Classics (CLASS-GA)

Survey of tools and methods used in classical philology; papyrology; paleography; stemmatization of manuscripts; editing of texts; source criticism (reconstruction of lost works, disentangling of diverse traditions); historiographical use of literary material.

Methods and problems of classics research as they pertain to the archaeological sciences; bibliographical resources and problems involving the interpretation and evaluation of evidence from epigraphy, numismatics, art, and architecture. Typical archaeological sites are surveyed and analyzed.

Extensive reading in Latin prose and poetry of the republican period. Texts are studied in chronological sequence, and major themes of republican intellectual history are explored. Readings include selections from the archaic laws, songs, Livius, Naevius, Ennius, Accius, Pacuvius, Plautus, Terence, Caecilius, Cato, Lucilius, Cicero, Sallust, Lucretius, Catullus, Varro, Varro of Atax, Cinna, and Calvus.

Extensive reading in Latin prose and poetry of the Augustan and imperial periods. Texts are studied in chronological sequence, and major themes of early imperial intellectual history are explored. Readings focus on literature of the golden and silver ages in a variety of genres, including epic, pastoral, tragic drama, satire, epigram, letters, and historical writings.

Extensive reading in Greek prose and poetry of the archaic and classical periods. Texts are studied in chroExtensive reading in Greek prose and poetry of the archaic and classical periods. Texts are studied in chronological sequence, and major themes of Greek cultural and intellectual history such as the rise of the polis are explored. Readings range from Homer to Thucydides and include both major and minor authors.

The development of Greek rhetoric and prose style. A review of morphology and syntax is followed by intensive close reading of selections from authors in chronological sequence. Emphasis is on close translation and syntactical and stylistic analysis.

The development of Latin rhetoric and prose style. A review of morphology and syntax is followed by close reading of selections with emphasis on translation and syntactical and stylistic analysis.

Archaic, classical, and Hellenistic poetry, including selections from Homer, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, lyric poetry, classical drama, and the poetry of Alexandria. Texts are studied in chronological sequence, and attention is paid to Greek intellectual and social history as well as to questions of style and genre.

This introduction to the field of epigraphy investigates the history of classical inscriptions and the methods used to create them by examining a variety of types of texts, and exploring the physical and social contexts in which they were produced.

Considers the writing of the Roman civil war from the perspectives of the victorious dictator and of the opposition poet. Questions of literary influence, political perspective, propaganda, and style are investigated. (In a given term, this course may concentrate more on one of the two texts than the other.)

Reading of the De rerum natura as a masterpiece of poetry and philosophy, concentrating on the struggle between the two. Topics include mastering the fear of death, whether poetry is merely a didactic tool, language as a model for physics, and theories of the origins of civilization.

The three major groups of the Catullan corpus?the polymetrics, the long poems, and the elegiacs?are examined as separate genres. Topics include what it meant to be a poeta novus in Republican Rome, Catullus?s polemical poetics, his Alexandrian and his Roman heritage, and the artifice of spontaneity.

Study of the art form that the Romans claimed was entirely their own via a reading of selected poems of Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal. Topics include satire as a ?mirror? of society, the satirist?s persona, and the language and literary form of the genre.

Overview of Ovid?s poetic output (including love, elegy, didactic, epistolary, and epic poetry); concentrates on a particular poem or related group of poems. Topics include Ovid?s reaction to Vergil, the influence of the declamatory schools, Ovid?s creation of a new narrative style for epic poetry, and the poet?s response to Augustus.

Thucydides? place in the ancient historiographical tradition, particularly in relation to Herodotus, is considered. Topics may include the nature of evidence, Thucydides? use of speeches and narrative, sophistic influence, and the effect of Thucydidean history on later writers.

Xenophon was one of the most versatile writers in all of classical Greek literature. In addition to the justly famous Anabasis, which records the march of the 10,000 mercenaries out of Persia under his leadership, Xenophon wrote Socratic dialogues (as well as an Apology and a Symposium), a continuation of Thucydides’ history, short treatises on horsemanship and hunting (mainly with dogs), an essay on Athenian economics, a eulogy of a Spartan king, and the extraordinary proto-novel called the Cyropaedia, portraying the character of an ideal ruler – and more! And yet, it is only recently that Xenophon has begun to command a wider interest among scholars. Indeed, the International Xenophon Society (membership free) is only two years old. In the seminar, we will read selections from various of Xenophon’s works, situating him in the intellectual climate of his time and developing an all-round picture of this remarkable figure.

Study of selected dialogue(s). Readings and topics vary with the instructor; possible focus includes Plato?s portrayal of Socrates and the Socratic method, the construction of the ideal state, the relationship between poetry and philosophy, Plato and the Sophists, and the teaching of virtue.

Selected work(s) of the fourth-century philosopher. Possible topics include Aristotle?s relationship to Plato, Aristotle?s natural science and its later influences, theories of the ideal constitution and different political entities, and ancient literary criticism.

Study of one or more of the Attic orators in terms of textual, stylistic, legal, social, and historical problems. The relationship of ancient rhetorical theory and practice may also be considered.

Close reading of one of the seven extant plays. The peculiarities of Aeschylean language and, in the case of a play from the Oresteia, the relation of its plot to that of the trilogy as a whole is analyzed. The difficult dramaturgical and textual problems are sketched.

Study of the structure and content of old comedy as represented by the surviving comedies of Aristophanes. Includes political invective and satire; literary parody; utopianism; comic language, gesture, and costume.

Discussion will include all aspects of language and style, characterization, narrative structure, performance, social context, ethical and emotional values, and the reception of Menander in Rome and beyond. Much new and exciting work has been done in the past few decades on Menander, and we are fortunate to have excellent recent commentaries on the plays.

Either the Iliad or the Odyssey is read in its entirety. Topics include the conventions and development of oral poetry; the relationship of gods and man; narrative structure and design; the poems as a source for ancient historiography, tragedy, and later epic; the role of women, especially Helen and Penelope; and the education of Telemachus.

Close reading of the Theogony and of the Homeric hymns; students may also read the Works and Days or the Batrachomyomachia and other poems in the Homeric corpus. Topics include the influence of Homeric epic, the conventions of didactic poetry, the form and structure of hymns, and the influence of Hesiod and the hymns on later Greek poets.

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Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Latin literature.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Latin literature.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Greek literature.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Greek literature.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Roman History.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Roman History.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Greek History.

Independent study under the supervision of a faculty member on an aspect of Greek History.

Focuses on developing the dissertation, with the emphasis on writing the dissertation proposal.

Focuses on developing the dissertation, with the emphasis on writing the dissertation proposal.

Of the ancient Greeks' many gifts to Western culture, one of the most celebrated and influential is the art of drama. We cover, through the best available translations, the masterpieces of the three great Athenian dramatists. Analysis of the place of the plays in the history of tragedy and the continuing influence they have had on serious playwrights, including those of the 20th century.

Topics vary from semester to semester, although the focus is always on an aspect of Latin literature: comedy, epic, lyric & elegy, satire, or history. As well as reading and understanding the texts, we will be seeking to examine their place in the development of Latin literature; we will also be surveying a variety of critical approaches adopted by modern scholars, through close readings of key articles and books on the the different authors.