The Trojan War: History or Myth?

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course will explore the evidence for the Trojan War, one of the greatest stories ever told: literary, historical, visual and archaeological. The history of the search for the reality behind Homer's epic and its scholarship will be examined as well as detailed analyses of the theories currently in play. Through reading, visual analysis, discussion and writing - students will discover for themselves the ancient world of the heroes and their legends. Was there ever an actual war between two powerful Bronze Age Aegean cultures? Did Hektor and Achilles ever really clash on the battlefield? Was Helen really "a face that launched 1000 ships?" No knowledge of Greek or Latin required.