Spring

Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs is perhaps the most profound - and it is certainly by far the funniest - meditation on the meaning and significance of tragedy to have reached us from  ancient Greece. Staged shortly after the deaths of Sophocles and Euripides, and during the last years before the catastrophic conclusion of the Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes' brilliantly comic play asks what kinds of tragedy are most and least beneficial to the city and indeed whether the city can survive at all without tragedy. His answer is of continuing interest for our own reflections on the question of the survival of our studies, and of our society, in today's world.

A study of the creation of the canonical Greek prose style in the 5th and 4th centuries. Rapid reading and translation exercises.

These two orators were fierce rivals in Athens; the luck of textual transmission allows us to read both of them smearing the other, and to explore what apparently passed for valid argument in the Athenian lawcourts. Demosthenes produced his finest work in attacking Aeschines; in this class we will explore both men’s writings in depth. 

Plautus' Pseudolus is read in Latin, along with secondary readings that explain the social context and the theatrical conventions of Roman comedy. Class meetings are devoted less to translation than to study of the language, plot construction, and stage techniques at work in the Pseudolus.

A close reading of Homer's Odyssey in English translation. 

The three texts are: Epicurus’ Letter to Menoeceus; Epictetus, Discourses; and Diogenes of Oenoanda, Inscription. What all have in common is an urgent desire to inspire the reader to do philosophy—not just any philosophy, but the sort that will make a person happy. The first text is designed to inspire young and old alike to learn the basic principles of Epicurean hedonism; it’s up to us—not the gods, or fate, or chance—to attain the goal of life, pleasure. The second is intended for young men, who have just finished their secondary education. They have been sent by their family to Epictetus’ school on the edge of the Adriatic Sea to be steeped in Stoic morality prior to starting a career. The third text is an inscription by Diogenes of Oenoanda, a prominent local citizen, who confesses he was moved by the dire suffering of his fellow humans to erect a very long wall, inscribed with Epicurean teachings. It is intended for any passerby. We will look closely at the Greek text to investigate both the medium and the message. Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Christianity arose in a world with competing conceptions of the body, health, and the sources of disease. How did the categories of magic, miracles, and medicine intersect in the ancient world? What attitudes toward the body and disability do we find in ancient texts? In this class, students will examine Greek and Roman attitudes through material evidence such as amulets and healing shrines and the textual record of practitioners such as Hippocrates, Galen, and Soranus of Ephesus. The class will discuss the difficulties of mapping modern categories and terminology onto ancient paradigms. Alongside this material, students will gain familiarity with theories of disease and the sociology of health and illness in the Hebrew Bible. Against this historical background, we will approach select accounts of healings within New Testament and early Christian literature. What orientations toward the body and healing do we find? Working at the intersection of biblical and disability studies, students will read these narratives closely with an eye to the history of their interpretation and their implications for understanding early conceptions of Jesus and his ministry. While knowledge of Greek is not required, students with facility in the language will be provided ample opportunities to strengthen their skills. 

This course will examine both the historical record and the literary imagination in order to gain insight into the lives of women in ancient Greece and Rome. In both societies, women were a highly marginalized group, albeit in different ways. In this course, we will look at the forms of marginalization and the (male) anxieties that led to them, but we will give particular attention to the manner in which women were able to assert themselves and take agency in various social, civic, and religious spheres. Readings will all be in English and will focus on both the everyday lives of women in the Greco-Roman world and on those of certain elite women. 

Florence, Rome, and the Italian city-states in the age of plagues and cathedrals, Dante and Machiavelli, Medici and Borgia (1250-1600), with a focus on literature and primary sources, the recovery of lost texts and technologies of the ancient world, and the role of the Church in Renaissance culture and politics. Humanism, patronage, translation, cultural immersion, dynastic and papal politics, corruption, assassination, art, music, magic, censorship, religion, education, science, heresy, and the roots of the Reformation. Assignments include creative writing, reproducing historical artifacts, and a live reenactment of a papal election. First-year students and non-history majors welcome.

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.