12079

CLAS 224      Science/Technology: Ancient Greece/Rome

Kassandra Miller

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm

HDR 106

HA

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities; Science, Technology, Society

How did ancient Greeks and Romans learn about and make sense of the world around them? And how did they use technology to change and exert control over that world? This course offers an introduction to the scientific and technological developments that took place in the ancient Mediterranean between the 6th century BCE and the 4th century CE. We will also consider the afterlives of these developments in Islamic, Enlightenment, and modern-day science. In the first half of the course, we will explore ancient scientific theories and practices in areas we would now call astronomy, physics, biology, medicine, geography, and mathematics. In the second half of the course, we will shift our focus to the technologies that ancient Greeks and Romans used to harness nature, and students will participate in a collaborative project with hands-on components. Ultimately, students in this course will deepen their understanding of how scientific theories, practical experiences, and social incentives can interact to produce different scientific and technological trends. NOTE: All readings will be in English translation, and no prior knowledge of the ancient world is required.

Class size: 22

 

12469

CLAS 237      The Classical Epic

Daniel Mendelsohn

T          1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 301

LA

Cross-listed: Literature

Epic poetry was the most prestigious form of poetic expression throughout antiquity, and a grasp of its history, techniques, themes, structure, and ideologies is essential to any serious understanding of the Classical and indeed the world literary tradition. This course will introduce students to the epic in the Greek and Roman worlds from its origins as an oral genre in the Archaic Greek period to its final efflorescence in the Late Antique period (late 4th/early 5th c. CE). The first half of the semester will be devoted to the Greeks, from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (8th c. BCE) to the self-consciously literary productions of the Hellenistic period (Apollonius's Argonautika, about the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, 3rd century BCE). The second half of the semester will be devoted primarily to Latin-language epic of the late Republic and early Empire, which employed epic structures and techniques to explores such diverse subjects as philosophy and the natural sciences (Lucretius's De Rerum Natura, 1st c. BCE), heroism and empire (Vergil's Aeneid, 19 BCE), and recent Roman history (Lucan's Pharsalia, 60s CE, about the conflict between Julius Caesar and Pompey). As the course concludes, we will examine the late Antique Greek-language epics written in the late Roman imperial world (such as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus and Quintus of Smyrna's Posthomerica) in order to focus on questions of literary "decadence" and ancient reception of earlier epic. Emphasis is on close reading of primary texts, with some readings in secondary literature.

Class size: 22

 

12468

CLAS 327      Roman Arts of Self-Improvement

David Ungvary

F     10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLINLC 208

MBV

Cross-listed: Religion

Behind every self-help book lies an apparently basic supposition: that reading and self-formation are inextricably entwined; that it is possible to change oneself, in part, through literary practice. These assumptions underlie a robust industry of self-improvement literature, but on reflection, they raise a host of complex personal, philosophical, and historical questions about the self and its reinvention. How do we change ourselves through reading and writing? And what exactly are we endeavoring to change (a mind, a belief, a soul)? From where did we inherit these ideas about the self? And how have they changed over time? This course explores such questions in the context of the Roman world, where authors from the Stoic Seneca to the ascetic Augustine experimented in textual methods of self-improvement, and innovated concepts of interiority that have lasted to the present day. Readings from ancient diaries (Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations), farcical novels (Apuleius’s Metamorphoses), and fictive dialogues (Boethius’s Consolation) will permit inquiry into the wide-ranging rhetoric of inner-life, theories of self, and literary models of conversion that were available to Roman audiences. As we pursue these topics, we will engage with pop-cultural approaches to self-help as a way to assess our own preconceptions about such literature, and test the applicability of different theories of conversion from contemporary psychology, literary criticism, and religious studies. Overall, the course is designed to help students hone an appreciation for the complexity and culturally contingent nature of the concept of self-improvement, while gaining deeper knowledge of a 500-year span of the Roman intellectual tradition. All readings will be in English.

Class size: 16

 

CLASSICAL LANGUAGES: GREEK

12054

GRE 102      Basic Greek II

Kassandra Miller

M T W Th 12:00 am-12:50 pm

OLIN 302

FL

FLLC

 The second semester of this two-semester sequence is designed for students with no experience with ancient Greek (or other ancient languages) to read authors such as Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, and Herodotus in the original language. 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. Students who complete this sequence will be prepared to enroll in Greek 201: Intermediate Greek the following year.

Class size: 16

 

12055

GRE 202      Euripides' Alcestis

Kassandra Miller

M  W    1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 107

FL

FLLC

 A close examination of Euripides’ tragicomic play Alcestis, which treats such themes as gender dynamics, the nature of sacrifice, and the possibility of cheating death. We will read extensive passages in ancient Greek and discuss the entire play in English translation. Along the way, we will also also review essential points of grammar and syntax, investigate poetic meters, and develop an understanding of the social and political environment in Classical Athens. For students at the intermediate level in ancient Greek.

Class size: 12

 

12566

GRE 203  Greek Exegesis

Bruce Chilton

T  Th   11:50 am-12:50 pm

OLIN 304

(2 credits)             This courses introduces students with prior familiarity in Greek to the translation and exegesis of texts in the New Testament, the Septuagint, Philo, and Justin Martyr. 

Class size: 10

 

12470

GRE 312      Homer's Iliad

James Romm

Time and Days TBD

FL

 In this course we will read large selections from Homer’s Iliad, which ancient Greeks considered their oldest and most important literary document and whose resonances today –especially its themes of trauma, loss, bravery, and forgiveness amidst the fog of war – are just as powerful. Students will develop their reading fluency in Homeric Greek while exploring a range of critical approaches to Homer, including theories of its composition and transmission (the so-called “Homeric Question”), questions about narrative, storytelling, and description, gender relations, the role of the gods in the poem, and Iliad’s place in the history of epic. Over the course of the semester, students will hone their research skills in Classics by developing and writing a research paper. Prerequisite: Greek 201/202 or permission of the instructor. 

Class size: 15

 

CLASSICAL LANGUAGES: LATIN

12053

LAT 102      Beginning Latin II

James Romm

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

OLIN 107

FL

FLLC

 This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence 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, during this second semester, be increasingly combined with reading selections from a wide range of Latin literature.

Class size: 18

 

12471

LAT 205      Reading Medieval Latin

David Ungvary

T  Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 302

FL

 Cross-listed: Medieval Studies

This course aims to introduce students to the rich traditions of postclassical Latin literature. Readings will consist of excerpted texts spanning a wide range of styles, in both poetry and prose, from the period of Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500 CE). Students may encounter selections from Boethius, the Carmina Burana, and Petrarch, among other authors and texts. The course will also provide students a chance to explore concepts and disciplines integral to the study of Medieval Latin, such as textual transmission, paleography, and the cultural history of the Middle Ages. The class is designed for students with two semester of college Latin or the equivalent; no experience with medieval literature required.

Class size: 12

 

12472

LAT 302      Roman Medea

James Romm

M  W   10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 107

FL

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: 15