GREK

Immerse yourself in the Greek poetry written by various authors from ancient Greece and the subsequent Hellenic tradition.  This course involves reading (a) substantial selection(s) from (an) important moment(s) in this literary history (e.g. Homer’s Iliad).  In addition to translation, regular discussion will focus on the relationship between language and literary art, the legacy of the work or works under consideration, and the study of grammar and vocabulary as necessary.  This course is appropriate for students who have completed GREK 201, GREK 202, or their equivalent. 

Immerse yourself in the Greek poetry written by various authors from ancient Greece and the subsequent Hellenic tradition.  Readings this quarter concentrate on (a) substantial selection(s) of Greek poetry (e.g. Sophocles, Euripides).  This class focuses on the literary and historical context of the text(s) in question, as well as the rhetorical and stylistic qualities of Greek poetry.  Review of grammar and the development of vocabulary will occur as necessary. This course is appropriate for students who have completed GREK 201 or its equivalent. 

Immerse yourself in the prose written by various authors from ancient Greece and the subsequent Hellenic tradition.  Readings this quarter involve increasingly longer selections of Greek prose (e.g. Plato, Xenephon), with an aim to review grammar and improve reading proficiency.   Discussion in class will focus on the literary, historical, and cultural contexts necessary to appreciate the authors and texts.  In addition to review, more advanced grammar will occasionally be introduced and vocabulary will be surveyed as necessary. This course is usually appropriate for students who have completed GREK 103, several years of high school Greek, or equivalent work. 

Introduction to Attic Greek introduces students to the fundamentals of the ancient Greek language through which students may access the worlds of Homer, Sappho, Plato, Thucydides, and Sophocles (among countless others).  This course represents the third and final step in the sequence.  Course work continues to involve the reading and writing of Attic Greek, alongside the further development of vocabulary, the formal study of grammar, and the critical appreciation of composition and style.  Students engage with increasingly longer selections from authentic texts as the course progresses.  Successful completion of this course will prepare students for intermediate coursework beginning with GREK 201.  This course is appropriate for students who have completed GREK 102 or its equivalent. 

Introduction to Attic Greek introduces students to the fundamentals of the ancient Greek language through which students may access the worlds of Homer, Sappho, Plato, Thucydides, and Sophocles (among countless others). This course represents the second step. Course work continues to involve the reading and writing of Attic Greek, alongside the further development of vocabulary and the formal study of grammar. Students will increase their reading proficiency as they engage with longer, more complex, and more interesting sentences and passages, including selections from authentic texts. Successful completion of this course will prepare students for GREK 103. This course is appropriate for students who have completed GREK 101 or its equivalent.

This course will examine the iambic, elegiac, lyric, and epinician genres of archaic and classical Greece, including the poetry of Sappho, Archilochus, Corinna, Bacchylides, Pindar, and many other. We will focus on questions of performance, genre, and context; on the texts’ relationships to each other and other ancient poetic traditions; and to a broad range of cultural, social, and political aspects of the archaic and classical Greek world(s), including sex and sexuality, class, gender, and other forms of identity, and the relationship of the individual to the community. The mythological, dramatic, and formal poetic aspects of these poems will be explored as well as questions of meter and dialect.

Introduction to Attic Greek introduces students to the fundamentals of the ancient Greek language through which students may access the works of Homer, Sappho, Plato, Thucydides, and Sophocles (among countless others).   This course represents the first step.  Course work involves the reading and writing of Attic Greek, alongside the development of vocabulary and the formal study of grammar.  Students encounter authentic texts throughout the course.  Successful completion of this course will prepare students for GREK 102. This course is appropriate for students who have not previously studied ancient Greek. 

Plutarch’s biographies and his writing on literature and morality stand in a long tradition. In this class we will read passages from Plutarch in Greek and compare them to similar texts, such as the relevant sections of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Poetics. The aim is to evaluate Plutarch’s contribution to a literary critical tradition while also comparing his Greek to that of his predecessors.

Athanasius was born and reared in Alexandria where he received a thorough classical education. He eventually became secretary to the bishop Alexander, with whom he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 and whom he succeeded as bishop of Alexandria in 328. For the rest of his life, both in his theological writings and in his turbulent ecclesiastical career, he was a fervent advocate for the Nicene formulations, resisting Arianism at every turn. His most famous work, the De Incarnatione, expounds how Jesus the Word, by becoming flesh, restores to fallen humans the image of God in which they were created. We will read a good part (about 60 pages) of this celebrated treatise with attention to Athanasius’ straightforward Greek style, his portrait of the logos, and his enduring contribution to Trinitarian theology.

Homer’s Odyssey describes the homecoming of Odysseus in a series of poignant, half-hidden, and sometimes misaligned reunions with his loved ones. In this course we will read in Greek many of the Odyssey’s homecoming scenes of the Odyssey, including all of Books 19 and 23. Our focus will be on how the poem depicts the complex character of Odysseus through its recognition (and misrecognition) scenes. Much of our conversation will center on Penelope, the mutual testing between her and her husband, and the degree to which we can attribute “like-mindedness” (homophrosyne) to their relationship.