For me, the content was the best part of the unit. Though I wish we delved deeper on Roman myths...we only had one lecture on it and it was just about the similarities between Greek and Roman foundation myths. Even then, the Roman aspect of the unit was poorly developed. The mode of teaching was rather disappointing and made the unit hard to enjoy - coming from someone that is an avid ancient history lover. Lectures were delivered word by word through a transcript, which I appreciated when he uploaded them on lms. However, it did make going to the lectures superfluous, especially when I couldn't really hear him in the lecture hall. The tutorials, most of the time, are helpful but are nerve-wracking as the atmosphere is very tense - even the people who did the countless readings for that week would be nervous. The assessments are mostly multiple choice with the exception of the digital project - which has it's pros for sure. They do, however, create a false sense of security leading up to exams - which is not the unit coordinator's fault. As you can see from the other reviews left by past students, Neil O'Sullivan is far from a good person and a good professor. Good thing that this is his final year, so I really recommend giving this unit a go after 2024 as the assessments aren't too hard - the exam was multiple choice and I was able to get a decent mark without any study for the exam. I hope the unit improves as the classics is a subject that is dear to me, and it would be a shame for people to steer away from this unit because of the teaching and workload when the content is actually super interesting!

Unit content was interesting, and i would have enjoyed the course if not for the lecturer and my tutor. Lecturer and unit co Neil O'Sullivan is transphobic and sexist, and his delivery of lectures was difficult for me to focus on. Would recommend giving this unit a go when Neil retires.

I was going to wait until the end of Semester to give it a fair shot but I’ve gotten to my last straw. Neil O’Sullivan the lecturer and tutor is a classic example of an outdated needs to retire teacher. It started with a couple of lines in his lectures that came off as trying to be funny, then in tutorial he was dismissive and belittling. Passing over my opinion only to listen and congratulate a man for saying the same thing. He makes it very clear that he doesn’t like being politically correct but has to be. But in lecture 13 he steps over the line. In full transparency I have stopped going to his classes in person so I don’t know how these lines were delivered, and as far as I’m aware the lecture slides are at least eight years old and not updated. This is Page 14: It’s quite a jump to go from dressing up in drag as an adolescent to going the whole hog and actually having your sex “reassigned” (or “confirmed”, as the current term is). Perhaps there have always been people who felt that they were born in the wrong body. Consider the story of Caenis. Originally a girl, they (I have had to use the grammatically incorrect but otherwise convenient non gender specific pronoun) had sex with Poseidon who granted their wish - which was to become a man! Caenis became carnies (like raylene becoming ray - or Bruce becoming caitlyn), and it is in this form that they are best known to mythology. As Caeneus, they took part in the famous conflict between the centaurs and Lapiths, as shown in this red attic black figure vase from 570 BC. Ovid (metamorphoses 12) has a wonderful scene in which the centaurs are mercilessly teasing caeneus, and insist on calling them caenis. At any rate, they were pretty tough, for one of the things they asked for from Poseidon was invulnerability. So the centaurs couldn’t wound them: instead, as this picture shows, the monsters resorted to the simple expedient of burying caenis/eus alive. Once in the underworld, says Vergil (Aeneid 6.448), they become a girl again. Various other stories associated with them suggest that, in becoming a man, they forced people to worship their spear as a god (see Grimal). Looks to me like some sort of phallic obsession going on here … but hey, if there is one thing we’re told these days, it’s that we shouldn’t be judgmental about such things. His personality and opinions shine through in every slide but this one in particular caught my attention. I thinks it’s inappropriate, specifically the lines “(or “confirmed”, as the current term is)” “ (I have had to use the grammatically incorrect but otherwise convenient non gender specific pronoun)” and “ but hey, if there is one thing we’re told these days, it’s that we shouldn’t be judgmental about such things.”. It’s unnecessary commentary and I’m honestly shocked they haven’t been removed. This might seem a small problem but I assure you these comments are everywhere in his classes and I’m officially handing in my review. I would give it zero stars if I could. It’s an easy class to pass but if you can’t stand old white men dressing you down, don’t attend.

I was so excited about this unit but was deceived, this unit is half-assedand the lectures were soooo boring. The way of teaching was so uninspiring, the lecturer would give you the slides and the lecture would consist of him just reading it word for word. Quizzes were easy apart from the major quizzes which needed a lot of study on all the material covered. The digital project was not fun at all to do (did not adapt to the hard situations of COVID-19 for one) but apart from that was marked very subjectivly. The exam was alright to do, over-all a very boringly lead unit, the readings given were occasionally interesting but that was about it, really sucked the fun right out of such an interesting unit.

I was so excited about this unit but was deceived, this unit is half-assedand the lectures were soooo boring. The way of teaching was so uninspiring, the lecturer would give you the slides and the lecture would consist of him just reading it word for word. Quizzes were easy apart from the major quizzes which needed a lot of study on all the material covered. The digital project was not fun at all to do (did not adapt to the hard situations of COVID-19 for one) but apart from that was marked very subjectivly. The exam was alright to do, over-all a very boringly lead unit, the readings given were occasionally interesting but that was about it, really sucked the fun right out of such an interesting unit.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this unit, the teacher made it impossible for me to do so. The lectures were boring and heavily relying on useless material, the tutorials made stressful and a chore to go through as the tutor (who was also the lecturer) was always so irritable and judgmental. The exam was easy and that is one of the few redeeming qualities of this unit, but the digital project was, as someone previously put it, very subjective. It’s still a very good elective, but the pedagogue made it desperately bland in the lectures and nerve-racking in the tutorials.

Pretty interesting unit. The lectures were a bit all over the place and it was hard to keep track of all the different times/Gods/stories etc. The quizzes were quite easy and the major quiz requires a lot of preparation. The digital project was the worst and brought down my mark significantly. The exam was pretty easy but requires a lot of memorisation.

- easy broadening unit - multiple choice quizzes and exam - broad digital project - recommend if myths interest you - focuses not just on the story but the history and art etc. in relation to the myths

ok so: this unit is good, the myths r good n it’s an easy broadening ! I loved learning abt the myths n it def didn’t make me hate them or anything like that! I’d never learnt anything abt Greek myths or anything like that b4 n it was easy 2 pick up n understand Exam is laughable !!! It took 30 minutes ok... the only issue I had was w the digital project it’s v subjectively marked which can b disheartening but what can u do ?

Definitely the most dull unit I did, after the first month I never attended lectures, because they were uploaded in a written format, which took me less than 45 minutes to fully read. This is an easy unit if you have prior knowledge and don't actually need to learn anything, which helped me. The content was all over the place in the lectures, with many tangents on random things that were never assessed in any way whatsoever, such as the similarities between Egyptian and Greek mythology. This was a broadening unit for me, and it was easy to scrape a pass in without much effort, but I don't recommend this for anyone looking for an interesting unit.