WHEELING — The new People’s University series being offered at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling on Thursday evenings beginning Jan. 5 will explore the ancient world, including Egypt, Greece and Rome.

The eight classes begin at 7 p.m. in the library’s auditorium through Feb. 23. The classes will also be live streamed on the library’s People’s University Facebook and People’s University YouTube channels.

The primary instructor, Laura Michele Diener, has taught ancient and medieval history at Marshall University since 2008, where she has won several awards for teaching. She received her doctorate in history from The Ohio State University and has studied at Vassar College, Newnham College, Cambridge and most recently, Vermont College of Fine Arts. She enjoys teaching classes on fascinating peoples of the past, including Vikings, Romans, Ancient Egyptians and Celts. She runs the History Club at Marshall and enjoys organizing the yearly Viking Feast and Yuletide Celebration.

If you Google her, you will find some of her creative essays online. She has written about medieval spirituality, medieval embroidery and medieval hair. She is currently writing a biography of the Norwegian Nobel-prize-winning writer Sigrid Undset titled “A World Perilous and Beautiful.”

Fresh off a European lecture tour, Marie N. Pareja (her students call her “Doc”) will teach two of the classes. She is a Bronze Age Aegean archaeologist and art historian who focuses on iconography, exchange, and identity in prehistoric Afro-Eurasia. She currently works as an assistant professor of Classical Archaeology and Religious Studies at Marshall University and as a consulting scholar for the University of Pennsylvania.

Some of her most recent work has been featured in Smithsonian magazine, and her up-and-coming projects on the interconnectivity in the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods were hosted by the University of Oxford in early December 2022. She said she is thrilled to be part of People’s University.

The full People’s University Ancient History schedule:

– Class 1: Thursday, Jan. 5, Egypt Part 1 — Gods and Pyramids

Egypt was a superpower in the Near East for more than 3,000 years. By the time Cleopatra came to the throne, the pyramids were thousands of years old, and she would have considered their builders to have been “ancient,” much as we do. In this class instructed by Diener, guests will study the glory days of truly ancient Egypt, covering the emergence of royal power, exalted gods and military might. Patrons will spend time considering the tale of the once-lost Egyptian hieroglyphs and how they came to reveal their secrets to the modern world.

– Class 2: Thursday, Jan. 12, Egypt Part 2 — The Pharaohs

Everyone has heard of Cleopatra, but what about Hatshepsut, the first Egyptian woman to rule in her own right, and the one who created the word “pharaoh?” Or Rameses III, who was brutally assassinated by the denizens of his own harem?

In this class by instructor Diener, guests will cover some of the most colorful of the New Kingdom rulers, examining their private lives, their public personas and their legacy in tombs and temples.

– Class 3: Thursday, Jan. 19, Greece Part 1 — Minoan, Mycenean & Homeric

The Bronze Age lasts for approximately 2,000 years — 3000-1170 BCE. During this period, a shift is seen from the settled and (some still maintain) isolated cultures from Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and the broader Mediterranean to a highly-integrated, multicultural and globalized system. In this class instructed by Pareja, participants will focus primarily on the Bronze Age Aegean and what is seen in the iconographic and archaeological record, including the most famous sites and artworks from each region and period. Guests will cover Early Cycladic hilltop structures and the many fakes and forgeries of Cycladic Folded Arm Figurines that can be seen in museums around the world (and patrons will learn how to spot the authentic ones); the site of Knossos on Crete, and some of its most important wall paintings and artifacts; the site of Akrotiri, on the island of Santorini, which survived by virtue of a cataclysmic volcanic eruption; and Mycenae, the great settlement from which the legendary Agamemnon and Menelaos sailed to Troy in Homer’s Iliad.

– Class 4: Thursday, Jan. 26, Greece Part 2 — Archaic & Classical

With the collapse of the Bronze Age Aegean cultures in circa 1170, Greece rested for a few hundred years in a relatively dark age, neglecting and then forgetting the masterful heights of technological and artistic culture of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. They began the slow slog back to prominence, which can be traced through the art historical record, primarily through human statuary with a few forays into some architecture and even myth. It is through this lens that participants in this class will trace the rise of Greek culture from the Geometric and Archaic Periods, through the Classical period and up to the rule of Alexander the Great in the Hellenistic period. Be ready for conversation, as most people have at least a passing familiarity with Classical Greek culture — even if it’s reading Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson novels (or any of the others). This is going to be a fun exploration of a collective past, with plenty of time for questions and discussion. Pareja instructs.

– Class 5: Thursday, Feb. 2, Greece Part 3 — Alexander the Great & the Hellenistic Egypt

The history of Egypt changed during the fourth century BC, when the unstoppable Alexander the Great conquered the Near East and the Middle East from Greece to India, defeating the Persian Empire and uniting the most unlikely of kingdoms under his rule and those of his successors. Although Alexander’s victory in Egypt ended its 3,000-year supremacy, it also ushered in a new period of international involvement, foreign gods, city-building and the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic dynasty. The Ptolemies, named for one Alexander’s generals, were some of the most murderous, bloodthirsty and back-stabbing rulers of the ancient world, of which the great Cleopatra (actually the seventh Queen Cleopatra) was the last and the most famous. Diener returns to instruct this class.

– Class 6: Thursday, Feb. 9, Rome Part 1 — The Period of the Kings Through the Republic

The Romans believed they were descended from a long line of gods and heroes. Their oldest stories celebrated the demise of tyrants, the value of shared power and respect for family. Participants in this class instructed by Diener will consider how these founding myths helped shape their identity as they rose from a small collective of farmer-warriors to a massive empire within the space of about two hundred years.

– Class 7: Thursday, Feb. 16, Rome Part 2 — Rise & Fall of an Empire

By the time Julius Caesar was murdered during the Ides of March, the Romans had been living through almost a century of civil wars marked by massacres, betrayal and upheaval. During the first century BC, the Republic had begun to break down under the pressures of expansion and ambition. In this class instructed by Diener, guests will cover the cataclysmic end of the Republic and the formation of imperial rule under Emperor Augustus and his successors. Despite its blood-soaked beginnings, the Empire ushered in a golden age of Roman peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana.

– Class 8: Thursday, Feb. 23, The Tragedy of Pompeii

Before Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, Pompeii was a thriving, dynamic and international city whose story intertwined with the key events of Roman history. In this course instructed by Diener, guests will consider the complex past of Pompeii before and after its cataclysmic destruction. Using unique archeological sources from graffiti to sewage, patrons will explore the very real people who lived, loved, and died in the most well-preserved of ancient cities.

In 1951, the Ohio County Public Library’s head librarian, Virginia Ebeling, referenced British historian Thomas Carlyle, who said, “the public library is a People’s University,” when she initiated a new adult education program with that name. Ebeling charged the library with the responsibility of reaching “as many people in the community as possible.” In keeping with that tradition of public libraries as sanctuaries of free learning for all people, the Ohio County Public Library revived the series in 2010.

The People’s University is a free program for adults who wish to continue their education in the liberal arts. It features courses — taught by experts in each subject — that enable patrons to pursue their goal of lifelong learning in classic subjects such as history, philosophy and literature. Patrons may attend as many classes as they wish. There are no tests of other requirements and all programs are free and open to the public.

For more information about the People’s University Ancient History or other library programs, call 304-232-0244 or stop by the reference desk.