Introduction to Greek culture and society

Elective Course

This course provides an orientation for students of diverse backgrounds across the vast and immensely rich panorama of Greek and Hellenic/Hellenistic cultures. Beginning with art and religion, the course will then move onto literature: e.g., Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, as well as archaic poetry and Athenian tragedy and comedy, among the others. (Topics, within this genre, will vary annually). The course combines detailed literary and artistic appreciation with an understanding of the cultural contexts in which Greek and Hellenic/Hellenistic art and literature flourished from ancient times to the present. Topics will include aspects such as: myth and religion, heroic values, the archaic world, the artistic and intellectual life of classical Athens and other Greek-speaking areas, the theatre, education, the transformations of Greek culture under Rome, the Hellenic/Hellenistic World, present-day Greece and Cyprus, and the Greek-speaking Diaspora in the world.