Madness in Greek and Latin Literature

Catalog description

What is madness? Is it an imbalance of humors, a curse from the gods, or passion spun out of control? What does madness have to do with music, with talent, with wine, war, or power? What causes madness, or treats it? Who decides who is mad, and why? In this class, we will explore the nuances of this nebulous concept as it appears in texts composed by ancient doctors, playwrights, philosophers, historians, poets, and politicians, while supplementing our texts with vase paintings, frescoes, and statues. At the same time, we will defamiliarize the concept of madness as it exists in our own world by investigating the 19th-century invention of psychiatry, exploring our society's use of labels to create deviant outgroups, and assessing the reality of consciousness itself. No prior knowledge of the ancient Greco-Roman world is required.