GREK

Immerse yourself in real writings from Ancient Greece. Readings this quarter concentrate on selections of Greek prose (for instance, by Plato), with an aim to improve reading skills, discuss key concepts in Greek history and culture, and expand knowledge of grammar and vocabulary as necessary. 

For thousands of years, people have learned this language to go deeper into the thoughts and worlds of Plato, Homer, Sappho, and Early Christianity and more. In this course sequence, you too can begin to learn this language. GREK 103 continues the study of basic Ancient Greek. Course work involves reading practice, writing individual sentences and coherent stories, formal study of grammar and vocabulary, and other linguistic skills as necessary. Throughout the course, students will encounter authentic Ancient Greek text. Students who complete this course will be able to track ideas across at least a paragraph of text and will be ready to move into the intermediate sequence (GREK 20100-20200-20300). 

For thousands of years, people have learned this language to go deeper into the thoughts and worlds of Plato, Homer, Sappho, and Early Christianity and more. In this course sequence, you too can begin to learn this language. GREK 102 continues the study of basic Ancient Greek. Course work involves reading practice, writing individual sentences and coherent stories, formal study of grammar and vocabulary, and other linguistic skills as necessary. Throughout the course, students will encounter authentic Ancient Greek texts. Students who complete this course will be able to understand complex sentences and combine them into larger units of meaning.

For thousands of years, people have learned this language to go deeper into the thoughts and worlds of Plato, Homer, Sappho, and Early Christianity and more. In this course sequence, you too can begin to learn this language. GREK 101 introduces the study of Ancient Greek. Course work involves reading practice, writing individual sentences and coherent stories, formal study of grammar and vocabulary, and other linguistic skills as necessary. Throughout the course, students will encounter authentic Ancient Greek texts. Students who complete this course will be able to understand simple sentences and combine them into larger units of meaning.

In this course we will read passages from Plato’s dialogues, especially the Republic, which explore the question of how bad men manage to manipulate others and rise to power. We will pay attention to the style and rhetoric of such men, as represented by Plato, and briefly digress into other contemporary authors who tackled the same problem.

In this course we will read a broad range of Greek hymnic poetry, starting with Hesiod’s invocation to the Muses in the Theogony, followed by a selection from the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic hymns, and later literary or philosophical hymns by Callimachus and Proclus. Close readings will explore matters of language, genre, and literary tropes, as well as the evolving religious and cultural context of the hymns through the long chronological span in which the genre was productive in Greek antiquity. 

Does not fulfill PhD Writing requirement (no paper required)

One of our best sources for the political, cultural, economic, and religious history of antiquity are texts written on stone or other durable materials (inscriptions). In this course, we will study a variety of inscriptions (laws, treaties, curses, epitaphs, dedications, etc.) dating to the period between the death of Alexander the Great and the promulgation of the Constitutio Antoniniana (323 BCE – 212 CE). By examining selected examples of various types of inscriptions, we will explore a range of topics: war and international treaties; death and emotions; women, children, and enslaved people; economy and commerce.

In this course we will read the Greek text of Philo’s de opificio mundi, with other brief excerpts here and there in the Philonic corpus. Our aim will be to use this treatise to elucidate the thought and character of one of the most prolific theological writers of the first century. We will seek to understand Philo as a Greek author and the nature and origins of his style, Philo as a proponent of middle Platonism, and Philo as a Jew in the context of Alexandrian Judaism. We will also examine his use of the allegorical method as an exegetical tool, and its implications for pagan, Jewish and early Christian approaches to sacred texts.

Now that you can read Greek pretty well, this course takes a step back to look at the system as a whole. What are the major ways in which Greek syntax is different from English (and Latin)? How does the case system work? Are there really twenty ways to use the dative? What more can we say about tense and aspect, and how do you go about making a linguistic argument? And what is the difference with philology, anyway? We are fortunate that two new grammars of Greek (one in English, one in Spanish) have recently come out. We will look closely at what has changed in Greek linguistics between Smyth and the new Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek, and we will do our own corpus-based research. PQ: one year of Greek or consent of instructor; recommended for MA students. Students will present in class and write a final paper.

This is a course for intermediate and post-intermediate Greek students who are interested in exploring a less canonical genre and in developing their reading skills further. The novels give us glimpses of the Greek world and the wider Mediterranean that we do not often get elsewhere. What can we say about the world view of these authors and their audiences? We will read extensively in the various works (in Greek and in translation) and explore the scholarship around them. Student presentations should range widely from cosmopolitanism to gender roles, narratology, and the conventions of this emerging genre.