Courses

This is an introductory course in the history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome, focusing on particular topics relating to classical culture, and emphasizing the analysis of textual and material evidence.

An overview of Ancient Greek civilization from the Bronze Age to the period following the death of Alexander the Great. Greek culture was a Mediterranean phenomenon that spread in antiquity from the Aegean through Egypt and central Asia to India and became the core of education for European and American students during the 18th and 19th centuries. The course focuses on the major social and political institutions (such as the creation of the first democracy) as well as the intellectual and artistic achievements of the Greeks.

A survey of Roman civilization from both an historical and cultural perspective. Chronologically, the course traces the development of the "eternal city" from a tiny village of mud and straw along the banks of the Tiber River in central Italy to the city of marble and bronze dominating the Mediterranean world and beyond. Culturally, we consider Rome's legacy to the western world in terms of its social and political institutions, as well as its intellectual and artistic achievements.

As experiences, pain and healing would seem to be straightforward: something is broken or hurting, and is in need of fixing. But what is seen to be “broken” and how to “fix” it are always culturally and historically specific; and they change with time. What’s more, our diagnoses for suffering or illnesses (what we might think of as interruptions) often say as much about the cultural context and historical moment in which people live as they do about any strictly physiological or psychological experience. This course explores a range of themes around bodily wholeness and bodily breakdown in contemporary worlds and in the ancient world (including ancient Christian literature, ancient medical literature, and ancient practices around illness and healing). It asks how ancient people understood their symptoms and their illnesses in relationship to the larger social body and divine beings, comparing these notions with contemporary assumptions and practices. It tracks the way body, psyche and society are not always easily distinguished, and the way religion in the contemporary world figures, sometimes invisibly, in diagnosis and treatment. For example, we will explore depression as a symptom of socio-political life, tracking its history before the modern era, including its associations with “sin”; and we will observe how Christian religious morality framed and exacerbated the AIDS crisis. Lastly, we will engage in self-reflective writing about our own experiences with health, illness, and healing.

This course is an introduction to Ancient Greek literature from the Homeric world to the Hellenistic era. Students will read the works of major authors representing a variety of genres from epic poetry to philosophical dialogues, considered in the contexts of both ancient culture and contemporary society.

In this course students will study the literature of ancient Rome, analyzing texts not only for their importance to the development of Latin literature but also for their subsequent influence on later authors, from the Renaissance to the modern world. Readings will include selections from the genres of comic drama, lyric, elegy, epic and satire.

This course is a study of the mythology of classical antiquity, with an emphasis on its representations in literature and art, and its relationship to the practice and rituals of Greek and Roman religion.

This is a seminar course on a particular historical, social or cultural topic related to classical antiquity.

This course explores how power and status worked in the family, in politics, in labor practices, and in religious institutions during classical antiquity, focusing on the intersections of gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality.

This course considers the various ways the Greeks and Romans speculated about and defined human differences, as well as exploring the ways in which the ancients theorized about and manipulated their environments to achieve a desired identity. Attention is also given to how these theories were received from medieval to modern times.

This course focuses on the canon of ancient classical literature, both Greek and Roman, examining the tradition and reception of literary genres within classical antiquity, and considering what influences classical literature may have had on the development of later western thought and literature.

This course focuses on the dramatic arts as practiced in Ancient Greece and Rome. Students will read selected plays, tragic or comic, by the major playwrights of classical antiquity, giving attention to dramaturgy, societal contexts, and influences on the development of western theater.

This course focuses on the study of the historical record of the life and times of Alexander the Great, examining primary and secondary sources, and placing the career and accomplishments of Alexander in the contemporary social and cultural context of Macedonia, Greece, and the Near East, as well as Alexander’s influence on the Hellenistic era of classical antiquity.

This course focuses on the decline and fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Principate. Students will examine the political, social, and cultural contexts for the creation of an empire that dominated the Mediterranean world, encompassing an area stretching from Britain to Egypt.

An introduction to the fundamental morphology and syntax of ancient Greek. Exercises in grammar and translation are based primarily upon quotations from Greek literature and the New Testament.

Advanced study of ancient Greek grammar and language. Emphasis is given to the development of translation skills by reading extended passages of Greek.

Prerequisite(s): GRK 111.

A general category used only in the evaluation of transfer credit.

Readings from ancient Greek. Selections range from Homer to the New Testament.

Prerequisite(s): GRK 112 or consent of instructor.

An introduction to the fundamental morphology and syntax of Latin. Exercises in grammar and translation are based primarily upon quotations from Latin literature.

An introduction to advanced grammar and the idiomatic language of Latin. Emphasis is given to the development of translation skills by reading extended passages of Latin.

Prerequisite(s): LAT 111 or consent.

A general category used only in the evaluation of transfer credit.

Readings from ancient and medieval Latin with attention given to the literature's relationship to cultural milieu.

Prerequisite(s): LAT 112 or consent.