Professor: Gantt Gurley
4 credits
This colloquium examines three foundational epic narratives from the ancient Mediterranean world: the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Iliad, and the Books of Samuel. Spanning Mesopotamian, Greek, and Levantine literary traditions, these texts reflect a range of cultural values through their strikingly different conceptions of heroism, mortality, divine will, and political authority. Each emerges from and bears the traces of oral tradition, raising questions about the purpose of repetition, catalogue, and formulaic speech and the negotiation between performed and written modes. Students will read each work closely and in dialogue with the others, attending to questions that cut across all three: What does it mean to seek glory in a world governed by capricious or inscrutable gods? Where is the balance between individual ambition and communal obligation? Where do these texts locate the limits of heroic power, and how does each serve as a warning against the hubris inherent in personal codes of honor pursued beyond those limits? And why do these ancient stories continue to command our attention? What do they reveal about violence, grief, friendship, and the exercise of power that remains urgent and unresolved in the modern world?
The seminar format emphasizes sustained discussion and collaborative inquiry. Students will engage with the primary texts in respected modern translations alongside selected secondary scholarship in comparative literature, ancient Near Eastern studies, and biblical criticism. Assignments will foreground analytical writing and interpretive argument.
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill an Arts and Letters Colloquium and Global Perspectives (GP) cultural literacy requirement. If a student already has completed an Arts and Letters Colloquium, this course will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and the Global Perspectives (GP) cultural literacy requirement.