Here are some of the topics that students have put forward in their proposals for their position papers in this course over the past few years. Some are general directions, while others are specific questions of the kind you will need as the basis for your proposal.

If you’re stuck for a topic, browse through the categories and think about what ideas and questions you might be interested in exploring, finding evidence, and expressing your own thoughts and interpretations. Use these past topics as guides in formulating a problem or debate on which you can take a position in your paper, or as inspiration for a new topic no one has explored before.

Polity

Athenian and Spartan governments as contrasting means of creating an ideal state
The flaws of democracy
Greek government and its citizens
Hubris of the Greek City States
The ideal polis
Outside perceptions of the Greeks
The role of arete in Greek culture
The split amongst the Greeks

Greek Gods and Legends

Flaws of Greek gods and goddesses
Greek goddesses and mortal women
Greek polytheism: unifying or divisive?
Greek religion—priestly class and sacred text
Were the gods essential or detrimental?

Society and Economics

Athenian Bankers
The Greek Dark Age as a bridge from Mycenae to Athens
The Greek art of war
Legacy of the Olympic Games
Mental illness, and PTSD specifically, as understood by the Greeks
Morals and Money
Plague or mass hysteria?
Slavery in Greece
War as a catalyst for ancient Greek culture

Gender

Ancient Greek Women
Gender roles in Sparta
Spartan gender roles as a sign of the ideal
Spartan women
Treatment of women in ancient Greece
Women in Ancient Greece
Women in Sparta and Athens
Women’s agency in ancient Greece

Literature and Theater

Agamemnon’s insult and the Mycenaean view of the gods
Homer as a mirror and catalyst for the rise of the demos
Pandora: villain or victim?
The role of women, men, and theater in democratic Athens
What does the Oedipus cycle tell us about family and social obligations in Athens?

Persian Wars

Aristagoras caused the Ionian Revolt
The Greeks’ distorted view of the Persian king
Why did the Persians really attack?

Peloponnesian War

Athenian ambition as cause of the Peloponnesian War
Blame of the Peloponnesian War: Sparta, Athens, or Corinth?
Corinth and Sparta in the Peloponnesian League
Corinth as the primary instigator of the Peloponnesian War
How valid is our historical understanding of the Peloponnesian War
Inevitability of the Peloponnesian War
Rivalry of the poleis as reasons for war in Hellas
Sparta and Athens jointly to blame for the Peloponnesian War
Spartan fear as the cause of the Peloponnesian War
What role did Sparta play in sparking the Peloponnesian War?
Who started the Peloponnesian War?

Athens / The Athenian Empire

Athens as a democracy
Athens as an empire
Athens: Birth of a Greek empire
The Athenian empire: an Empire or a Defensive alliance?
Impact of Democracy on Athens
The trial of Socrates
Was Athenian Democracy Truly Democratic?
Was Athens an empire after the Persian Wars?
Was Athens the ideal city for its inhabitants?

Sparta

Benefits and weaknesses of the Spartan system
The downfall of Sparta
The failure of Sparta
Implications of the Spartan agoge for the fall of Sparta
Sparta and the other Greeks
Sparta, a way to live strong and thriving, or ignorant and weak?
Sparta as the most influential of the Greek poleis
Spartan (lack of) democracy
Spartan cultural success
Spartan decay
The nature of the Spartan Mirage
The Spartan Mirage as a deliberate tool of the Spartans
Spartan way of life
Spartan xenophobia
Was Sparta’s military lifestyle its strength or did it weaken them?

Athens vs. Sparta

Athenian military superiority over Sparta
Athens and Sparta shaped by education
Citizenship in Athens and Sparta
Constitutions of Sparta and Athens
Spartan and Athenian government and society
Sparta as superior to Athens
Which was better for its people, Athens or Sparta?
Which was more democratic, Athens or Sparta?

Macedon and Hellenism

Alexander and Persia
Alexander’s potential conquest of India
Alexander’s tomb and legacy
The impact of Philip II on Alexander’s Conquests
The Romans and Antiochos IV
Was Alexander king, conqueror, or tyrant?
Was Alexander truly “Great”?