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

Course	CLAS 103 The Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome
Professor	Benjamin Stevens
CRN	97025
Schedule	Tu Th 2:30 -3:50 pm OLIN 201
Distribution	History

A survey of ancient Rome, from its eighth-century BC “rise” out of prehistoric Italic precursors to its “fall” in the fifth century AD
at the hands of barbarians, bureaucrats, and others. Our goals are: (1) to become familiar with the traditional narrative of Roman history including political and military events; (2) to consider social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of life in ancient Rome (e.g. gender and sexuality, food and drink, and literature); and thus (3) to explore what it means to “do Roman history” and “to do history” generally. We read a modern narrative of Roman history, several ancient narratives and monographs, and modern scholarly works. Participation in this class qualifies students for consideration for Professor Minsky’s Roma In Situ. (January and Spring 2008).

Course	CLAS / LIT 225 The Odyssey of Homer: An Intensive Reading
Professor	Daniel Mendelsohn
CRN	97057
Schedule	Mon Wed 12:00 – 1:20 OLIN 204
Distribution	Literature in English

This course will consist of an intensive reading of Homer’s Odyssey over the course of a single semester. The course is designed to introduce freshmen to more profound and sophisticated techniques of reading and thinking about texts than they will have thus far encountered. After two introductory sessions, in which students will be introduced to the large issues particular both to this genre (the archaic Greek world, oral composition, the Homeric Question) and to this particular text (“sequels,” epic cycle, the prominence of women, narrative closure), we will read through the epic at a rate of two books per week; two summary sessions will conclude the semester as we look back at the large literary and cultural issues raised by this essential document of the Western tradition: travel as a narrative vehicle for (self-) discovery, the competing satisfactions of the journey and the arrival, the poem’s special interest in poetry and narrative creation. A premium will be placed on student participation in class discussion, and each student will be asked to present a book of the poem (focusing on structural analysis, interpretative issues, etc.) to the class. At least two papers, midterm, final exam. This course is designed particularly for first-year students.

Course	CLAS / LIT 242 A Classical Mythology
Professor	William Mullen
CRN	97003
Schedule	Tu Th 1:00 -2:20 pm RKC 200
Distribution	Foreign Language, Literature & Culture

This course will introduce students to selected myths of ancient Greece and Rome, through texts in a variety of genres—epic, lyric, dramatic, ancient prose summaries. Selections will be made along the lines of a few of the principal activities in which gods, heroes and mortals all engage and can thus be compared, e.g. war (in the sky and on the earth); speech (the way gods are shown addressing mortals and the actual hymns and prayers in which the ancients addressed their gods); love (everything from lust and rape to affection and amorousness, between gods and humans as well as within each group). Readings (all in English translation) are largely of primary texts from Greek and Roman literature, with occasional texts for comparison from two other sets of cultures: first, the Indo-European cousins of the Greeks and Romans, e.g. Sanskrit, Norse and Irish texts; second, the complex Near Eastern civilizations with whom they interacted, primarily Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts. Along the way, we shall examine and practice deploying various theoretical approaches to myth: psychological, ritual, structuralist, ideological, catastrophist, environmentalist. No previous background is required.

Course	CLAS / LIT 242 B Classical Mythology
Professor	William Mullen
CRN	97699
Schedule	Tu Th 4:00 - 5:20 pm OLIN 204
Distribution	Foreign Language, Literature & Culture

See description above.