Course Description

Ancient Greece incorporated over a thousand years of history, hundreds of cities, and dozens of cultures. Stretching at its peak from Macedonia to Egypt, from the Black Sea to Sicily, the Greek world produced some of the most famous and enduring works of literature. "The Ancient World I: Greece" will explore the world of the Greeks through these writings. Coursework and discussion will focus on readings in translation from all genres of Greek literature, including epic and lyric poetry, drama, history and philosophy. Supplemental lectures and assignments will explore related developments in the visual arts, political and social history, religion and science. We will pay attention to who created literature and art in the Greek world and why, the context in which they presented their compositions, as well as how and why these works have survived until today.

We will begin where the Greeks themselves tended to begin the history of their world -- the Trojan War. Homer's song of Troy, the Iliad, will help us explore the palace culture of the Mycenaean Period and its disintegration into the Dark Ages of Greece. Next, the Odyssey will bring us out of the dark into a new era of expansion, experimentation and expression. The Archaic Period produced songs and stories exploring city, class and individual identity, as well as incredible works of vase painting and stone sculpture. Out of this grew the Classical Period, most famous for the democracy of Athens, in which some of the greatest Greek tragedians, historians, sculptors, architects and philosophers lived and worked. After we explore the fall of Athens to Sparta, comic playwrights, philosophers and poets will help us negotiate the changes in the Greek world which led to its conquest by Alexander and the subsequent spread of Greek culture from India to Egypt.

Because of the tremendous influence of the ancient Greeks on later Europeans, Americans, and others, many aspects of their literature are immediately accessible and recognizable to modern readers. Other aspects, however, reveal the Greeks to be a very unusual and foreign people. The ancient world of Greece thus provides a lively place in which to explore a variety of cultural heritages and assumptions.

Ancient World I Homepage ~ Classics Department ~ Macalester College