Code 21447
Level of study Third/Final year
Credit value 20
Semester Scheduled 2012-13, 1 and 2
Pre-requisite modules LC Greek and Roman Literature (or equivalent)
Love fascinates Greek writers throughout antiquity. Love is personified by two deities, Aphrodite and Eros, each of them multifaceted and mysterious; love has power over even the gods themselves. From the judgement of Paris onwards, it is the catalyst for great stories of heroism and tragedy. It causes the most intense pleasure and pain, misery and joy. It can bring out the worst of human conduct, but also the best. Philosophers find in it the key to the relationship between the human soul, with its aspirations to eternity, and the mortal, physical world through which life’s journey must be made. Poets find language to express the complex intensity of love, longing and desire, as well as how they use love to delve into the workings of the mind or soul and the nature of human motivation, responsibility and choiceThis module explores representations of love and its effects in Greek texts across a range of periods and genres. Texts will be studied in translation (though if you do know some Greek, there will be plenty of opportunities to use it). Texts studied may vary from year to year, but will include Sappho and other lyric poets, Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus, and plays such as Euripides’ Hippolytus, or Sophocles’ Women of Trachis.