16184 |
LIT 145 The Iliad of Homer |
Daniel Mendelsohn |
M W
3:10 pm-4:30 pm |
OLIN 101 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Classical
Studies This course will consist of an intensive reading of Homer’s Iliad over the course of a single
semester. The course, which mimics the
design of a graduate seminar—a single, two-and-a-half-hour meeting each week,
focusing on in-depth discussion and textual explication, with a heavy emphasis
on how to write critically about a literary text—is designed to introduce
first-year students to more profound and sophisticated techniques of reading
and thinking about texts than they will have thus far encountered. After two prefatory 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 (the epic cycle, the “heroic code,” violence and warfare, the
clash of civilizations, East vs. West, the role of the gods in human history),
we will read through the epic at a rate of two books per week. Throughout,
students will be introduced, by means of excerpts and shorter articles, to the
arc of the scholarly tradition, especially with respect to the Homeric
Question: from Wolf’s Prolegomenon to
Homer to M. L. West’s recent argument that the Iliad was, in fact, written down by a single author/poet. Two
summary sessions will conclude the semester as we (a) look at the classical
heritage of the Iliad (the Aeneid,
especially) and then (b) look back at the broad literary and cultural issues
raised by this essential document of the Western tradition, and look at some
modern adaptations (Logue’s “War Music,” for instance; also attempts to
dramatize the Iliad—and why they so
often fail). 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 three papers, midterm, final exam. This course is designed for First-Year
Students. Class size: 16
16008 |
CLAS 157 5th Century Athens |
William Mullen |
T Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm |
OLIN 201 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Literature, History In the fifth century BCE, Athens
dramatically developed from a small, relatively unimportant city-state into a
dominant power in the Aegean basin.
Athenian political, artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions
continue to reverberate through the world today: democracy, tragedy and comedy,
rhetoric, philosophy, history, as well as the classical style of sculpture and
architecture stem from this remarkable culture.
The course will confront some of the ambiguities and tensions (slavery,
exclusion of women and non-citizens from political power), as well as the
glories, of Athenian art, literature, and history during this period. This course is designed primarily for
first-year students. Class size: 22
16187 |
CLAS / HIST 2361 GREEK RELIGION: Magic, Mysteries & Cult |
Carolyn Dewald |
T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm |
OLIN 308 |
HIST DIFF |
Cross-listed: History;
Religion This course examines the ways in which polytheism was
practiced and conceptualized by the ancient Greeks from the Mycenaean period
into the Hellenistic era. It will
emphasize the ritual aspects of Greek polytheism through the analysis of
religious institutions, beliefs, and rites in their wider socio-cultural
contexts. We will explore the literary
expressions of Greek religion (the connection between myth and religion, e.g.),
and the ways in which Greek religious beliefs and practices profoundly affected
the development of Greek culture and history, in particular in the classical
city state of Athens, and also in the syncretistic Hellenistic world that came afterwards. Class
size: 18
16189 |
CLAS 316 THE Epic in European Literature FROM HOMER TO MILTON |
Daniel Mendelsohn |
T 1:30
pm-3:50 pm |
OLIN 301 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Literature A grasp of epic poetry--its techniques, themes, structure, and
ideology--is fundamental to the understanding of the European literary
tradition. This course will examine the evolution of the epic from Homer (8th
c. BCE) to Milton's Paradise Lost
(1667). The first half of the semester will be devoted to the Classical epic: Iliad, Odyssey, Theogony, Argonautika, De
Rerum Natura, Aeneid, Metamorphoses. The second half will trace the epic
across the map of Europe: Beowulf (8th-10th
c. CE), the Chanson de Roland (11th
c.), the Niebelungenlied (13th c),
the Divine Comedy (14th c) Orlando Furioso (16th c.), and Milton.
Special attention will be paid to the long tradition of European epic as a
vehicle for exploring tensions between European and non-European cultures. Most
texts will be read in their entirety. This
course is part of the World Literature offering. Class
size: 16
16185 |
LIT 204 CompARATIVE LitERATURE:
Ancient Quarrels; LITERATURE AND ITS CRITIQUE IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY |
Thomas Bartscherer |
M W
1:30 pm-2:50 pm |
OLIN 202 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Classical
Studies In a celebrated passage from Plato’s
Republic, Socrates claims that there is “an ancient quarrel between philosophy
and poetry.” In this course, we will consider this and other ways in which
ancient authors (or their characters) configured the relationship between
poetic production and theoretical inquiry, and therewith gave birth to the
practice of literary criticism in the West. We will begin with Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey, focusing particularly on the understanding of poetry manifest
within the world of these poems. Readings from Greek literature will also
include lyric poetry (focusing on Sappho and Pindar), and Attic drama (e.g.,
Aristophane’s Frogs and Clouds, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, Euripides’ Medea
and Bacchae). Readings from the Latin corpus will include epic, lyric, and
dramatic poetry (e.g. Vergil, Horace, Catullus, Seneca). Concurrently, we will
be examining the ongoing critique of literature from the fragments of early
Greek philosophers (e.g. Anaxagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus), through Plato and
Aristotle, to Cicero and Horace. Our twofold aim will be to develop an
understanding of all these texts in their original context and to consider how
they set the stage for subsequent developments in western literature and
criticism. All readings in English. Class size: 22
16188 |
LIT 3101 The Roman Poetry Book |
Lauren Curtis |
Th 4:40 pm-7:00 pm |
OLIN 309 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Classical Studies; Experimental Humanities This course examines
the invention of a phenomenon central to modern literary life: the poetry book.
First adopted in the ancient Greek-speaking world and further developed among
poets at
16132 |
ARTH 210 ANCIENT Roman Art and Architecture |
Diana DePardo-Minsky |
T Th 4:40 pm-6:00 pm |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
16306 |
MUS 203 FROM
ORPHEUS TO OEDIPUS: Greek
Themes IN Western Music FROM 1600 TO THE PRESENT |
Peter Laki |
M W 3:10 pm-4:30
pm |
BLM N217 |
AART |
16186 |
LIT 2142 The Courage to Be:
ACHILLES, SOCRATES, ANTIGONE, MOTHER COURAGE |
Thomas Bartscherer |
M W 6:20 pm-7:40
pm |
HEG 308 |
HUM |
16417 |
PHIL 109 Intro to Ancient Philosophy |
Jay Elliott |
M W 10:10 am-11:30
am |
OLIN 101 |
HUM |
ANCIENT
GREEK
16149 |
GRE 107 advanced beginning Greek |
Carolyn Dewald |
M T
Th 11:50 am-12:50 pm |
OLIN 306 |
FLLC |
4 credits This is the continuation
of Greek 106, Intensive Beginning Greek. Focus will be on consolidating knowledge
of forms and syntax, and exposure to a variety of different classical
authors. Class size: 15
16549 |
GRE
202 Euripides’ Bacchae |
William
Mullen |
M W
11:50 am-1:10 pm |
OLINLC
206 |
FLLC |
Euripides’ last tragedy was also his greatest
masterpiece, named after its choruses of women followers of Dionysos,
god not only of wine but also of transformation and theater. We will read the entire play, with attention
to the meters of the speaking parts and of the choruses, and the interplay between
metrical pattern and sense in each line.
We will pay attention to the word order peculiar to Greek poetry as
opposed to prose, and above all to the difficult and challenging word order of
the choral odes. Class size: 15
16543 |
GRE
403 Homer |
William
Mullen |
TBD |
TBD |
FLLC |
See Prof. Mullen.
LATIN
16150 |
LAT 106 Basic Intensive Latin |
Lauren Curtis James Romm |
M T
W Th
9:20 am-11:20 am |
OLINLC 120 |
FLLC |
8 credits This course is designed for
students with no experience with Latin, to read authors such as Virgil, Ovid,
Cicero, and Augustine in the original language after one semester's intensive
work (the equivalent of two semesters of college Latin). Daily drills and
frequent quizzes will be combined from the beginning with an emphasis on
reading: students will begin reading short selections from classical authors
after only a few weeks and longer passages by midterm. Those wishing to enroll
in this course should consult with Prof. Curtis or Prof. Romm,
or attend the informational meeting in early December. Class
size: 18
16165 |
LAT 208 The Age of Nero |
James Romm |
M W
1:30 pm-2:50 pm |
OLIN 304 |
FLLC |
Despite its slide into autocracy, the age of Nero
(54-68 A.D.) saw a great flowering of Roman literature, including the comic
novel Satyricon
by Petronius, and the tragedies and essays of Seneca, as well as the mysterious
historical drama called Octavia. We will
read selections from several of these texts, spanning a wide range of styles in
both poetry and prose. Readings in
English will help situate our texts against the troubled history of Nero's
reign.
Class size: 15
16550 16551 |
LAT 302 / 403 Roman
Medea |
James
Romm |
TBD |
ASP
307 |
FLLC |
An examination of how
the mythic figure of Medea was reimagined and reinterpreted by the Romans, in
particular Ovid and Seneca. We
will read works of both authors in Latin, together with their Greek sources,
Euripides and Apollonius of Rhodes, in English.
Class size: 12