Classical Studies · Boston College
The readings for this course are in ancient Greek! Thinking about death is inevitable when reading the Iliad, but this course embraces death as its focus. How do discourses of dying well and badly shape the contested ethical systems of the epic? What role do representations of burials and failed burials play? How do depictions of monuments and commemorative practices highlight tensions with the needs of the living? How does lyric poetry subsequently take up these questions in conversation with Homer's epic? We will read extensive selections of the Iliad as well as selected lyric poetry, and ar
