Spring

It's traditional for the humanities and sciences to be regarded as different fields—non-overlapping magisteria, to adapt Stephen Jay Gould's term. But is this true? In this class we examine the role of the humanities in science. Eight faculty from elsewhere in the university will also come to speak about the sciences and humanities in their own work. Join us as we try to think more broadly about the impact of humanistic thought.

The release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey invites a return to Homer’s enduring epic. In this course, we will read the poem closely alongside Nolan’s film, using key characters and episodes to explore themes of coming of age, desire and excess, sexuality, food, slavery, love, loss, and homecoming. We will also examine the poem’s rich afterlives in literature, visual art, and cinema, tracing how successive generations have reimagined Odysseus and his world.
Beyond the poem’s literary and historical contexts, we will consider how The Odyssey intersects with questions in psychology, anthropology, business, and political life, particularly through its explorations of war, trauma, leadership, ambition, and human acquisitiveness. No knowledge of Ancient Greek is required.

This course aims to enable students to attain conversational fluency and to become independent users of the language who deal effectively and with a good deal of accuracy.

This course expands on the material presented in MOGK 10200/30200, reviewing and elaborating the basic patterns of the language.

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. 

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. 

Immerse yourself in the Latin poetry written by various authors from ancient Rome through the long tradition and reception of Latin literature. This course involves reading (a) substantial selection(s) from (an) important moment(s) in this literary history (e.g. Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses). 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. 

Introduction to Classical Latin introduces students to the fundamentals of the Latin language through which students may access the works of Vergil, Horace, Cicero, Tacitus, and Ovid (among countless others). This course represents the third and final step in the sequence. Course work continues to involve the reading and writing of Latin, 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 LATN 201. 

Myth is essential to how humans make sense of the world: our foundational stories explain the nature of the world; they justify and explore social and sexual difference; they teach and test the limits of human agency. The course will survey contexts and uses of myth-making in the ancient Mediterranean world. We will also explore the many traditions of critique and anxiety about myth-making, among philosophers, literary critics and religious authorities.

Is solitude a good thing? In this course, we will explore how the poets and philosophers of archaic and classical Greece thought about aloneness, particularly the powers and perils of solitude for the individual and the community. We will read portions of Homer’s Iliad, Hesiod’s Theogony, Sophocles’ Philoctetes, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, together with excerpts of ancient philosophy, with an aim of thinking through the relationship between individual and community, which is fraught with tension in so many time periods and cultures. We will also reconsider our understanding of the ancient Greeks as primarily “public” in their motivations and values, in light of the array of possibilities offered by solitude in many of these texts.