This course offers an introduction to essential moments in the history and literature of ancient Greece, from its rise to the end of the classical period. Students will read and learn how to interpret and critique literary masterpieces by Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle. As we explore the mutual engagement of these texts with their historical and cultural contexts, students will discover the ways in which essential aspects of Greek language and culture affect the modern world, including our modes of thinking about and experiencing subjectivity. At the same time they will gain a sense of the radical discontinuities between Greek culture and our own. The course has a twofold structure: a 50-minute lecture three times a week and a mandatory discussion section.

Fulfills L&S Breadth in Arts & Literature, Historical Studies or Philosophy & Values.