2022-23

CLCV 26722 The Art of Talking Trash

(CLAS 36722)

Whether they are attacking personal enemies, poetic rivals, or political antagonists, sometimes poets are just plain mean. In this course we will begin by focusing on the art of talking trash in ancient Greek and Roman poetry, before moving on to examine other traditions and examples of invective poetry. We will consider a variety of different genres and traditions of invective, including ancient lyric and curse poetry, comedy and satire both ancient and modern, and contemporary genres such as hip-hop and Lebanese Zajal. In each case, we will study the formal features of the poetry and consider the specific contexts in which it was created, the individual(s) by whom it was created and at whom it was directed, and to what ends. We will also investigate broader themes and purposes of invective poetry, such as the advancement of notions of (often toxic) masculinity, the control of social norms, and the articulation of political protest.

2022-23 Spring

GREK 23922/33922 Plato on Tyranny and Injustice

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.

LATN 27722 /37722 The Latin Manuscript Book from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

(HIST 2/30508)

This course will explore the history of the manuscript book: how it was made, papyrus and parchment, the different scripts used to copy texts and how they developed from the Roman Republic to the High Middle Ages. The class will meet in the Regenstein Library and students will be able to work with manuscripts there and in the Newberry Library, as well as with digitised manuscripts. By mastering the foundational types of writing, the students will develop skills for reading all Latin-based scripts, including those used for vernacular languages. In addition to learning how to transcribe different scripts we shall consider how to date scripts, who commissioned and copied manuscripts, and how they were read. What were the features of a manuscript culture and how was it different from our own experience of reading?

David Ganz
2022-23 Spring

GREK 27122/37122 Praising The Gods: Greek Hymnic Poetry and Its Context

(HREL 47518, RLST 27518, CLCV 27522, CLAS 37522)

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)

Two years of Greek. 

2022-23 Winter

CLCV 28122/CLAS 38122 Monstrous Women in Antiquity

From rapacious bird-women to a serpent-haired petrifactrix, monstrous women pervade ancient Greco-Roman mythology. Why are so many women portrayed as monsters or monstrous? In a 2013 essay, classicist Debbie Felton wrote these monstrous women “all spoke to men’s fear of women’s destructive potential. The myths then, to a certain extent, fulfill a male fantasy of conquering and controlling the female.” In a word, misogyny. In this course, we will interrogate the mutual influence of monstrousness and misogyny in ancient Greek and Roman mythology and its legacy in the intervening millennia. Through critical analysis of ancient source materials and their modern reception, we will explore and evaluate the monstrosity and misogyny of three case studies from ancient Greco-Roman mythology and its reception: Medea, the Furies, and Medusa. We will ask questions such as: how does mythologizing and storytelling encode cultural expectations onto women; how has media been used to support and subvert the patriarchy; what role does intersectionality play in Greco-Roman female monstrosity; how have monstrous women in Greco-Roman mythology influenced modern feminist and critical theory? We will also explore monstrous women in antiquity beyond Greco-Roman mythology, including monstrous portrayals of real women in Greco-Roman antiquity and depictions of monstrous women from other ancient cultures. Students will be assessed through regular discussion and/or blog posts, reflection writings, quizzes, a midterm essay, and a final project. The final project will allow students to synthesize and apply their knowledge with a topic of their own choice from Greco-Roman or other world mythologies in an analytic and/or creative format of their choice, such as a short podcast series, a digital museum exhibit, or a piece of creative writing.

CW: gender- and race-based violence, sexual violence, graphic violence, murder, incest, bestiality, child and animal abuse, suicide, domestic abuse.

2022-23 Winter

GREK 23822/33822 The Greek World Etched in Stone: Introduction to Greek Epigraphy (from Alexander to the Constitutio Antoniniana).

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.

Prerequisite(s): Intermediate-level Greek proficiency or higher is required.

G. Tsolakis
2022-23 Spring

CLCV 27122/CLAS 37122 Making a New Rome: The monuments and demography of Constantinople.

In 330, the Roman emperor Constantine dedicated a city named after himself at the site of ancient Byzantion. It was also designated as New Rome and became the capital of the eastern Roman empire for the next thousand years; it subsequently served as the capital of the Ottoman empire, and today it the modern city of Istanbul. This course will explore the factors that led to the creation of Constantinople, the monuments with which it was first equipped, and the ideological reasons why the emperors chose to build a “branch-office” of Rome in the east. As the new city’s people originated mostly in the provinces, considerable migration internal to the empire must have taken place. How were these thousands of people supported and fed? Finally, the city’s monuments alluded both to those of Rome and to ancient mythology. The emperors spoke through art to their Greek Roman subjects in the east. In this course, we will learn to decode these artistic conventions against a background politics of demography, war, and food supply. 

A. Kaldellis
2022-23 Autumn

CLCV 25922/CLAS 35922 Digital Humanities for the Ancient World

This course offers a hands-on introduction to the field of digital humanities with a special focus on ancient Greek and Roman antiquity. We will explore concepts and methods such as digital presentation of text with markup languages, text analysis with programmatic manipulation, map visualization, 3D modeling, and network analysis. Throughout the course, we will take a critical view of the existing online digital resources for Greek and Roman antiquity. The course will include weekly readings and assignments and conclude with a final research project.
No advanced computer skills are required. However, students are required to bring their own laptops to class.

G. Tsolakis
2022-23 Autumn

CLCV 25122/CLAS 35122 Modern Classical Reception, 1879-1952.

The excavation of ancient ruins – Troy, Machu Picchu, and others – in the 19th and 20th centuries solidified the academic discipline of classical studies. In Europe and the Americas (the “Western” world), these discoveries came to symbolize a modern period that celebrated “the classics.” Beginning with Heinrich Schliemann’s interactions with Troy and the Homeric epics in the 1970s, in this course we read classical ruins and texts (Homer, lyric poetry, Greek drama) with a view toward the various meanings they have generated in modern times. We survey classical reception studies for its attentiveness to the role of Greek and Roman antiquity in Western conceptions of national identity, race, gender and sexuality, and the performance of these onstage, in public spaces, and in personhood. Readings in English, course culminates in research paper. No prerequisite required.

2022-23 Autumn

LATN 34400 Latin Prose Composition.

This course is a practical introduction to the styles of classical Latin prose. After a brief and systematic review of Latin syntax, we combine regular exercises in composition with readings from a variety of prose stylists. Our goal is to increase the students' awareness of the classical artists' skill and also their own command of Latin idiom and sentence structure.  

2022-23 Spring
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