CL104: Love & War in Classical Literature

This course focuses on the themes of “love” and “war” through major works of ancient Greek and Roman literature in translation. Our readings this semester will show these themes shifting with social and political contexts by beginning with “love” and “war” as serious cosmic forces and heroic ideals and ending with the very same as the topics of satire and jokes. In addition to social and political contexts, we will emphasize the themes of “love” and “war” through structural features of genre; namely, genealogy and epic, tragedy and comedy, and lyric and epigrammatic poetry.