How To Use Mythology To Teach Allusion And Synthesis

Reading Instruction

My high school students love mythology. So I’m always look for opportunities to include mythology in my classroom. Today, I want to share a collection of ideas for using mythology to teach allusion and synthesis.

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Choosing a Unit Focus

While my sophomores don’t have a mythology-specific unit, they do have a unit focused on using short works to practice synthesis. Because synthesis requires teachers to use texts that are related (by genre, theme, or content), this is a good place to incorporate mythology.

In the past, I’ve described curriculum spirals focused on Penelope and Helen from Greek mythology. However, sometimes those figures aren’t familiar enough for students.

To build a mythology-based unit focused on allusion and synthesis, it’s really best for students to focus on a story, figure, or archetype that’s familiar.

With that in mind, I decided to build a synthesis unit focused on the story of Icarus and Daedalus. By high school, students are usually familiar with this story. Additionally, the story has a clear lesson, which helps students evaluate how different authors adjust that message.

Beginning Synthesis with Comprehension

Although students usually know the story of Icarus by the time they reach high school, it would be silly not to review the story if it’s going to be the focus of the unit. Assuming too much prior knowledge just leads to frustration for everyone. Plus, a quick review means everyone starts on the same page. Also, this means everyone has a chance to build success before working on a difficult skill like synthesis-thinking. Additionally, this review also helps teachers gauge student ability at the beginning of a unit.

As a high school teacher, it’s easy to find mythology written for elementary and middle-school readers. It’s often more challenging to find mythology written with the rigor, depth, and complexity that high school readers need and deserve. For this reason, I chose an excerpt from Josephine Preston Peabody’s Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew.

At the end of the day, this is the familiar myth written at a little higher level. It also provides a great basis for this unit because teachers can review many skills, including inference and main idea. My favorite part of this text is actually its creative use of similes!

Evaluating Mythology in Poetry

When teaching synthesis, I often rely heavily on poetry because of its brevity. In a few days or weeks, students can encounter the same story, allusion, myth, or figure several times in different poems. If we were doing this in prose, it would take much longer for students to see the repetition of ideas.

When designing this mythology-based synthesis unit, I kept poetry close to my heart and chose poems to help students synthesize the allusion to Icarus across texts.

First, “Poor Icarus” by Florence Earle Coates is a great place to begin. While Peabody’s version of Icarus’ story is pretty straightforward, Coates’ interpretation is a great exercise in tone. My favorite part of this poem is Coates’ ability to change tone and meaning through repetition of the title phrase: “Poor Icarus!” Read it here.

Secondly, “Icarus” by Maurice Baring provides a different take on Icarus’ story. This poem takes place at Icarus’ graveside and challenges students to reconsider whether or not Icarus’ story is a cautionary or celebratory tale! The difference in setting provides students with an opportunity to evaluate how Baring’s allusion differs from Coates’ allusion. Read it here.

Finally, “Failing and Flying” by Jack Gilbert really modernizes this allusion. While Coates and Baring tell Icarus’ story, Gilbert places this allusion in the context of a struggling relationship. Unlike Coates and Baring, Gilbert’s poem is less the retelling or reinterpretation of Icarus’ story and more the telling of an Icarus’ story. Of these three poems, this one is probably the least challenging in terms of language and most challenging in the inferences it requires of readers. Read it here.

Overall, these three poems provide students with the opportunity to synthesize across texts. Each of these poems presents a different argument. For this reason, a conversation about the allusion in these poems allows students to synthesize how authors use allusion to support their purposes.

Incorporating Artwork and Mythology

To my mind, the most challenging Common Core ELA standard is RA.7. This standard not only asks students to synthesize across texts but across mediums! However, the 9-10 standard also provides an example of how to do this. The standard suggests teachers could use W.H. Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts” with Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.

Of course, the challenge here is that students needs a tremendous amount of context to understand Auden’s allusion. First, they need to understand the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Second, they need to recognize Breughel’s painting. Auden’s reference to the painting isn’t passing, so students need to spend some time with the artwork before they can evaluate Auden’s use of mythology and allusion.

As if that wasn’t challenging enough, to fully appreciate Auden’s poem, students also need to understand his allusions to Breughel’s The Census at Bethlehem and The Massacre of the Innocents. What’s more, both of these works make significant Biblical and historical allusions!

To elevate this conversation even more, teachers can incorporate William Carlos Williams’ “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.” Now, students can evaluate how Auden and Williams both tackle not just the mythology but the painting! To make this lesson easier to put together, I’ve packaged reading questions for both of these poems and the paintings in one easy resource!

It’s actually a really powerful conversation when students begin to recognize that good literature (and art, for that matter) is already part of a dialogue.

Of course, Breughel is far from the only artist to tackle Icarus’ fall. With this in mind, I put together 10 artistic representations of the fall of Icarus. One of the great teaching challenges of RA.7 is that it requires teachers to do a lot of footwork to collect texts and other media that all deal with the same references. To save you some time, I have put together these 10 images of the fall of Icarus with questions to guide students toward synthesis.