Magic and Witchcraft in the Greco-Roman World

Catalog description

Circe, Medea, Simon Magus, Tiresias, Canidia: people who can learn the future, make the old young again, cause or destroy love, transform humans to animals, and even wake the dead. In this course, we will study historical and fictional people in ancient Greece and Rome who claimed to have supernatural powers. Drawing on literary, artistic, and archaeological sources, we will examine what powers were claimed by or attributed to these people, the variable levels of acceptance or rejection they received from society, how legendary witches differed from their real-life counterparts, and how aspects of ethnicity, geography, and class affected their identities. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.