Elizabeth Vandiver Audio & Video

Classical mythology—the stories of gods and heroes ranging from Athena to Zeus—has inspired everything from great art and literature to popular films and TV programs.

This course offers an in-depth introduction to Greek tragedy.

The Aeneid is ancient Rome’s great national epic. It was basic to the education of generations of Romans and inspired such writers and artists as St. Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Tennyson, and T. S. Elliot.

When John Keats first read Chapman’s translation of the epics of "deep-brow’d Homer," he was so overwhelmed, so overcome with the joy of discovery, that he compared his experience to finding "a new planet."

For thousands of year, readers—and, before them, listeners—have thrilled to the tale of one of the greatest journeys in all of literature.

This course addresses his most remarkable achievement—his narrative account of the great Persian Wars and their causes.