to post extra resources, unlike some other classics professors. One thing he does not post, however, are class slides. You must attend each class for that and take your own notes. This is also one of the rare classics classes which actually has tutorials, and these tutorials are VERY useful. If you take this course, your mark pretty much depends on your TA, and I was lucky to get an excellent TA who was as passionate about the material as Dr McLean.
The marking scheme consisted of a midterm worth 25% (MCQ and some short answers, very fair and marked very fairly), an essay worth about 25%, a 10% component based on tutorial participation (free marks as long as you say something once in a while), and a final, consisting of MCQ, short answers, and one or two long answer questions. It is not difficult to do well (A- to A+) if you study hard and begin your essay in advance (getting input from your TA helps). If you hate writing essays/do badly at them, then you may want to think twice about taking 1B03 as a bird course, but anyone who has even a mild interest in roman/greek mythology should consider taking it!
Overall, I would highly recommend this course.