Seminar 1: Herodotus and the Invention of History
Date: Sunday 5 October 2025
Time: 6:30–8:00pm (GMT)

In the first line of his work, Herodotus becomes the first to use the word history, originally meaning ‘enquiry’, to describe a continuous narrative of the past. At this moment, in the second half ot the 5th century BCE, history as we know it is born. Yet Herodotus offers more than a record of wars between Greeks and Persians in the early 5th century BCE. His account travels widely in time and place: from myth to the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis; from Greece to Egypt, Scythia, and even the ‘Tin Islands’. In doing so, he could also lay claim to being the pioneer of anthropology, ethnography, sociology, and travel writing. This opening seminar will look at the very beginning and the very end of ‘The Histories’ as a means of exploring Herodotus’ method and purpose, how he aims to tell not only what happened, but why. 

Seminar 2: Sophocles’ Antigone and Obedience to the Law
Date: Sunday 16 November 2025
Time: 6:30–8:00pm (GMT)

The works of only three tragedians have survived, Aeschylus, the author of The Oresteia, Euripides, the author of The Bacchae and Medea, and Sophocles who wrote nearly 100 plays in a long career but only nine survive intact. Perhaps the most famous is Oedipus Tyrannos, in which Oedipus, the king of Thebes, comes to discover that he has murdered his father and married his mother. However, the play which has had the greatest impact on European theatre has been Antigone. Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus. Her brothers have killed each other in combat, one attacking Thebes, the other, Polynices, defending it and Creon, the new ruler of Thebes has decreed that Polynices will remain unburied. Antigone defies that decree and, in doing so, goes to her death. The play thereby addresses an issue fundamental to any society: when, if ever, is it right to disobey the law? The seminar will look at the key passages where Antigone defends her decision and confronts her death. Sunday 16 November 2025

Seminar 3: Thucydides and the Reality of War
Date: Sunday 28 December 2025
Time: 6:30–8:00pm (GMT)

Thucydides, a contemporary of Sophocles and a slightly younger contemporary of Herodotus, was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War, fought between Athens and her empire and Sparta and her allies between 431 BCE and 404 BCE. Thucydides, who was exiled from Athens after a military failure, claimed that his work was a ‘possession for all time’ and time has not yet proved him wrong. If Herodotus invented history, it could be argued that Thucydides invented ‘history’ as we know it. He is deeply committed to evidence and accuracy but his narrative also addresses the key issues of any conflict: the nature of leaders and leadership, the capacity of a democracy to govern under pressure, the danger of rhetoric and demagogues, the collapse of morality and justice in war time. For, as he wrote, war is a ‘violent teacher’. The seminar will select key passages where Thucydides presents the impact on behaviour and attitudes that war brings.

Seminar 4: Plato’s Crito and the Duty to Obey
Date: Sunday 8 February 2026
Time: 6:30–8:00pm (GMT)

Socrates, another contemporary of Sophocles and Thucydides, may be the most famous of all Athenians, although he never won a battle or wrote a book or a play or lead the Athenian democracy. He’s famous for three reasons: he is the founder of the western philosophical tradition; he is the key figure in almost all the works of Plato – The Republic, Protagoras, Gorgias – and those works have been the most significant works in western philosophy; and he was put to death by the Athenians in 399 BCE for ‘corrupting the young and not believing in the city’s gods.’. Crito is one of Socrates’ closest friends and the dialogue Crito is set at a critical moment: Crito comes to the prison to tell Socrates that his execution is at hand. In the dialogue that follows Crito urges Socrates to make a jailbreak but Socrates will have none of it, arguing that he has a duty to obey the laws of the city which has been his home. The seminar will look at the key moments of the dialogue, especially the final moments when Socrates brings The Laws themselves into the conversation to argue their case.

Participants may register for the full series (£75) or individual seminars (£25 each).