Homer (along with Hesiod) famously stands at the beginning of a long line of philosophic poets and dramatists in the western tradition. Homer in fact was a teacher not just “of the Grecians,” but of Plato as well. Homer’s epics epitomize the ancient alliance between poetry and philosophy, an alliance that found its home in the Greek polis, an alliance that itself was profoundly political. Through poetry, not only were great questions discussed, but also character and intellect were formed—the sort of character and intellect that are the preconditions of the sort of civilized freedom and the sort of fusion of the best of aristocracy and democracy, that helped to form our own regime and that is at stake in the great controversies of the 21st Century. Our task will be to read carefully and engage these great texts and plumb them for their political and human wisdom. In this task I ask your help in the way of sincere effort and courageous thinking.

I expect all students to follow the new Honor Code. The application of the code’s standards to assignments in the course will be discussed in class.

Feel free to consult with me about any problem or question you might have.

Dr. Robert Jeffrey
Daniel 206
x4581 office
948-1297 home
jeffreyrc@wofford.edu