Teaching Delivery: This module is taught in 20 bi-weekly lectures.

Content: This module is an exploration of the history of emotions in the Greek and Roman world through literature and their relevance to the modern world. The sessions will focus on emotions like wrath, eros and love, jealousy, fear, loss and separation, affection, happiness, sadness, surprise, contempt, disgust, pity, sympathy, pain and on how these emotions have been represented in Greek and Roman cultural systems and literary examples (both Greek and Roman literary texts will be explored and compared). How were these emotions born and what is their influence in the modern world? How does Greek and Roman literature relate to these emotions? And more generally, what is the relationship between these emotions and the Greek and Roman life and thought? After an overview of major Greek and Roman sources on the role of emotions in human life, the module will explore the complex debate around emotions, their value and their use for philosophical, religious, political and educational purposes. We will examine changing understandings of the role of emotions in the public and private realm through the works of authors such as Homer, Sappho, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero, Plautus, Ovid and others. The sessions will then examine the relevance of these ideas to modern life and society together with their reception in modern artistic modes of representation (literature, painting, sculpture, theatre, cinema).

Skills: By the end of the module students should:
1. have engaged with interactive ways in which they can reflect on emotions in the ancient world;
2. have a good understanding of how emotions have been appropriated by ancient and modern cultures through evidence from the texts;
3. have a sound knowledge of the relevant primary and secondary bibliography;
4. have developed their understanding of the methodological problems relevant to the field;
5. be able to deploy appropriate evidence and test arguments in oral discussion and written analysis;
6. be able to deploy evidence and argument effectively in written presentation.

Texts: S. Braund – G. W. Most, eds. Ancient Anger: Perspectives from Homer to Galen. Yale Classical Studies 32 (2004)./ D. L. Cairns – D. Nelis, (eds.) Emotions in the classical world: Methods, approaches, and directions. Heidelberg, Germany: Steiner Verlag, 2016.