This course will provide a survey of ancient Greek literature, history, and culture extending from the eighth century BCE down to the death of Socrates in 399 BCE. We will focus on what made Greek culture distinctive and different from our own, including such topics as the cultural and political contexts of artistic performance; the rise of democracy and its co-implication with slavery and imperialism; the relation of individual to community; and the sex-gender system. This will entail substantial reading in translation of primary texts, including Homer, Hesiod, Attic tragedy and comedy, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato.