CLAS 111 - Greek and Roman Epic

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
Love, betrayal, revenge, war, fidelity, homecoming, exile, and new beginnings. The earliest literature in the Western tradition arrived in the 8th centry BCE in the central Mediterranean, with the epic stories of Achilles, Agamemenon, Helen, Odysseus, Penelope, Aeneas, and Dido. In this course we will read the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, and consider some of the literary and artistic works of the later Western tradition that they have inspired. We will also study the unique oral-poetic form of the early epics, and discuss the central issues of heroism, mortality, and identity that they invoke.
This course is appropriate for new students.