HUMN 351 Webpage Bibliography Guidelines Create a resource list that includes a list of 10 reliable resources pertaining to myths and mythology (the study of myths). Five of these resources should be books, and five should be websites. Each resource should have a threesentence annotation that describes and/or summarizes the resource. Your resource should have working links and be easy for a library volunteer to copy onto a library website. (NOTE: You do not have to post the document to a website.) These resources can include materials you have used for your minilectures. Post your Webpage Resource document in PDF format, and include:  Your original title for the lecture series  Five books with a one to three sentence description or summary of each. Each book should have a link to either a library’s online catalog, a link to purchase the book, or a link to a free to read online copy of that book.  Five websites with a one to three sentence description or summary of each, with working links to the websites. HUMN 351 Week Seven: Sacred Spaces and Sacred Times Plato’s Allegory of the Cave This week’s Learning Resource, Sacred Places names “gardens, groves, caves, and hidden shelters” found in the world’s religions, and suggests that myths have the power to transform places: Such places are often sacred places in myth. Typically, gardens represent paradise, as in the Garden of Eden in the biblical creation myth of Genesis. In part they derive their mythic energy from their association with the earth, perhaps with the earth goddess herself. Like temples and walled cities, they are protective places, metaphors for cosmos in the face of chaos. They are places of birth or rebirth. Jesus is born in a humble stable; the Buddha is born in a grove. Muhammad receives revelation in a cave; the Buddha finds enlightenment under a tree in a grove; Jesus prepares for his death and resurrection in the Garden of Gethsemane. As in the Adam and Eve myth, the protective, even paradisaical space that is the garden can be corrupted by outside forces, represented in Genesis by the Devil as serpent. In older, goddess-based myths, the serpent in the maternal garden would have been the natural companion of the goddess—perhaps a trickster, perhaps a symbol of the fertilizing phallus. It might be said that generally what comes to the hero in the garden represents archetypally that which comes from within as opposed to that which comes from outside, or “above” in mountain revelations. Myths provide places with symbolic meaning, and allow a person to gain special power that comes from ritually participating in the myth. In this week’s discussion you study the Allegory of the Cave presented in the Week Three Learning Resource, Plato, Socrates, and the Cave Allegory. You will understand how the cave of ordinary life becomes sacred space through new eyesight / insight developed by contemplating Plato’s myth. Among Joseph Campbell’s Four Functions of Myth (studied in Week One), this discussion shows you the Mystical Function of Myth. The Allegory of the Cave of Plato’s Republic is among the most famous passages in the history of philosophy. This “cave” is as meaningful in its own cultural context as the sacred spaces mentioned in the above quote, such as the Garden of Eden, the cave in which the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation, and so forth. For Plato (writing the teachings of Socrates), the myth of the cave is powerful enough to bring a kind of enlightenment, a deep wisdom about the nature of reality. The sunlight seen by characters in the myth is symbolically an inner light discovered through the educational process outlined by Plato. The Allegory of the Cave text is your entire reading assignment for the week, so read the material several times with care. (Some key points from the other learning resources are noted in the Lecture Overview of this week.) Then post your answers to the following questions, found in the table presented in the final section, “The Matrix: A Modern Take on the Allegory of the Cave.” How does this Symbol Meaning symbol relate to me? How can I apply this knowledge? The Cave The Light inside the Cave The Prisoners The Chains The prisoner being dragged The philosophic teacher The shadows The objects that cast the shadows The people casting the shadows People near the exit of the cave Outside of the cave Clearly label and explain your answers. Then respond to the postings of two other students. You key post should be between 300-400 words long.