CLAS 2290 Death in Ancient Greece

In the ancient Greek world, as now, death is a powerful lens for understanding the values and perspectives of the living. How does a community talk (or not talk) about death? How are the dead buried and mourned -- and are some treated differently than others? How do afterlife beliefs affect individual and communal behaviors in life? Is there such a thing as a good death, and who gets to decide what that is? In this course we will examine these questions in the ancient Greek world through a range of ancient material including poetry, gravestones, burial goods, and historical texts. We will also bring these questions to our own modern experiences.