CLCV

The course will explore the human adaptation to a climatic phenomenon and its transformative impacts on the littoral societies of the Indian Ocean, circa 1000 BCE–1000 CE. Monsoon means season, a time and space in which favorable winds made possible the efficient, rapid crossing of thousands of miles of ocean. Its discovery—at different times in different places—resulted in communication and commerce across vast distances at speeds more commonly associated with the industrial than the preindustrial era, as merchants, sailors, religious specialists, and scholars made monsoon crossings. The course will consider the participation of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East African actors in the making of monsoon worlds and their relations to the Indian Ocean societies they encountered; the course is based on literary and archaeological sources, with attention to recent comparative historiography on oceanic, climatic, and global histories. R. Payne. Autumn.

This course will examine some of the ancient Greek roots of early Christianity. We will focus on affinities between Christianity and the classical tradition as well as ways in which the Christian faith may be considered radically different from it. Some of the more important issues that we will analyze are: "The spell of Homer." How the Homeric poems exerted immeasurable influence on the religious attitudes and practices of the Greeks. The theme of creation in Greek and Roman authors such as Hesiod and Ovid. The Orphic account of human origins. The early Christian theme of Christ as Creator/Savior. Greek, specifically Homeric conceptions of the afterlife. The response to the Homeric orientation in the form of the great mystery cults of Demeter, Dionysus, and Orpheus. The views of the philosophers (esp. Plato) of the immortality of the soul compared with the New Testament conception of resurrection of the body. Ancient Greek conceptions of sacrifice and the crucifixion of Christ as archetypal sacrifice. The attempted synthesis of Jewish and Greek philosophic thought by Philo of Alexandria and its importance for early Christianity.  D. Martinez. Spring.

Following the conquest of Alexander, Greek became the language of power all over the Near East and up to central Asia and India (for a while). Even the fall of the various Greek kingdoms at the end of the Hellenistic period did not mark the end of the habit of writing in Greek. Inscriptions in Greek coming from those regions are still to be found in significant number up to the third century CE. This class will cover all types of inscriptions, from slave manumissions to civic decrees or royal letters, and from  modest epitaphs to sophisticated verse epigrams. It will illustrate the vitality and prestige of Greek culture well beyond the regions close to the Mediterranean Sea.  A good level in Greek is required. A. Bresson.  Winter.

In the Iliad, Andromache famously appealed to her husband Hector to take pity on herself and her infant son, and not go out to fight the Greeks; Hector took pity, but said no. What happened to pity since Homer? Aristotle recognized as an essential feature of tragedy, along with fear. Surprisingly, however, it did not enter Greco-Roman political theory except for one short, little noticed mention: Lucretius placed pity for the weak at the foundation of the Epicurean view of justice. This course will delve into the notion of pity from antiquity to Schopenhauer, with attention to Greeks, Romans, Christians, the period of the Enlightenment, and the Romantics. We will ask: can pity serve as the foundation of morality, as Schopenhauer proposed; or is it shameful, or self-serving?  E. Asmis. Winter.