Honors’ Freshman Sequence

HHI 21: Identity: Self in the World

Fall 2009

Themes/Discussion Handout

Monday, September 28

Paper Outline Due!

Ancient Greece and the Persian Wars

Text: chap. 6, pp. 147-50; chap. 7, pp. 156-64.

1) Who was Heinrich Schlieman? Why was he important?

2) What is a polis? How were they governed?

3) What were the differences between Sparta and Athens?

4) What happened at Thermopylae?

Sources: Herodotus, pp. 72-86.

Wednesday, September 30

Political Identity in Greece: The Polis and the Peloponnesian War

Text: Chapter 7, pp. 164-166.

Sources: Thucydides, pp. 87-100.

1) What is Thucydides vision of his work?

2) What is Pericles’ vision of Athenian democracy?

3) In what terms to Thucydides view the Peloponnesian War?

4) What does the exchange between the Athenians and the Melians tell you about the nature of Athenian democracy?

Friday, October 2

Self and Society in Greece: The Death of Socrates

Text: Chapter 7, pp. 166-180.

Sources: Socrates, pp. 101-127.

Trial of Socrates

1) Of what was Socrates accused?

2) Did he get a fair trial?

3) What was the ultimate result?

4) What do his actions in Athens say about the nature of the individual and society?