91913

CLAS 115

The Greek World: an Introduction

Robert Cioffi

M W        11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLINLC 118

HA

HIST

Cross-listed: Historical Studies This course will explore the social, cultural, and political history of the Greek world from its earliest beginnings in the Bronze Age to the renaissance of Greek literature and culture under the Roman empire. We will examine the creation of political forms (from democracy to tyranny), contacts and conflicts between Greece and the East, the rise and fall of world empires, and the invention of literary genres from lyric poetry to the Greek novel. Ancient sources such as vase paintings, inscriptions, and texts like Aeschylus Persians and Aristophanes comedies will allow us to view the Greek world both from the top down and from the bottom up, asking how the experience of statesmen and literary authors as well as soldiers, merchants, women, and slaves shaped and was shaped by the world of Greece. Intended as an introductory course for both majors and non-majors, this course assumes no prior knowledge about the ancient world. All readings will be in English. Class size: 22

 

91914

CLAS 142

Vergil for Beginners

William Mullen

T Th       11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 204

FL

FLLC

What is the greatest long poem in the Western tradition? Far more voices, over far more centuries, have spoken for Vergils Aeneid than for Homers Iliad or Dantes Commedia or Miltons Paradise Lost. We will read the Aeneid twice in this course (which will admit only First Year students). The first time round we will read it in three weeks, in Robert Fitzgeralds extraordinarily noble 1983 translation, the last work of perhaps the finest 20th century translator of ancient Greek and Latin poetry. After a six-week break we will reread the Aeneid in the just-published translation of perhaps the finest 21st century translator of Latin poetry, David Ferry, who, at 94, has accepted Bards invitation to come read his translation in its month of publication, October 2017. In the six weeks between our reading and rereading of the Aeneid we will study intensely the historical background of the poems compositiona century of devastating civil war, which ended with the fateful conversion of Romes republican government to a system of one-man rule that would last for centuries. And we will also read, in this six-week break, Vergils earlier works, the Eclogues and the Georgics, plus Greek poems which were the models he adopted and transformed: Theocritus Idylls, Hesiods Works and Days, and key books of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Class size: 22

 

91706

CLAS 242

Classical Mythology

William Mullen

M W        3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 201

FL

FLLC

What is the meaning of our mythologies? How do we understand and interpret traditional stories about the past? What is the relationship between mythology and history? This course will seek to answer some of these universal questions by examining selected myths of ancient Greece and Rome and applying to them theoretical approaches to understanding and interpreting myth. We will proceed through close analysis of ancient texts in a variety of genres (epic, hymns, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, and prose summaries) as well as works of art. Topics will include: origin myths, Greek gods and heroes, war, the human-divine relationship (prayer, sacrifice, communication), madness, divine love and lust, death and the afterlife, and Greco-Roman mythology in its wider Mediterranean context. All readings will be in English translation. No previous background is required. Class size: 20

 

GREEK

 

91915

GRE 101

Basic Greek I

Robert Cioffi

James Romm

M T W Th                 10:10 am-11:10 am

OLIN 307

FL

FLLC

In this two-part course, Greek grammar and fundamental vocabulary are introduced, with attention given to pronunciation and recitation of poetry and prose. Reading includes significant passages from Homer and important classical Greek authors, in Greek. No prior knowledge of Greek is required. Class size: 18

 

91705

GRE 201

Intermediate Greek:

sophocles

William Mullen

T Th       3:10 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 200

FL

FLLC

We will read in translation each of Sophocles seven extant plays and a selection of his surviving fragments.  After discussing each play as a whole in translation, we will read some of its greatest passages in Greek.  Attention will be paid to the way meter heightens meaning, including in the choruses, masterpieces of Greek choral meter. Class size: 15

 

91916

GRE 301

Advanced Greek

Rana Liebert

T 10:10 am -11:10am

Th 10:10 am -11:30 am

 

HEG 300

FL

FLLC

Topic to be arranged with professor and qualified students. Class size: 10

 

LATIN

 

91917

LAT 101

Beginning Latin I

Robert Cioffi

James Romm

M T W Th                 9:00 am-10:00 am

OLINLC 118

FL

FLLC

This two-semester sequence is designed to equip students who have no prior knowledge of Latin with the proficiency to read Latin poetry and prose in the original. An emphasis on grammatical exercises and drills will be gradually combined with reading short selections from a wide range of Latin literature. Class size: 16

 

91918

LAT 201

intermediate latin: Livy

Robert Cioffi

M T Th    4:40 pm 5:40 pm

OLINLC 210

FL

FLLC

Cross-listed: Classical Studies This course is the continuation of Latin 106, and also serves as a transition course for students with some background in high-school Latin who wish to continue their studies at Bard. Emphasis will be on building and consolidating knowledge of Latin grammar, syntax, and morphology, and on developing reading fluency and an appreciation for Latin style. After reviewing and completing the material in the textbook, we will undertake a sustained close reading of selections from Book 1 of Livys History of Rome, focusing on Romulus and Remus, Romes early expansion, and on Lucretia and the populist expulsion of the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus. We will consider this text both as an example of Livys famously rich Latin prose, and through the lens of its Roman context as an ideologically charged foundation myth. Class size: 15

91919

LAT 301

Advanced Latin: Vergil

Rana Liebert

T Th       11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLINLC 118

FL

FLLC

In this course we will read the works that launched Vergils poetic career: the Eclogues and the Georgics. The Eclogues, a collection of ten short poems that inspired the European tradition of pastoral poetry, conjure an intriguing fictional world in the Italian countryside that the author uses to interrogate his own volatile political situation. The Georgics, a didactic poem on agriculture that mixes myth and manual, also uses a rustic backdrop to explore political and philosophical themes. We will study Vergils innovative reworking of Greek poetic traditions in these poems as well as their political and social commentary. Class size: 14

 

91819

ARTH 201

Greek Art and Architecture

Diana DePardo-Minsky

T Th       3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 102

AA

AART

Cross-listed: Classical Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies Class size: 22

 

91918

LAT 201

Intermediate Latin

Robert Cioffi

T Th       3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLINLC 118

FL

FLLC

Cross-listed: Classical Studies Class size: 15

 

92105

PHIL 343

Plato's Republic

Jay Elliott

T            1:30 pm-3:50 pm

ASP 302

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Classical Studies Class size: 15

 

92127

REL 140

Sanskrit

Richard Davis

T W Th   8:50 am-9:50 am

OLINLC 208

FL

FLLC

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Classical Studies Class size: 20