Elementary Latin II CLASS-UA4
001 M-Th, 9:30-10:45, Rebecca Sausville
002 M-Th, 3:30-4:45, Mikael Papadimitriou
Continuation of Elementary Latin I. Introduction to the essentials of Latin vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. Five hours of instruction weekly, with both oral and written drills and an emphasis on the ability to read Latin rather than merely translate it.
Intensive Elementary Latin, CLASS-UA2, M-F, 8:00-9:15, Nicholas Rynearson
Introduction to the essentials of Latin vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. Open to students with no previous training in Latin. Completes the equivalent of a year's elementary level in one semester.
Intermediate Latin CLASS-UA6
001 M,T,Th, 9:30-10:45, Christopher Parmenter
002 M,T,W, 3:30-4:45, Calloway Scott
Intermediate Latin II: Virgil: Writings of the greatest Roman poet, focusing on the most generally read portions of his most celebrated poem, the Aeneid. The meter of the poem is studied, and the student learns to read Latin metrically to reflect the necessary sound for full appreciation of the writing. Readings in political and literary history illustrate the setting in the Augustan Age in which the Aeneid was written and enjoyed, the relationship of the poem to the other classical epics, and its influence on the poetry of later times.
Elementary Greek II CLASS-UA 8 M-Th, 11:00-12:15, Calloway Scott
Introduction to the complex but highly beautiful language of ancient Greece--the language of Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides, and Plato. Students learn the essentials of ancient Greek vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. Five hours of instruction weekly, with both oral and written drills and an emphasis on the ability to read Greek rather than merely translate it.
Intermediate Ancient Greek II: Homer CLASS-UA 10, M,T,W, 9:30-10:45, David Sider
Prerequisite: V27.0009 or equivalent.
Extensive readings from the Iliad or Odyssey. Proficiency in Homeric grammar is expected, as well as a good command of Homeric vocabulary; the course will also address scansion and metre in Homeric epic. Relevant topics ranging from the problems of oral tradition to questions of heroism, divine intervention and 'Homeric Society' in Dark and Iron Age Greece will be discussed in class or developed by the student through oral or written reports.
Greek History: Alexander-Augustus CLASS-UA 243 (same as HIST-UA 243), T&Th, 2:00-3:15, Andrew Monson
Until a few decades ago, Greek history began with Homer and dealt narrowly with the Greek world. Thanks to archaeology, the social sciences, and other historical tools, the chronological and geographical horizons have been pushed back. The history of the Greeks now starts in the third millennium B.C.E. and is connected to the civilization that lay to the east, rooted in Egypt and Mesopotamia. We trace Greek history from the Greeks' earliest appearance to the advent of Alexander.
History of Rome: Republic CLASS-UA 267 (same as HIST-UA 205), M&W, 2:00-3:15, Myles McDonnell
In the sixth century B.C., Rome was an obscure village. By the end of the fourth century B.C., Rome was master of Italy; by the end of the third century, it was the dominant power in the Western Mediterranean. Within another 150 years, Rome had taken control of the entire Mediterranean world, as well as the whole of continental Europe south of the Danube and west of the Rhine. This phenomenal imperial growth went hand in hand with the development of political institutions at Rome which sought to manage internal conflict between classes and individuals. Yet in the final century of the Republic that political system collapsed into civil war, as a succession of leading generals, such as Sulla and Marius, Caesar and Pompey, sought to manoeuvre themselves into power.
This course will trace the political and military development of the Roman Republic, starting from its earliest beginnings and concluding with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C; we will seek in the light of modern research to explain both the Romans’ successes in expanding their empire, and the ultimate failure of the Roman Republic’s constitutional framework.
The Return of the Ancient Gods CLASS-UA 291.001, M&W, 11:00-12:15, Alessandro Barchiesi
Between 1400 and 1600, European courts (including the Vatican) mobilized intellectual, artists, and scholars in a vast project to unearth resurrect, and recover Classical antiquity and its cultural baggage of paganism and mythical imagination. The reasons for this massive effort are worth inquiring, and are still somewhat mysterious and unique.
The class will use texts, all in English, and visual material. The goal is to improve the ability to do research connecting various epochs and cultures and combining various media and approaches. The project requires active participation by the students. Short readings will be assigned every week and will be the object of critical discussion in class, accompanied by examples from the visual arts and material culture.
Romans in the East CLASS-UA 291.002 (same as ARTH 800.002), M&W, 12:30-3:15, Anne Kontokosta
From the first century BCE onwards, the Romans were fascinated with the cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean. This course will trace Rome’s journey into Anatolia and the Near East and document the transculturation that occurred as a result of both political and cultural contact. Focusing on the first through sixth centuries CE, each class will analyze the archaeological and architectural remains of a single city or site (such as Antioch, Apamaea, Aphrodisias, Baalbek, Ephesos, Dura Europos, Lepcis Magna, Palmyra, or Petra). These cities will provide the context for discussions of relevant socio-political themes, including Greek cultural continuity, the Roman army and military campaigns in the East, trade and the economy, Rome and its client kingdoms, and religion in the East (the Imperial Cult, Christianity, Judaism, etc.). We will look at a variety of media, including architecture, sculpture, relief, painting, and luxury objects and will discuss individuals who changed and challenged Roman relations with the East (Pompey the Great, Herod, Queen Zenobia, Julia Domna, among others). The influence of the art and architecture of the East on visual norms in Rome, itself, will also be considered. To conclude, we will talk about how the current political climate has impacted the archaeology and conservation of Roman sites in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Augustus CLASS-UA 293.001, M&W, 12:30-1:45, Michael Peachin
Rome’s first emperor was Augustus. That said, it is not quite right to think that he founded or created anything like a clearly defined imperial system of government. If we want properly to understand what he did accomplish, then we must say that he set in motion a gradual replacement of an older quasi-democratic republic by an evolving military autocracy. Even more importantly, perhaps, he refused to admit in the least that any such change was taking place. His claim was that the newly forming government was a faithful renovation of Rome’s traditional institutions. And beyond all of this, he managed to carry the whole Roman world with him in living out this blatant fabrication. The result: For at least one hundred years after his death, Rome was plunged into a topsy-turvy state of social, political, and constitutional confusion, anxiety, double-speak, and murder. In this course, we will very carefully observe the young man, Caius Octavius, as he morphs into a new identity: Imperator Caesar Augustus. This was without doubt one of the most brilliant political feats in all of human history. It was equally a bloody and autocratic usurpation of the Roman state. So, was Augustus a great hero, one of human history’s most esteemed leaders? Or, was he simply a power-hungry monster, who destroyed a great republic to satisfy his own desires, and thereby deprived the Roman people of their liberty? Let’s see..
Numismatics and the Ancient Economy CLASS-UA 293.002, Wednesday 3:30-6:00, Gilles Bransbourg and Peter van Alfen (from the American Numismatic Society)
Coins are much more than just money. They are windows in the way people organize their politics, their societies, and, of course, their economies. Coins were first struck in the ancient Mediterranean world in the late 7th century BC and rapidly spread throughout Greece coinciding with the revolutionary changes that gave birth to the Greek city-state. Greek and Roman expansions led to increased monetization all across the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds, shaping political structures, fiscal regimes, domestic and international trade. This course begins by looking at archaic Greece before coinage, seeking to understand what money was before coinage, and how trade and wealth were organized. Thereafter, it focuses on the ways in which coinage altered these organizations and structures through Greco-Roman antiquity, leading to entirely new concepts like fiduciarity, exchange rate risk, and inflation. The course will cover the history, methods and theories of numismatics, and will include hands-on experience with ancient coins, while dealing with the impact that coinage had on ancient societies.
Gods, Bods, Medicine, Magic & Religion in the Greco-Roman World CLASS-UA 294.001, T&Th, 9:30-10:45, Calloway Scott
In the case of the ancient world, how do we begin to sort out what qualifies as “scientific” or “rational” practice from the “magical” and “divine”? What is the substance of their opposition, where their places of coincidence and concurrence? Further, is there a practical division between religion and magic? This course offers undergraduates a confrontation with these challenging issues. By introducing students to a range of theoretical perspectives this course aims to familiarize them with the tools and sources used in studying the intersections of ancient religion and medicine. Equal emphasis will be placed on elite, rationalizing texts as on the extant material and literary sources for magical and religious cures. In "Gods and Bods" students will encounter the texts of the Hippocratic corpus, Plato, Pliny, Galen, and Aelius Aristides not only as sources of medical theory, but as social and cultural critics of different modes of medical practice. Ultimately, students will leave class with a theoretically enriched understanding of the interrelation of medicine, religion, and society and a sensitivity to how these questions continue to animate debates around medical care and policy today.
Greek Painting: From Myth to Image CLASS-UA 315 (same as ARTH 850.003), M&W, 11:00-12:15, Joan Connelly
From the house frescoes of Bronze Age Thera to the tomb paintings of Macedonia, from Minoan painted pottery to Athenian red-figured vases, Greek painting was a powerful aesthetic and narrative force within Greek art and culture. This course traces developments in monumental wall painting and the decoration of vases, with special emphasis on production, exchange, technique, style, authorship, narrative, context, function, and meanings. Issues of representation and signification will be examined within the frameworks of a variety of critical approaches, including semiotics, structuralism, and formal analysis. Special emphasis will be placed on issues of reception from the Eighteenth century on, particularly the impact of connoisseurship and the art market on values ascribed to ancient vases.
Classical Mythology CLASS-UA 404 (same as RELST-UA 404), T&Th, 11:00-12:15, Peter Meineck
This course is an examination of the meaning, form and function of Greek and Roman mythology especially its transmission via the literature, art and material culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. We explore the way in which these stories operated in Greek and Roman culture and seek to understand what they were articulating in contemporary social, political, military, economic and artistic life. Consequently, a number of ancient texts will be read in translation and set against iconographic evidence from vase paintings, sculpture and architecture. The course begins by surveying the various ways in which mythology has been catalogued and studied from the ancient mythographers to Freud, Propp. Levi-Strauss, and Burkert Then ancient texts are used to explore how myth developed throughout the classical period. These will include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod’s Work and Days and Theogony, the Homeric hymns to the gods, Greek tragedy and comedy, Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The influence of mythology on the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare and in film will also be discussed. The class meets twice a week and students are expected to complete bi-weekly readings, contribute to in class discussions and a class Blackboard discussion board, sit a mid term and a final complete one essay and attend at least one related theatre performance.
This class is taught by Peter Meineck who is Clinical Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Studies at NYU, Artistic Director of the Aquila Theatre Company and National Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities supported Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives program. He has published several translations of ancient drama and numerous articles on ancient drama and acted as a mythological consultant to Will Smith on the movie I am Legend, National Geographic, Disney, and Fuse TV. He has also published recorded lectures on mythology and ancient drama with Barnes and Noble and Recorded Books. He was awarded a 2009 Golden Dozen Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Science at NYU, the 2000 Lewis Galantiere Award for Outstanding Literary Translation by the American Translator’s Association, a 2010 Chairman’s Special Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the 2010 Prize for Outreach from the American Philological Association.
Belief and Practice in Greek Religion, CLASS-UA 409 (same as RELST 409), T&Th, 11:00-12:15, Barbara Kowalzig
The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are often thought of as highly pragmatic: they focus on ‘practice’, on ritual activity, ceremony and performance; religious practice and social life were so much intertwined that the question of ‘belief’ did not matter. As a result, the affective, cognitive, and philosophical dimensions of ancient belief-systems have often been neglected by historians of religion. The course, focusing on ancient Greek religion, will tackle the dichotomy of belief and practice by studying a combination of ancient texts and modern theory. Having laid out the debate, we shall first look at ancient sources for ritual activity and at ritual theory from the social and functionalist tradition to the present day; we shall then examine texts expressing intellectual and self-reflexive attitudes to religious practice and the divine, and follow the academic debate from its beginnings to recent, and increasingly dominant, approaches to religion drawn from the cognitive sciences. Ancient evidence studied ranges from tragedy and hymnic poetry to inscriptions, dedications at ancient shrines and religious iconography. All ancient texts will be studied in translation. Modern readings will be drawn from social and cultural anthropology, religious sociology, philosophy, performance studies.
Advanced Latin: Vergil’s Aeneid CLASS-UA 871, M&W, 3:30-4:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
The text will be book XII of Virgil's Aeneid. Text: a complete text of the Aeneid (your choice) plus R.J. Tarrant, Aeneid book XII, Cambridge UP (paperback).
About 40 lines of Latin will be assigned before each class, and the text will be the object of , linguistic and literary analysis, including meter and prosody, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, style and diction, and the poetics of Virgilian epic.
Advanced Greek: Drama CLASS-UA 972, T&Th, 2:00-3:15, Barbara Kowalzig
We will read Euripides’ Helen, using the commentary by William Allan (ed.), Euripides: Helen. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pp., available at the NYU bookstore. The emphasis will be on translation, grammar, syntax, morphology. We will also read and discuss other versions of Helen’s myth both in the original Greek and in translation; passages will be drawn from e.g. the Iliad and the Odyssey, early Greek lyric, Herodotus, Gorgias, Isokrates.