Ancient Greek Thought and Civilization, Part I: The Archaic Era (c. 776-510 BCE) | 2025

In this course we will examine key works and developments in the history, art, and literature of Ancient Greek civilization as it grows and flourishes during the so-called “Archaic Period” from the middle of the 8^th century to the end of the 6^th century BCE. At the beginning of this period, the Greeks reacquire the art of writing, and the epic poems of Homer and Hesiod become the corner stones of a Pan-Hellenic culture that would last for more than a thousand years. The autonomous city-state (polis) republic solidifies as the dominant form of Greek social organization and governance, and new poleis are founded throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea. New and rapidly evolving styles of art and music are invented and perfected, and philosophy emerges as a revolutionary new way of understanding humanity and nature. In this course we will briefly look at the Bronze Age cultures of Greece, their collapse, and the subsequent “Dark Age” of Greece, before studying to the cornerstones of the new, Panhellenic culture that reemerged from them: the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. Thence, we will survey the epic poems of Hesiod; the lyric poetry of Sappho, Archilochus, Solon, and others; the political developments of state formation, colonization, factionalism, and tyranny; and the philosophies of the Milesian naturalists (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), the early Pythagoreans, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus.

This course will be a prerequisite for Ancient Greek Thought and Civilization Part II. The Greek Enlightenment and the Golden Age of Athens (510-399 BCE).