HIST 008 PO -Ancient Heroes and Heroines

Institution: Pomona

Description: From the blood-drenched battlefields of Troy to the rhetorical schools of imperial Rome, from Gilgamesh’s early quest for immortality to Perpetua’s willing embrace of martyrdom, famous stories of heroic individuals not merely edified and entertained audiences across the ancient Mediterranean but fundamentally shaped their own values and experiences. In this course we will explore how common narratives of heroism and of the well-lived life shaped the political and cultural histories of the Mediterranean world from 3000 B.C.E. to 400 C.E., from the rise of the earliest Ancient Near Eastern empires through the decline of the Roman Empire. There will be a strong emphasis on engaging with the ancient sources in translation, with readings drawn especially from the genres of epic (Homer’s Iliad, Epic of Gilgamesh, Hesiod’s Works & Days), historiography (Herodotus, Thucydides, Sallust, Livy, Tacitus), and biography (Law Code of Hammurabi, Xenophon’s Agesilaus, Plutarch’s Lives, and the Passion of Perpetua).