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Classics Graduate Courses
Spring 2011
LITERATURE, CULTURE AND THOUGHT
CLAS 5110: Greek and Roman Epic; Tyler Lansford
MWF10:00-10:50
In this class we will read the bulk of four major classical epics: the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, the Argonautica of Apollonius and Virgil’s Aeneid. We will begin with ‘primary’ epic – the oral heroic poetry common to so many preliterate societies and transmuted by Homer into the austere and tragic vision of the Iliad on the one hand and the romantic fantasy of the Odyssey on the other. Taken together, the Iliad and Odyssey define the genre of epic across the full spectrum of its tragic and romantic potentialities: the Iliad is the tale of an inhuman passion that causes ruin and ultimately destroys the hero, the Odyssey that of a man who through his endurance wins his way home and vindicates his place in his family and kingdom. In the ‘secondary’ or literate epic of Apollonius, by contrast, it is the psychological potential of the genre that is developed – most famously in the characterization of Medea. With Virgil, heroism, tragedy, romance and psychological characterization are amalgamated in the crucible of Rome’s political destiny to yield an epic vision of cosmic pretensions – a vision pervaded nonetheless by a profound consciousness of the price paid by that destiny’s agents and opponents alike. Infusing the natural, human and divine dimensions of his world with an unprecedented symbolic charge, Virgil finds hitherto unapprehended depths in epic: Ovid’s brilliant perpetuum carmen and the laudable endeavors of Lucan and Statius notwithstanding, the Aeneid holds its own as the capstone of the genre in antiquity.
ANCIENT HISTORY
CLAS 5031: Alexander the Great and the Rise of Macedonia; Peter Hunt
MWF 1:00-1:50
The careers of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great marked a decisive change in the course of Mediterranean history. Philip's victory at the battle of Chaeronia marked the end of classical period of independent Greek city-states. The vast conquests of his son Alexander, extending from Egypt to India, set the stage for more than a century during which Greek monarchs dominated the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. This course will begin with the city-states of Greece, especially democratic Athens, and explore the reasons they were finally overpowered by Macedonia. The extraordinary and controversial career of Alexander will be our second main subject. Whenever possible, we will try to get beneath the surface of events to analyze trends and to examine interpretive issues raised by our evidence. The course will conclude with a brief treatment of the Hellenistic kingdoms, which ruled over most of the conquests of Alexander until the coming of Rome.
Classics 5031 is a graduate add-on to a large (90 student) undergraduate lecture class (Clas/Hist 4031). The graduate component of the class will consist of extra readings, a research paper (prepared in consultation with the professor), and, perhaps, occasional extra meetings for the graduate students.
GREEK
CLAS 5023: Topics in Greek Poetry: Aristophanes; John Gibert
MWF 2:00-2:50
Students will read Acharnians and Thesmophoriazusae entire, with bits and pieces, together with selections from other plays. There will be a moderate amount of secondary reading as well. Course requirements will include a class presentation or two and a medium-length paper (c. 3000-3500 words).
LATIN
CLAS 5014: Topics in Latin Prose: Cicero's Speeches; Peter Knox
TR 12:30-1:45
Graduate students in the class will read three speeches entire: Pro Sextio Roscio, Catilinarians 1 & 2, and Philippics 2, as well as selections from other speeches and the de Oratore. Required secondary readings will include E. Rawson’s biography of Cicero and selected articles. The course requirements will include midterm and final exams and a paper. Students will be expected to translate and comment on assigned readings in class. This class meets concurrently with CLAS 4014.
CLAS 4824/5824: Latin Teaching Methods; Alison Orlebeke
TR 2:00-3:15
This course focuses on theories and strategies for the teaching and learning of the Latin language. It provides an introduction to the tools and techniques necessary for the management of a Latin language classroom at the elementary, secondary, or post-secondary level. Topics covered include theories of language acquisition, an overview of the field of Latin education, textbooks, lesson planning, classroom management, assessment, teaching on line, oral Latin, Latin for students with learning disabilities, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, support materials, and classical organizations.
Course Objectives:
- To explore, understand, and be prepared to implement the Colorado Model Content Standards for Foreign Languages
- To become more confident in one’s ability to pronounce Latin, read Latin, and explain its concepts
- To increase one’s theoretical knowledge and practical experience in lesson planning and the teaching of Latin
- To broaden one’s repertoire of practical teaching strategies and activities
- To better understand the complexities and subtleties of teaching in a multi-ability and multicultural classroom
- To become reflective about students, learning, teaching philosophy, instructional strategies, and technological innovations as they relate to the teaching of Latin
- To examine personal assumptions, beliefs and values about Latin instruction
- To become prepared to pursue licensure in Latin
CLAS 7014: Seminar in Latin: Universal History; Jackie Elliott
W 3:00-5:30
Universal history is a type of historical writing that aims to present the history of mankind as a whole, as a single, coherent unit. It represents no discrete genre recognized by the ancients, nor was there any set term by which it was identified. Its definition thus regularly requires negotiation, as do the qualifications of any particular work to belong to it. Yet the tendency of historiography to want to tell the whole story, as it were, from beginning to end, or to open up to readers the writer’s insight as to the trajectory of human history as a whole, is as manifest in the Greco-Roman as in the Hebrew tradition (think of the Pentateuch) and the traditions of other cultures besides, through to the present day.
In this course, we will survey some of the surviving manifestations of universal history from Greco-Roman antiquity: we will begin by looking at a range of possible definitions and approaches, and by thinking through the methodology involved in working on historical fragments; then tackle authors head-on: from Herodotus (who is often a part of the conversation about the origins of universal history within the Greco-Roman tradition), through Ephorus and Theopompus; Fabius Pictor, Cincius Alimentus and Cato’s Origines;Timaeus and Polybius; Posidonius; Diodorus; Dionysius; Nicolaus of Damascus and Timagenes; Pompeius Trogus; Strabo; and Velleius Paterculus; before considering the universalizing tendencies of some Roman poetry.
The ideal student in this seminar will have competence in both Greek and Latin and be willing to engage with difficult fragmentary texts in either language. Students who come with an interest in the subject but who feel that the linguistic demands may exceed their current ability should contact the instructor; it will probably be possible to accommodate them within the seminar. (They will complete additional assignments or make additional presentations in lieu of the language work.) All students will do substantial secondary reading and write a research paper on a thesis of their own elaboration.
ART & ARCHAEOLOGY
CLAS 5129: Aegean Art and Archaeology; Beth Dusinberre
TR 9:30 - 10:45
The scope of this course is the prehistoric art and archaeology of mainland Greece, Crete and the Aegean islands, seen in their wider Mediterranean and Near Eastern context, from earliest human settlement in the Aegean area in the Palaeolithic, through the development of civilization in the various regious, down to the end of the Bronze Age at about 1100 B.C. We will consider a wide range of sites, artifacts, and works of art. The course is thus a detailed study of the cultures of prehistoric Greece, the Cycladic Islands, and Crete, their monuments, and their history within the context of the eastern Mediterranean. This will entail examination of a variety of issues such as the origins of farming, metal-working, writing, trade, etc., as well as considering the evidence of language and mythology, and the special problems posed by the iconography of prehistoric cultures. We will pay particular attention to the origins and functions of palaces and their societies.
This course is intended to give students not only an in-depth study of the prehistoric Aegean but also the opportunity critically to examine problems and issues in the field. Thus there are two main emphases to the course: studying the objects and monuments in their contexts and evaluating scholarship on problems relating to these sites and artifacts. Aegean Art and Archaeology is particularly exciting because it is cross-listed between three departments (Anthropology, Art History, and Classics). This reflects the nature of the field, which combines the study of material culture, texts, art, and humanity in prehistoric and historic time periods. The mix of students and backgrounds in the course will enrich class discussion just as much as the mix of approaches to the subject matter has enriched the discourse within the study of Aegean art and archaeology. Emphasis is placed on developing analytical skills and critical thinking.
CLAS 5149: Greek Cities & Sanctuaries; Beth Dusinberre
TR 11:00-12:15
This course surveys the evidence for the primary archaeological sites of the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greek world, looking at the secular and religious landscapes of ancient Greece and the geographical and architectural climates in which its culture and arts developed. We will focus primarily on the cities and sanctuaries located on the Greek mainland, on the coast of Asia minor, and in South Italy and Sicily. We will examine the theory and practice of the Greek polis as well as developments in town planning and building programs, considering them architecturally and on a more theoretical level as responses to important Greek institutions such as colonization and democracy. We will look at both monumental and domestic architecture, and consider not only the forms of architecture but also the technologies of construction, patronage, use and reuse of buildings, and the finds which are associated with such buildings which help reconstruct their chronology and use.
This course serves multiple purposes. It introduces students to the fundamentals of Greek architecture, tracing its development from the 9th century BCE into the Hellenistic period. It considers the use of space, both in religious and in civic settings. And it draws together the study of material culture and textual sources to try to understand ways we may best arrive at understandings of the cultures of historical time-periods. Emphasis is placed on developing analytical skills and critical thinking, with some consideration of critical theory to assist in interpreting the material remains.
CLAS 5199: Roman Architecture; Tyler Lansford
MWF 11:00-11:50
With a primary concentration on the city of Rome itself, this class will trace the development of Roman architecture from its beginnings under the Hellenizing influence of the Etruscans to the end of the Western Empire. Roman architecture began as a modest provincial manifestation of building types introduced into the Western Mediterranean during the heyday of Greek colonial expansion. As in all departments of artistic, literary and intellectual endeavor, the Romans demonstrated a remarkable capacity to absorb the sophisticated products of Greek culture and reshape them in accordance with their own distinctive biases. In the case of architecture, the Romans adopted the characteristic post-and-lintel technique of the Greek temple or stoa and harnessed it to their native construction in poured concrete to produce a novel and astonishingly fertile motif: the use of ‘applied’ orders – Doric, Ionic and Corinthian – to lend both visual coherence and an auspicious dignity to multi-storied fabrics of vaults and piers (think of the Colosseum). As vaulted construction came into its own, Rome progressively abandoned the fundamentally primitive trabeated architecture of the Greeks in favor of an architecture driven by the esthetics of light and volume – an architecture of ‘interiors’ of which Hadrian’s Pantheon remains the supreme expression. As we follow the development of Roman construction techniques, building types and town planning, our leading themes will be the Roman transmutation of the Greek architectural legacy and the definitive superseding of that legacy in the triumph of the concrete vault.
CLAS 5169: Art and Society; Hallie Meredith
MWF 2:00-2:50
The aim of this course is to learn about the complex artistic, religious, and cultural transformations that took place in the ancient Mediterranean world in the period between the reign of Emperor Constantine in the beginning of the fourth century to the rise of Islam in the seventh. We will examine textual and visual sources which include a selection of primary written documents in translation, archaeological and epigraphic evidence, and material culture. Topics covered include the clash between paganism and Christianity, and the reasons and consequences for the fall of Rome and the Western Roman Empire. We will analyze the ways in which the Roman conception and visualization of imperial rule influenced Christian doctrine and Christian art. We will learn from firsthand accounts why late antique people felt compelled to abandon the comforts of urban life and head for the desert or the convent, seeking God in prayer and physical exertions. We will consider why the early Christian theologians argued so passionately that Mary, the mother of Jesus, should be called the Virgin and the God-bearer. We will look at late antique artefacts (including ivories, glittering mosaics, glass and jewellery) and buildings (such as churches, baths, and houses) and question how function and cultural messages were embedded in their form and decoration. We will gain understanding as to why in late antiquity the multi-page book made of animal skin replaced the papyrus scroll, and what these first books looked like. By the end of the course you will have a better understanding of the origins of early Christian art and how it developed in response to social change, and have laid the groundwork to produce a conference-quality paper.
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