Integrated Humanities: Ancient World

This integrated Ancient World course explores the literature and history of the ancient Mediterranean world through close study of its foundational texts and historical sources. Beginning with The Epic of Gilgamesh, students enter the world of the ancient Near East before turning to Homer’s Iliad, Aeschylus’s Oresteia—Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides—Virgil’s Aeneid, and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra as a later reflection of the classical tradition. These literary works are studied alongside historical sources, including selections from Herodotus, Xenophon’s Anabasis, Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, Livy, and Plutarch’s Lives of Julius Caesar, Antony, and Brutus, with maps and timelines helping students situate the texts within the Bronze Age, the Greek world, the conquests of Alexander, the Roman Republic, and the emergence of the Roman Empire. Literature and history are studied in conjunction with the students’ Ancient Philosophy course, allowing students to see how the great questions of the ancient philosophers are reflected in the literature, political life, religious traditions, and cultural ideals of the ancient world. Through close reading, discussion, commonplace-book work, historical study, and written analysis, students examine enduring themes such as heroism, virtue, justice, duty, fate, citizenship, leadership, and the nature of the good life. The course culminates in a substantial research project on a significant figure, text, event, or cultural development of the ancient world, accompanied by a detailed visual component and presentation to the school community.