HIST 233L: The Homeric Warrior

This course will be devoted to close readings of a Homeric epic, either the Iliad of the Odyssey, with particular attention to the stresses of combat and homecoming. At the same time, the Homeric epics are important historical sources for understanding the society, economy, religion and warfare of Greece in the Bronze and Archaic Ages, and class time will be devoted to comparing poetry with the archaeological evidence.