Winter

The Consolation of Philosophy, which Boethius wrote in prison after a life of study and public service, offers a view on Roman politics and culture after Rome ceased to be an imperial capital.  The Consolation is also a poignant testament from a man divided between Christianity and philosophy. About 45 pages of the text are read in Latin, and all of it in English.   Secondary readings provide historical and religious context for the early sixth century AD. 

With emphasis on major stylistic trends in our authors.

This course examines the development of the Latin elegy from Catullus to Ovid. Our major themes are the use of motifs and topoi and their relationship to the problem of poetic persona.

This course is a reading of selections from Roman poetry, especially the works of Ovid. The class involves discussion of poetic language, versification, and the literary and historical context of Roman poetry.  

This course is intended for students with some experience in Latin to quickly review what they know and upgrade their skills in reading and understanding Latin. In this course, students will expand their vocabulary, learn more advanced grammar, and practice extensive reading. "Students who complete this course and its follow-up LATN 103​ will be ready for the intermediate sequence (LATN 20100-20200-20300)."

This course continues the study of basic Latin. Course work involves reading Latin, translating from Latin into English and vice versa, and study of grammar and vocabulary. Throughout the course, students will encounter authentic Latin text. Students who complete this course will be able to understand complex sentences, and often to combine them into larger units of meaning.

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.

This course includes analysis and translation of the Greek text, discussion of Sophoclean language and dramatic technique, and relevant trends in fifth-century Athenian intellectual history.

This course continues the study of basic Ancient Greek. Course work involves reading practice, presentational writing, and formal study of grammar and vocabulary. Throughout the course, students will encounter authentic Ancient Greek text. Students who complete this course will be able to understand complex sentences, and often to combine them into larger units of meaning.

The corpus of Greek literature transmitted in medieval manuscripts presents a notable lacuna in the field of poetry. However, the discovery of the Egyptian papyri in the 19th century and after have provided a new entry to this lost literary corpus. These discoveries open interesting questions about the formation of the canon and about how we have understood and misunderstood ancient literature. This course will approach the corpus of lost and found Greek poetry from two points of view: on the one hand, that of its textual and material transmission, and on the other, that of its literary value. It will include technical training in papyrology, a general overview of textual tradition, and discussions of specific poetic and scholarly traditions, including (potentially) that of Homer, Archilochus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Simonides, Timotheus, Menander, Bacchylides, Callimachus and Posidippus.