Great Books, East and West

War, brutality, compassion, love, despair, and hope are just a few of the enduring themes which stem from the foundational epics of eastern and western classical civilizations. This course explores some of those epics for the significance their stories had in antiquity and for the significance they retain for us. Readings may draw on the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Mahabharata, Heike Monogatari, Three Kingdoms and other performed or inscribed narratives of classical cultures.