Greek Erotic Literature: From Plato to the Medieval Romances

Survey of desire in Greek writing, with an emphasis on post-classical texts. Exploration of Platonic love, Roman Greek literature on eros, friendship in late antique and medieval rhetoric and letter-writing, erotic epigrams from Imperial to Middle Byzantine times, depictions of the erotic in hagiographical texts, and, finally, the twelfth-century revival of romantic fiction. Four semesters of Greek required.