CLAS 200 Gender and Status in Ancient Greece and Rome

Professor: J. Barringer

CRN: 92491

Distribution: C/D

Time: Tu Th 10:30 am - 11:50 am OLIN 102

Cross-listed: Art History
Ancient Greece and Rome were men's worlds. Men held political economic, and social power. Greek women wielded no overt social leverage yet managed to maintain control over their households and played an important part in religion and mythology. Roman woman had somewhat greater freedom and legal powers, especially women in the imperial families. Both societies were slave societies, and social relations between aristocratic patrons and middle-class clientes formed the backbone of political interaction in the Roman Republic and Empire. This course examines issues of gender and social status in ancient Greece and Rome as revealed in ancient art and literature. Topics to be covered include legendary women and founding myths; religion and mythology; perceptions of men's and women's bodies and medicine; gender roles in tragedy and epic; homo-, hetero-, and bisexuality; gender and status before the law; the relation between public and private lives; the rise of the Roman middle-class; slavery and freedmen; education; rites of passage; and marriage. First-Year students welcome.


CLAS 209 Early Greek Philosophy

Professor: W. Mullen

CRN: 92935

Distribution: A/B

Time: Tu 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm OLIN 304

Cross-listed: Philosophy
Consideration of the principal pre-Socratic philosophers--Parmenides, Heracleitus, Empedocles, Democritus and others--with respect to developments in Greek religion and science as well as to the history of philosophy. First-Year students welcome.