Here is the guiding question for the material we covered in Unit 3:
How does classical literature (as we examined through excerpts from Homer’s The Iliad, Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War, and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King) establish the relationship between the plague and myth (myth understood as a way of explaining human events and collective crises through the supernatural)?
How do these narratives explain the source and origin of the plague?
How do they describe the social consequences of the epidemic?
How does the plague impact the way people treat law, authority, religion, moral values, duties, relations with others, etc.?
In discussing this question, you must also refer to Rene Girard’s critical essay, “The Plague in Literature and Myth.”
Your answers should reflect a coherent and organized structure.
