Classical and Scriptual Backgrounds

4.0 credits

Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. Greek tragedy and comedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. The Hebrew Bible -- Abraham and Isaac, Moses and Pharaoh, Esther and Judith -- and Christianity's New Testament. The two great traditions studied in this introductory course -- classical and Biblical -- have been pondered by generations of writers and artists for thousands of years. A great deal of literary history is the story of intricately rewriting and adapting the core texts of these traditions; it has been said that the European philosophical tradition is a series of footnotes to Plato. While doing justice to any one of these authors or traditions in a single semester would be a challenge, the goal of this class is to read as much as possible of the classical and scriptural tradition in the short time we have, giving you a solid introduction to some of the key stories and ideas that have generated so much thought, conflict, and human creativity over the past two dozen centuries. First-years welcome!