In this course we will examine, and learn how to write about, the role of Ancient Greece and Rome in American film and culture. Preliminary steps in this study will involve introductions to various historic eras of the ancient Greco-Roman world as well as important elements of ancient culture. Our emphasis will, however, not be analysis of antiquity itself but rather of American engagement with that antiquity, particularly in film. From reflections of ancient Rome in Star Wars to the adaptation of Greek comedy in Spike Lee\'s Chiraq, we will examine not just how antiquity perseveres in American culture, but how popular art creatively and critically engages with inherited Classical traditions. We will also consider engagement with Classical antiquity in some non-cinematic media as well, such as the graphic novel and even the architecture of the city of Chicago. Through writing and research assignments students will hone their ability to interpret and explain the role of Classical traditions in the modern world.

Sophocles’ plays, including Antigone and Oedipus, are enmeshed in conflicts sparked by Athens’ new democracy: aristocrats vs. democrats, philosophy vs. religion, freedom vs. control, controversies regarding women, foreigners, and slaves. We shall study the seven plays and the different major social and political issues facing Athens’ classical democracy.

We shall read major sections of Plato’s dialogue on Protagoras in Greek, including the gods’ creation of humans, education, and this famous sophist’s defense of democracy.

The goal of second-year Latin (201-1, 2, 3) is the development of proficiency in reading Latin through the introduction of students to major works of Latin literature. During the fall quarter (Latin 201-1) we will read selections from works by Petronius and Cicero with attention to their interpretation and historical significance, in addition to the review and continued reinforcement of grammar and syntax.

In Latin literature women’s voices are mainly qualified by their absence both because women, like other marginalized groups, “often do not appear in ancient texts, and because, when they do appear, they are so clearly figments of an elite male author’s imagination.” [Amy Richlin, Arguments with Silence. Writing the History of Roman Women, 2014.] Silence, the ancients thought, is a woman’s ornament. By bringing together a wide range of Latin texts, this course examines how ancient authors and male actors in their stories silenced mythological and historical women by cutting their lines, by cutting their tongues, or by giving them voice before cutting their lives short. Ovid’s Fasti and Metamorphoses will provide us with famous examples of women who were silenced through martyrdom or transformation, such as Lucretia, Io, Eco, and Philomela. Through the works of Cicero, Vergil, Horace, and Propertius, among others, we will examine the silencing of female voices that put the existence of Rome at risk, such as Lavinia, Dido, and Cleopatra. Ancient medical theories and theories of gender will help us explain ancient women’s imposed muteness, interrogate their silenced voices, and understand why we need to read their stories today. We will end the course by reading the only extant lyric poems written in Latin by a woman.