We will read and discuss five Athenian plays which treat issues still very much with us today. Sophocles' Antigone dramatizes issues of gender, generational differences, and the authority of the state. His Ajax is widely used today to illustrate issues of war, suicide, and PTSD. Aristophanes' Lysistrata has women stopping, by a sex-strike, their husbands' warmongering. His Wasps presents generational and political conflicts in the context of a hyperlitigious society. The Clouds is a sendup of the purposes and nature of "higher education." Trigger warning: some may be offended by Aristophanes' sexist and ageist language and ribald and often bad jokes.