CLA 4436:  Honors Ancient Greece

http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite/courses/CLA4436f03.htm

Office Hours and Syllabi : http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite

 

Course Description

 

This course is designed to fit into the interdisciplinary, writing-intensive curriculum of the Honors College. It may be linked to courses in other disciplines, enhanced by a one-hour writing module, and, with approval of an advisor, may contribute to Honors concentration in  interdisciplinary philosophy, as well as to concentrations in literature, art or history. It fulfills 6,000 words of the Gordon Rule writing requirement.

 

The culture of Ancient Greece has been the object of continuing fascination and study throughout the subsequent history of Europe. This course is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to principal artifacts and texts representative of Hellenic civilization from the Minoan to the Hellenistic period. Primary sources in literature, philosophy, historiography (in translation) and visual art will be the focus of study.  An interdisciplinary critical method will be employed, introducing students to a range of traditional and contemporary perspectives in humanities. Texts will be considered thematically, stylistically, and chronologically, in their social and political context, in order to give students a sense of their interconnection with one another and their historical situations.  Key aspects of the ancient Greek language will also be considered, with particular emphasis on the interactions between linguistic and cultural phenomena. Thus the principal concepts of the arts and sciences, insofar as they are derived from Greek origins, will be studied in philological dimension. The thematic and stylistic aspects of Greek cultural artifacts and texts, particularly from 600-399 BCE, will further be considered with a view to their influence on the European tradition.  The Gordon Rule writing requirement will be fulfilled in the sequence of assignments provided.  Ideally, upon completing the course you will have achieved a rich synthetic understanding of ancient Hellenic culture.

 

Gordon Rule Writing Requirement:

Because students in the Honors College may take upper-level courses as substitutes for lower-level ones in their core, it is appropriate to offer Gordon Rule classes at the junior and senior levels.

Writing will be the principal mode of evaluation here. An online guide to documentation styles will be employed (students may choose the style , e.g., MLA / Chicago, commensurate with their proposed concentration).

A series of critical essays will be assigned, focusing on the interpretation of primary sources. Essays will be evaluated in terms of grammar, mechanics, organization, style, and content.  Each student will write a minimum

of 6,000 words.

 

Students enrolled in this course agree to abide by the Honors College Honor Code.  Please review this important document:  http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html.

 

 

Assignments:

1)     Two essays, each at least 1,500 words in length, each 20% of final grade:  40% total.

2)     A series of  ten in-class reading responses, each at least 250 words in length (totaling 2,500 words), altogether 40%.

3)     Class Presentation,  including 500 word prospectus and outline:  20%.

4)  Total minimum word-count for the class:  6,000. 

5)   Regular attendance is required and work must be written and turned in on time; repeated absences will result in a reduction in grade; assignments missed due to unexcused absences may not be made up.

 

Presentation:  Each of you will give talk on one of the works assigned during the final weeks of the semester (Euripides’ Trojan Women, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Plato’s Symposium, Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, and selected topics in Greek art and culture relevant to the period.  You are encouraged to form small groups and coordinate your studies to produce a group presentation.  The list of recommended readings, below, is designed to assist you in your research.

 

You should purchase a copy of Muriel Harris, Writer's FAQ's, A Pocket Handbook, 2/e, 0-13-183125-9, available in the bookstore, for guidance in writing. 

 

 

Syllabus

 

Required Texts:

Aeschylus, Oresteia (Oxford 019513592X)

Aristophanes, Lysistrata & Other Plays (Penguin 0140448144)

Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (Oxford 019283407X)

Euripides, Ten Plays (Signet 0451527003), Paul Roche, trans.

Homer, Iliad, Fagles trans. (Penguin 0140445927)

Morkot, Robert,  Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece (Penguin 0140513353)      

Plato, Symposium (Oxford 0192834274)

Sophocles, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra (Oxford 0192835882)

West, M.L., trans., Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford 0192836781)

 

 

Recommended Readings: (these have been ordered for our library, though some may not have arrived).

Aristotle:  De Anima (On the Soul) Trans. R.D. Hicks. (Prometheus 1994, ISBN

0879756101)  

Bernal, Martin.  Black Athena:  The Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. 2 Vols. Rutgers UP, 1989-1990.

---.  Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to his Critics. Duke UP, 2001.

Bloom, H., ed. Aeschylus. Modern Critical Views Ser.  (Chesea House 1990,ISBN

0877549036)

---.  Euripides.  Modern Critical Views Ser.  (Chelsea House, 1988, ISBN 1555463177)

---.Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.  Modern Critical Interpretations Series.  (Chelsea House,

1988, ISBN 0877549184)

---.  Sophocles.  Modern Critical Views Ser.  Chelsea House, 1988,  ISBN 1555463231)

Boardman et al.  Oxford History of the Classical World:   Greece and the Hellenistic

World (Oxford 1988, ISBN 0192821652)

Burkert, Walter.  Homo Necans

---.  Greek Religion

Conacher, D. J.  Aeschylus' "Promethus Bound":  A Literary Commentary.  (Toronto,

1980, ISBN 0802023916)

Connor, W.R.   Prometheus Bound:   Greek Texts and Commentaries Series.  (Ayer 1979,

 ISBN 0405114516)

Dickenson, Oliver. The Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge World Archaeology Ser.

(Cambridge 1994, ISBN 0521456649)

Euripides. Bacchae.  Trans. J. Morwood.  (Oxford 2000, ISBN: 019283875X)

Fine, G., ed.  Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion & the Soul.  New York:  Oxford, 2000. 

Foucault, M.  The Care of the Self.   The History of Sexuality, Vols. 2. New York: 

Vintage, 1988.

Fullerton, Mark D. Greek Art (Cambridge 2000, 0521779731)

Hanson,  Victor D. The Other Greeks:  The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of

Western Civilization.  2nd Edition.  (U of California P, 1999, ISBN 0520209354)

Havelock, E.  Preface to Plato.  (Harvard, 1987, ISBN: 0674699068)

Heckman, Susan. Feminist Interpretations of Michel Foucault, Re-Reading

the Canon Ser.  Philadelphia: Penn State UP, 1996. 

Herodotus. The Histories.  Trans. R. Waterfield.   New York:  Oxford, 1999.

Homer.  Odyssey.  Trans. Robert Fagels. New York:  Penguin, 1997. (ISBN:

            0140268863)

Humphreys, S. C.  Anthropology and the Greeks.  International Library of Anthropology. 

New York:  Routledge, n.d. (ISBN 0710087853 / 0710200161)

Middleton, Sue. Disciplining Sexuality: Foucault, Life Histories, &

         Education, Athens Ser.   New York:  Teachers' College Press, 1997. ISBN:

         080776292X

Morris, Ian. Archaeology as Cultural History: Words & Things in Iron Age Greece.

Social Archaeology Ser. (Blackwell 1999 ISBN 0631196021)

Nietzsche. F. Trans.Douglas Smith.The Birth of Tragedy (Oxford 1998, 0-19-283-292-1)

Nussbaum, M. and Rorty, A.O.  Essays on Aristotle's De Anima.  New York:  Oxford,

1995.  (ISBN: 019823600X)

Pantel, Pauline Schmitt, ed.  A History of Women I: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian

            Saints.  Cambridge:  Harvard, 1992.

Plato. Symposium.  Trans. Robin Waterfield.  New York: Oxford, 1998.

Pomeroy, S. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves:  Women in Classical Antiquity. New

York: Shocken, 1995.  (ISBN: 080521030X)

Snell, Bruno.  The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought.  New

York:  Dover, 1982.)

Sophocles:  Oedipus the King. Norton Critical Edition.  New York:  Norton, 1980.

St. Croix, G. E. de. The Class Struggle in the Ancient World.  Ithaca:  Cornell, 1989.

ISBN: 0801495970   

Thomson, George.  Aeschylus and Athens: Studies in Drama Series #39. (M.S.G House,

1987, ISBN 083830723X)

Thucydides.  The Pelopponesian War. Ed. Jenniver T. Roberts. Trans. Walter Blanco.  

Norton Critical Edition. New York:  Norton, 1998.

                     

Online:

Ancient History Sourcebook:  Greece: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook07.html

Architecture of Greece: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/greek_arch.html

Art and Architecture of Greece: http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/greek.html

Aristotle: Poetics: http://www.literatureproject.com/poetics/

Athens, Mycenae, Knossos (Crete), Art and Artifacts):  http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/greek.html

Council of the Areopagus: http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_areopagus?page=all&greekEncoding=UnicodeC

Diotima:  Materials for the Study of Women and Gender:  http://www.stoa.org/diotima/

Episteme Links: http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/Philosophers.asp?Period=Anci

Greek Drama (an excellent course): http://www.temple.edu/classics/dramadir.html

Herodotus:  Ancient History Sourcebook: http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html

---.  Thucydides  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/eb11-thucydides.html

The Internet Classics Archive: http://classics.mit.edu/index.html

Maecenas:  Images of Ancient Greece and Rome: http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas/general_contents.html#Greece

Minoan and Mycenaean arts: http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/framesetmycenaen.html

Map of the Peloponnesian War (Athenian and Spartan alliances):  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~atlas/europe/static/map07.html

Minoan Archaeological Sites, Museum:  http://www.culture.gr/maps/crete/iraklio/iraklio.html

Parthenon: Great Buildings Online: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/The_Parthenon.html

Parthenon: 3-D Model: http://www.greatbuildings.com/models/The_Parthenon_mod.html

The Perseus Project:   http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

Resources for Greek Art and Archaeology: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~ekondrat/greece.html

Sources for Thucydides:  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Thucydides/

Thucydides:  Ancient History Thucydides History (complete text): http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html

Thucydides Mythistoricus:  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Thucydides/Cornford/CTOC.html

 

 

 

Week

 

1 -- Jan. 10-12

Course introduction.  Overview of ancient Greek civilization.  Minoan culture on Crete, mythological and historical pictures. The story of Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotaur.  The art and architecture of Knossos:  palatial design, columnar style, frescoes, pottery designs, vase painting, sculpture. Minoan Writing:  Linear A.  Cycladic cultures.  Readings:  Homer, Iliad, book I; Greek text; Music of the Iliad; Reading the Iliad; Historical Atlas, Part I, Crete, Mycenae, and the Heroic Age. In-class response 1.

 

2-- an. 17-19

The Bronze age on the Greek mainland.  Mycenaean culture: a new style in architecture and art:  palatial design,  pottery designs, vase painting, relief sculpture, the Lion Gate of Mycenae, tomb construction, handiwork in  gold, ivory, and faience.  Comparisons with Minoan works. The burial mask of "Agamemnon."  Greek myth and history in Mycenae:  background of the Odyssey.  The story of the Trojan war and the excavation of Troy. Mycenaean writing, Linear B:  early Greek.  Greek religion.  Readings:  Iliad, Books 3. lines 380-524; 4, 6, 9 14; In-class response 2.

 

3--Jan. 24-26

The Greek "Dark Age."  The fall of Mycenae, the loss of literacy, migrations, late Mycenaean pottery styles, Protogeometric vase painting and sculpture, the rise of oral-heroic poetry in the Greek epic:  the Odyssey.  The Geometric period in Greek vase painting and sculpture. Readings:  Iliad, Books 16, 18, 22, 24. Historical Atlas, Part II, the Dark Age & Athenian Democracy  In-class response 3 .

 

4--Jan. 31-Feb. 2

Greek Colonization of  Asia Minor, Ionia, Orientalizing styles in pottery. History, myth and literature.  The transition from orality to literacy. Philosophy and lyric poetry. Readings:  Historical Atlas,. Greek Lyric Poetry.  In-class response 4.

Historical Atlas, Part III: the Persian Rival; I'm Dreaming, Roethke (A Villanelle) by Niina Pollari; Sappho Anew.

5--Feb. 7-9

The Archaic to the early Classical periods:  the emergence of monumental sculpture in marble, Kouros and Kore figures, the black-figure style in vase painting, shift in figure-ground relations, the emergence of idealized naturalism, the combination of geometric with realistic styles.  Greek Lyric poetry.  The construction of European subjectivity as evidenced in lyric poetry:   Readings from Greek Lyric Poetry, pp. 48-82;  Aeschylus, Oresteia, Agamemnon; from epic poetry to rational ontology: Parmenides Fragments:  http://history.hanover.edu/texts/presoc/parmends.htm. 

 

6-- Feb. 14-16

Early classical literature with Archaic thematic and historical dimensions.  The classical polis as hero; myth, literature, history and early Greek philosophy. Myth, History, Tragedy, Artistry--and Agriculture.  The Other Greeks? The Persian Wars,  Pericles and the ascendancy of Athenian power.  Readings:  Historical Atlas, Part IV, pp. 86-95;  Aeschylus, Oresteia, Libation Bearers, Eumenides; Herodotus http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html .  In-class response 5. 

 

 

7--Feb. 21-23

The Golden Age of Athens.  Classical Greek Art. Architecture and Sculpture of the Acropolis. Classical style in architecture, sculpture, vase painting (the red-figure style) and tragic poetry.  Readings:  Sophocles' Antigone, Electra. Thucydides, Ch. 1, The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the Commencement of the Peloponnesian War ; Historical Atlas, pp. 96-101; In-class response; The Peloponnesian War--an Overview.

 

8--Feb. 28-Mar. 2

Classical Greek culture, at its height and on the brink; the canons of composition in classical Greek poetry:  translating  Oedipus the King (Oidipous Tyrannos); Aristotle's analysis of tragedy:  art as mimęsis, the nature of tragic katharsis, plot structure, character, thought, diction, melody, spectacle: Aristotle's Poetics,  books 1, 4, 6; (Also see Perseus Project translation ); Thucydides I, Book 2, Causes of the War - The Affair of Epidamnus - The Affair of Potidaea;  Map; Essay I Due..

 

 

MARCH 6-12 SPRING BREAK

 

9--Mar. 14-16

Greek Historiography and Tragedy:  Thucydides,  Book 3,ch. 9: Plataea and Mytilene; Gender,Power, Justice:  Readings:  Euripides, Iphgeneia at Aulis. Greek metrics and its influence on the European literary tradition.  Readings:  Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Thucydides, Book 2, ch. 6 Beginning of the Peloponnesian War - First Invasion of Attica - Funeral Oration of Pericles; In-class response 7

 

 

10--Mar. 21-23

In-class response 8.  Thucydides,  Book 6, ch. 18; Euripdes, Trojan Women. Oral Presentations & Discussion; ;; Peter Green, “War and Morality in Fifth-Century Athens:  The Case of Euripides’ Trojan Women.” Two critical perspectives on tragedy.  Ancient History Bulletin;  Oral Presentations & Discussion ; Historical Atlas 100-109; Thucydides, Book 6, ch. 19.

 

     

11--Mar. 28-30

Greek Comedy,  Aristophanes' Lysistrata; the architecture of he Acropolis.  Oral Presentations & Discussion ; Thucydides on the Aftermath of the Sicilian Expedition, Book VIII .

 

 

12--April 4-6

Comedy, Tragedy and Philosophy: Euripides Bacchae; Late classical Greek art and the turn toward Hellenism: Historical Atlas part V, pp. 110-135; 

The Sicilian Expedition;  Oral Presentations & Discussion; In-class response 9.

 

13--April 11-13

hilosophy:  Plato’s Symposium.  In-class resp. 10.  Oral Presentations & Discussion       

 

14--April 18-20

Oral Presentations & Discussion  Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics;  Historical Atlas, Part V, Alexander and After

 

15--April 25th Last Day of Class

Oral Presentations & Discussion

Essay II Due .

 

16--April 27th -May 4th

 

Final Exam Week:   Essay II returned, final discussion, grades, class time, May 2nd ;  Oral Presentations & Discussion