Classics Courses

21

Greek Mythology and Religion

A survey of the myths of the gods and heroes of ancient Greece, with a view to their original context in Greek art and literature as well as their place in Greek religion. We will give particular attention to myths that live on in Western art and literature, in order to become familiar with the stories which were part of the repertory of later artists and authors. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2009-10.  Professor R. Sinos.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Fall 2010

23

Greek Civilization

Readings in English of Homer, Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato to trace the emergence of epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy within the context of Greek history. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2009-10.

 

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021

24

Roman Civilization

Roman civilization, in the Roman view, started with war and government, the arts instilled by the city's eponymous founder, Romulus. Second came religion, and a set of cultural values that kept the Romans recognizably Roman over the 12 centuries between founding (traditionally 753 BCE) and collapse (476 CE). The civil wars that punctuate this long history reveal the difficulty of Rome's evolution from an agrarian community to a world empire. This course examines both Rome's fundamental institutions (army, constitution, law, religion, familia) and those that entered in the wake of conquest, meeting either welcome (literature, philosophy, science, new gods) or suspicion (monotheistic religion, magic). Primary readings from major literary works supply the evidence: Caesar, Cicero, Juvenal, Livy, Lucan, Lucretius, Ovid, Polybius, Sallust, Tacitus, Virgil. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2009-10.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Fall 2010, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021

28

Life in Ancient Rome

An introduction to the people of ancient Rome, their daily routines and occupations as well as their place in the developing Roman state. Topics will include religious practices, the Roman army, games, slavery, women’s lives, and Roman law. We will focus on primary sources, including literary as well as archaeological evidence, but will make use of modern representations of ancient Rome for the sake of comparison. Three class hours per week. 

Omitted 2009-10.

 

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2009, Spring 2011

33

History of Rome

This course examines the political and social systems and struggles that marked Rome's growth from a small city-state to a world empire. Through various sources (Roman works in translation and material evidence) we will focus on the development of the republican form of government and its transformation into an empire. We will study also the daily life of the people and the impact of Christianity on the Roman Empire.

Spring semester.  Professor Grillo.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2010, Spring 2012

34

Archaeology of Greece

Excavations in Greece continue to uncover a rich variety of material remains that are altering and improving our understanding of ancient Greek life. By tracing the architecture, sculpture, and other finds from major sanctuaries, habitations, and burial places, this course will explore the ways in which archaeological evidence illuminates economic, political, philosophical, and religious developments in Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2009-10

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2009, Spring 2012, Fall 2014, Spring 2018, Spring 2022

38

Greek Drama

(Offered as Classics 38 and Women and Gender Studies 38.) This course addresses the staging of politics and gender in selected plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, with attention to performance and the modern use of the plays to reconstruct systems of sexuality, gender, class, and ethnicity. We also consider Homer's Iliad as precursor of tragedy, and the remaking of plays in contemporary film, dance, and theater, including Michael Cacoyannis, The Trojan Women; Rita Dove, The Darker Face of the Earth; Martha Graham, Medea and Night Journey; Pier Paolo Pasolini, Oedipus Rex and Medea; and Igor Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex.

Fall semester. Professor Griffiths.

 

 

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2009, Spring 2016, Fall 2019

77, 78

Senior Departmental Honors

Spring semester. Members of the Department.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022

97, 98

Special Topics

Spring semester. Members of the Department.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2011

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