Advanced Greek: Euripides

Students of this course will intensify their immersion in Classical Greek language and culture through a deep dive into tragedy via the Andromache of Euripides. Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the play focuses on the eponymous widow of Troy's greatest prince and warrior, Hector, and her struggles as a princess-turned-slave in the land of her conquerors. This course will serve as an introduction to tragedy as a performance genre and an exploration of how 5th-century Athenian art interacted with conflicts of gender, ethnicity, and political hegemony. Over the course of Autumn quarter, we will read through the entire play in the original Greek, along with selected secondary materials ranging from current scholarship to translations of other Archaic and Classica-era texts to modern popular culture with similar themes. Students will be challenged to engage with the grammar, vocabulary, and generic style of the work, as well as to explore through discussion the cultural context of tragedy in 5th-century Athens. Content warning: this play contains references to sexual assault. Classics majors and minors may repeat for credit with advance approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies.