Politics and Sport Greece/Rome

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Athletic events shaped basic concepts of Greco-Roman culture from basic elements such as the calendar to abstract ideas such as communal and national ideology. This course will survey various periods of Greek and Roman history primarily from the 8th c. BCE to the 2nd c. CE (though we will consider the end and then reinvention of the Olympic games) from the lens of sports and games in order to better understand broader aspects of cultural history such as political power, religious thought, as well as the creation of various forms of art (literature, sculpture).