1. Monographic Topic
Between myth and history: epidemics in the Greek world between Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides

The course aims to reconstruct the path that the description of epidemics in the Greek world takes between the archaic and classical ages in the context of three literary genres, epic poetry, tragic poetry, historiographic prose, according to the lines summarized in the following link
https://www.facebook.com/universitadeglistudidellatuscia/videos/163432918438208/
From Homer, from the Iliad, the 'plague' unleashed in the Achaean army by Apollo angry with Agamemnon, we will reach Sophocles, the Oedipus King, the evil that corrodes the city of Thebes, caused by the terrible faults committed by Oedipus, as the long and painful path of research and knowledge developed in the tragedy will reveal. Finally, we take into account the 'plague' of Athens in 430, analyzed by Thucydides in very famous pages, which are full of many possible comparisons with our recent experiences and which are the origin of a long fortune both in the figurative and in the literary field.

2. General programme

Authors and literary genres from Homer to the Hellenistic age

1a. For the monographic course, reading the texts distributed in photocopy in class, in particular from
– Omero, Iliade, a cura di G. Cerri e A. Gostoli, Milano, Rizzoli 1999 e ristampe (prima ed. 1996)
– Sofocle. Edipo re, a cura di Federico Condello, Siena, Barbera, 2009
–Tucidide, La Guerra del Peloponneso, a cura di L. Canfora, Torino, Einaudi, 1996 oppure Milano, Mondadori, 2007

2. For the general part:
- a handbook of Greek literature chosen from those presented and discussed during the introductory lessons