Homer and the Problem of Justice:
A Seminar on the Iliad

8-week Seminar

Wednesdays at 6 pm

Begins September 16

Light dinner provided

Taught by Scholar-in-Residence Manuel Lopez

Abigail Adams Institute
14 Arrow St, Ste G10
Cambridge, MA 02138

We all have beliefs about justice that shape our view of how to live. However, these beliefs were not formed in a vacuum—they are shared beliefs, the products of our common upbringing and daily lives. But when the stakes are so high, don’t we need to examine more deeply the foundations of our beliefs?

From the earliest times, many have pursued justice as the deepest and most unquestionable good, a virtue that demands the greatest sacrifices. Yet some have been shaken by doubts about the goodness of justice. It is Homer, whose epics helped found Western civilization and literature, who raises the gravest doubts about justice through his hero Achilles. We will examine in detail Homer’s account of this hero, and of other analyses Homer offers of the problem of justice in the form of rival heroes: crafty Odysseus, god-seeing Diomedes, and steadfast Hektor.

Homer gives us the freedom and tools to look deeply into and cross-examine our most cherished beliefs exactly by presenting them openly and explicitly, in a raw, if strange and unfamiliar, form. What our enlightened selves take to be perfectly obvious, rational, or unremarkable beliefs, appear very different when we dive deeply into the epic and mythic world of the ancients.

Manuel Lopez, AAI’s Scholar-in-Residence, will provide instruction and moderate discussion, with additional guest lectures by other expert scholars.

There is no cost to the program, and each week's readings will be provided to all participants.

Open only to Undergraduates and graduate Students At Harvard and boston-area universities.

Registration required— register below. Registration capped at 20.