Classical Studies Courses

Classical

Ancient History
Classics 100 (Also History)
The course has two main purposes: first, to see how much is implied by the notion of historical causation and what it means to 'think historically'; second, to gain a sense of the way the foundations of western culture were first shaped in the Near East and then developed quite distinctively in the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome. We will begin with the beginnings of recorded civilization in the Near East about 7000 BCE and will move fairly quickly through the Neolithic period, to the urban revolution of the third millennium (early Bronze Age). The focus then will sharpen to the Mediterranean basin: Greece (c.1600-320 BCE) and Rome (c. 600 BCE-430 CE). The main emphasis of the course will be on these latter two cultures and understanding how they came to be shaped in quite different and distinctive ways. We will also, however, focus on the chronological and causal sweep of ancient Mediterranean culture as a whole, from its first beginnings to the death of St. Augustine, with the Vandals storming the gates of Carthage. We will look at underlying features of geography and demography, archaeology (and how to read archaeological remains historically), developments in technology and trade, religion, politics, family organization, communities and governments, art and literacy -- and we will try to consider how all these different kinds of causally-linked factors come together in different ways, at different points in the chronological and geographical continuum of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome
Classics 103 (Also History)
A survey of ancient Rome, from its eighth-century BC “rise” out of prehistoric Italic precursors to its “fall” in the fifth century AD at the hands of barbarians, bureaucrats, and others. Our goals are: (1) to become familiar with the traditional narrative of Roman history including political and military events; (2) to consider social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of life in ancient Rome (e.g. gender and sexuality, food and drink, and literature); and thus (3) to explore what it means to “do Roman history”. We read a modern narrative of Roman history, several ancient narratives and monographs, and modern scholarly works.

The Athenian Century
Classics 157 (also 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, and history itself, 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. We will read selections from the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, many of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the comedies of Aristophanes, and one or two dialogues of Plato.

Confucius and Socrates
Classics 160 (also Asian Studies, Philosophy)
Confucius (551–469 BC) and Socrates (470-399 BC) stand at the head of the Chinese and the Greek philosophical traditions, above all in the realm of ethical and political inquiry. The accounts left of their activity, and the schools of thought which rose around them during their lives and in the first centuries after their deaths, in both cases give evidence of two real historical figures whose time was consumed in passionate striving to find out what is the best life for a human being and the best form of government for human flourishing. And there is both a Confucian and a Socratic “problem”: we cannot be sure that any words attributed to either were actually theirs, and see growing differences among the subsequent thinkers and schools which pursued their work in either’s name. In search of Confucius we will read the complete Analects and selections from Mencius and Xunzi; of Socrates, dialogues by Plato and Xenophon and key passages in Aristotle and the Cynics. We will read the two sets of texts concurrently and sometimes pause to ask comparative questions. What differences can be seen in the accounts given of the virtues each thinker put forward as most essential to fulfilling one's humanity? Why is neither an advocate of democracy? Could Confucius and Socrates be friends?

Alexander the Great and the Problem of Empire
Classics 201 (also History)
Alexander the Great changed the world more completely than any other human being, but did he change it for the better? How should his project of extending western power into Asia be regarded, especially in light of recent attempts by the U.S. to project power into the same regions once conquered by the Macedonians? And how should Alexander himself be understood -- as a tyrant of Hitlerian proportions, or as a philosopher-king seeking to save the Greek world from self-destruction, or as an utterly deluded madman? Such questions remain very much unresolved among modern historians. In this course we will attempt to find our own answers (or lack of them) after reading thoroughly in the ancient sources concerning Alexander and examining as much primary evidence as can be gathered. Students hopefully will attain insight not only into a cataclysmic period of history but into the moral and ideological complexities that surround the issue of empire, whether in antiquity or in the modern world. No prerequisite, but students will be greatly helped by some familiarity with Greek history or prior exposure to Herodotus and/or Thucydides.

Survey of Linguistics
Classics 201 (also Literature)
A survey of linguistics, the formal study of language. Our goals are (1) to learn how linguistics analyzes language into various parts; (2) to acquire methods and techniques appropriate to the study of those parts, their patterns, and their interconnections; and (3) to explore the discipline’s conceptual bases, its history, and some competing or alternative approaches to language study. Our ultimate and underlying questions are: “What is ‘language’?” and “Has ‘linguistics’ got it right?” Topics include: (1 and 2) phonetics and phonology (the study of sound-patterns in language), morphology (word-formation and grammaticalization), and syntax (the arrangement of elements into meaningful utterance); sociolinguistics (the covariation of language with social and cultural factors); and comparative and historical linguistics (linguistic patterns across space and time, including syntactic typology and language ‘death’). We also survey (3) key trends, moments, and thinkers in the history of linguistic thought, both Western and non-Western.

Comparative Literature A: Ancient Poetry - Making Words and Worlds
Classics 204 (also Literature)
“Poetry” comes from the Greek verb poiein, “to make”. Although the product of ancient poiesis is poetry, the purpose was to make not just words but also worlds. By using poetics in place of physics, as it were, Greek and Roman poetry linked aesthetics to ethics: words to be lived by structured worlds to be lived in. Poetry was the cornerstone of a verbal architecture of real and ideal social space. This course explores how Greek and Roman poetry is always making worlds, literary and other, out of words. Topics considered include the mechanics and conventions of ancient poetry; the historical contexts of the ancient Mediterranean; traditional topoi including myth; poetry in education; the problem of sources and influences; translation, allusion, imitation, and innovation; the roles played by poets, patrons, and audiences; responses to poetry as literary and social criticism; critical and subversive poetics; and textual transmission and the formation of the canon. Close attention is paid to themes, images, and tropes later to reappear throughout Western literature. Readings, all in English translation, include whole works and selections from Greek and Roman poets; ancient literary criticism; and modern criticism of Classical literature.

Ancient Lyric: Translations and Imitations
Classics 219 (also Literature)
A course in English in which the great lyric poetry of Sappho, Pindar, Catullus and Horace will be studied through the many centuries of translations and imitations of them by British and American writers. We will look at metrical and linguistic maps of the original, range widely in comparing translations of a few key poems, and study the many kinds of imitation they generated. Students with foreign languages, not only Greek and Latin but also Italian, French, Spanish, German, Russian or any of the others into which these poets have been translated, will be encouraged to bring their knowledge to bear.

From Babel to Brain: The Origin of Language in Western Thought
Classics 221 (also Literature)
Where does language come from, and why do languages differ? This course explores the history of Western answers to these questions and their implications for human nature and identity. Topics considered include the role of the divine; whether language is “natural” or “conventional”; linguistic diversity, evolution, and ecology; language acquisition and whether or not “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”; sound, gesture, and symbol; biology, evolutionary theory, and neuropsychology; ethology and zoosemiotics; and language as blessing and curse. Readings include the Biblical account of Babel and related stories; Greek and Roman philosophical speculation; Medieval and Renaissance searches for Adamitic, “perfect”, and “universal” languages; tales of “feral children” and other foundlings; and more recent perspectives on language origins: philological, scientific, critical, and fictional. No prerequisites, but knowledge of languages other than English potentially useful.

Comedy and its Problems
Classics 223
In the ancient Greek and Roman world, comedy was one vehicle for exploring the fantasies, tensions, and dangers of communal life. We will be reading comedies of Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence, and will explore the evolution of ancient comedy as a genre, as well as issues of class, gender, and politics as they are focused through the lens of comedy in the ancient city. We will also consider some of the theoretical aspects of humor itself: what makes these comedies funny, still, to us today?

Rhetoric and Public Speaking
Classics 250
A course in the theory and practice of public speaking, with equal emphasis on both aspects and with one meeting per week devoted to each. As practice the course will ask students to give speeches in various genres, from presentation of information before small groups, to formal addresses recommending courses of action to deliberative assemblies. Videos of the speeches given will be used in the process of critiquing them. As theory the course will study the texts of actual orations and of theoretical treatises on the nature of rhetoric, by Greek, Roman, English, and American authors and orators such as Demosthenes, Aristotle, Cicero, Churchill, Martin Luther King. The emphasis will be on rhetoric as embodied not in written documents but in the spoken word itself. Some time will be spent with tapes and videos of important speeches of the last century.

India and Greece
Classics 272 (also Religion)
In this course, team-taught by specialists in ancient Greek and in ancient Indic culture respectively, we will explore the present state of the comparative method as applied to the histories and mythologies of two complex civilizations. We will begin with the perennial question of shared Indo-European origins and what, if anything, we might posit as “history.” Turning to rich and foundational cosmogonic and catastrophic myths operative in texts such as Hesiod's Theogony and Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in the Indic Vedas and Puranas, we will consider cosmological structures of time and space, and also varying possible relations between males and females both mortal and immortal. We will continue to pursue these themes in the enduring epics, the Odyssey and the Ramayana. In a more intensive mode, reflecting the special scholarship of each professor, we will study the interaction of ritual and sacred places in selected texts, principally the Odes of Pindar and the Edicts of Asoka. We will end the course revisiting historical questions, examining evidence of direct contact between the two civilizations, and how they represented each other as the other, the “barbarian.”

Poetry and Athletics
Classics 275 (also Literature)
The meanings to be seen in athletics have stirred the meditations and praises of poets in many different cultures and genres. This course will study the strange intersections of the physical, the social and the sacred we still recognize in sports. We will allot equal time to three different sets of readings: 1) victory odes for the ancient Greek games, principally those of Pindar, often considered the greatest lyric poet of the West, concerned with boxing, wrestling, running, pentathlon, pancratium, chariot, and dithyramb; 2) case studies of the wedding of poetry to athletics in other cultures on the other side of the world, as in songs for the Hawaiian royal surfing festivals, tales of the foundational ball game in the Mayan "Popol Vuh", and chants to accompany African-Brazilian capoeira; 3) an anthology of sports poetry in 19th and 20th century Europe and America, concerned with jousting, running, bullfighting, football, basketball, and baseball. We will also follow planning for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and its ancillary cultural events. In all three parts we will read not only the poems themselves but also some scholarship by sports historians on the particular athletic events they reflect. All readings will be in English, and no prerequisites are necessary.

Major Conference: Creating History
Classics 300 (also History)
The word history comes from the first sentence of the Histories of Herodotus, the Greek father of history, writing in the fifth century B.C.E. This course looks closely at how history as a field of inquiry came about and the way that the early Greek historians, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, shaped its identity. We will consider how the first historians thought about such things as data (when is it trustworthy?), narrative structure (does it inevitably distort data?), depiction of character (what role does the individual play in shaping events?), and the usefulness of the discipline that the early historians invented (do they tell a true story?). Some theoretical readings, both traditional and poststructuralist, will be used to help us begin to answer these questions. About halfway through the semester, students will be encouraged to pick a historian not in the original triad (either ancient -- Polybius, Tacitus, Livy are possible choices -- or more recent, writing in a period germane to the student's senior project interests) to study in detail, using the same criteria that we have used to consider Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Two papers will be required; all required reading will be in English.

Odysseys from Homer to Joyce
Classics 324 (also Literature)
This course seeks to explore the nature and cultural uses of the figure of the wandering hero, from its first major treatment in Homer’s Odyssey to its adaptation in the 20th-century by both Nikos Kazantzakis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel) and James Joyce (Ulysses). Particular attention will be paid not only to the moral ambiguities that seem to inhere in the West’s representation of this prototypical wanderer (e.g., the destructive effect of cultural exploration, the moral compromises necessary to being the “trickster”), but also to the aesthetic and generic usefulness of representing such a figure. (What does Odysseus and his subsequent incarnations “do” for epic, for drama, for the novel? How does the wanderer extend the boundaries of those genres?) Readings will include: Homer, The Odyssey; Vergil, Aeneid; Sophocles Ajax and Philoctetes, Euripides Hecuba; Dante, Inferno; Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; Fenelon, Télémaque; selections from the poetry of Tennyson, Cavafy, Louise Gluck, and others; Joyce, Ulysses; Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel; and Walcott, Omeros. There will also be readings for each session in the secondary literature (e. g., E. Auerbach, “The Scar of Odysseus,”; W. B. Stanford, The Odysseus Theme; H. Bloom, Odysseus/Ulysses, etc.)

Tacitus and Gibbon: History as Literature
Classics 333 (also History)
On hearing that his granddaughter was reading Tacitus, Thomas Jefferson wrote to her: “Tacitus I consider as the first writer in the world without a single exception. His book is a compound of history and morality of which we have no other example.” The translation of Tacitus into English by Trenchard and Gordon, with prefatory essays enlisting him for the Whig cause, contributed significantly to the ideology of the American Revolution. And the same year Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence Gibbon published the first volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, often praised both for being the greatest historical work of modern times and for containing the finest English prose of the 18th century. We will read extensive selections from both authors (in the case of Tacitus comparing translations on some key passages), and we will consider what we read at all times from both a historical and a stylistic point of view. Both men found somber irony in their contemplation of the great preponderance of human vices and follies over virtues, and both men are as renowned for the prose styles they evolved as for the passion they brought to their great theme of the loss of liberty to tyranny. Our task will be to gain a comprehensive view of their subjects and to take the measure of the greatness of the literary art with which they set them forth.

Cosmology and Ethics in the Axial Age
Classics 350
In 1949 the German philosopher Karl Jaspers fashioned the phrase "the Axial Age" to describe "the spiritual process that occurred between 800 and 200 B.C." across Eurasia, with a common axis in the period around 500 B.C. Since at least the mid-19th century scholars have wondered whether it is more than coincidence that in those centuries Confucius and the "hundred schools" appeared in China, the Upanishads and the Buddha in India, Zoroaster in Persia, the principal prophets in Israel, and the philosophers in Greece. Jaspers claims that "in this age were born the fundamental categories within which we still think today, and the beginning of the world religions by which human beings still live". In each culture traditional cosmologies are reinterpreted or called into question, and for the thinkers leading these movements of thought their new cosmological thinking leads them to propose new bases for ethical systems. This course will critically explore the interrelation of cosmology and ethics in the Axial Age. We will read, from the five cultures at issue (Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Indian, Chinese), not only major texts of the principal thinkers but also samples of earlier texts representative of the traditions they were reinterpreting or challenging. We will face problems of Eurasian chronology complicating the formulation of the temporal horizon in question. We will ask what kinds of causes can be adduced to account for the contemporaneity of these intellectual and ethical transformations. We will weigh the benefits and drawbacks of the very concept of an "axial age", whether for this or other periods. And above all we will ask what parts of the ethical legacy of these thinkers are still influential today, after 2500 years of constantly changing cosmological thinking.

Unflinching Prose
Classics 366 (also Literature)
This course will explore qualities common to some of the greatest writers of non-fiction writers in a range of Western cultures: Thucydides in Greece, Tacitus in Rome, Machiavelli in Italy, Voltaire in France, Gibbon in England, the authors of The Federalist Papers in America (Hamilton, Madison, Jay), Nietzsche in Germany. All of these authors have high ideals and find humanity for the most part notably wanting in its abilities to attain them. They evince a candor and a courage we admire in the way they lay bare the crimes and follies of our species without lapsing into cynicism. Nietzsche, summing up this tradition, spoke of it as “The Great Style”. We will study, often in more than one translation, principal passages of each author, with an eye both to historical context and to the workings of the prose itself on the linguistic level. Though the entire course will be in English, preference will be given to students capable of reading one or more of these authors in the original Greek, Latin, Italian, French or German. You will write pastiches of each author as well as analytical essays about them, and towards the end of the course you will be asked to write some “unflinching prose” of your own.

Greek

Beginning Greek I, II
Greek 101-102
An introduction to Greek grammar and fundamental vocabulary, with attention to pronunciation and recitation of poetry and prose. Ancient Greek is the language of the epics of Homer; the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; the comedies of Aristophanes; the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle; the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides. Reading includes significant passages from Homer and the Christian New Testament in Greek. Students with high school Greek are welcome and should see the instructor about placement.

Intensive Greek
Greek 106
For students who wish to acquire a strong grasp of the Greek language and culture in the shortest time possible. Students with little or no previous experience of the language complete the equivalent of three semesters of college-level Greek. 8 credits.

Intermediate Greek
Greek 201-202
Begins with the Apology of Socrates in the versions of Xenophon and Plato, in an attempt to build fluency in reading the kind of Attic prose for which the first-year textbook was the foundation. Later focus is on the opening book of Homer’s Iliad, to learn the basics of dialect, meter, and epic word order. Continues with the Iliad, with a look at passages in the Odyssey, the Homeric hymns, and Hesiod.

Doubt and Belief in Greek and Roman Literature
Greek 279 / Latin 279 / Literature 279
Deals with challenges to and defenses of traditional dogmas and beliefs in the areas of religion, science, and philosophy as reflected in ancient Greek and Roman literature. Discussion addresses Platonic texts, Sophist writings, Sextus Empiricus and other sources of ancient skepticism, Lucretius, Cicero, and Seneca. Reading is in translation; no knowledge of Greek or Latin required. A tutorial is available for students wishing to read Greek texts in the original.

Advanced Readings in Greek Literature
Greek 302
Tutorials for third- and fourth-year students of Greek.

Latin

Foundational Latin Experience
Latin 101-102
Latin is the language not only of Virgil, Cicero, Horace, Catullus and Tacitus, but also of poets, historians, philosophers, and theologians from the time of St. Augustine through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It is the language in which Western culture was transmitted to Europe or first invented. Students with little or no experience of Latin acquire a working knowledge of the language. As far as possible, Latin is learned as a language spoken and heard in the classroom, not as abstract rules and paradigms. The class speaks, chants, sings, and performs skits in Latin, in addition to reading. By the end of this course, students can hold their own in conversation and, with the aid of a dictionary, read most Latin authors. Indivisible.

Foundational Intensive Latin Experience
Latin 106
A team-taught course in which students with little or no knowledge of Latin learn to read the language and use it actively. Latin is spoken as much as possible. Materials consist of unchanged Latin texts (not artificial sentences), poetry and songs, and drills, exercises, and grammatical explanations (in English). Emphasis on the three areas of concentration—generating, reading, and performing the language—varies, so that successive classes look and feel quite different, and Latin is learned as a living language. The experience results in a dramatic production by the students of part of a Roman comedy. Students learn to deal independently (with the help of a dictionary) with most Latin texts and hold their own in conversation. 8 credits.

Intermediate Latin I: Readings in Classical Literature
Latin 201
An introduction to the literature and culture of the Roman Republic. Readings include poetry and prose and provide an introduction to colloquial Latin and the opportunity to practice it in class. Open to students with one year of college Latin or the equivalent. Students with high school Latin are welcome and should see the instructor about placement.

Intermediate Latin II: Virgil’s Aeneid IV
Latin 202
A reading of the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, the story of the love affair between Dido and Aeneas and its tragic end. The Latin text contains extensive notes and commentary in English. If time allows, students read from Virgil’s Eclogues as an introduction to a different genre and diction. Students with extensive high school Latin should see the instructor about placement.

Doubt and Belief in Greek and Roman Literature
Latin 279 / Greek 279 / Literature 279
See Greek 279 for description.

Catullus and Horace
Latin 301
Reading of a range of texts by the two greatest Roman lyric poets, selected to represent the different genres in which they wrote. Attention is paid to meter and the interplay of sound and sense, the Greek poets they made a point of emulating for a Roman audience, and the long and rich tradition of translating them into English verse. Reading in English, from an oration of Cicero to a modern historical novel, fills in details of the turbulent transition from republic to principate that is the background of their work.

Lucretius and Virgil
Latin 302
Reading from Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura and Virgil’s Georgics and The Aeneid, accompanied by consideration of the entirety of all three poems read in English translation. Attention is paid to questions of meter, genre, philosophical content, historical background, and above all, literary achievement.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit
Sanskrit 101-102
Sanskrit is the language of ancient India, of such works as the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, the great Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Upanishads. Students first learn the grammar and syntax of classical Sanskrit and acquire a working vocabulary. Then they read substantial passages from Sanskrit authors.