Course:

CLAS 114  The Ancient World, 750-480 BC

Professor:

James Romm  

CRN:

90203

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin Languages Center 115

Distributional Area:

HA Historical Analysis

Class cap:

30

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Historical Studies

This course surveys the archaic age of ancient history (the 8th to the 5th centuries BC), an era of great transformation in Greece, Persia, India, Egypt, Judaea, and Mesopotamia.  Our guide to this era will be Herodotus's Histories, a work that surveys the broad expanse of the ancient world from a Greek perspective and recounts, in a narrative structure borrowed from Greek tragedy, the rises and falls of the great empires that dominated that world.  We'll examine the artistic and literary forms, religious movements, and philosophic ideas that arose in the various parts of the eastern Mediterranean and in Asia.  The course is designed to give a broad introduction to the study of antiquity and to explore the cultural differences we encounter when reading Greek source materials versus Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit or Persian texts.

 

Course:

CLAS 238  Houses of the Gods: Ancient Greek Sacred Space

Professor:

Ranjani Atur  

CRN:

90477

Schedule:

Tue  Thurs    12:10 PM - 1:30 PM Hegeman 204

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Architecture, Art History and Visual Culture, Religion

In ancient Greece, gods were everywhere, living alongside their human worshippers in temples, shrines, and other houses of worship throughout the landscape. What did these temples look like? What activities occurred within? What made temples special, or “sacred”? In this course, we will apply modern theories of materiality, space, and religion to the ancient Greek material and literary evidence to interpret ancient Greek sacred spaces. The first half of the course focuses on the art and architecture of ancient Greek temples, paying specific attention to the development of the temple form across Greek history. In the second half of the course, we will turn to the human experience of sacred space. We will read descriptions of Greek temples by Pausanias and other ancient authors in an attempt to “repopulate” the ancient Greek landscape. Students will become familiar with different approaches to material culture and develop the ability to analyze material evidence in conjunction with more traditional, text-based sources. 

 

Course:

CLAS 245  The Iliad of Homer

Professor:

Daniel Mendelsohn  

CRN:

90205

Schedule:

 Tue      2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Olin 305

Distributional Area:

LA Literary Analysis in English

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Literature

Bard students will be familiar from FYSEM with Homer's Odyssey, one of the two epic poems that served as the foundations of Greek literature and civilization—and, hence, of European civilization itself. This course will consist of an intensive reading of the other epic, Homer's Iliad. With a focus on in-depth discussion and textual explication, and a heavy emphasis on how to write critically about a literary text, our seminar will begin by introducing students to the large issues particular both to the epic genre (the values of 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 then 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 long scholarly tradition from ancient commentators to the present day. Two summary sessions will conclude the semester as we examine (a) the literary afterlife of the Iliad from the Aeneid to Alice Oswald's Memorial (2011) to popular entertainment such as Troy (2004), and (b) the broad literary and cultural issues raised by this essential document of the Western tradition, not least the question of canon formation and cultural values. 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.

 

Cross-listed courses:

 

Course:

CC 102 C  Political Animals: Citizenship in Greece, Rome, and the Ancient Mediterranean

Professor:

Robert Cioffi  

CRN:

90512

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Hegeman 106

Distributional Area:

MBV Meaning, Being, Value

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

 

Course:

PHIL 212  Early Greek Thinking

Professor:

Jay Elliott  

CRN:

90031

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin 205

Distributional Area:

MBV Meaning, Being, Value

Class cap

20

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

 

Course:

REL 244  Yogis, Monks, and Dharma Kings: Religious Cultures of Classical India

Professor:

Richard Davis  

CRN:

90049

Schedule:

 Mon Wed    8:30 AM - 9:50 AM Olin

Distributional Area:

MBV Meaning, Being, Value

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Asian Studies; Classical Studies

 

Classical Languages: Greek

 

Course:

GRE 102  Beginning Greek II

Professor:

Robert Cioffi  

CRN:

90206

Schedule:

Mon Tue Wed Thurs    8:50 AM - 9:50 AM Olin 306

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

This course, the second semester of the introductory Ancient Greek sequence, is designed to build on the foundations of Greek 101. Regular grammatical exercises and drills will be combined with an emphasis on developing skills for translating, reading, and interpreting Greek literature, with longer passages from classical authors as the semester continues. Prerequisite: Greek 101 or equivalent with the permission of the instructor (rcioffi@bard.edu).

 

Course:

GRE 306  Advanced Greek: Comedy and the City, Aristophanes' "Frogs"

Professor:

Lauren Curtis  

CRN:

90207

Schedule:

Mon    Fri   3:50 PM - 5:10 PM Olin 303

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

Aristophanes' comedies, at once bawdy and wordy, revolutionary and reactionary, combine spectacular mass entertainment with highly topical social commentary on Athens in the fifth century BCE. We will read in the original Greek Aristophanes' Frogs, first performed in 405 BCE, in which the god Dionysus descends to the Underworld to choose one of the recently-deceased tragic playwrights, Aeschylus and Euripides, to return to help the city in crisis. Part biting literary satire, part absurdist fantasy, the play puts under the microscope the relationship between drama and society in Athens. Students will further develop Greek reading fluency while gaining a range of critical approaches to Aristophanes' play and working on research skills in Classics (including writing a research paper). Prerequisite: Greek 201/202 or permission of the instructor.

Classical Languages: Latin

 

Course:

LAT 101  Beginning Latin I

Professor:

Lauren Curtis  

CRN:

90208

Schedule:

Mon Tue Wed  Fri   10:20 AM - 11:20 AM Olin 304

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

This course introduces students to the Latin language. Spoken and written for many centuries, first at Rome and then across the Roman Empire from Britain to Syria, Latin has shaped the history of English and many other living languages today. In this first semester of a two-semester sequence, you will learn  classical Latin using new course materials specially designed by Bard faculty. They combine engaging introductory texts with selections of original Latin written by a diverse array of Romans, including women, enslaved people, and literary authors such as Cicero, Ovid, and St Augustine. A focus on reading comprehension and grammar is combined with an emphasis on understanding the Latin language within its cultural and historical contexts. By the end of the full-year sequence, you will have learned the fundamentals of Latin and will be ready to read original texts in full. The course is for complete beginners and has no prerequisites (if you have previous experience with Latin, you should consider Latin 201 and consult with the teaching faculty).

 

Course:

LAT 201  Vergil

Professor:

James Romm  

CRN:

90209

Schedule:

Tue  Thurs     4:30 PM - 5:20 PM Olin 302

    Wed           7:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

Vergil's Aeneid is the greatest Roman epic; we will read portions of the first half of the epic in Latin, concentrating on increasing the students' confidence in Latin forms and syntax, but also in exploring the literary genius of Vergil -- the poem's themes and literary characteristics (figures of speech, structure, tropes, depiction of character, construction of the action, etc.). We will also read the Aeneid in its entirety in English.  Open to students who have completed Latin 102 at Bard or its equivalent elsewhere (consult with Prof. Romm, romm@bard.edu, if unsure about placement). 

 

Course:

LAT 311  Advanced Latin: Roman Elegiac Poetry

Professor:

Lauren Curtis  

CRN:

90210

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    3:50 PM - 5:10 PM Olin 310

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Classical Studies

Roman elegiac poetry occupies an influential but peculiar place in the history of Latin literature. In the first century BCE, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid made the elegiac couplet synonymous with their love poetry, but the form – which was often written on Greek and Roman gravestones – had ancient connections to death. These lover-poets cultivated a charismatic private voice, but their work engages with Roman popular culture, global travel and trade, and imperial politics. Fascinated by its early origins on stone, Roman elegy reflects constantly on its nature as writing, medium, mediation. We will read selections from several of the major Latin elegiac poets (including Sulpicia, a female poet contemporary with Ovid, and Gallus, scraps of whose work were discovered on papyrus in 1978). We will also read elegiac poems by lesser-known and anonymous authors from across the Roman world. Students will further develop reading fluency in Latin while exploring a range of critical approaches to Latin literature and working on research skills in Classics (including writing a research paper). Prerequisite: Latin 201/202 or permission of the instructor (students with high-school Latin are welcome and should consult with Prof. Curtis before enrolling).