08W, 09W: 11
Which ancient faces and personalities come alive for us when we look back at
Greek and Roman antiquity? How were the Greeks and Romans like us, and how
different? How and why does their world-and what we have inherited from their
world-intrigue, repel, awe, amuse, or disturb us, and how much is that to do
with our own preoccupations? Taking as its starting point the interface between
Classical antiquity and the twenty-first century, this course explores a
selection of topics that will introduce you to the different areas and
disciplines that make up Classics in the new millennium.
Open to all classes. Dist: LIT or INT: WCult: CI.
Christesen.
08S, 09S: 12
The course studies in translation selected works of Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides and Seneca (tragedy), Aristophanes and Plautus (comedy), and some of
their central themes and questions: law, community, revenge, passion, justice,
for example. We will approach them both as texts and as scripts/librettos,
considering their relationship to other types of performance (ritual, rhetoric,
music, dance) and genres (history, philosophy) as well as to theatrical space.
There will be practical workshop opportunities for those interested.
Open to all classes. Dist: ART: WCult: W. Tell.
09W: 11
An introduction to philosophical thought in antiquity, especially that of
Socrates, Epicurus, and the Stoics. We will concentrate especially on ethical
questions; e.g. what kind of life is best for humans to pursue, how thoughtful
persons should weigh the potentially competing claims of reason, pleasure, and
emotion-and on how intellectual activity was perceived at Athens and at Rome.
Readings to include Aristophanes' Clouds, Plato's Apology and
Meno, and selected writings of Epicurus, Lucretius, Cicero, Seneca,
and Epictetus.
Open to all classes. Dist: TMV; Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU.
Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Graver
08X: 12
An introduction to Greek myths and the way in which their use in literature
developed, from the use of myths as religious story to the utilization of myth
in drama and its exploitation in poetry.
Open to all classes. Dist: TMV. WCult: CI. The staff.
07F, 08F: 2
Epic held a unique position in the ancient world: poets working in other genres
would regularly explain why they were not talking about "kings and battles"
("Cupid messed up my meter"). By constantly re-reading and re-interpreting epic
poetry, schoolchildren learned to behave as their cultures expected, as well as
to speak and write persuasively. In this course we shall read (in English
translation) extensive selections from six powerful works: Homer's
Iliad and Odyssey, Apollonius' Argonautica, Vergil's
Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Lucan's Civil War.
We shall examine how these poems succeed in making actions, emotions, and ideas
from the (imagined) past meaningful in the present. Epics promise immortality:
as recompense for their struggles and inevitable death, mortal heroes win
lasting glory from the stories that commemorate their achievements. But the
poems also ask profoundly troubling questions about how to measure glory, and
how to evaluate human achievements. What happens to those who lose the
struggle? How do women or non-"heroic" men shape their lives and their
reputations? What role do the gods play in all this?
Open to all classes. Dist: LIT: WCult: W. Graver.
07F, 08F: 11
The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the basic methods and
principles of Classical archaeology through a survey of the principal types of
sites and artifacts characteristic of Greco-Roman antiquity. Students will gain
a good overview of the approaches useful in the interpretation of a wide
variety of material evidence as well as of problems inherent in such evidence.
At the same time, through the study of a number of major sites in roughly
chronological sequence, students will acquire an appreciation of the
development of material culture in the Mediterranean world from prehistory to
the collapse of the Roman Empire. The course thus serves both as an
introduction to Greek and Roman civilization and to the particular goals of the
discipline of archaeology.
Open to all classes. Dist: INT or ART: WCult: W. Rutter.
Consult special listings
08W: 10A
In 08W, Fictions of Sappho (Identical to Comparative Literature 67 and
Women's and Gender Studies 21.2). Goddess of poetry, sexual predator, exotic
holiday destination, lovelorn suicide, schoolmistress, parchment scrap: these
are among the associations clustering around Sappho. From antiquity to the
twenty-first century her poems and the legends about her life and loves have
fascinated writers, artists and musicians as different as Queen Victoria, Willa
Cather, Boccaccio, Jeanette Winterson, Ezra Pound, Gounod, and Ovid. We sample
some of the twists and turns in this seemingly endless stream of fantasy and
creative reaproppriation.
Dist: LIT: WCult: CI. Williamson.
07F: 2 08W: 10, 10 08F, 09S: 12
In 07F and 09S, Sex, Celibacy and the Problem of Purity: Asceticism and the
Human Body in Late Antiquity (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 43.2
and described under Religion 31).
In 08W at 10 (Section 1), Roots of Feminism (Identical to and
described under Women and Gender Studies 15).
In 08W at 10 (Section 2), Greek and Roman Engineering and Technology.
This course will offer an introduction to the most important machines and
processes of Greek and Roman technology. Emphasis will be on the practical
implications and applications of ancient technologies and engineering. Within
the broad range of technologies surveyed, students will focus on specific case
studies to provide deeper analysis and understanding of individual topics.
Reading will be based on a textbook and selected chapters and articles from
secondary sources. Greek and Roman writers will also be read in
translation.
Open to all students. Dist: TAS; WCult: W. MacEvitt, Stewart, Ulrich.
08F: 12
This course surveys the major events in the history of ancient Greece from 1600
to 338 BCE. During this period, the Greeks formed individual communities and
developed political structures that satisfied particular communal definitions
of liberty, spread their culture throughout the Mediterranean, invented
democracy and enshrined in their art, literature, and political systems the
beginnings of humanism. During the same period, democratic Athens became an
imperialist power and a slave society and, unlike other Greeks, kept wives and
daughters closeted. This course considers the peculiarities and genius of these
Greeks.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in History. Open to all
classes. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Christesen.
07F: 12
This course has two aims: (1) to establish a basic understanding of the history
of Alexander the Great and of Greek-speaking peoples in the eastern
Mediterranean during the fourth through first centuries BCE and (2) to explore
the cultural, military, political, and economic innovations of what was a
singular age of experimentation.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in History. Open to all
students. Class of 2007 and earlier: Dist: SOC; INC; WCult: W.
Christesen.
09W: 12
This course surveys the history of the Roman people from 753 (traditional date
of the founding of Rome) to 44 B.C. (the assassination of Julius Caesar).
Topics include the development of Roman law, the conquest of all lands
bordering on the Mediterranean, and the civil wars that destroyed Republican
government. Particular emphasis is placed on the Roman political community: the
political, religious and social factors that influenced the definition of the
Roman aristocracy in the fourth century, the institutions that maintained the
ascendancy of the elite, the military and political values inherent in the
citizenship, the social and political mechanisms that militated against civil
dissent, and the role of political values in the eventual destruction of
Republican government from within.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in History. Open to all
classes. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Stewart.
08W: 12
This course surveys the history of Rome (city and empire) from the victory of
Octavian-Augustus at Actium in 31 B.C. to the success of Constantine at the
Milvian Bridge in 312. Topics include the Roman conception of empire and the
successive strategies of defending it, political leadership and the cult of
personality, the theory and reality of the Roman citizenship (e.g., service in
the Roman army), imperial policies on urban development and the social and
political function of the cities, the development of alternative sources of
political power and social prestige, and the conflicting political identities
of Romans and Christians and the political consequences of a religious
conversion.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in History. Open to all
classes. Dist: INT or SOC: WCult: W. Stewart.
08W: 2A
This course is designed to introduce the student to the various types of
documentary evidence available to the ancient historian and to the various
perspectives for framing and answering historical questions. We consider the
interpretive methodologies for each type of document (coin, inscription,
papyrus) as well as the particular historical context in which these documents
were produced. Topics include the function of coinage and economic thinking in
the ancient world and the political significance of the publication of law. The
final weeks of the term allow for in-depth consideration of a specific problem
in ancient history.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in History. Open to all
classes. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Stewart.
08W: 11
This course traces the cultural evolution of humanity in the Aegean basin from
the era of hunting and gathering (Palaeolithic-Mesolithic) through the early
village farming stage (Neolithic) and the formative period of Aegean
civilization (Early Bronze Age) into the age of the great palatial cultures of
Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece. The emphasis in the early part of the course
will be on the different economic bases of early life in the Aegean and on
regional variation within it. In the latter half of the course, study of the
palaces, fortified citadels, and royal tombs at such sites as Knossos, Mycenae,
Tiryns, and Troy will lead to discussions of the Greek myths about Atlantis,
King Minos' sea empire, and the Trojan War, and their basis in historical
fact.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History. Open to all
classes. Dist: SOC: WCult: W. Rutter.
08S: 11
This course examines in detail through archaeology the cultural process whereby
Greece evolved from a scattered group of isolated and backward villages in the
Dark Ages (ca. 1100-750 B.C.) to a series of independent, often cosmopolitan
city-states united against the threat of Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 B.C.
Where did the Greeks acquire the concept of monumental temple architecture and
why did they choose to build temples in only two or three different
architectural styles? Where did the Greeks learn to write in an alphabetic
script and what did they first write down? Who taught the Greeks the art of
sculpture and why did they begin by carving what they did? When and why did the
Greeks begin to portray their myths in art?
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History. Open to all
classes. Dist: SOC: WCult: W. Rutter.
09W: 10
From the allied Greeks' expulsion of Persian invaders through their great
victories at Plataea and Mykale in 479 B.C. to their catastrophic defeat by
Philip, Alexander, and the Macedonians at Chaeronea in 338 B.C., the history of
Greek culture is that of dozens of individual city-states in constant
competition for hegemony in a wide variety of different arenas, from
battlefield to stadium to pan-Hellenic sanctuary. In this course, particular
attention is paid to the material cultural achievements of the richest and
artistically most influential of these poleis, the city of Athens,
when that city developed the western world's first democracy, built the
Parthenon, and played host to the schools established by Plato and
Aristotle.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History. Open to all
classes. Dist: ART: WCult: W. Rutter.
08F: 2A
This course begins with the archaeology of Late Neolithic and Iron Age Italy,
then focuses upon the Etruscans, early Latium and the development of Republican
Rome and her colonies, concluding with the death of Caesar in 44 B.C. In
addition to a chronological development of the material culture of Italy, we
will explore at least two important cultural topics: 1) Etruscan religion and
its influence on the Roman sacro-political system; 2) the machinery of Roman
government as expressed in the spaces in Rome (and other sites) that played
host to political ritual: the Arx, the Forum, the Comitium,
the Curia, the Tribunal and the Basilica.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History. Open to all
classes. Dist: SOC: WCult: W. Ulrich.
09S: 11
Through archaeological sites and related finds, this course examines the Roman
empire as it was transformed under the rule of the emperors. We will begin with
a close look at the first emperor, Augustus, then continue with an examination
of the reigns of the Julio-Claudians, Flavians, and Trajan. We focus on how
ancient Italic traditions were transformed to suit the needs of the Imperial
government (for example, the adaptation of the Republican, Hellenized
Domus to the Imperial Palatium). The most dramatic change in
religious practice is the development of the Imperial cult. Site analysis will
stress the need for an imperial idiom, the accommodation of urban masses and
the promotion of a sense of a shared cultural experience. The course will also
examine the technological developments that led to the 'architectural
revolution.'
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History. Open to all
classes. Dist: ART: WCult: W. Ulrich.
08S: 12
This course surveys Roman archaeology from Hadrian to Constantine. Emphasis is
placed upon the Antonine and Severan emperors, then shifts rapidly over most of
the mid-third century to focus on Diocletian and the tetrarchy, Constantine and
the move of the capital to Constantinople. The course ends with a look at the
great church of Hagia Sophia, and consideration of the debt of early
Christianity to pagan religious traditions. A major component of the course is
the study of the Romanization of the provinces, and, more specifically, the
complex process of cultural hybridization (imported Roman traditions melding
with local practices). Such sites as Baalbek, Petra, Dura-Europos, Palmyra,
Roman Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunisia and Algeria, Constantinian Jerusalem, Trier,
Spalato, etc., may be included.
May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History. Open to all
classes. Dist: ART: WCult: W. Ulrich.
09S: D.F.S.P. (Greece) 09F: D.F.S.P. (Italy)
The independent study project to be completed by a student while a member of
the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program in Greece or Italy.
Prerequisite: membership in the Foreign Study Program. WCult: W.
Christesen, Stewart, Ulrich.
09S: D.F.S.P. (Greece) 09F: D.F.S.P. (Italy)
Credit for this course is awarded to students who have successfully completed
the work of the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program in Greece or Italy. May be
taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art.
Prerequisite: membership in the Foreign Study Program. Dist: ART:
WCult: W. Christesen, Stewart, Ulrich.
07S: D.F.S.P. (Greece) 07F: D.F.S.P. (Italy)
Credit for this course is awarded to students who have successfully completed
the work of the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program in Greece or Italy.
Prerequisite: membership in the Foreign Study Program. WCult: W.
Christesen, Stewart, Ulrich.
All terms: Arrange
All terms: Arrange
Independent research and writing under supervision of a member of the Classics
faculty. Open to honors students in their senior year and to other qualified
students by consent of the Department.
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Not offered in the period from 07F through 09S
07F, 08W, 08F, 09W: 9
Study of Greek grammar, syntax, and vocabulary accompanied by reading of simple
Greek prose selections. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the
Distributive Requirement. The staff.
08W, 08S, 09W, 09S: 9
Continued study of Greek grammar and syntax. Readings in Greek prose authors.
Completion of Greek 3 satisfies the College language requirement and serves as
a prerequisite to the major in Classical Archaeology. Never serves in
partial satisfaction of the Distributive Requirement.
Prerequisite: Greek 1, or equivalent. The staff.
07F, 08S, 08F: 10 09S: 2
Readings in Greek prose and poetry at the intermediate level, typically
including selections from Plato and/ or Euripides. Prerequisite: Greek 3, or
equivalent. Dist: LIT; WCult: W (unless otherwise
indicated).
In 07F, Philosophy , A thoughtful reading of Plato’s Symposium, the
dinner-party dialogue on erotic love. Accompanying material from Greek poetry,
oratory, and the visual arts illustrates the cultural backdrop against which
Plato developed his ideas. Requirements commensurate with registration in Greek
10 or Greek 28. Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Graver.
09W: 2
(See Modern Greek section below)
08W: 2
Reading in Greek and discussion of selections from the Iliad or
Odyssey. Reading of the whole poem in translation and discussion of
its character, style, and composition.
Prerequisite: Greek 10, or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
Tell.
09W: 2
A study of selected poetry from the archaic period of Greek literature. In
addition to excerpts from the hexameter poems of Hesiod and the Homeric hymns,
readings will include shorter lyric poems such as those of Archilochus,
Alcaeus, Sappho, Theognis, Xenophanes and Anacreon. Discussion will include
both literary aspects of the poems and their social and cultural context,
including the ways in which gender is figured in their performance.
Prerequisite: Greek 10, or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
The Staff.
09S: 2
A study of the tragedy and comedy of Classical Greece through detailed reading
of at least one play of Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and
Aristophanes.
Prerequisite: Greek 10, or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
The Staff.
08S: 2
This course centers on the period of intellectual ferment and enquiry in fifth
and fourth century Athens, when traditional beliefs came under scrutiny and
many different figures laid claim to truth telling, from orators and sophists
to poets and the practitioners of philosophy and history. Texts studied will be
taken from the following: philosophy (the sophists, the early dialogues of
Plato); history (Herodotus and/or Thucydides); the medical writers; Euripides:
orators.
Prerequisite: Greek 10 or equivalent. Dist: TMV; WCult: W.
Williamson
07F: 10
Our goals are to learn to read Plato's Greek with accuracy and comprehension,
and to become engaged with his thought through close study of sample arguments.
The two dialogues we will read, the Lysis and the Meno, are both short works,
which will give us an opportunity to study Plato's arguments in their entirety.
These particular works, with their interest in friendship and recollection
respectively, are also particularly helpful as introductions to Platonic ethics
and epistemology.
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Graver.
08F: 2
A brief introduction to the language, vocabulary, and idiom of New Testament
Greek, followed by readings in the Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul.
Prerequisite: Greek 10, or equivalent. Dist: TMV; WCult: W.
Whaley.
08X: 10A
A joint seminar for students in Greek and Latin on a topic that will involve
common meetings of both Greek students and Latin students, as well as selected
texts in Greek for those electing Greek 30, and texts in Latin for those
electing Latin 30. Previous topics have been such themes as “Tragicomedy” (a
cross reading of Euripides and Plautus) and “The Poet and the City.”
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. The staff.
All terms: Arrange
All terms: Arrange
Independent research and writing under the supervision of a Department member.
Open to honors students in their senior year and other qualified students by
the consent of the Department.
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
09W: 2
An introduction to Modern Greek as a spoken and written language, with emphasis
on practical conversation. Intensive study of basic grammar, syntax and
vocabulary through drills, conversation, written exercises, and oral
presentations, supplemented by laboratory exercises and by drill-sessions with
a teaching assistant.
No previous knowledge of Greek is assumed. Never serves in partial
satisfaction of the Distributive Requirement. Kacandes.
07F: 9, 2 08W: 9 08F: 9, 2 09W: 9
Introduction to Latin grammar, vocabulary, and syntax through prose readings of
gradually increasing difficulty. Never serves in partial satisfaction of
the Distributive Requirement. The staff.
08W: 9, 2 08S: 9 09W: 9, 2 08S: 9
Continued study of Latin grammar, vocabulary, and syntax with reading of
selected literary texts. Completion of Latin 3 satisfies the College language
requirement. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive
Requirement.
Prerequisite: Latin 1, or equivalent. The staff.
07F: 9 08S: 10A 08F, 09S: 9
Readings in Latin prose and poetry at the intermediate level, typically
including selections from Catullus, Cicero, Livy, or Ovid.
Prerequisite: Latin 3, or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
Van den Berg.
09W: 10A
Close reading of Vergil's Eclogues and Horace's Epodes, two
collections of poems circulated during the very last phase of the Republic
(after the death of Caesar). Both are elegantly crafted works employing a great
variety of artistic strategies for reinventing Greek verse-forms; both also
reflect the anxieties of the triumviral period in that they incorporate a
number of dark and troubling themes. We will consider especially questions of
gender, selfhood, otherhood, and poeticized political thought,
Dist: LIT: WCult: W. The Staff.
07F, 08F: 10A
In 07F, we will read a play by the Roman playwright Terence, often regarded as
Rome’s most elegant author of comedy. We will also venture into snippets from
other ancient authors to understand better Terence’s literary milieu. Students
will consider Terence’s literary models (Greek and Roman) and the social role
of ancient comedy.
Prerequisite: Latin 10 or equivalent. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Van den
Berg.
08W: 10A
Ovid’s Fasti: we will read at least one book of Ovid’s fascinating
poetic Fasti and the entirety in English. As context we will read
passages from Varro and the inscriptional Fasti. Thematically, we will focus on
the cultural function of festivals and the social relevance of calendars and
time.
Prerequisite: Latin 10, or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
Van den Berg.
08S: 2A
This course will study the dynamics of the epic tradition through a reading of
the Neronian poet Lucan's "Civil War," an unfinished epic poem based
on the war of Caesar and Pompey for mastery of the Roman world. Among themes to
be explored: the role of violence in both Roman society and the epic tradition,
and the particular challenge of writing epic poetry after Augustan poet Vergil
and Ovid.
Prerequisite: Latin 10 or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
Graver.
09S: 10
Readings from the late Empire to the high Middle Ages that will include
selections from the Vulgate, St. Augustine's Confessions, the Passion of
Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Hrotsvitha's Dulcitius, and the
Carmina Burana.
Prerequisite: Latin 10, or equivalent. Dist: LIT: WCult: W.
The Staff.
08X: 10A
A joint seminar for students in Greek and Latin on a topic that will involve
common meetings of both Greek students and Latin students, as well as selected
texts in Greek for those electing Greek 30, and texts in Latin for those
electing Latin 30. Previous topics have been such themes as “Tragicomedy” (a
cross reading of Euripides and Plautus) and “The Poet and the City.”
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. The staff.
All terms: Arrange
All terms: Arrange
Independent research and writing under the supervision of a member of the
Classics faculty. Open to honors students in their senior year and to other
qualified students by consent of the Department.
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
