The Hero(ine)
Richard Cecil
Hutton Honors College
We will focus on the qualities that make a person a hero(ine), in the eyes of ancient authors, and compare those qualities with ones we admire today. Beginning with Gilgamesh’s heroic struggle to overcome death, and ending with Satan’s struggle to undermine God’s (according to Milton) plan for mankind, we will read, discuss, and write about ten of the ancient and early modern world’s greatest accounts of heroism. In the final week and a half, we will discuss first-person accounts of heroes written by each of the members of the class.
Written work for the course will consist of daily written discussion questions, three critical discussions of 3-5 pages, and a final 6-10 page creative paper.
Course texts:
- Gilgamesh
- Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey
- Virgil’s Aenead
- Njal’s Saga
- Sophocles’s Antigone & Oedipus Rex
- Seneca’s Trojan Women
- Shakespeare’s Coriolanus & Hamlet
- Milton’s Paradise Lost
Catalog Information: HHC-H 211 CLASSIC AUTHORS & QUESTIONS I