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Classics Courses
clsics 112G Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Ancient Greece +
Description:
The ancient Greeks were not as limited or one-dimensional about the roles of men and women as one might think: rather, their ideas about the roles of men and women were actually very modern. The Greeks composed tragedies and comedies about women assuming masculine roles in society, wrote philosophical treatises about male homosexuality, fostered the myth of the Amazons, and enshrined Sappho of Lesbos as the singer of same-sex love among women. In this course students will read a wide variety of lively literary, philosophical, and legal sources bearing on issues pertaining to women, gender, and sexuality. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 125G The Myth of the Hero +
Description:
This course examines the image of the hero in ancient Greek literature, focusing particularly on epics and tragedies that present single heroes or heroines who must undertake a journey or confront enemies. In addition to assessing various constructions of the hero, the class will consider larger questions prompted by the struggles Greek heroes faced, with themes including fate, death, failure, suffering, community values, honor, betrayal, redemption, and self-discovery. More Info
Offered in:clsics 161 Demystifying Language: English Vocabulary +
Description:
Seventy-five per cent of English vocabulary derives from either Latin or Greek. This course provides students with a system and analytical tools to demystify the process of building their English vocabulary. Students are given an introduction to English word formation (morphology) and principles of semantic change, as well as to history of the English language, while mastering a large body of word elements based in Latin and Greek. The course builds general linguistic awareness while increasing students' English vocabulary and ability to understand unknown words at sight. Attention is given to academic, scientific and medical terminology. More Info
Offered in:clsics 180 Poets, Warriors and Sages: The Greeks +
Description:
Through consideration of significant figures in Greek literature, history and philosophy, this course introduces students to the major features of the culture of Ancient Greece and to the prominent place of Greek ideas in the Western tradition. The course focuses on critical reading of ancient sources and incorporates analytical writing focused on the reflection of social structures in Greek literature. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 205G Running a Business in Ancient Rome +
Description:
What can pre-industrial Rome teach students about running a business? Rome was a city without electricity or motorized transportation and its population was overwhelmingly illiterate. It was, nevertheless, a city which teemed with small businesses selling everything from fish-sauce to furniture to pillows to wine to gravestones to theater to fast food. In this course students will analyze historical, legal and archaeological evidence for large-scale and small-scale businesses to address questions such as how labor markets, banking and capital, demand, supply, production, transportation, international trade, and supply chains impacted Roman commerce. We can solve real-world business problems from the ancient world: how to develop marketing plans for shops; how to address farm concerns; and how to persuade investors to provide start-up capital. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 212G Women in Ancient Greece +
Description:
This course will introduce students to depictions of women in visual, literary, and documentary sources from Ancient Greece. We examine the roles women played in religion, medicine, society, and the family. We also consider philosophical inquiries into the role of men and women and look at the influences of slavery and war in Greek society. More Info
Offered in:clsics 215G Women of Rome +
Description:
This course introduces students to the world of women in ancient Rome. Through a close, interdisciplinary analysis of the evidence-including depictions of women in visual, literary, and documentary sources, in addition to the growing body of secondary literature-participants become acquainted with the basics of feminist theory and some of the most important works of Roman art and literature. This course may count toward the major in classics. Capabilities addressed: Critical reading, critical thinking, clear writing, information technology. More Info
Offered in:clsics 218G Soul & Self in Ancient Greece +
Description:
This course focuses on the evolution of Greek ideas about the mind and body, which in turn raises discussions of topics such as beauty, courage, nobility, athletics, death, madness, ecstasy and sexuality. The principal readings are Homer's Iliad and Plato's Symposium. Students also consider how works of Greek art reflected these themes. More Info
Offered in:clsics 230L Ancient Egypt +
Description:
A survey of the history, art, archaeology, and religion of ancient Egypt. More Info
Offered in:clsics 233L The Homeric Warrior +
Description:
This course will be devoted to close readings of a Homeric epic, either the Iliad of the Odyssey, with particular attention to the stresses of combat and homecoming. At the same time, the Homeric epics are important historical sources for understanding the society, economy, religion and warfare of Greece in the Bronze and Archaic Ages, and class time will be devoted to comparing poetry with the archaeological evidence. More Info
Offered in:clsics 239L Hindu Myth and Narrative: the Epics and Puranas +
Description:
This course studies Hinduism through its narrative literature, especially the great epics (the Mahabharata and Ramayana) and mythological texts (Puranas - the ''Ancient Books''). Through stories of gods, devotees, villains, and heroes, the course explores the development of significant themes in the Hindu tradition, from ethics and philosophy to asceticism and religious devotion. An important focus of the course is the enduring cultural significance of myth and the epics of South and Southeast Asia, as retold through the ages in a variety of languages, cultural contexts, and media, including classical and vernacular texts, the oral tradition, drama, dance, and cinema. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 240G What's So Funny? Greek Comedy and Beyond +
Description:
Comedy was first invented by the ancient Greeks, revised by the Romans, and is clearly headed for life everlasting on screens of every sort. This course considers the patterns and characters as established by Aristophanes and Menander in classical Athens, the adaptations for Roman audiences written by Plautus and Terence, and representative examples of more recent comic performances. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 241L Myth, History, and Prophecy: Old Testament +
Description:
Interpretation of the religion and literature of ancient Israel in comparison with the mythic religious forms of the ancient Near East, with some attention to subsequent biblical interpretation, literature, and philosophy. Central themes include myth and history, covenant, charismatic leadership, imperial religion, prophetic protest, and apocalyptic visions. More Info
Offered in:clsics 242L Origins of Christianity: From Jesus to Constantine +
Description:
A study of the religion and the literature of early Christianity in comparison with other, contemporary, Jewish movements-Pharisees, Essenes, others-and with Hellenistic philosophy and mystery religions. Concentration on the career and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the interpretation of his significance, and the development and diversity of the Christian movement. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 262L Greek Art and Architecture +
Description:
An introduction to the art and architecture of ancient Greece, from the Late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period, with special attention to social and cultural contexts. Through careful study and analysis of key works we will explore the visual codes and cultural expectations that informed their original creation and reception, as well as the qualities that have contributed to their enduring influence and prestige. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 270 The Life and Works of Julius Caesar +
Description:
Julius Caesar has been called ''the best-known ancient Roman.'' Not only was he Rome's greatest general, he has been considered among the finest Latin writers and surpassed by very few Roman orators. Yet he was a man of contradictions who aroused violently different reactions. This course will explore the biography and works of Julius Caesar from several different vantage points and through many different kinds of sources; his own written works; the archaeological evidence of his buildings, coinage, and statues; the writings of his contemporaries and successors; the views of modern scholarship; and the poets and playwrights who have given us their own versions of Caesar. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 271 Paganism and Christianity +
Description:
Through texts and documents, as well as art and archaeological remains, this course examines the form, experssion and practice of religious life int he ancient Greeco-Roman and Judeo-Christian world, with particular emphasis on cross-cultural borrowings and adaptations. More Info
Offered in:clsics 278 Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum +
Description:
A survey of the art, architecture and social history of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the cities destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, AD 79. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 280 Special Topics +
clsics 281 Greek Civilization: Multi-Cultural Perspectives +
Description:
This exploration of Greek culture from the Bronze Age (3,000 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (3rd C BCE), focuses on the ''other voices'' of ancient Greek society; women, slaves, and foreigners; how such identities were constructed in the ancient texts; what we can know about the lived realities of such groups. Thus, the course aims to turn attention away from the stereotype by which Greek culture exists as an unchanging canon of texts, produced by Greek men, with undeniable and continuing influence on Western culture. Indeed, part of the course will consider precisely how Greek culture has come to enjoy such status, and what, by contrast, it has meant for different peoples at different times. More Info
Offered in:clsics 282 Roman Civilization +
Description:
A consideration of the major periods of Roman civilization through the reading of literary masterpieces supplemented by a text and lectures on cultural and historical backgrounds. Discussion of Cicero, Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, Petronius (Rome). Introduction to archaeological and artistic materials. More Info
Offered in:clsics 284 Greek and Roman Mythology +
Description:
A survey of the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, this course introduces students to accounts of creation, myths of the gods, and stories of the heros. We also consider the literary, artistic and religious dimensions of myth. Readings include Homer, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, selected tragedies, and Ovid's Metamophoses. More Info
Offered in:clsics 285 Greek and Roman Tragedy +
Description:
This course provides a survey of the tragic drama of fifth-century Athens, including the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Focus in on both artistry and social, historical and cultural context, including the interplay between the universal and the culturally specific. Performance conventions, literary genre, and the subsequent tragic tradition (especially Seneca in Rome) are also studied. More Info
Offered in:clsics 287 Women in Greek Society and Literature +
Description:
Readings in English translation of works of Greek literature dealing with women and their place in society. Particular attention is given to the social, historical, religious and economic forces that shaped gender roles in Greek society, and to the gulf between the roles of women in society and their images in literature. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 289 Rome in Hollywood +
Description:
This course focuses principally on the treatment of Rome in American films. It compares ancient sources with their adaptations into film. The ways Romans change in the transition from page to screen furnish clues to America's view of itself, providing a case study of how ideology distorts history. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 290 Lovers, Slaves, and Shipwrecks: The Origins of the Novel +
Description:
Novels of adventure, love, fantasy, travel, and social satire originated among the Greeks and Romans. The best known examples from antiquity are the Satyricon of Petronius and The golden Ass of Apuleius, but novels continued to be written in Latin well into the eighteenth century A.D., and were hugely popular. This course will introduce students to this long tradition. The course will focus on deep shifts in gender roles and sexuality, cultures, ethnicity, multiculturalism, fantasy, and science fiction. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 291 Sport and Spectacle in Greece and Rome +
Description:
This course will examine the competitive games of antiquity-especially athletics, chariot racing, and gladiatorial combat-and analyze the place they had in the religious and cultural lives of Greeks and Romans. Topics include athletic training, the Pan-Hellenic festivals, praise poetry, prizes, professionalism, nudity, the participation of women, amphitheaters, and the cult of violence in Rome. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 292 Alexander the Great and His Legacy +
Description:
At age twenty, Alexander became king of Macedonia; at age thirty-three, he died the master of an empire that stretched from Greece to India. This course explores the personality that shaped his achievements, his self-presentation, the responses of conquered people to overwhelming power, and cultural identity among Greeks, Macedonians, Persians, and Egyptians. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 294 Magic and Science in Greece and Rome +
Description:
Magic and science constitute two competing ways of understanding and manipulating the natural world. Topics in this course include: astrology, witchcraft, necromancy, curses, erotic magic, voodoo dolls, legal restriction on magic, the philosophical basis of scientific thought, mathematical contribution of Euclid and Archimedes, Hippocrates and the emergence of medicine, scientific methods as shaped by Plato and Aristotle, natural development vs. intelligent design, Eratosthenes' measurement of the globe, the astronomical theories of Aristarchus and Ptolemy, military technology, and Christian hostility to science. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 301L Ancient Greek History +
Description:
This course provides a survey of the origin, rise and development of ancient Greek civilization from the arrival of the Greeks in Europe until the death of Cleopatra (approximately 1600-30 BC). Emphasis is placed on the rise of the Greek city-state and the spread of Greek culture to the East. More Info
Offered in:clsics 302L Roman History +
clsics 303L The Archaeology of Ancient Greece +
Description:
This course provides a survey of Greek archaeology and history from the Bronze Age through the Classical Era. Students are introduced to the methods and aims of archaeology. The course begins with the Minoan and Mycenaean eras; the Dark Age and emergency of the full Hellenic era are treated, with emphasis on the city-states of the Greeks. The course makes extensive use of images and surveys the art and architecture of the Greeks in the context of primary literary sources. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 306L The Archaeology of Ancient Rome +
Description:
This course provides a methodological approach to roman archaeology as a key to understanding the history and culture of Rome and its empire from the city's origins in about 750 BC through the height and decline of Roman civilization during the first through fourth centuries AD. The course makes extensive use of images and surveys the art and architecture of the Romans in the context of primary literary sources. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 311L The Fall of Rome +
Description:
People have been trying to understand the fall of Rome since the fall of Rome. In 200 CE, the Roman Empire was the largest, most diverse, and most powerful state the Mediterranean world had ever seen. By 500, the Western half of the Empire had splintered into smaller kingdoms that would eventually become the basis for modern European states. What happened? This course will examine the political, military, environmental, and social changes of the Empire as it loses territory and transforms into the medieval world. But we will spend just as much time trying to understand what it was like for typical Romans to live through this period. We will study armies and taxes, but also the rise of Christianity, the prevalence of slavery, the shifting gender norms, and the stories that filled the imaginations of people throughout this time. We will discuss major ancient cities like Rome and Constantinople, but we'll also venture out to the edges of the Empire and beyond learning about the Goths, Celts, Sassanians, and more.In addition to learning about the transformation of the Roman Empire between 250 and 800, students will also practice thinking like historians; that is, we will think about possibilities and limitations of the wide range of sources that historians use to piece together what happened and why it matters. How do we know what we know about the past? And why should we care how history is written? More Info
Offered in:clsics 320L Bronze Age Aegean Archaeology +
Description:
This course will cover the Aegean world from the beginnings of human history to the emergence of the language, cities and cultures commonly known as Greek in the 8th century BCE. We will focus especially on the archaeology, art, architecture, economy and societal trends of the Minoans and Mycenaeans. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 327L Hellenistic Art and Culture +
Description:
This course introduces students to the Hellenistic period--the three centuries between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the defeat of Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC--particularly primarily through a close examination of the visual arts. Hellenistic art and architecture are examined in their political, social, religious, and multi-cultural contexts, in order to arrive at a fuller portrait of the age. More Info
Offered in:clsics 376 Greek and Roman Comedy +
Description:
The origins of Western comedy in Greece and Rome. We will read selected works of Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus and Terence, and compare them with Euripidean tragedy and later adaptations. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 380 Special Topics +
Description:
This course offers study of selected topics in the field of classical studies. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
clsics 383 Heroes, Wars and Quests +
clsics 385L Greek & Roman Religion +
Description:
The ancients' belief in, and worship of, the ancient gods; oracles, mysteries, cults. Both primary sources (ancient authors in translation) and modern secondary sources are used. More Info
Offered in:clsics 387 The Golden Age of Athens +
clsics 388 The Golden Age of Rome +
Description:
''All roads lead to the Aeneid'': a consideration of Augustan literature, with attention to the literary, philosophical, and historical backgrounds contributing to its unique character. Readings in Cicero, Lucretius, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, the elegiac poets, and Livy. More Info
Offered in:clsics 478 Independent Study +
Description:
Selected research topics organized in consultation with individual students. More Info
Offered in:clsics 479 Independent Study +
Description:
Selected research topics organized in consultation with individual students. More Info
Offered in:clsics 490 Honors Program +
Description:
Extensive reading in one broad segment of classical culture culminating in an honors thesis. More Info
Offered in:clsics 491 Honors Program +
clsics 495 Senior Seminar +
Description:
This course will focus on the history, materials, and methods of the study of the ancient Greek and Roman world, preparing students to be informed consumers of scholarly work in a variety of areas of Classical Studies and to do research of their own in accordance with the accepted standards and conventions of the discipline. Weekly class meetings in the fall semester and independent work with a faculty advisor in both fall and spring will lead to the completion of the capstone paper. More Info
Offered in:- TBA