Students remain fascinated with Greek and Roman myths, and the entertainment industry knows it, says Andrew Porter, Classics coordinator and assistant professor in UWM\u2019s Classics Program.<\/p>\n
Hollywood and television have contributed with movies such as \u201cO Brother, Where Art Thou,\u201d \u201c300,\u201d \u201cRome,\u201d \u201cClash of the Titans,\u201d \u201cAlexander\u201d and numerous other movies and series set in ancient times or based on classical history or myths.<\/p>\n
\u201cFilmmakers and writers find Greek and Latin mythology a rich resource for stories. Shakespeare borrowed many of the plots of his plays from Greek and Roman plays,\u201d Porter says. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have to worry about copyright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students who have taken courses recently in the Classics Program include a judge, a teacher, a New Testament scholar, a pre-med student, an engineer and an aspiring filmmaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike most universities, every year Classics courses are very popular, although we don\u2019t have an incredible number of majors as such,\u201d says Porter.<\/p>\n
The program averages some 1,600 students in its Greek, Latin or Classical Civilization courses each year. Porter\u2019s online course, Classical Mythology, is \u201cfull every time I teach it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In fact, after Classics lagged for a while in the 1970s, they made a comeback. Latin teachers at the high school level are in high demand and Latin enrollments at UWM have risen in the past three years.<\/p>\n
Students who sign up for the languages, history and literature classes have an interest in the past \u2013 and often in their own future. Greek and Latin, for example, make an excellent foundation for both medicine and law, according to Porter, and studies show that students with a background in Classics do better than average on Graduate Record Exams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fair to say that people who take Greek or Latin are far better prepared for law or medicine, and these courses can have an impact on the overall college experience. Students learn how to read, how to write and how to think analytically,\u201d Porter says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students remain fascinated with Greek and Roman myths, and the entertainment industry knows it, says Andrew Porter, Classics coordinator and assistant professor in UWM\u2019s Classics Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174,175],"tags":[],"section":[],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-19355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-research"],"yoast_head":"\n