(A) Required Experience: 

This is a 9-week course addressed to students who have (at least) a basic background on ancient civilizations, and a special interest in the Ancient Greek literary production, or in the ancient Greek artistic and cultural production in general. 
N.B.: The students do not need to have taken the other classes on Euripides' Plays, in order to register, attain and participate in class discussion in this one. In reality, they are completely independent classes. But, it would be an asset to have done so.

(B) Teaching style and students interaction:

The learning process of this class is based substantially on stidents' class participation, class dialogue, questions based on the ongoing discussion, and new ideas based on the participants. There is not one universal solution to teach. Rather I combine techniques to achieve the maximum of my strengths and of my students. Having taught so far young kids, teenagers, University students and mature learners, I know that teachers need to approach students with understanding. After all, such a small class has the advantage of making the combined technique of dialogue-discussion-lecture feasible and efficient. 

(C) Class structure: 

Weeks 1 to 3: Discussion and Interpretation of Euripides' play "Orestes", which students are asked to read and prepare in advance. This breathtakingly lively drama was probably the most famous of all Euripides' tragedies in antiquity. It provides an entirely original and outrageous version of the events, where everyone is bad! The plot is simple: Orestes is condemned to death by the citizens of Argos for murdering his mother (Clytemnestra), and retaliates by plotting with other young characters (his sister Electra, his best friend Pylades), attempting to kill Clytemnestra's sister, the famous Helen. Argos descends into anarchic civil conflict due to the actions of this group of rebellious young people, and a catastrophic ending is only averted at the very last minute by god Apollo. 

Weeks 4 to 6: Discussion and Interpretation of Euripides' play "Iphigeneia at Aulis", which students are asked to read and prepare in advance. This play contains the most detailed and developed literary version of the archetypal mythological motif of child sacrifice, but also the one which most calls into question the integrity of the sacrificing parent (Agamemnon is depicted as a self-serving warlod guilty of previous atrocity). Euripides was fascinated by the factors which condition the moral choices made by individuals, and in his tragedies repeatedly explored the dangers inherent in decision-making. On the other hand, Iphigenia's real problem is how to die nobly in an ignoble cause for the sake of thoroughly ignoble men!

Weeks 7 to 9: Discussion and Interpretation of Euripides' play "Iphigeneia among the Taurians", which students are asked to read and prepare in advance. It is a deeply thoughtful, moving, atmospheric, and humane drama, without a catasrophic death or suffering at the end (cf. Euripides' Helen). But by far the greatest strength of the play undoubtedly lies in its articulate, expressive, brave and intelligent heroine (Iphigenia), a charming character unique amongst the remains of extant Greek tragedy. She hs not been sacrificed (cf. Iphigenia in Aulis) but lives in a far-away barbaric place in exile. Since the play takes place on a barbarian temple, on a very remote setting, Euripides compares and contrasts Greek and barbarian characteristics, only to reach the deeper conslusion that Greek ethnic supremacism claims can not be supported.