Courses listed as CLASSICS (CLAS) are entirely in English and require no knowledge of an ancient language. Greek, Latin and Sanskrit all involve the study of the language itself.

CRN	93020	Distribution	C
Course No.	HIST / CLAS 157
Title	The Athenian Century
Professor	Carolyn Dewald
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 pm -4:20 pm OLIN 306

Cross-listed: History

The Corinthians in Thucydides say of the Athenians: "In a word, they are by nature incapable of living a quiet life themselves or of allowing anyone else to do so either." Fifth-century Athens is our first western example of a culture that becomes non-traditional; one's role was no longer defined as doing precisely what one's father had done. Many of our most basic ideas about the role of the individual as citizen, the nature of politics and political culture, and the point of a humanistic civic identity come from formulations that took shape between 508 and 404 BCE on the Attic peninsula. The course is two-pronged: its outline is historical, the study of how Athens grew into the complex city it became in the fifth century. To this end, we'll study the sociological, historical, and political transitions that were crucial in shaping Athenian culture, from the rule of law instituted by Draco and Solon, through the tyranny of the Pisistratids, to the period of the Cleisthenic democratic revolution and its later radicalization by Pericles and the demagogues. On the other hand, much of the interpretive content of the course will concern the qualities of the culture. We’ll read some of the biographies of Plutarch, tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, comedies of Aristophanes, history as written by Herodotus and Thucydides, and some philosophical essays of Plato and Aristotle. I hope that the two prongs, historical and cultural, will come together in such a way that they enrich each other: one understands the history by understanding the cultural values of its citizens, and one understands the culture by looking at the historical forces that shaped it.

CRN	93370	Distribution	B/D
Course No.	CLAS 242
Title	Classical Mythology
Professor	Alan Zeitlin
Schedule	Mon Wed 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm PRE 128

This course will introduce students to the major myths of ancient Greece and Rome. The main goal will be for the student to gain an easy familiarity with the myths in thematic contexts (the creation of the world and humanity, the origin of the distinction between male and female, etc). Readings (all in English translation) are largely of primary texts from Greek and Roman literature, though I also plan to bring in comparanda from other cultures, especially ancient India and the Near East. We shall explore the use of myth in the arts (mainly literature, but also painting and sculpture) and in cult. Along the way, we shall examine and practice deploying various theoretical approaches to myth, including psychoanalytic and structuralist methodologies. No previous background is required.

CRN	93139	Distribution	A/D
Course No.	CLAS 260
Title	Confucius and Socrates
Professor	William Mullen
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm LC 206

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Philosophy

Confucius (551–469 BC) and Socrates (470-399 BC) stand at the head of the Chinese and the Greek philosophical traditions, above all in the realm of ethical and political inquiry. The accounts left of their activity, and the schools of thought which rose around them during their lives and in the first centuries after their deaths, in both cases give evidence of two real historical figures whose time was consumed in passionate striving to find out what is the best life for a human being and the best form of government for human flourishing. And there is both a Confucian and a Socratic “problem”: we cannot be sure that any words attributed to either were actually theirs, and see growing differences among the subsequent thinkers and schools which pursued their work in either’s name. In search of Confucius we will read the complete Analects and selections from Mencius and Xunzi; of Socrates, dialogues by Plato and Xenophon and key passages in Aristotle and the Cynics. We will read the two sets of texts concurrently and sometimes pause to ask comparative questions. What differences can be seen in the accounts given of the virtues each thinker put forward as most essential to fulfilling one'’ humanity? Why is neither an advocate of democracy? Could Confucius and Socrates be friends? Open to first year students.

CRN	93030	Distribution	C
Course No.	HIST / CLAS 300
Title	Major Conference: Creating History
Professor	Carolyn DeWald
Schedule	Th 10:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 307

Cross-listed: History

The word “history” comes from the first sentence of Herodotus, the Greek historian of the fifth century BCE, commonly called the Father of History. In Herodotus' hands, however, “historie” meant not history, the intellectual discipline as we know it today, but rather “investigation,” or even “eye-witness examination.” In this course we will look closely at how history as a field of inquiry came about, and the way that the first two great Greek historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, shaped its identity. We will read Herodotus' History of the Persian Wars and Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, but we will read them not so much for their informational content about what happened in 481-479 and 431-404 BCE as for evidence about how the first two western historians thought about such things as data (when is it trustworthy?), narrative structure (does this inevitably distort the data?), depiction of character (what role does the individual have in shaping events?), and their own ideas about the usefulness of the discipline that they invented (does it tell a true story? does this matter?). We will use contemporary postmodern controversies about what history is, and the degree to which it can be trusted or is useful, as the frame through which to examine the accomplishments of Herodotus and Thucydides. In short -- is “'history” just another form of narrative fiction? Or does it have a data-driven integrity that separates it decisively from other kinds of creative narrative? This is an Upper College Seminar for moderated students, and it is particularly recommended as a major conference for concentrators in Historical Studies.