Classical Mythology
CLSC 202
M/W: 12:45-2:00PM
M.Hammond
This course offers a survey of the major myths of Classical Greece and Rome known to us from ancient texts and art (both ancient and modern) with an examination of their interpretation, influence, and reception. We will see how myths functioned to reflect and reinforce (but also to challenge) the values, fears and desires of the Greeks and Romans on variety of topics including the creation of the universe and the structure of the cosmos, relations between gods and mortals, religion and divination, justice, society, family, sex, love, violence, madness, and death. We will discuss ways of understanding the compelling psychological, cultural, social, and political impact of mythic narratives, particularly how mythic narratives have engaged with and often reinforced social structures of power and how their impact is still felt today.
Athens to Alexandria: The World of Ancient Greece
CLSC 231
M/W: 12:45-2:00PM
R.Sternberg
This course examines the enduring significance of the Greeks studied through their history, literature, art, architecture, archaeology, science, religion, philosophy, daily life, and political, economic and social structures. Lectures and discussion. Offered as CLSC 231 and HSTY 231.
Cooking Up the Past: Food & Foodways in the Ancient World
CLSC 242
T/TH: 10:00-11:15AM
M.Hammond
This course offers a survey of the foodways of the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome as understood through a study of their literature, art, and archaeological remains, with an eye towards understanding their similarities and differences. We will focus on the role of food in understanding aspects of each culture, including farming practices, urbanization, food scarcity, transitions to agriculture, feasting and friendship, and foodways in religious ritual, funeral practices, politics, colonization, gender relations, and identity. Through weekly readings, discussion, and writing assignments, students will explore how assumptions, traditions, and experiences related to food can vary when examining cultures beyond their own. Offered as ANEE 242 and CLSC 242.
Ancient Philosophy
CLSC 301
T/TH: 2:30-3:45PM
C.Kim
Western philosophy from the early Greeks to the Skeptics. Emphasis on the pre-Socratics, Plato and Aristotle. Recommended preparation: PHIL 101 and consent of department. Offered as CLSC 301 and PHIL 301.
Alexander the Great: Materials and Methods
CLSC 316
T/TH: 4:00-5:15PM
P.Iversen
This seminar is the Disciplinary Communication course for majors in Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian Studies (ANEE) and Classics (CLSC), though it can also be taken for regular credit in ANEE, CLSC or HSTY by any undergraduate or graduate student. The course offers students a firm grounding in the disciplines of Ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Classical Studies with an emphasis on the diverse materials (particularly primary source material), methods, and approaches that can be brought to bear on the study of these ancient cultures. Students will read and discuss the ancient sources and contemporary scholarship on the enigmatic Alexander the Great drawn from various fields, including historiography, chronology, archaeology, art history, philosophy, gender studies, epigraphy, numismatics, and the reception of Alexander. Based upon this, they will then write a research paper that employs the conventions found in the fields of Ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian and Classical Studies. Offered as ANEE 316, CLSC 316, CLSC 416, HSTY 316 and HSTY 416.
Greek Tragedy: Plays and Performance in Ancient Athens
CLSC 319
T/TH: 2:30-3:45PM
T.Wutrich
This course provides students the opportunity to read a significant number of ancient Greek tragedies in modern English translations. We read, study, and discuss selected works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as well as selected criticism, ancient and modern, of these plays. All semester we read the plays as literature composed for performance. We study literary elements within the plays and theatrical possibilities inherent in the texts. As we read the plays, we pay close attention to the historical context and look for what each play can tell us about myth, religion, ethics, and society in ancient Athens. Finally, we give attention to the way these tragic dramas and the theater in which they were performed have continued to inspire literature and theater for thousands of years. Lectures provide historical background on the playwrights, the plays, the mythic and historical background, and possible interpretation of the texts as literature and as performance pieces. Students discuss the plays that they read in class. The course has three examinations and a final project that includes writing an essay and staging a monologue or scene from one of the tragedies. Offered as CLSC 319, CLSC 419, THTR 319, THTR 419, WLIT 319, and WLIT 419.