In this course, we will compare the Greek ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and the Greek imagination of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides with the vision and teachings of the Hebrew Bible. What did a hero look like to ancient Greek philosophers and playwrights? What role did the city play in the daily lives and thought of Athenians? How did these two ancient civilizations understand the meaning and idea of sacrifice? Through a careful reading of these great texts, we will consider and contrast each of these themes—hero, city, and altar—in the Greek and Biblical traditions.
Dr. Harry Ballan
Harry Ballan is a managing director of Alliant‘s Global Mergers and Acquisitions Group and an adjunct professor at New York University Law School. He holds a B.A., M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Wilfred Feinberg in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, before spending almost 30 years practicing law at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Dr. Ballan served as dean of Touro Law School from 2016 to 2019 and was the founding dean of Tikvah Online Academy in 2020.