Spring

How appropriate or useful is the application of the idea of “race” to practices in ancient Greece and Rome? What revelations about the classical or modern and contemporary worlds does the idea of “race” afford? Race has long been considered a modern phenomenon, traceable in such practices as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Recent scholarship has identified race (or racialization, at least) in the European Medieval period and the Renaissance. In this class, we will evaluate the scholarship of race in classical antiquity and the texts and artifacts upon which it relies.

A big change occurred in Greek thought between the time of Homer and that of Socrates, or roughly between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE. This has been celebrated as a turn from myth to philosophy and science. It was also an attempt by humans to take charge of their lives. The course will focus on the leaders of this movement: the Pre-Socratics, the Sophists, and the legendary founder of scientific medicine, Hippocrates. The Presocratic devised new ways of explaining the world as a whole; the Sophists discovered ways in which humans could shape their lives in relation to one another; and the followers of Hippocrates sought to give humans control over their bodies. For the Pre-Socratics, we have only tantalizing fragments; and we will attempt to make sense of them. We will also read a tragedy, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, which shows a god taking the side of humans;  writings of the sophists and attacks on them; and the earliest Greek medical writings.  The course will be taught in English translation. For those who know ancient Greek, optional reading classes will be offered.

Through our reading of Cicero, Ovid, and Seneca, in this class we explore the lost art of letter writing. The genre of the epistle gives us a glimpse into daily life at Rome by capturing actual correspondence between elite Romans, such as we see in Cicero’s letters; allows for playful and philosophical revisitations of myth, even revealing gendered voice, as with Ovid’s letters between Penelope and Odysseus, or Dido and Aeneas; and is a crafted structure within which Seneca communicates the lessons of Stoicism to his fictive interlocutor. We will read these authors’ letters in Latin and compare their style and content. As time allows, the letters of Pliny the Younger and the Emperor Julian round out the historical scope from Roman Republic to Empire. Latin proficiency and student interest will contribute to the shape and pace of our readings and discussions.Assessment is in the form of weekly quizzes on content and grammar and three translation exams.

The course continues the work of grammatical extension and consolidation.  We shall cover a variety of poetry and prose by great
Latin stylists from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, including Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter of Blois, Petrarch, and Dante.  The authors
chosen will all be significant for their efforts to reflect the highest classical standards.

Through close readings of Pausanias, who wrote a Description of Greece during the Roman imperial period, this course explores ancient forms of travel writing and associated interests in the places, peoples, myths, ruins, and material objects of the Mediterranean world. Moving from the apparent ethnographic lens of earlier Greek literature to Roman imperialist expeditions, readings and discussions will examine the sociopolitical contexts out of which Pausanias emerged as a literary author, and his legacies on and relationship to the wide array of genres of modern travel writing, from Lewis and Clark to John Steinbeck. Key topics will include: movement through space, tourism, nature, landscape, town and country, sites and spectacles, myth, ritual, and acts of remembering and forgetting.  

Through close readings of Pausanias, who wrote a Description of Greece during the Roman imperial period, this course explores ancient forms of travel writing and associated interests in the places, peoples, myths, ruins, and material objects of the Mediterranean world. Moving from the apparent ethnographic lens of earlier Greek literature to Roman imperialist expeditions, readings and discussions will examine the sociopolitical contexts out of which Pausanias emerged as a literary author, and his legacies on and relationship to the wide array of genres of modern travel writing, from Lewis and Clark to John Steinbeck. Key topics will include: movement through space, tourism, nature, landscape, town and country, sites and spectacles, myth, ritual, and acts of remembering and forgetting.  

Books have been a fundamental part of the transmission of knowledge and more generally, human communication. They collect thoughts, experiences, feelings, knowledge and ideas into a material artifact that is distributed to an audience of readers. The work of scribes and scholars is the silent agent of this millennial enterprise. The process of book-production involves a large number of different skills from these artisans: material manufacture, preparation of writing surfaces and inks, writing skills, calligraphy, binding, distribution. In this course students will study the history of books, from Antiquity to the invention of the printing press, and their makers. The topics covered will include scribal training, book manufacture, circulation and trade of books, readership, and other such topics around the world of books and scholars. The course will focus on books as artifacts, as transmitters of knowledge and literary creativity.

Books have been a fundamental part of the transmission of knowledge and more generally, human communication. They collect thoughts, experiences, feelings, knowledge and ideas into a material artifact that is distributed to an audience of readers. The work of scribes and scholars is the silent agent of this millennial enterprise. The process of book-production involves a large number of different skills from these artisans: material manufacture, preparation of writing surfaces and inks, writing skills, calligraphy, binding, distribution. In this course students will study the history of books, from Antiquity to the invention of the printing press, and their makers. The topics covered will include scribal training, book manufacture, circulation and trade of books, readership, and other such topics around the world of books and scholars. The course will focus on books as artifacts, as transmitters of knowledge and literary creativity.  

Dreams belong to the universals of human existence as human beings have always dreamt and will continue to dream across time and cultures. The questions where do dreams come from and how to unravel a dream have always preoccupied the human mind. In this course we will focus on dreams in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultural environments. We will cover dreams from three complementary perspectives: dreams as experience, dream interpretation and dream theory. The reading materials will include: (a) a selection of dream narratives from different sources, literary texts as well as documentary accounts of dreams; (b) texts which document the forms and contexts of dream interpretation in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultures and (c) texts which represent attempts to approach dreams from a more general perspective by among other explaining their genesis and defining dream-types.

Dreams belong to the universals of human existence as human beings have always dreamt and will continue to dream across time and cultures. The questions where do dreams come from and how to unravel a dream have always preoccupied the human mind. In this course we will focus on dreams in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultural environments. We will cover dreams from three complementary perspectives: dreams as experience, dream interpretation and dream theory. The reading materials will include: (a) a selection of dream narratives from different sources, literary texts as well as documentary accounts of dreams; (b) texts which document the forms and contexts of dream interpretation in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultures and (c) texts which represent attempts to approach dreams from a more general perspective by among other explaining their genesis and defining dream-types.