Online Lecture Series: The Hero in Ancient Greek Civilization
The Hero in Ancient Greek Civilization
The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization: a free lectures series
Gregory Nagy, PhD, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek
Literature, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Director of the
Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University
Kevin McGrath, PhD, Associate in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University
The true “hero” of this ancient Greek literature course is the logos,
or word, of logical reasoning, as activated by Socratic dialogue. The
logos of dialogue requires careful thinking, realized in close reading
and reflective writing. The last “word” read in the course comes from
Plato’s memories of the last days of Socrates. These memories depend on a
thorough understanding of concepts of the hero in all their varieties
throughout the history of Greek civilization and beyond. This course is
driven by a sequence of dialogues that lead to such an understanding,
guiding the attentive reader through some of the major works of the
ancient Greek classics, from Homer to Plato.
Watch the lectures as streaming video or audio. Each lecture is about 50 minutes.
Introductions and Initiations
Section
Section #1
Dialogue #2
Section
Section #2
The Poetics of Lament
Equal to a God
Section
Section #3
Equal to a daimôn
Patroklos as alter ego of Achilles
Section
Therapon; Hora
The Sign of the Hero
A Psychology of Signs in Ancient Greek Visual Arts
Section
Paean
The Return of the King (Physical and Metaphysical)
The Return of the King (Physical and Metaphysical); part II
Section
Nostos
Blessed are the Heroes
Section
Section #7
Longing for a hero
Better off Dead
Section
Revenant
Champions of dikê
Initiation into Tragedy
Section
Niké
Birth of a Polis
The "Swan Song" of Sophocles
Section
Pathos
Shades of the Hero
Section
Soter
Pollution of the Body Politic
A Masterpiece of Metonymy
Section
Initiation
Loose Hair and Social Disorder
The Living Word, Part I
The Living Word, Part II
The Last Word: The Hero as Savior
Section
Phobos
Section
Hora
We are so honored that AWOL chose to feature the dialogues and seminars from Gregory Nagy's 2009 Heroes course! We thought you might like to know that everyone can also access the proseminars from that year (2009). Furthermore, we offer access to the lectures and resources from other years: 2008, 2010, and 2011. In all, the dynamic archive associated with this course contains hundreds of hours of multimedia resources and the complete collection of readings in translation.
ReplyDeleteWe invite everyone to join us as we learn more about the heroes, ritual and literature of ancient Greece and the way these concepts continue to resonate with us today.
http://chs119.chs.harvard.edu/EdRes/index.html
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Claudia Filos
Assistant Editor for Online Publications
cfilos@chs.harvard.edu