Classics 101-6 First-Year Seminar: What makes a classic?
How does a work of literature become a “Classic?” What defines the “classical” style in art, music, and architecture? What belongs in the canon or educational curriculum, and who decides? Most importantly, what do a society’s answers to these questions tell us about its values and cultural identity?
To answer “What Makes a Classic?,” we’ll divide our attention between the literature and art that constitute the canon and the critical apparatus that maintains this special status for certain works while excluding others. In the first half of the quarter, we take Vergil’s Aeneid and its reception as our focus. Later we’ll turn to classics from other premodern cultures, such as the Icelandic Sagas and the 11th century Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, and conclude with students’ own ideas about recent cultural products that have the potential to become classics.
In this course we will study the myths of the ancient Greeks through the reading of ancient texts themselves, in translation. We will begin by studying Greek myth broadly, focusing on our very earliest texts, and then gradually narrow our focus to mythology in Classical Athens. The legacy of Greek mythology is timeless yet the myths themselves grew out of unique times and a unique culture so we will work to understand these myths within their original contexts, yet we will also keep our eye on uses of Greek mythology in the modern world, including in contemporary Chicago.
Classics 310-0 Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean: Amazons
The Amazons were a fantastical race of warrior women who lived on the periphery of the Greek world. They represented a world turned upside down, antithetical to Greek masculine values. The queens of the Amazons were powerful enemies to the best of the Greek heroes, coming into conflict with Achilles, Heracles, and Theseus. In this course we will discuss the place of the Amazons in ancient literature, in various artistic traditions, and in relation to cultures on the periphery of the Greek world where the idea of female warriors did not seem so impossible.
Classics 320-0 Greek and Roman History: Byzantium: Emperors and Hooligans
This course brings face to face two leading forces of the Byzantine culture: the Emperor and the Saint. The Emperor is the most visible figure of the Byzantine history. We know a lot of personal details about each of the thirty seven individuals who sat on the throne during one thousand one hundred years. Their appearance is also familiar to us, thanks to the Byzantine coins. The Emperor was the only person entitled to wear red boots. In his presence, his subjects and foreign ambassadors alike had to prostrate themselves on the ground. It was forbidden to touch the august flesh. The Emperor was the “animate law”, he was an embodiment of absolute power, unconstrained by anything. And yet, the secular authorities in Byzantium always felt themselves a bit “illegitimate”: for many сenturies there was no rule of succession, and each emperor was a usurper. Consequently, even the rituals of power emphasized the perishability of any earthly might. Also, there existed a counterbalance to the Emperor’s omnipotence, and, in contrast to the West, it was not the Church, but the Saint. Also in contrast to the medieval West, in Byzantium, a holy “person” became a saint not thanks to his or her virtues -- but despite his or her transgressions. The more blatantly did they violate common norms, the stronger was their sacred power. The saint dared to contradict Emperors, to reprove or even condemn them. We can say that Byzantium was an autocratic regime limited by saintly authority of the hooligans.
Classics 330-0 Ancient Economy: The Roman Economy: The Preindustrial Economy as a Historical Perspective
It is perhaps unsurprising that our own time - obsessed as it is with GDP growth, the ups and downs of the stock market, inflation rates, the trade deficit - produces scholarship that studies the ancient Roman economy. This scholarship has made us increasingly aware of how different Rome was from the modern world. This course will focus on what that difference means for the realities of everyday life, both past and present. Questions to be addressed are: What did economic growth mean for the economy of the Romans? Can we even measure it? What role did energy consumption play in economic performance? What was the role of social class in business? What was the influence on the economy of a demographic regime in which life expectancy was low? How was trade conducted over long distances without fast means of communication and transportation? What was the role of technology and technological progress in the economy?
Classics 395-0 Research Seminar: Classics in the Digital Age
The course will provide students with fundamental research skills through hands-on learning and in-class work on an individual project. Students will learn how to use reference tools and online databases, allowing them to search, analyze and interpret ancient evidence ranging from literary texts to inscriptions, papyri and visual material. The course is designed to reflect current developments in the field of Classics. It therefore emphasizes digital approaches, including electronic tools for the study of ancient evidence as well as search engines that employ advanced computational methods. The seminar is intended for juniors with a reading knowledge of Latin and Greek. Sophomores and seniors may participate with departmental permission.
Greek 115-1 Accelerated Elementary Ancient and Biblical Greek
This course is the first in a two-quarter series designed to teach students to read ancient Greek, making accessible much of the world’s most influential literature, from the biblical New Testament to Homeric poetry and Platonic philosophy. Since this is an ancient language there will be no spoken component and we will move swiftly through the grammar and basic vocabulary required to read actual texts. These two quarters will, in fact, teach all the fundamentals of the language and lead students directly into second-year courses in the New Testament, classical Greek oratory, and Homeric epic. Thereafter students will be able to progress even further to a wide range of genres from the classical and post-classical periods, including ancient Greek history, poetry, philosophy, drama, and more.
Greek 201-2 Introduction to Greek Literature: Lysias and Plato
This course is the second of the second-year Greek series, designed to solidify the grammatical concepts learned in first-year while introducing students to the study of actual ancient literary texts. In this course we will focus on ancient Attic prose by reading from Lysias on the Murder of Eratosthenes as well as a Platonic dialogue. We will pay close attention to grammar and style, but we will also gain insight into the complexities of ancient Athenian culture, politics, and religion.
Greek 301-0 Greek and Latin Literature: Herodotus in Greek
In this course we shall read selections from Book 1 of Herodotus's Histories in ancient Greek, and the rest of Book 1 (91 pp.) in translation. Our primary goals are to improve our knowledge of ancient Greek, and to understand Herodotus as the West's first historian.
Elementary Latin is a year-long course designed to provide students with the basic skills for reading, understanding, and translating both Latin prose and poetry. It helps lay the foundation for further study of western culture, as well as Medieval Latin, Renaissance Latin, and other Romance languages.
In the second quarter of the sequence students continue to acquire knowledge of the grammar and syntax of the Latin language and Latin vocabulary, and to develop an ability to read, understand, and translate passages in both adapted and un-adapted Latin. In addition, the course provides an introduction to Roman culture, civilization, and history.
Latin 201-2 Introduction to Latin Literature: Vergil's Aeneid
Latin 201-2 is designed to improve students’ understanding of the Latin language by close reading of major poetic texts, with special attention to grammar, vocabulary, and style. In this course we will examine the portrayals of major female characters in Vergil's Aeneid. Class activities will include careful reading and translation of the Latin text combined with literary discussion and interpretation. The course also provides a systematic introduction to the basics of Latin metrics and versification. Students will learn how to approach ancient Latin texts in the original language, analyze Latin grammar and style, evaluate our source materials and different linguistic interpretations of Latin texts and their composition.
Latin 201-2 Introduction to Latin Literature: Vergil's Aeneid
Latin 201-2 is designed to improve students’ understanding of the Latin language by close reading of major poetic texts, with special attention to grammar, vocabulary, and style. In this course we will examine the portrayals of major female characters in Vergil's Aeneid. Class activities will include careful reading and translation of the Latin text combined with literary discussion and interpretation. The course also provides a systematic introduction to the basics of Latin metrics and versification. Students will learn how to approach ancient Latin texts in the original language, analyze Latin grammar and style, evaluate our source materials and different linguistic interpretations of Latin texts and their composition.
Late ancient and medieval Christian authors might wrestle with the implications of pagan literature, but they were deeply steeped in it, and they kept reinventing classical Latin culture. They did so in four main stages: (1) First there were writers of late antiquity who were in direct continuity with classical Latin tradition and gave it Christian inflection. (2) Then there were Carolingian writers of (roughly) the 9th century who, having become aware of a distinction between Latin and the emerging Romance languages, self-consciously sought to revive classical language and literature. (3) Twelfth-century poets experimented with new forms but were deeply conscious of what they viewed nostalgically as the lost culture of Latin antiquity. (4) Humanist writers of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, beginning in Italy, self-consciously reasserted what they viewed as classical alternatives to Scholastic and other recent trends. Apart from self-conscious revivals of classical Latin culture, there was what might be called simply survival of early literary tradition; in early medieval England, for example, standards of Latin learning remained high, and authors who built on classical sources did so in a spirit more of continuity than of revival.
