UMass Boston

Course Overview

Description

This exploration of Greek culture from the Bronze Age (3,000 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (3rd C BCE), focuses on the "other voices" of ancient Greek society; women, slaves, and foreigners; how such identities were constructed in the ancient texts; what we can know about the lived realities of such groups. Thus, the course aims to turn attention away from the stereotype by which Greek culture exists as an unchanging canon of texts, produced by Greek men, with undeniable and continuing influence on Western culture. Indeed, part of the course will consider precisely how Greek culture has come to enjoy such status, and what, by contrast, it has meant for different peoples at different times.