| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
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| CLASSIC 5 | LATIN / GREEK ROOTS IN ENGLISH | STAFF | Studies in the formation and use of English words from Greek and Latin derivatives. Particularly useful for first-year students who wish to augment their vocabulary systematically. No prerequisites.
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| CLASSIC 10 | SCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY | STAFF | A study of English terms derived from Greek and Latin and important to contemporary medicine, science and other professions, with emphasis on the development of word-building skills. No prior knowledge of Greek or Latin required. The work is designed to aid undergraduates, particularly those in the sciences, in the development of their technical vocabulary. No prerequisites. |
| CLASSIC 37B | ROMAN EMPIRE | SOGNO, C. | The course is a survey of some of the highlights of Roman civilization during the early centuries of the Roman empire (end of the first century BCE to the third century CE). In this period, the Roman world was ruled by an emperor who increasingly came to have absolute power. We will look not only at political history, but also at social history, literature, art and architecture, and religion. The course will consider a number of questions, including the political and social consequences of living under an absolute ruler - especially when, as was quite often the case, he was unbalanced. This is the period of \"bread and circuses\" in which the emperors bought off the lower classes by providing the grain dole and spectacular free entertainment such as chariot races and gladiatorial contests. We will also look at how the emergence of Christianity affected the Roman world, and how complex social systems and entrenched institutions such as slavery evolved over time. The early centuries of the empire were a time of great prosperity in which Roman power reached its zenith; it was a period of relative stability but also, in some respects, a time of decadence, which has been a source of both admiration and loathing for almost all subsequent ages, including our own. |
| CLASSIC 45B | THE HEROES | ZISSOS, P. | Classics 45B is the second part of the Classical Mythology series. This course will concentrate on myths about ancient heroes, such as Hercules, Odysseus, Jason and those featured in the Trojan and Theban Saga. The overall goal is to understand the nature of the heroic, as depicted by ancient writers and artists, and to appreciate the ways in which the ancient Greeks used myths in order to interpret their world. The grade will be based on three exams. Prerequisites: the series Classics 45 ABC should be taken in sequence, therefore, students enrolling in 45B should have already taken 45A. The Classics 45 ABC series satisfies the Humanistic Inquiry Breadth requirement.
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| CLASSIC 75 | INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL RHETORIC | JARRATT, S. | This course offers an introduction to the theories, practices, and cultural status of rhetoric in ancient Greece and Rome. The art of using speech and writing to direct human attitudes and actions came to prominence under the term "rhetoric" in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. in Athens as a tool of democratic politics and a framework for organizing education, legal argument, and public discourses such as the funeral oration. Rhetoric was systematized as a theory by Aristotle and adapted by the Romans under both the republic and the empire. We will read major works in the ancient tradition, including Gorgias' Encomium of Helen, Plato's Gorgias, Aristotle's Rhetoric, and significant excerpts of works by Isocrates, Cicero, and Quintilian. The course will end with examples of Greek rhetoric under empire--declamation, city encomium, and political addresses--and Christian rhetoric from both Greek and Latin authors. Background will be provided by Laurent Pernot's lively new overview: Rhetoric in Antiquity (trans. W.E. Higgins). We will also read short passages from drama, poetry, and satire that provide insight into ongoing debates about rhetoric's cultural, ethical, educational, and political status. The course will be a combination of lecture and discussion requiring a few short writings, a take-home midterm, and a final exam. The short writings will be a combination of reading responses and brief attempts at imitating classical rhetorical genres. All works are read in translation.
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| CLASSIC 160 | CLASSICAL DRAMA | KARANIKA, A. | This course examines selected readings of classical tragedy and comedy. We will be reading some tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and comedies of Aristophanes. We will study Greek drama as an ever-evolving live theatrical form and as an artistic product of a particular political and cultural context. Topics of interest: religion and drama, drama and the life of the city, tragic and comic festivals, festivities and ritual. Special attention will be given to the theme ofwomen in captivity, captivating women, and women ‘captains.’ |
| CLASSIC 170 | ANCIENT GREEK SEXUALITY | GIANNOPOULOU, Z. | This course will focus on ancient Greek sexuality and sexual behavior as historical knowledge and as they relate to our own attitudes, values, and practices. We shall examine both the ancient texts and other evidence, along with the interpretations scholars have placed upon them, and shall attempt to assess for ourselves the nature and extent of our knowledge of ancient Greek sexual mores. Some of the topics to be examined are: ‘natural’ and ‘social’ constructions of sexuality; sex and violence; marriage; male/female prostitution and the law; homosexuality; pederasty and pornography.
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| CLASSIC 220 | GRADUATE SEMINAR: PLATONIC MYTH | GIANNOPOULOU, Z. | In this course we shall examine the dynamic interpenetration of myth and philosophy in Plato's work with a view to understanding how mythic discourse differs from philosophical argument. We shall investigate how Plato deploys myths and the connections that may be established between them and the broader concepts of the dialogues in which they are embedded. Among others, we shall deal with the following topics: Platonic and poetic attitudes to myth; Platonic constructions of 'likelihood' and 'truth'; the language of myth, allegory, and fiction versus that of philosophical argument; the epistemological function of myth; eschatological myths; theology and creation myths; mythic imagery and the role of perception in philosophical discourse.
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| CLASSIC 220 | GRADUATE SEMINAR: CATULLUS | SOGNO, C. | This seminar focuses on the poetry of Catullus. We will read all the poems of Catullus, following a thematic order and focusing (among others) on the following themes: the influence of Alexandrian poetry on Catullus; the style and poetics of Catullus and the other (largely lost) neoterics; aggressive language; questions of gender in the poems; the question of biographical vs. non-biographical approaches to love-poetry; the poems in their social context; the 'fortuna' and influence of the Catullan corpus. The longer poems (64 and 68 in particular) will receive special attention.
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