The Ancient World

Catalog description

This course acquaints students with the Hebrew Scriptures and the world of the ancient Greeks. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and other peoples to whom the Hebrews and Greeks are indebted are also considered. Among the topics to which the course attends are the human experience of the divine, man's struggle with human and natural forces, warfare and the meaning of justice, the development of logos as human reason or cognition, and the emergence of science, technology, and artistic experience. Readings for this course include The Epic of Gilgamesh; The Bible; Homer's Odyssey; Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War; Aeschylus' The Oresteia; and Plato's The Republic.