Last Chance: Auditor Memberships still available! 

Homer’s epic about the consequences of a single incident in the final year of the Trojan War magnificently established the terms for the “idea of the tragic” and its accoutrements: the tragic hero, tragic irony, the tragic “flaw.” Confronted with a devastating insult to his honor, the Greek’s greatest warrior, Achilles, withdraws from the fighting as he struggles with the meaning of the choices he has made—not least, the choice to die young in return for everlasting glory. But his withdrawal sets in motion a sequence of events that will result in a loss far greater than the one that spurred his original crisis, precipitating the hero’s climactic confrontation with mortality.

Seminars, to be conducted online, will meet weekly. Auditor Memberships are still available. Auditors will be able to listen in on the live sessions, have access to our discussion board (hosted on the Canvas platform), and have access to the recordings of all sessions, as in our previous seminars.

The seminar series on Homer’s Iliad will consist of six weekly sessions beginning Wednesday, January 15, 2025.

Register for the Iliad today!

Looking for a holiday gift? Seminars can also be purchased on behalf of someone else—just enter their name and email address during check out!

Register for all seminars in this series

Continue to explore “the idea of the tragic” as expressed in selected works by the three great Athenian dramatists, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

Tragic Meaning: Aeschylus

The plays of Aeschylus searingly explore the role of fate—as expressed in family curses and divine decrees—in human affairs, while investigating the limits and nature of mortal power.
Works discussed: Persians and the Oresteia
Four sessions, starting Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Register for Aeschylus

Tragic Meaning: Sophocles

The tragedies of Sophocles place heroes characterized by remarkable determination and fixed ideas in situations designed to test the limits of both their convictions and their agency—with often catastrophic results.
Works discussed: Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus, and Philoctetes
Four sessions, starting Wednesday,  April 9, 2025

Register for Sophocles

Tragic Meaning: Euripides

The most technically innovative and iconoclastic of the three great tragedians, Euripides, considered by Aristotle to be the “most tragic” playwright, was famous above all for his penchant for depicting heroines struggling to break out of the roles assigned to them by society.
Works discussed: Alcestis, Hippolytus, Medea, and Bacchae
Four sessions, starting Wednesday,  May 7, 2025

Register for Euripides

Also Available This Coming Spring

Merve Emre continues her series “What Will She Do?” with an examination of Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady. Four sessions, starting Monday, March 3, 2025.

Register for Henry James

Politics   Literature   Arts   Ideas

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