Registration is now open for the latest session of “The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours,” a groundbreaking, open-access educational project from HarvardX that introduces participants to the literature and heroes of ancient Greece.
Based upon one of Harvard College’s longest running residential courses, “HeroesX,” for short, is now divided into five separate but integrated units, or learning “modules,” all running on the edX platform.
Directed by Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, HeroesX invites learners to experience, in English translation, some of the most beautiful works of ancient Greek literature and song-making: the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey; the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; songs of Sappho and Pindar; dialogues of Plato, and On Heroes by Philostratus.
Throughout the modules, Nagy models techniques for “reading out” of these ancient works, all while referencing popular and contemporary culture. Ultimately, even participants with little experience in the subject can gain an understanding of how classical literature serves as an exquisite system of communication, revealing what it means to be human today through the lens of the great Greek heroes of the past.
The first module begins on September 2. Registration via edX is free and open to all. The Harvard Extension School also offers a traditional for-credit version of the project.
