This seminar is going to be mostly athenocentric. It will explore the history, geography, and intellectual legacy of Athens, the most remarkable and influential urban center of the ancient (and not so ancient) world. In antiquity, Athens was the first body politic to make a bid for hegemonic power. This seminar will explore the back and forth between the voices of the dominating ideology and the loud and not so loud, often subversive and invariably critical voices of social and political discontent.