CLASS-UA 003 Elementary Latin I
001: M-TH 9:30 - 1045 (TBA)
002: M-TH 3:30 - 4:45 (TBA)
Introduction to the essentials of Latin, the language of Vergil, Caesar, and Seneca. 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.
CLASS-UA 005 Intermediate Latin I: Reading Prose
001: T, TH, F 12:30-1:45 (TBA)
002: MWF 3:30 - 4:45 (TBA)
Teaches second-year Latin students to read Latin prose through comprehensive grammar review; emphasis on the proper techniques for reading (correct phrase division, the identification of clauses, and reading in order); and practice reading at sight. Authors may include Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Petronius, or Pliny, at the instructor's discretion.
CLASS-UA 007 Elementary Ancient Greek I
M-TH 2:00-3:15 (TBA)
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.
CLASS-UA 009 Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato
MTW 11:00-12:15 (TBA)
Reading of Plato's Apology and Crito and selections from the Republic. The purpose of the course is to develop facility in reading Attic prose. Supplements readings in Greek with lectures on Socrates and the Platonic dialogues.
CLASS-UA 143 (same as HEL-UA 143.01 and DRLT 210.01) Greek Drama
TR 3:30-4:45, Peter Meineck
Of the ancient Greeks' many gifts to Western culture, one of the most celebrated and influential is the art of drama. We cover, through the best available translations, the masterpieces of the three great Athenian dramatists. Analysis of the place of the plays in the history of tragedy and the continuing influence they have had on serious playwrights, including those of the 20th century.
CLASS-UA 203 (same as ENGL-UA 59.003 and COLIT-UA 203.01) The Novel in Antiquity,
TR 12:30-1:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
Greek novels. All the texts will be read and discussed in English. The novels have a variety of subjects and tones, and include material that can be offensive or shocking to many readers, but they also allow a privileged access to aspects of ancient culture and society that are not commonly made available through high-brow genres of literature (e.g. sexuality and gender, oriental religions, class difference, human and animal, magic, folklore, subaltern culture, material culture, sub-literary language).
CLASS-UA 206 (same as POL-UA 195.01) Ancient Political Theory
TR 9:30-10:45, Andrew Monson
This course will introduce the foundations of ancient democracy and republicanism through reading and critical discussion of the works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero, and others. Ancient political thinkers used observations on history and contemporary politics to demonstrate the merits of different constitutions, which we can compare with the approach of modern political scientists. We will discuss the theory as well as the practice of ancient government, paying due attention to its enormous influence on modern thought and its relevance to problems in our time.
CLASS-UA 278 (same as HIST-UA 206) History of Rome: Empire
MW 2:00-3:15, Kevin Feeney
The political history of the Early Roman Empire confronts us with a curious story. In a nutshellit is this. A man, ultimately best known as Augustus, manages to orchestrate the dissolution of the old governmental system, nominally a democratic republic, and creates an autocracy, with himself as the sole decider of everything. However, since one of the Romans' most deeply and emotionally held political had always demanded that there should never, ever be rule by a king (or emperor), Augustus could not possibly admit to what he was doing. He therefore pretended to be restoring the traditional form of government, after, and as the solution to, a long period of horrific civil strife. What is more, he managed to persuade, as it would seem, the entire Roman world to play this charade with him. So, the Romans suddenly found themselves being ruled by one man, while they steadfastly refused formally to admit that fact, and contrived in every conceivable way to maintain the fiction that they were still living under a regime that somehow resembled their old, quasi-democratic, republic. This breathtakingly paradoxical situation led to many years of fear, anxiety, confusion, doublespeak, terror, and more. And then, we face what is perhaps the greatest paradox altogether. This was the period of the High Roman Empire, often viewed from the distance of modernity as one of the most successful and happy political regimes in all of human history.
This, then, will be the history that we will follow in this course. We will try to understand how a group, which assiduously lies to itself about its own most basic political institutions, nonetheless contrives to function - and to function, in many senses, quite well. We will attempt to understand this all, though, through Roman eyes - not our own.
CLASS-UA 291 (same as HEL-UA 283.01) Island Archaeologies of the Mediterranean,
M 3:30-6:00, Joan Connelly
From the birth of Apollo on Delos to the Byzantine monasteries of Patmos; from the from the copper mines of Cyprus to the marble quarries of Naxos; from the palaces of Minoan Crete to the Crusader castles of Rhodes, Greek islands comprise a dynamic arena of ecological, cultural, religious, political, economic, and strategic interaction. This course examines the phenomenon of Insularity across the Greek world from Prehistory through Byzantine times with special emphasis on archaeology and material culture. We shall look at the functions and exploitation of islands as places of isolation and connectivity; of refuge and exile; as geo-political/strategic hubs and uninhabited wastelands; as resource-rich and as utterly barren. Special emphasis on: ecology and environment; archaeology; art and architecture; myth and history; religious, political and economic networks; trade; seafaring; colonization; coastcapes and maritime ‘small worlds.’
CLASS-UA 293 (same as DRLIT-UA 185.01) Adapting Ancient Drama
R 4:55-7:25, Peter Meineck
CLASS-UA 294 Wealth and Value in Greek and Roman Comedy
W 3:30-6:00, Barbara Kowalzig
Ancient comedy gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in ancient Greece and Rome. In this seminar, we will examine the plays for what they reveal about the concerns of ordinary citizens, women, foreigners and slaves. In particular, comedy provides some juicy social satire on economic inequalities aimed at the growing gap between rich and poor as part of the economic transformation brought about by the Athenian empire in the 5th century BCE, and later, Roman imperialism and expansion in the entire Mediterranean. Athens in particular is portrayed as changing from agricultural self-sufficiency to a market economy based on long-distance trade and where citizenship is increasingly defined by having access to the market. Comic and economic discourse in the ancient world are inextricably intertwined, involving questions of monetisation, morality and credibility that extends to the believability of the comic claims themselves. We will encounter characters such as wealthy landowners and poor peasants, prostitutes and working women, tycoons of the arms industry and slave-workers, shipowners andsailors, and last but not least the well-earning poets themselves. After a general introduction on the role of theatre, and comedy in particular, in their historical contexts of war and empire, our analysis will be based on a set of plays by Aristophanes, Menander and comic fragments on the Greek side, Plautus and Terence on the Roman side. We will also read some texts fundamental to ancient economic thinking and social history, such as by Aristotle, Xenophon and the Attic orators, and include modern essays from econo-literary criticism.
CLASS-UA 305 (same as ARTH-UA 805.006 and HEL-UA 283.003) Introduction to Classical Archaeology: Constructions of the Greek and Roman Past
MW 11:00-12:15, Joan Connelly
This course presents an introduction to the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, examining the history and context of sites and monuments as well as the methods, practices, and research models through which they have been excavated and studied. From the Bronze Age palaces of the Aegean, to the Athenian Acropolis, to the eastern cities founded by Alexander the Great, the Roman Forum, Pompeii, and the Roman provinces, we consider the ways in which art, archaeology, architecture, everyday objects, landscape, urbanism, technology, and ritual teach us about ancient Greek and Roman societies. Special focus is placed on the origins of the discipline of archaeology in the Renaissance, 19th to 20th century humanistic and social scientific approaches, reception, and postmodern social constructions of knowledge.
CLASS-UA 700 (same as HEL-UA 283.02 and PHIL-UA 122.01) Greek Thinkers
TR 12:30-1:45, Laura Viidebaum
This is an introduction to central themes in ancient Greek philosophy and their literary background. We will discuss topics such as destiny, freedom, fatalism, contingency, necessity, the nature of human agency, and the nature of human knowledge. Authors to be discussed include Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Chrysippus. This course will help you develop the skills needed to read ancient philosophers profitably on your own. We will spend at least some of our time lingering over fairly short passages, thinking about how to discern more clearly the questions being raised and the answers and arguments being given. We will also practice standard philosophical skills such as clarifying concepts, noticing distinctions, and analyzing and evaluating arguments.
CLASS-UA 701 (same as COLIT-UA 701.02) Socrates and His Critics
TR 11:00-12:15, Vincent Renzi
Despite having written nothing himself, Socrates is—if not the most influential—certainly one of the most influential intellectual figures in the Western tradition, for it is with Socrates that “philosophy” seems first to move from natural history to an explicit concern for human affairs. Indeed, so great is the magnitude of this change that we continue to term earlier thinkers “pre-Socratic philosophers.” His stature is marked again in the name given to a distinctive form of philosophical literature, the Socratic discourse, and an approach to philosophical inquiry and instruction, the Socratic method. In antiquity, his thought, importantly, inspired Plato, Xenophon, the Stoics, the Skeptics, and the Cynics, beyond those thinkers stretching to influence in Rome and Judea...and four centuries before the presumed time of Jesus, Socrates had already suffered martyrdom for his idiosyncratic political, philosophical, and religious views. In modernity, his life both fascinates and repels the attention, notably, of Nietzsche; though criticisms of his mode of existence he had already endured in his own time at the hands of the comedian Aristophanes, among others.
CLASS-UA 871, Advanced Latin: Ovid’s Metamorphoses
TR 9:30-10:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
The third book of Ovid's Metamorphoses includes some of the most original and striking mythological poetry of antiquity, such as the stories of Cadmus, Narcissus, Actaeon, and Dionysus. The goal of the class is to improve competence in reading and interpretation of literary Latin, with a focus on syntax, lexicon, rhetoric, diction, and meter. The text will be read in Latin, at a moderate pace (30-40 lines per session), and the students are expected to prepare in advance each new segment of the text and come to class with questions and comments. The instructor will also discuss aspects of mythology, visual representations, imagination and historical context.
CLASS-UA 974, Advanced Greek: Attic Orators
TR 2:00-3:15, Laura Viidebaum
Attic oratory is a fascinating corpus of ancient Greek writings, one that gives us insight into the political, social, economic, and educational aspects of life in the late fifth and fourth centuries BCE. These texts are also part of a long tradition of language learning, where they were often employed as examples of excellent Attic Greek that students were/are expected to imitate. Therefore, in this course we will be following the footsteps of many many generations of Greek learners. The aim of the course is to further improve your reading of ancient Greek prose texts by working on developing your knowledge of Greek vocabulary, syntax, and idioms. In the course of the semester, you will also get a good overview of the diversity of Greek oratorical texts and you will learn to pay attention to, and discuss, the rhetorical devices used to persuade the audience/reader.
CLASS-UA 002 Intensive Elementary Latin
M-F 8:00-9:15, Mikael Papadimitriou
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.
CLASS-UA 004 Elementary Latin II
001. M-TH 9:30-10:45, Francie Merrill
002. M-TH 3:30-4:45, Josh Williams
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.
CLASS-UA 006 Intermediate Latin II: Virgil
001. T, TH, F 9:30-10:45, Erik Mortensen
002. T, TH, F 3:30-4:45, Del Maticic
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.
CLASS-UA 008 Elementary Ancient Greek II
M-TH 2:00-3:15, Jay Mueller
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.
CLASS-UA 009 Intermediate Ancient Greek II: Homer
MTW 11:00-12:15, David Sider
Extensive readings from the Odyssey. Emphasized will be translation, grammar, Homeric dialect forms, reading aloud in meter, as well as literary matters, such as similes, imagery, typical scenes, and the meaning of it all.
CLASS-UA 146 Greek and Latin Epic
MW 9:30-10:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
Detailed study of the epic from its earliest form, as used by Homer, to its use by the Roman authors. Concentrates on the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer and on Vergil's Aeneid, but may also cover the Argonautica of the Alexandrian poet Apollonius of Rhodes and Ovid's Metamorphoses, as well as the epics from the later 1st century by Lucan, Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus.
CLASS-UA 267 (identical to HIST-UA 205) History of Rome: The Republic
T, TH 2:00-3:15, David Levene
In the sixth century B.C.E., Rome was an obscure village. By the end of the fourth century B.C.E., Rome was master of Italy, and within another 150 years, it dominated almost all of the Mediterranean world. Then followed a century of unrest involving some of the most famous events and men—Caesar, Pompey, and Cato—in Western history. We survey this vital period with a modern research interpretation.
CLASS-UA 291 The Rediscovery of Greek and Roman Antiquity in Early Modern Europe (1400-1600)
MW 12:30-1:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
The seminar will explore key aspects and moments of the process of transformation in Western culture often defined as Humanism or Renaissance. The spotlight will be on the appropriation, remaking, rediscovery of Greek and Roman antiquities, and will include discussions of science, geography, art, literature, manuscripts and books, sexuality, archaeology, and social life, all from the point of view of the 'return' of Classical influences. The course load includes weekly readings of secondary literature or primary sources (all in English), with short reports by students in class, active participation and discussion, and one paper on a topic of interest to the student.
CLASS-UA 293 Catharsis: Greek Drama and the Emotions
TH 4:55-7:25, Peter Meineck
In this new seminar, we will be exploring one of the most debated subjects in the field of classics, the meaning and function of catharsis. Aristotle famously writes that pity and fear and other emotions produce catharsis and that this was the goal of Greek tragedy (and perhaps comedy too). But what is catharsis - purgation, healing, understanding, epiphany, revelation? How did catharsis operate in practice and why was it such an important part of the experience of ancient theatre? We will explore the cognitive, affective and neuro sciences on this subject as well as ancient texts and see how catharsis operated in other ancient performative contexts such as the Eleusinian Mysteries and so-called Corybanitic "frenzies". We will also examine the relationship of altered state to ancient performance, the shamanistic qualities of Dionysos - the Greek god of the theatre, and the enthralling stage devices used to promote catharsis, such as fascinating masks, haunting music and empathetic movements and dance. We will read several ancient Greek plays to see how catharsis operated within them and ask if catharsis is still found in the modern world today. Pre-requisites: None
CLASS-UA 294.001 (identical to HEL-UA 134) Theatre & Medicine: From the Greeks to the Modern Stage
TH 2:00-4:00, Olga Taxidou and Helen Thodoratou
This course examines the long-standing and constitutive relationships between theatre and medicine. From the classical Greek plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, through Shakespearean drama to Tony Kushner's Angels in America, the stage has offered a platform for the expression of illness, disability and trauma, both individual and collective. Throughout its history the stage has also offered the medical discourses metaphorical ways of conceptualizing ideas of deformity, normality, deviance and disability. At the same time, it teaches us empathy and affect and contributes to our physical and mental wellbeing. This course will examine this intertwined relationship between theatre and medicine from the Greeks to the contemporary stage, by looking at plays by, among others, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner.
CLASS-UA 294.002 (identical to HEL-UA 140) Re-Imagining Greek Tragedy
W 2-4:30, Olga Taxidou
The encounters with Greek Tragedy throughout the ages have not only shaped our understanding of theatre in the Western canon, but have also informed basic concepts and theories of classicism, neo-classicism and humanism more broadly. A privileged genre in aesthetic theory, its powerful roles (like Klytemnestra, Oedipus, Antigone) have had a huge impact on modern thinking, from psychoanalysis and philosophy to legal and political theory. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to Greek Tragedy, bringing together critical languages from Classics, Theatre Studies, Performance Theory, but also philosophy and critical theory. Through a series of close readings of key play-texts by the three tragedians–Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides–it will look at the ways these texts have been re-written and re-imagined for performance within the broader context of modernity. The course will also have a workshop element.
CLASS-UA 296 Roman Law
F 12:30-3:00, Michael Peachin
The ancient Romans are famous as creators of law. So, for example, when students all over continental Europe begin their studies of law, their first course provides a solid grounding in ancient Roman law. That is in part so because much of their law is, in fact, grounded in ideas that the Romans developed some 2,000 years ago. European legal training is also done this way because Roman law, for the would-be lawyer, is especially good to think with. In this course, we will not do what the European students do. We will not learn how the ancient Roman lawyers construed sale, or inheritance, or tort, or the like. Rather, we will be interested in something that might better be called Roman legal culture. So, we will be asking questions like these. How did the Romans create law? Who had the right to say what the law was? And then, how effectively was that law enforced on a daily basis? Who, in the vast, and vastly diverse, Roman Empire, was in fact subject to the law created by the Roman jurists? Along the way, we will learn a bit about specific areas of Rome's law -- so, for example, a bit about the criminal law. More directly, however, our questioning will involve what the thing called law was meant, in the broadest sense possible, to be doing for the ancient Roman community.
CLASS-UA 404 (identical to RELST-UA 404) Classical Mythology
T, TH 2:00-3:15, 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 movieI 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.
CLASS-UA 875 Advanced Latin: Petronius' Satyrica
MW 2:00-3:15, Emilia Barbiero
In this course we will read one of the most fascinating and mysterious texts to survive from antiquity, Petronius' Satyrica. Not only is this text unlike anything else that has come down to us from the ancient world in form, style and content, but it gives us a glimpse of social spaces and linguistic registers that are all but invisible in our other literary sources. And yet the text poses far more questions than it answers: who wrote it? when was it written? for whom was it written? why did people read it? were there other texts like it in circulation? what is the text’s genre and does that question actually matter? how accurate is the work’s depiction of the lower social strata of Roman Italy? Is it sincere, or parodic? We will consider these questions and more as we read the puzzling, hilarious, obscene and deeply challenging fragments of Petronius’ text, one of only two Latin novels to survive from antiquity.
CLASS-UA 975 Advanced Greek: Philosophy
T, TH 9:30-10:45, Adam Becker
The purpose of this course is to help students improve their Greek through a close reading of Plato's Alcibiades (First Alcibiades, Alcibiades Major, Alcibiades I). Consisting of a debate between Socrates and the famous Athenian bad boy from whom it derives its title, the Alcibiades addresses the question of the relationship between political engagement and justice. The authenticity of this work's attribution to Plato has been debated in the modern period, although it was deemed a significant part of the Platonic corpus in antiquity, even meriting the attention of several ancient commentators. In addition to Greek syntax and style, topics discussed in the course will include Plato, his corpus, the historical Alcibiades, the arguments of the Alcibiades, the debate concerning the authenticity of the text, and its reception in antiquity and later.
CLASS-UA 003 Elementary Latin I
001. M-TH 3:30-4:45, Joshua Williams
002. M-TH 12:30-1:45, Rebekah Rust
Introduction to the essentials of Latin, the language of Vergil, Caesar, and Seneca. 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.
CLASS-UA 005 Intermediate Latin I: Reading Prose
001. T, TH, F 12:30-1:45, Greta Gualdi
002. M, W, F 3:30-4:45, Joshua Ziesel
Teaches second-year students to read Latin prose through comprehensive grammar review; emphasis on the proper techniques for reading (correct phrase division, the identification of clauses, and reading in order); and practice reading at sight. Authors may include Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Petronius, or Pliny, at the instructor's discretion.
CLASS-UA 007 Elementary Ancient Greek I
M-TH 2:00-3:15, Jay Mueller
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.
CLASS-UA 009 Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato
M, T, W 11:00-12:15, David Konstan
In this course, we will read a well-known speech by Lysias, concerning a case of adultery and murder, and Plato’s dialogue Lysis, on love and friendship. The aim is to develop facility in reading Attic prose, and to gain acquaintance with ancient Greek ideas on the most important human relationships.
CLASS-UA 143 Greek Drama
T 4:55-7:25, Peter Meineck
Of the ancient Greeks' many gifts to Western culture, one of the most celebrated and influential is the art of drama. We cover, through the best available translations, the masterpieces of the three great Athenian dramatists. Analysis of the place of the plays in the history of tragedy and the continuing influence they have had on serious playwrights, including those of the 20th century.
CLASS-UA 206.002 Ancient Political Theory (identical to POL-UA 206.002)
M 2:00-4:30, Melissa Schwartzberg
CLASS-UA 243 The Greek World: From Alexander-Augustus (identical to HIST-UA 243 and HEL-UA 243)
T&TH 9:30-10:45, Andrew Monson
In the sixth century B.C.E., Rome was an obscure village. By the end of the fourth century B.C.E., Rome was master of Italy, and within another 150 years, it dominated almost all of the Mediterranean world. Then followed a century of unrest involving some of the most famous events and men—Caesar, Pompey, and Cato—in Western history. We survey this vital period with a modern research interpretation.
CLASS-UA 291.002 Cities and Sanctuaries (identical to HEL-UA 846.001)
M&W 11:00-12:15, Joan Connelly
What impact did built urban development have on local communities across the ancient Greek world? What was the relationship between sacred spaces and the growth and structure of Greek cities? This survey examines Greek urban and religious centers from the time of their foundation through the end of Roman rule. We will look at landscape, topography, archaeology, local myth narratives, and the ways in which religious, political, social, economic, and cultural forces shaped the growth and development of cities and sanctuaries. Special emphasis on: the relation between architecture and society, city planning and design, continuity of sacred space, construction methods and innovations, connectivity of sites, as well as the theories and concepts that inform the study of Greek urbanism. Micro-scale as well as regional trends will be considered along with the role of urban borderscapes as arenas for social, political and cultural interaction.
CLASS-UA 291.003 Democracy and Drama
TH 4:55-7:25, Peter Meineck
This new course examines the ways in which Greek drama influenced and was influenced by democracy and how the development of democracy was reflected in the plays themselves. Students will read several plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes as well as related scholarship and other ancient sources and discuss them in this weekly seminar. This discussion-based class will examine different systems of government that emerged in ancient Greece, Africa, Anatolia, China and elsewhere and set the development of Athenian democracy in its social and cultural context. We will also look for democracy outside of Athens and ask what role theatre may have payed in its development. We will also explore contemporary stagings, adaptations and versions of ancient Greek plays to examine how these works speak to democracy today and what role, ancient drama and theatre more broadly has in the continuing development of democratic systems of government. All texts will be in English and there are no prerequisites for joining this class.
This course is also intended to create an in-depth discussion of what democracy means to us today. To do this we go back to the roots of the earliest democracies among the ancient Greeks who coined the term (its earliest form found in a play by Aeschylus). Although democratic elements have been found in indigenous American, Mesopotamian, African and Asian cultures, it was in Greece where the entire state was first organized along democratic principles where the demos (the people) held the power (kratos), selected their own leaders and made their own laws. Classical texts about Athenian democracy in particular had a great deal of influence on the American constitution and how democracy developed in the United States with Thomas Paine famously exclaiming, “What Athens was in miniature, American will be in magnitude.”
Paine used the example of Greece and Rome to question the direction of the new American state on important issues such as slavery and women’s rights. The founders often communicated with each other by using Greek and Roman references and the writers of the Federalist Papers held up the example of Athens and its decline as a powerful example of why America should be a federalist nation. To the framers, Greek democracy seemed like mob rule: they had been influenced by Plato and later Roman thinkers and adopted a republican system, from the Latin Res Publica, meaning “of the people”. Baked into the American constitution from the outset was the classical idea that the government would be by and for the people. The American idea of democracy became more expansive in the early 19th century in large part because of the writing of the ancient historian George Grote who argued that Athens was not ruled by an unruly mob, but instead had a form of democratic government that enabled the state to become one of the most successful ever. His ideas influenced thinkers such as J. S. Mill, Thoreau, Emerson and especially Tocqueville, who wrote in Democracy in America that Americans “ought frequently to refresh themselves at the springs of ancient literature: there is no more wholesome course for the mind.” Much of our modern ideas about democracy in America today were inspired by this ongoing and dynamic relationship with ancient Greek texts.
The class will be taught by Peter Meineck, Associate Professor of Classics in the Modern World at NYU and founder of Aquila Theatre.
CLASS-UA 294.001 Women in a Time of Revolution
F 11:00-1:30, Michael Peachin
During the last years BCE, and into the first years of the Common Era, Rome was convulsed by civil wars and a resultant transformation of its politics and government. This course will ask what that political turbulence meant for the lives of women -- how women were shaped by, and helped to shape, these terrible times. We will begin by investigating altogether how women experienced life in Roman antiquity. Then, we will turn to specific individuals. Since our source material tells us principally about women at the very pinnacle of the social pyramid, we will begin with such persons: Cleopatra, the Macedonian queen of Egypt, who very nearly became queen of Rome; Livia Drusilla, who did become Rome's empress; Fulvia, the wife of Anthony, who was cast aside for Cleopatra; and more. We can also think about a woman named Turia, whose husband set up a monument for her, recording some of her exceptional deeds, principally, that she fought tooth and nail to preserve her husband and their property when he was caught in the whirlwind of civil war. We will also look at some of the women much further down in the society; though, it is very difficult to get much of a picture of their lives because our sources simply do not tell us much in this respect.
CLASS-UA 294.002 Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives (identical to HBRJD-UA 422 & RELST-UA 422)
MW 11:00am - 12:15pm Michah Gottlieb
What makes a life well-lived? Central questions to be explored will include: Does living well require acquiring knowledge and wisdom? What is the place of moral responsibility in the good life? Is the good life, a happy life or does it require sacrificing happiness? Does religion lead to living well or does it hinder it? What is friendship and how does it contribute to the good life? Study of primary texts by the following thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Avot, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Hermann Cohen.
CLASS-UA 650 St. Augustine’s City of God (identical to RELST-UA 270.001)
W 11:00-1:45 Adam Becker
This seminar will focus on St. Augustine’s City of God. Brief lectures will set out the historical, literary, and intellectual context. However, a work such as this allows for questions and conversation that go well beyond its original setting. Our focus will be the text itself and the dialogue it provokes. Topics addressed include: Augustine’s critique of Roman religion, his relationship to Virgil and other Classical authors, his engagement with Greek philosophy, Christian political theology, the Christian understanding of history, the problem of suffering, demonology, the origin of evil, the creation of the human being, Original Sin, war and peace, judgment and punishment, eschatology (the end time), envisioning God, and Augustine’s doctrine of the two cities.
CLASS-UA 875 Advanced Latin: Satire, Horace
M&W 9:30-10:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
Reading and interpretation of some of the funniest poems ever published in Latin, by Horace and Juvenal. The authors enjoy representing vice and corruption in their societies, and at the same time expose the prejudice and bias inherent in their own culture. The emphasis is on comprehension of the text and on improving and refreshing grasp of language, grammar, syntax, style and meter. The translation tests will be based on work actually done in the seminar (no unseen).
The only book needed for this class is P.A. Miller, Latin Verse Satire (out of print but downloadable from Bobst). You will also need a good Latin dictionary and a grammar, but you can use what you already have.
CLASS-UA 972 Advanced Greek: Herodotus
T&TH 2:00-3:15, David Sider
Students will read from Book 1 of Herodotus' Histories and translate into idiomatic English. Attention will be paid to syntax and style.
CLASS-UA 150, Special Topics Ancient Art: Virtual Yeronisos Island Excavation
1st summer session, M&Th 10:00-12:00 Joan Connelly
Permission of instructor is required.
Since 1990, the NYU Yeronisos Island Excavation Field School has trained hundreds of undergraduate students in archaeological methods. Together, we have excavated, studied and preserved ancient remains on the tiny island set just 280 meters off the western shores of Cyprus. We have unearthed evidence for three robust periods of activity: Early Chalcolithic (3800 BCE), Late Hellenistic (2nd-3rd cent. BCE) and Byzantine (6-7th and 13-14th centuries CE). Owing to continuing Covid restrictions, we are kept from the field, once again, this year. Nonetheless, our Project will continue with the 4-credit Summer School course: "Yeronisos Virtual Dig."
This Online Field School presents exciting opportunities for tangible, hands-on training in new digital platforms, technologies, and applications used in Archaeology. It introduces students to our Yeronisos Island Databases, Object inventories, Recording Systems for Field Survey and Underwater Survey, Global Information Systems (GIS), Coastal Mapping Initiatives, Aerial Drone/UAV photography, 3-D Modelling and Laser Scanning, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Underwater Technologies (including Side Scanning and Multibeam Sonars). Virtual and Augmented Reality, Satellite Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage Resource Management are among the many other topics to be covered.
While not in Cyprus physically, you will have the opportunity to meet and learn from our Yeronisos Island Excavation senior staff members - professional archaeologists, divers, ecologists, geomorphologists, photographers, and other experts working on the Yeronisos architectural remains, ceramics, glass, stone finds, human and animal bones, and much more.
CLASS-UA 404 (identical to RELST-UA 404), Classical Mythology
Section 001, 1st summer session, M-Th 9:30-11:05 Greta Gualdi
Section 002 and 060, 2nd summer session, M-Th 9:30-11:05 Joshua Williams
Discusses the myths and legends of Greek and Roman mythology and the gods, demigods, heroes, nymphs, monsters, and everyday mortals who played out their parts in this mythology. Begins with creation, as vividly described by Hesiod in the Theogony, and ends with the great Trojan War and the return of the Greek heroes, especially Odysseus. Roman myth is also treated, with emphasis on Aeneas and the foundation legends of Rome.
CLASS-UA 002 Intensive Elementary Latin
M-F 8:00-9:15, Benjamin Nikota
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.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 004 Elementary Latin II
001. M-TH 9:30-10:45, Greta Gualdi
002. M-TH 3:30-4:45, Nicholas Rynearson
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.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous for both sections
CLASS-UA 006 Intermediate Latin II: Virgil
001. MTW, 9:30-10:45, Matthew Santirocco
002. M, T, TH 3:30-4:45, Andrea Pozzana
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.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous for both sections
CLASS-UA 008 Elementary Ancient Greek II
M-TH 11:00-12:15, Nicholas Rynearson
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.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 10 Intermediate Ancient Greek II: Homer
MTW 9:30-10:45, David Sider
Extensive readings from the Odyssey. Emphasized will be translation, grammar, Homeric dialect forms, reading aloud in meter, as well as literary matters, such as similes, imagery, typical scenes, and the meaning of it all.
Mode of instruction: in person
CLASS-UA 210 Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece & Rome
M&W 2:00-3:15, David Sider
In this course we shall examine the various ways the sexual lives and gender roles of men and women were socially constructed from birth to old age, primarily in ancient Greece, with some attention paid to Rome. Since the readings, taken as much as possible from contemporary (or nearly so) documents, were for the most part written by men, we shall make a special effort to read the few texts that have come down to us which were (or purported to have been) written by women. We shall also be viewing ancient art that complements the written evidence.
Mode of instruction: in person
CLASS-UA 242 (identical to HIST-UA 200 & HELL-UA 242) Greek History from the Bronze Age-Alexander
T&TH 2:00-3:15, Barbara Kowalzig
This course will trace the history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the death of Alexander in 323 BCE. Emerging from the margins of powerful empires to the east, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Hittite Anatolia, Greece during most of this period consisted of small, fractious, and highly competitive city-states. Yet the Greek world saw rapid transformation in all areas of human activity, politics, society, economics, religion, literature and the arts. Within the broad outlines of Greek history, we will study major historical and social developments, such as the structural collapse of the Bronze Age Mediterranean around the time of the fall of Troy, the spread of Greeks, Phoenicians and others across the Mediterranean; the emergence of the city-state and ideas of citizenship, civic community and identity; Athenian imperialism and the development of radical democracy during the Peloponnesian War; the lives of women, foreigners, and slaves. We will discuss the role of religion and the arts and a flourishing theatre culture in generating social identities and in problematizing issues that concern us to the present day, such as economic inequalities, gender relations, and not least the role of the individual in society. Students will read primary sources drawn from the Homeric epics, the Greek historians, drama and oratory, while also being treated to epigraphic evidence and recent archaeological discoveries.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 291 (identical to RELST-UA 991) St. Augustine’s “City of God”
W 2:00-4:45, Adam Becker
In 410 CE the Germanic tribe of Visigoths sacked the city of Rome. In response some blamed Christianity, accusing this new-fangled religion of displeasing the ancient gods and thus being the underlying cause for the violence suffered in the ancient imperial capital. From his bishopric in North Africa St. Augustine began to pen a defense of Christianity against such accusations. However, as he wrote the plan of the work expanded and in the end he composed his well known, massive City of God, a foundational text in Christian theology and Western philosophy. What began as a response to the apparent decline of Roman imperial power became more than just an apology for Christianity. The City of God also provides a theory of history, an outline of Augustine’s theology, and an articulation of Christianity’s alleged superiority over the philosophical systems of the ancient world, in particular, Neoplatonism. Few other individual works cover such a broad range of significant topics.
This seminar will focus on St. Augustine’s City of God. Brief lectures will set out the historical, literary, and intellectual context. However, a work such as this allows for questions and conversation that go well beyond its original setting. Our focus will be the text itself and the dialogue it provokes.
Topics addressed include: Augustine’s critique of Roman religion, his relationship to Virgil and other Classical authors, his engagement with Greek philosophy, Christian political theology, the Christian understanding of history, the problem of suffering, demonology, the origin of evil, the creation of the human being, Original Sin, war and peace, judgment and punishment, eschatology (the end time), envisioning God, and Augustine’s doctrine of the two cities.
No Latin is required. However, the professor is willing to run a separate, extra reading group with students who have some Latin and are interested in reading selections from the work in the original.
Online mini-lectures
The seminar is officially scheduled to run for 2 hours and 45 minutes. However, the meeting time will only last for 2 hours because students will be expected to watch brief online lectures on the week’s reading before each seminar meeting.
Mode of instruction: online
CLASS-UA 314 (identical to ARTH-UA 15.002) Greek Sculpture: Prayers in Stone
M&W 3:30-6:00, Joan Connelly
From the “Snake Goddesses” of Minoan Crete, to the marble kouroi of archaic sanctuaries, from the Parthenon sculptures to the Pergamene Altar, the Greeks devoted enormous resources to the sculpting of images. This course examines sculptural production in Greece from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period, with careful attention to materials, techniques, styles, iconography, authorship, patronage, and settings. The votive function of images as “pleasing gifts” for the gods, their apotropaic role in protecting tombs and temples, and the commemorative function of sculptured grave markers will be considered within the broader context of signification. Special topics include: divine images, corporality, athletic statuary, portraiture, and architectural decoration. Sculptures will be examined within the framework of critical theories of representation, mimesis, aesthetics, and reception, as well as within their broader social, political, and historical contexts.
Mode of instruction: blended
CLASS-UA 404 (identical to RELST-UA 404) Classical Mythology
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 movieI 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.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 700 (identical to PHIL-UA 122) Greek Thinkers
T&TH 8:00-9:15, Laura Viidebaum
Western theorizing begins with the Greeks, who can be said to have invented or introduced all manner of thinking about the universe and human nature. Illustrative texts from the presocratics, mathematicians, philosophers, historians, and tragedians will be read.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 871 Advanced Latin: Vergil’s Aeneid Book XII
M&W 9:30-10:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
Reading, analysis of grammar and style, meter, and discussion of a masterpiece of Latin Literature, Aeneid book XII. Assignments of about 40-50 lines of Latin text, with class discussion and exercises in language and text comprehension. Required text: R.J. Tarrant (ed.) A Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid XII, Cambridge
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 972 Advanced Greek II: Greek Drama - Euripides' Hippolytus
T&TH 3:30-4:45, Barbara Kowalzig
The class will read Euripides’ Hippolytos of 428 BCE, a play immensely popular in antiquity. Besides translation of the Greek and revision of grammar, syntax and morphology where appropriate, we will read other treatments of this myth in Greek literature, discuss the play’s historical context, and, time allowing, study its reception in vase painting. Commentary: R. Hamilton, Euripides’ Hippolytos, Bryn Mawr Commentaries, 2nd edn. 1982; W.S. Barrett, Hippolytus (Oxford, 1964), published online in the Oxford Scholarly Editiion online and available through Bobst.
Mode of instruction: Remote, synchronous
CLASS-UA 003 Elementary Latin I
001. M-TH 9:30-10:45, Nicholas Rynearson
002. M-TH 3:30-4:45, TBA
Introduction to the essentials of Latin, the language of Vergil, Caesar, and Seneca. 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.
CLASS-UA 005 Intermediate Latin I: Reading Prose
001. M, T, TH, 12:30-1:45, Emilia Barbiero
002. M, T, TH 3:30-4:45, TBA
Teaches second-year students to read Latin prose through comprehensive grammar review; emphasis on the proper techniques for reading (correct phrase division, the identification of clauses, and reading in order); and practice reading at sight. Authors may include Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Petronius, or Pliny, at the instructor's discretion.
CLASS-UA 007 Elementary Ancient Greek I, M-TH 11:00-12:15, Nicholas Rynearson
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.
CLASS-UA009 Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato, M, T, W 11:00-12:15, Raffaella Cribiore
Reading of Plato’s Apology and Crito and selections from the Republic. The purpose of the course is to develop facility in reading Attic prose. Supplements readings in Greek with lectures on Socrates and the Platonic dialogues.
CLASS-UA 146 Greek and Roman Epic, M&W 11:00-12:15 Alessandro Barchiesi
Detailed study of the epic from its earliest form, as used by Homer, to its use by the Roman authors. Concentrates on the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer and on Vergil's Aeneid, but may also cover the Argonautica of the Alexandrian poet Apollonius of Rhodes and Ovid's Metamorphoses, as well as the epics representative of Silver Latin by Lucan, Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus
CLASS-UA 291 Public Facing Classics, Tuesday 6:30-8:45 Peter Meineck (Open only to Seniors and Permission of Instructor Required)
This graduate level course will introduce students to the field of public humanities with a focus on programs that use ancient Greek and Roman materials in the creation of programs aimed at the general public and specialized communities outside of the academy. Students will learn about existing classics based public programs and benefit from class visits from the directors’ of several of these programs and at least one on site visit to a program in actions. This will include classics-based programs that are aimed at different communities such as, veterans, refugees and migrants, inner city and rural school children, indigenous peoples, families, first-responders, public library reading groups, and middle and high school programs. Additionally, the class will explore issues such as public publication and media appearances by scholars, the emerging scholarly field of public humanities, what can be learned from public facing STEM programs, the current issues surrounding public facing work in the academy, the work of scholarly organizations such as the Society for Classical Studies and the American Council of Learned Societies, Classics interactions with the field of Health Humanities and Trauma Studies, and new developments in public facing scholarship. Another important facet of this class will be introducing students to funding resources and the non-profit and foundation world in general. Students will learn how to develop and effective grant proposal including budgets and timelines and examine existing public facing National Endowment for the Humanities and foundation funded programs. Students will be graded on participation, a final presentation to the class, and two projects, one of which will be an analysis of an existing classics-based program and the other a fully developed proposal including budget and timeline for a classics based program idea they have developed.
This course will be taught by Peter Meineck PhD, Associate Professor of Classics in the Modern World, and affiliated professor at Tisch Drama and Honorary Professor of Humanities at the University of Nottingham. Meineck has gained 30 years experience developing and directing a number of public facing national and local classics-based programs, one of which (Ancient Greeks / Modern Lives) was the recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Special Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities ($800,000). He is also the recipient of the Society for Classical Studies Award for Outreach and has been a Public Scholar for Humanities New York and the Onassis Foundation. He is currently directing The Warrior Chorus, a classics based public veteran’s program funded by the NEH with centers in New York, Florida, California and Texas.
CLASS-UA 294.001(Identical to THEA-UT 732.003 /DRLIT-UA 185-002) Staging Ancient Drama, T 3:30-6:00 Peter Meineck
This course combines practical workshops with scholarly discussion to examine different aspects of how ancient Greek plays were staged. Themes include masks, movement, the chorus, gender, narrative, music, ritual, space, politics, social conflict, trauma, and emotions. Students will work in a studio environment on the texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander in translation. Students interested in classical drama, acting and directing, ancient Greek literature and culture will participate in a mixed class of TSOA and CAS students.
This class is taught by Peter Meineck, Professor of Classics in the Modern World at NYU and the founding director of Aquila Theatre (www.aquilatheatre.com).
CLASS-UA 294.002 (identical to HBRJD-UA 422 RELST-UA 422) Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives MW 11:00am - 12:15pm Michah Gottlieb
What makes a life well-lived? Central questions to be explored will include: Does living well require acquiring knowledge and wisdom? What is the place of moral responsibility in the good life? Is the good life, a happy life or does it require sacrificing happiness? Does religion lead to living well or does it hinder it? What is friendship and how does it contribute to the good life? Study of primary texts by the following thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Avot, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Hermann Cohen.
CLASS-305 (Identical to ARTH-UA 850.002) Introduction to Classical Archaeology: Constructions of the Greek and Roman Past, M&W 11:00-12:15 Joan Connelly
An introduction to the archaeology of the Mediterranean world, examining the history and contexts of sites and monuments, as well as the methods, practices, and research models through which they have been excavated and studied. From Bronze Age palaces of the Aegean, to the Athenian Acropolis, to the cities of Alexander the Great, the Roman forum, Pompeii, and the Roman provinces, we consider the ways in which art, archaeology, architecture, everyday objects, landscape, urbanism, technology, and ritual teach us about ancient Greek and Roman societies. Special focus is placed on reception, the origins of archaeology in the Renaissance, 19th- to 20th-century humanistic and social scientific approaches, and postmodern social constructions of knowledge.
CLASS-UA 316 (identical to ARTH-UA 15.002) The Parthenon: Myth, Cult, Architecture, Image, and Reception Monday 3:30-6:00 Joan Connelly
Traces the history of the Parthenon and its reception through its transformations from the temple of Athena, to Christian church, to mosque, to ruin, to icon of Western art and culture. The landscape, topography, and topology of the Athenian Acropolis are examined with an eye toward understanding the interrelation of place, myth, cult, and ritual. The architectural phases of the Parthenon, its program of sculptural decoration, its relationship to other monuments on the Acropolis, and the foundation myths that lie behind its meaning are scrutinized. Issues of reception, projection, and appropriation are considered, as well as interventions through conservation and reconstruction. Efforts to secure the repatriation of the Parthenon sculptures are reviewed within the broader context of global cultural heritage law and the opening of the New Acropolis Museum.
CLASS-UA 846 (identical to RELST-UA 846) Virgins, Martyrs, Monks & Saints: Early Christianity T&TH 9:30-10:45 Adam Becker
What was it about Christianity that made it so popular in the ancient world? Was it the martyrs volunteering for public execution? Monks' sexual renunciation? The isolation of hermits living on the tops of columns in the wilderness? Or perhaps orthodoxy and its politically divisive anxieties about heretics and Jews? In fact, all these things (and more) explain how a small Jewish messianic sect from Palestine became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. This course will provide an introduction to the big questions in the history of early Christianity. The focus will be on early Christian literature, such as martyr texts, saints' lives, and works of monastic spirituality and mysticism. Issues addressed will include the Christian reception of Greco-Roman antiquity, the origins of anti-Semitism, gender and sexuality in the early Church, and the emergence of Christian theology.
CLASS-UA 875 Advanced Latin: Roman Lyric: Catullus and Horace M&W 9:30-10:45, Matthew Santirocco
In modern parlance, lyric refers to intensely personal poetry, often about love or other strong emotions. In antiquity, however, the genre was defined largely in formal terms, as poetry composed in certain meters that were intended for accompaniment by the lyre. Its topics also ranged more widely, including public as well as private themes. Finally, ancient lyric was less meditative than rhetorical, and in addition to the individual voice, it included also choral song.
Despite these differences between ancient and modern lyric, the actual practice of lyric poetry in the West has been decisively influenced by two Roman poets. This course will read selections from the lyric poems of Catullus and from Horace's extraordinary four books of "Odes." In addition to engaging in close linguistic and literary analysis of these texts, we will discuss larger topics such as the Roman appropriation and transformation of classical Greek and Hellenistic literary predecessors; the unacknowledged influence of Catullus on Horace; and the social, political, and patronal context of late republican and Augustan poetry.
CLASS-UA 975, Advanced Greek: Philosophy T&TH 4:55-6:10, Marko Malink
This is a close reading of Plato's Phaedrus. We will analyze the grammar of Plato's Greek and the literary composition of the dialogue. At the same time, we will seek to understand the philosophical arguments presented in the dialogue concerning, among other things, the nature of love, the immortality of the soul, the being of Forms, and the art of rhetoric.
Persuasion CLASS-UA 293.001, Friday 9:30-12:00 Laura Viidebaum
Persuasion is one of the most important driving forces of human communication and as such lies at the heart of our personal and professional lives, whether the goal is to convince one person in a face-to-face encounter, influence a small group in a meeting, sway an entire organization, or win over the public. Persuasion is relevant to everyone, but understanding its intricate details is particularly important for those engaged in leadership positions (politics, private sector, advertising industry, but also those tasked with communicating knowledge to their audiences such as scientists, lawyers, doctors) and for those reflecting or providing a commentary on society (journalists, scholars, artists, writers, entertainment industry). Persuasion, which at its core is about convincing others to voluntarily change their attitudes or behavior in order to accomplish our goals, also has important ethical ramifications that have concerned philosophers and public speakers since antiquity. Is persuasion a moral-neutral activity or should it always have an eye out for a morally justified/beneficial result? What constitutes unethical persuasion? What is the difference between persuasion and manipulation? What is the difference between persuasive speaking and persuasive writing? What were the challenges facing persuasion in previous historical contexts and would persuasion in the contemporary polarized world help us bring together rather than divide audiences?
This course investigates persuasion by striking a good balance between reading and practice: we will read the central theories on persuasion from antiquity to present, but there will be also plenty of opportunities for practice – to engage in persuasive contexts, analyze texts and performances from their persuasive aspects and improve one’s own persuasive abilities through presentations and writings.
Socrates and His Critics CLASS-UA 701 T&TH 9:30-10:45 Laura Viidebaum
Despite having written nothing himself, Socrates is among the most influential—if not the most influential—philosopher in the Western tradition, for it is with Socrates that philosophy seems first to move from natural history to an explicit concern for human affairs. Indeed, so great is the magnitude of this change that we continue to term those earlier thinkers “pre-Socratic philosophers.” His stature is marked again in the name given to a distinctive form of philosophical literature, the Socratic dialogue, and an approach to philosophical inquiry and instruction, the Socratic method. In antiquity, his thought inspired Plato, Xenophon, the Stoics, the Skeptics, and the Cynics, beyond those thinkers stretching to influence in Rome and Judea...and four centuries before the presumed time of Jesus, Socrates had already suffered martyrdom for his idiosyncratic political, philosophical, and religious views. In modernity, his exemplary life alternately fascinates and repels the attention of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; though criticisms of his mode of existence he had already endured in his own time at the hands of the comedian Aristophanes, among others. Given the state of the evidence, one can look only to the history of the reception of his thought to try to recover any sense of the “historical Socrates”; but we must likewise ask whether he does not perhaps exert a greater influence as a result of the reception of the doxography itself than for his actual intellectual contributions.
Intensive Elementary Latin CLASS-UA 2
M-F 8:00-9:15 Christopher Parmenter
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.
Elementary Latin CLASS-UA 4
001 M-TH, 9:30-1045 Nicholas Rynearson
002 M-TH, 3:30-4:45 Lorenzo Del Monte
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.
Intermediate Latin CLASS-UA 6
001 M,T,TH 9:30-10:45 Rebecca Sausville
002 M,T,W 3:30-4:45 TBA
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 Nicholas Rynearson
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 Laura Viidebaum
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 Drama CLASS-UA 143 (same as HEL-UA 143)
Friday, 12:30-3:00 Laura Viidebaum
Of the ancient Greeks' many gifts to Western culture, one of the most celebrated and influential is the art of drama. We cover, through the best available translations, the masterpieces of the three great Athenian dramatists. Analysis of the place of the plays in the history of tragedy and the continuing influence they have had on serious playwrights, including those of the 20th century.
The Greek World: from Alexander-Augustus CLASS-UA 243 (same as HIST-UA 243)
M&W 2:00-3:15 Andrew Monson
In the sixth century B.C.E., Rome was an obscure village. By the end of the fourth century B.C.E., Rome was master of Italy, and within another 150 years, it dominated almost all of the Mediterranean world. Then followed a century of unrest involving some of the most famous events and men—Caesar, Pompey, and Cato—in Western history. We survey this vital period with a modern research interpretation.
History of Rome: Republic CLASS-UA 267 (same as HIST-UA 205),
T&TH 2:00-3:15, David Levene
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.
For further information on the course, contact Professor David Levene (D.S.Levene@nyu.edu).
Greek and Roman Emotions CLASS-UA 291.002
T&TH 11:00-12:15 David Konstan
The purpose of this course is to investigate the emotions of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and to determine to what extent they are the same as, or different from, the emotions as we conceive them. We shall begin by examining two classical texts, one Greek, the other Roman, that offer explicit definitions and descriptions of the emotions. We shall then proceed to test these accounts against narratives in various genres, to see how well they stand up against actual usage. We shall also read in the course of the semester various modern studies of the emotions, including both analyses of emotion as such and investigations of particular emotions.
Creating the Good Society: Philosophical and Jewish Perspectives
CLASS-UA 293.001 (same as HBRJD-UA 428)
M&W 11:00-12:15 Micah Gottlieb
There is a long history of classic texts within the Western tradition that explore this question. While priority is usually given to Greek and Christian writers, there is also a robust tradition of Jewish political thought that partakes of and intervenes in the Greco-Christian discourse. In this course, we will explore the interrelation between the Greek, Christian and Jewish traditions. Central questions to be explored include: What is the best form of government? What economic system is ideal? Should the government actively promote a vision of the good life or leave it to individuals to decide the good for themselves? Should governments prioritize freedom, equality, or happiness? What role should religion and nationalism play in society? What models of education should the government promote? How do gender considerations inform these questions?
Staging Ancient Greek Theatre CLASS-UA 294.001 (same as THEA-UT 732.004)
Tuesday 2:00-4:30 Peter Meineck
This course combines practical workshops with scholarly discussion to examine different aspects of how ancient Greek plays were staged. Themes include masks, movement, the chorus, gender, narrative, music, ritual, space, politics, social conflict, trauma, and emotions. Students will work in a studio environment on the texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander in translation. Students interested in classical drama, acting and directing, ancient Greek literature and culture will participate in a mixed class of TSOA and CAS students.
This class is taught by Peter Meineck, Professor of Classics in the Modern World at NYU and the founding director of Aquila Theatre (www.aquilatheatre.com).
The Ancient Roman Law of Delict (2 Points) CLASS-UA 296
Friday 11:-12:15 Michael Peachin
A man sends his son to a shoemaker to work as an apprentice. The shoemaker, in attempting to teach the boy this craft, resorts to physical punishment, which was a usual device in Roman education. He hits the boy on the head with a wooden shoe last. Unfortunately, the shoemaker/teacher does this with too much force, and so, knocks the boy’s eye out. Thus, the Roman legal experts had to decide what monetary recompense, if any, was due to the father for the damage done to his boy. Here is another example of delict in the Roman world. Person A is carrying a very heavy load, and does not pay attention to the fact that the ground is slippery. He therefore stumbles, and the load he is carrying slips from his grasp, strikes a slave who belongs to person B, and kills the slave. What sum of money, if any, does A now owe to B, since A has now destroyed property (the slave) belonging to B? These are famous sample cases involving the Roman law of delict (tort).
In this course, we will use a case book, which takes us through the intricacies of how the ancient Roman legal experts constructed this area of their law. The situations they imagine are often quite foreign, even bizarre, to the modern observer. However, the manner in which these Roman experts construct their law is supremely sophisticated, and serves as an extraordinarily good introduction to legal reasoning. This course, then, will offer both a highly interesting glimpse of the ancient Roman social and cultural world, along with a splendid opportunity to cut one’s teeth on some top notch legal reasoning.
This will be a two-point course. We will meet once weekly, on Fridays. And please note that a two-point course like this will allow students to use the extra two points of credit per term (n.b.: NYU tuition automatically includes 18 points of course credit per term, not merely 16 points), which generally are left unused.
Greek Painting: from Myth to Image CLASS-UA 315 (same as ARTH-UA 850.002 and HEL-UA 283.001)
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 Iliadand Odyssey,Hesiod’s Work and Daysand Theogony,the Homeric hymns to the gods, Greek tragedy and comedy, Virgil’s Aeneidand 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 movieI 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.
Advanced Latin: Comedy, PlautusCLASS-UA 874
M&W 9:30-10:45 Emilia Barbiero
In this course we will be reading two of Plautus' funniest and most transgressive comedies, Casina and Pseudolus. These plays feature rebellious slaves and disobedient women starring in richly metatheatrical plots that challenge the boundaries of fiction and reflect upon Plautus' creative conundrum as a translator of Greek comedy. In addition to reading Plautus' most elegant and punny Latin, we will study meter and think about the plays as performance texts.
Advanced Greek: Aristophanes’ Clouds CLASS-UA 973
T&TH 12:30-1:45 David Sider
Greek Thinkers CLASS-UA (same as PHIL-UA 122)
M&W 11:00-12:15 Marko Malink
This is an introduction to central themes in ancient Greek philosophy. We will discuss topics such as fate, freedom, contingency, necessity, the nature of being, substance, and the nature of knowledge. The focus will be on the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, and Chrysippus. Students will develop the skills required to study ancient philosophical texts on their own. We will spend a significant amount of time interpreting fairly short passages, thinking about how to discern more clearly the questions being raised and the answers and arguments being given. We'll also practice standard philosophical skills such as clarifying concepts, noticing distinctions, and analyzing and evaluating arguments.
Engaging Early Christian Theology RELST-UA.840 (Same as CLASS-UA.856),
Monday, Wednesday 9:30am-10:45am Adam Becker
Class #20913. 4 Pts. 45 West 4th Rm. B06
What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ was both human and divine? How can the Christian divinity be one yet three? How are the sacraments such as baptism effective? Do we have freewill? These were some of the pressing questions the Church Fathers addressed in the early centuries of Christian history and their answers contributed to the Christian theological tradition for centuries to come. In this course we will examine some of the classic works of early Christian theology. Despite the often highly rhetorical and polemical character of their writings the Church Fathers nevertheless developed an intellectually rigorous field of knowledge, one that has had a significant intellectual historical as well as socio-political impact in the history of the Church. This is not a theological course but rather an introduction to some of the key texts in a historically significant mode of theological inquiry.
CLASS-UA 003 Elementary Latin I
001. M-TH 9:30-10:45, Nicholas Rynearson
002. M-TH 3:30-4:45, TBA
Introduction to the essentials of Latin, the language of Vergil, Caesar, and Seneca.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.
CLASS-UA 005 Intermediate Latin I: Reading Prose
001. M, T, TH, 12:30-1:45, TBA
002. T, TH, F 3:30-4:45, Emilia Barbiero
Teaches second-year students to read Latin prose through comprehensive grammar review; emphasis on the proper techniques for reading (correct phrase division, the identification ofclauses, and reading in order); and practice reading at sight. Authors may include Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Petronius, or Pliny, at the instructor's discretion.
CLASS-UA 007 Elementary Ancient Greek I, M-TH 11:00-12:15, Nicholas Rynearson
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.
CLASS-UA009 Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato, M, T, W 2:00-3:15, Laura Viidebaum
Reading of Plato’s Apology and Crito and selections from the Republic. The purpose of the course is to develop facility in reading Attic prose. Supplements readings in Greek with lectures on Socrates and the Platonic dialogues.
CLASS-UA 150 Cities and Sanctuaries of Ancient Greece M&W 11:00-12:15, Joan Connelly
What impact did built urban development have on local communities across the ancient Greek world? What was the relationship between sacred spaces and the growth and structure of Greek cities? This survey examines Greek urban and religious centers from the time of their foundation through the end of Roman rule. We will look at landscape, topography, archaeology, local myth narratives, and the ways in which religious, political, social, economic, and cultural forces shaped the growth and development of cities and sanctuaries. Special emphasis on: the relation between architecture and society, city planning and design, continuity of sacred space, construction methods and innovations, connectivity of sites, as well as the theories and concepts that inform the study of Greek urbanism. Micro-scale as well as regional trends will be considered along with the role of urban borderscapes as arenas for social, political and cultural interaction.
CLASS-UA 291.001 Fate and Free Will in Ancient Greek & Roman Thought, T&TH 2:00-3:15, Marko Malink
In this seminar, we will study the various discussions of determinism, fate, and free will inancient Greek and Roman thought. We will consider the interplay of fate and human agency in the works of authors such as Homer and Sophocles. We will examine the treatment of determinism, fatalism, voluntariness, freedom, and moral responsibility by thinkers such as Aristotle, the Stoics, Cicero, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Augustine. Throughout the seminar, we will consider the continued influence of the ancient debates on contemporary philosophical theorizing about determinism and free will.
CLASS-UA 291.002 Taking Offense: Literary Transgression and Censorship in the Ancient World, T&TH, 12:30-1:45, Emilia Barbiero
This class will explore ancient literature that violates (whether deliberately or unintentionally) conventions of taste and decorum to offend, leading to its suppression and, at times, outright censorship. Readings will include blasphemous texts that were perceived to offend the gods, abusive lyric and dramatic texts written to ‘roast’ prominent citizens, works of poetry that angered Roman emperors and obscene material that made early Christian communities blush. In the course of our readings we will think about creative freedom and ownership, standards of taste (who decides what is transgressive and what isn’t?) and the phenomenon of censorship itself. An epilogue will focus on modern reception of classical texts, investigating the question of how to deal with ancient material that offends our own sensibilities. Is expurgating the classics ever ok?
No previous knowledge of the ancient world required.
CLASS-UA 293.001 Greek Islands: Myth, Archaeology, and Networks, Monday 3:30-6:00, Joan Connelly
From the birth of Apollo on Delos to the Byzantine monasteries of Patmos; from the from the copper mines of Cyprus to the marble quarries of Naxos; from the palaces of Minoan Crete to the Crusader castles of Rhodes, Greek islands comprise a dynamic arena of ecological, cultural, religious, political, economic, and strategic interaction. This course examines the phenomenon of Insularity across the Greek world from Prehistory through Byzantine times with special emphasis on archaeology and material culture. We shall look at the functions and exploitation of islands as places of isolation and connectivity; of refuge and exile; as geo-political/strategic hubs and uninhabited wastelands; as resource-rich and as utterly barren. Special emphasis on: ecology and environment; art and architecture; myth and history; religious, political and economic networks; trade; seafaring; colonization; coastscapes and maritime ‘small worlds’.
CLASS-UA 293.002 Belief and Practice in Greek Religion, Wednesday 3:30-6:00, 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 in a social and functionalist tradition; we shall then examine ancient evidence expressing intellectual and self- reflexive attitudes to religious practice and the divine, following the academic debate from its beginnings to recent approaches to religion drawn from the cognitive sciences. The discussion of belief and practice will be based on topics such as how to study the ancient gods, sacrifice, festivals of democratic Athens, initiation rites, women’s religiosity and children’s religious experience, and then tackle the Greeks’ understanding of the divine in anthropomorphism, mythology, epiphany and oracular consultation. Ancient evidence studied ranges from tragedy and hymnic poetry to inscriptions, dedications at ancient shrines and religious iconography. All ancient texts will be read in translation. Modern readings will be drawn from social and cultural anthropology, religious sociology, philosophy and performance studies.
CLASS-UA 294.001 Staging Ancient Drama, TH 3:30-6:00 Peter Meineck
This course combines practical workshops with scholarly discussion to examine different aspects of how ancient Greek plays were staged. Themes include masks, movement, the chorus, gender, narrative, music, ritual, space, politics, social conflict, trauma, and emotions. Students will work in a studio environment on the texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander in translation. Students interested in classical drama, acting and directing, ancient Greek literature and culture will participate in a mixed class of TSOA and CAS students.
This class is taught by Peter Meineck, Professor of Classics in the Modern World at NYU and the founding director of Aquila Theatre (www.aquilatheatre.com).
CLASS-UA 701, Identical to COLIT-UA 852, Socrates and His Critics, T&TH 11:00-12:15, Vincent Renzi
Despite having written nothing himself, Socrates is—if not the most influential—certainly one of the most influential intellectual figures in the Western tradition, for it is with Socrates that “philosophy” seems first to move from natural history to an explicit concern for human affairs. Indeed, so great is the magnitude of this change that we continue to term earlier thinkers “pre-Socratic philosophers.” His stature is marked again in the name given to a distinctive form of philosophical literature, the Socratic discourse, and an approach to philosophical inquiry and instruction, the Socratic method. In antiquity, his thought, importantly, inspired Plato, Xenophon, the Stoics, the Skeptics, and the Cynics, beyond those thinkers stretching to influence in Rome and Judea...and four centuries before the presumed time of Jesus, Socrates had already suffered martyrdom for his idiosyncratic political, philosophical, and religious views. In modernity, his life both fascinates and repels the attention, notably, of Nietzsche; though criticisms of his mode of existence he had already endured in his own time at the hands of the comedian Aristophanes, among others.
CLASS-UA 873 Advanced Latin: Elegy & Lyric M&W 9:30-10:45, Matthew Santirocco
One of the most distinctly Roman literary genres is love elegy. While the Romans could claim satire as their own invention, elegy had Greek predecessors, classical and Hellenistic poets who used the meter not only for epigrams, but also for longer works on a variety of topics, including lament, martial exhortation, philosophical reflection, and mythological narrative. The Roman contribution, however, was to focus the genre for the first time on the subjective experience of love, casting the poet as a lover and expressing what purports to be his own, usually unhappy, experience. (Aptly, another name for the genre was "querella," or "complaint.") And even when the poet focuses on other subjects such as aesthetic theory, literary patronage, or Augustan politics, the perspective from which these topics are explored is always that of a lover. This course will read selected elegies by Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid, as well as precursor poems by Catullus and the few short poems of Sulpicia (the only woman whose poetry survives from classical Rome). Elegant, witty, learned, and often deeply moving, these works suggest a variety of topics for discussion including the intertextual relations between Greek and Roman literature, the importance of Callimachean poetics, the nature of ancient sexualities, and the tension embodied in the genre between traditional Roman values and those of poets who would rather make love than war.
CLASS-UA 974, Advanced Greek: Lucian & Dio T&TH 3:30-4:45, Raffaella Cribiore
In this course I want to give students an idea of how vibrant, interesting, and even fun Greek imperial culture was. We will mainly cover authors like Lucian but also will do parts of an oration of Dio Chrysostom (11) on criticizing Homer. These texts will make students appreciate a culture that was very close to the past but modified it and considered it with humor. All the readings are in Attic Greek and are not very difficult from a language point of view and they will allow us to proceed somewhat fast.
CLASS-UA 146, Greek and Roman Epic, M&W 11:00-12:15, David Sider
We will read all of the three most famous epics from ancient Greece and Rome: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid. In addition we will look at an important transition between these two authors, Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica, the quest for the Golden Fleece and Jason's affair (or was it marriage?) with Medea. These are all so-called heroic epics, so we will also have to squeeze in some examples of didactic epic, in which the author purports to inform us of some things we should know. This is Hesiod for the most part, teaching us about the family of gods and about farming, but we will learn of others.
CLASS-UA 150, Special Topics Ancient Art: Yeronisos Island Excavation
1st summer session, Joan Connelly
The course is at the Yeronisis archaeological excavation in Cyprus.Permission of instructor is required.
CLASS-UA 294 (identical to THEA-UT 727), History of Community-Based Theatre
2nd summer session, T&Th 1:00-4:00
In this course, students will work directly with Aquila Theatre’s Applied theatre program, which works with refugee and immigrant family members and middle and high school students from Harlem and the Bronx. This program provides access to high quality drama training, a place for community and conversation and seeks to create theatre works, inspired by Ancient Greek drama, that articulates the experiences of the immigrant, the refugee and the marginalized in American society today.
Students will work on ancient plays to understand how the themes therein can be deployed and applied in a contemporary applied theatre program focusing on social justice issues and bringing people from different cultural backgrounds together in community. Instruction will also be given in developing and planning an applied theatre program, funding sources and organizational structures, grant knowledge and recruitment. As the program uses Greek drama as its central focal point, students will also learn to analyze an ancient text, understand its original socio-cultural context and how classical materials have been used by artists seeking to broadcast marginalized voices and themes. Students will also work directly with the program participants (mainly middle to high school age).
Aquila Theatre was founded in 1991 and is regarded as one of the foremost producers of classical drama in the US. Aquila has also created a number of successful applied theatre programs involving veterans, students in Harlem and the Bronx, with public libraries and to audiences in underserved urban and rural communities. The company has received a Chairman’s Special Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Outreach Award from the Society for Classical Studies and a Webb Award for its use of technology in applied theatre. Aquila’s applied work has been presented at the Obama and Bush White Houses, The US Supreme Court, The US Capitol (with Lin-Manuel Miranda) and at conferences and meetings throughout the world. aquilatheatre.com.
The class will be taught by Professor Peter Meineck, who founded Aquila in 1991 and has taught at NYU since 1999 and will be in conjunction with Aquila Theatre under the artistic directorship of Desiree Sanchez.
This class is interdisciplinary between Tisch Drama and Classics and is appropriate for drama students interested in applied theatre, social justice and classical theatre and CAS students also interested in social justice, classics, dramatic literature and immigration/refugees.
CLASS-UA 404 (identical to RELST-UA 404), Classical Mythology
Section 001, 1st summer session, M-Th 9:30-11:05 Benjamin Nikota
Section 002, 2nd summer session, M-Th 9:30-11:05 Alexandria Istok
Discusses the myths and legends of Greek and Roman mythology and the gods, demigods, heroes, nymphs, monsters, and everyday mortals who played out their parts in this mythology. Begins with creation, as vividly described by Hesiod in the Theogony, and ends with the great Trojan War and the return of the Greek heroes, especially Odysseus. Roman myth is also treated, with emphasis on Aeneas and the foundation legends of Rome.
CLASS-UA 2 Intensive Elementary Latin
M-F, 8:00-9:15, Ari Zatlin
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.
CLASS-UA 4 001 Elementary Latin
001. M-TH, 9:30-1045, Del Maticic
002. M-TH, 3:30-4:45, Nicholas Rynearson
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.
CLASS-UA 6 Intermediate Latin
001. M, T, TH, 9:30-10:45, Calloway Scott
002. M,T,W, 3:30-4:45, Matthew Santirocco
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.
CLASS-UA 8 Elementary Greek II
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.
CLASS-UA 10 Intermediate Ancient Greek II: Homer
M, T, W, 9:30-10:45, Laura Viidebaum
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.
CLASS-UA 143, same as as DRLIT-UA 301.5, Greek Drama: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Friday 12:30-3:00, Laura Viidebaum
Of the ancient Greeks' many gifts to Western culture, one of the most celebrated and influential is the art of drama. We cover, through the best available translations, the masterpieces of the three great Athenian dramatists. Analysis of the place of the plays in the history of tragedy and the continuing influence they have had on serious playwrights, including those of the 20th century.
CLASS-UA 146 Greek and Roman Epic
T&TH, 9:30-10:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
Survey-style introduction to the whole genre of Greek and Roman epic, including the reading of the entire Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, and parts of Lucan's Civil War (all in modern English translations). No prior knowledge about the Classical world and its mythology is required.
CLASS-UA 206, same as POL-UA2 206 Ancient Political Theory
M&W, 2:00-3:15 Andrew Monson
This course will introduce the foundations of ancient democracy and republicanism through reading and critical discussion of the works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero, and others. Ancient political thinkers used observations on history and contemporary politics to demonstrate the merits of different constitutions, which we can compare with the approach of modern political scientists. We will discuss the theory as well as the practice of ancient government, paying due attention to its enormous influence on modern thought and its relevance to problems in our time.
CLASS-UA 278, same as HIST-UA 206, History of Rome: Empire
T&TH, 2:00-3:15 Michael Peachin
The political history of the Early Roman Empire confronts us with a curious story. In a nutshell, it is this. A man, ultimately best known as Augustus, manages to orchestrate the dissolution of the old governmental system, nominally a democratic republic, and creates an autocracy, with himself as the sole decider of everything. However, since one of the Romans’ most deeply and emotionally held political ideals had always demanded that there should never, ever be rule by a king (or emperor), Augustus could not possibly admit to what he was doing. He therefore pretended to be restoring the traditional form of government, after, and as the solution to, a long period of horrific civil strife. What is more, he managed to persuade, as it would seem, the entire Roman world to play this charade with him. So, the Romans suddenly found themselves being ruled by one man, while they steadfastly refused formally to admit that fact, and contrived in every conceivable way to maintain the fiction that they were still living under a regime that somehow resembled their old, quasi-democratic, republic. This breathtakingly paradoxical situation led to many years of fear, anxiety, confusion, doublespeak, terror, and more. And then, we face what is perhaps the greatest paradox altogether. This was the period of the High Roman Empire, often viewed from the distance of modernity as one of the most successful and happy political regimes in all of human history.
This, then, will be the history that we follow in this course. We will try to understand how a group, which assiduously lies to itself about its own most basic political institutions, nonetheless contrives to function – and to function, in many senses – quite well. We will attempt to understand this all, though, trough Roman eyes – not our own.
CLASS-UA 291.001 Roman Comedy and Its Influence
T&TH, 11:00-12:15 David Konstan
In this course, we read various ancient Greek and Roman comedies (in translation), and then examine how the ancient comic tradition is continued in the popular comedy of the Renaissance and early modern period (Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Molière, Congreve) and more in recent times (Shaw, Wilde, Ionesco); we conclude with a discussion of television sit-coms (scripts will be provided). There are three short papers in the course of the semester, plus a final paper.
CLASS-UA 293.002, same as HBRJD-UA 150.001, Ancient Egyptian Mythology & Religion
M&W, 2:00-3:15, Ann Roth
Ancient Egyptian Mythology and Religion will focus on many aspects of Egyptian religion: conceptions of the divine in a polytheistic context, temple ritual, hymns, personal piety, the relationship between religion and magic, mortuary religion and its evolution and material consequences. Questions will be approached through both study of the primary sources in English translation: myths (very broadly conceived), other religious writings (including mortuary texts such as the Book of the Dead and the Underworld books), as well as art and artifacts connected with religious practice, such as amulets and votives. In addition, students will read the standard secondary source analyses by noted historians of Egyptian religion and critique them based on the primary sources.
CLASS-UA 294.001, Dreams and Dreaming in Ancient Greece and Rome
T&TH, 4:55-6:10, Calloway Scott
Where do dreams come from? What do they mean? What might they reveal about ourselves, our families, and the wider world around us? For the Greeks and the Romans these questions were just as pressing—if not more so—than they are for us today. In Dreams and Dreaming, we will explore ancient dreaming from a variety of sources and perspectives. Looking to the accounts of dreams' origins and questions about the nature of their reality, to their interpretation as signs about the future or revelations from the gods, we will examine the many ways that Greeks and Romans experienced dreams and incorporated them into their daily lives. This class will thus survey a wide range of literatures and materials—from the epics of Homer and the biological works of Aristotle and Galen; from Classical Greek miracle inscriptions to early Christian dream manuals—to uncover how dreams and dreaming formed a common cultural space for seemingly very different actors and enterprises. All readings will be in English.
CLASS-UA 296, Greeks and Romans on Writing History (2 points)
Friday, 11:00-12:15, Michael Peachin
To anyone interested in the writing of history, Graeco-Roman antiquity offers an arguably unparalleled treasure trove. Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus – here are four duly famous men, who represent a significantly larger crowd of investigators, all of them perched around the inland sea (i.e., the Mediterranean) between roughly the fifth century BC and the fourth AD. These individuals looked intently into their pasts. And then, they sought to represent what they discovered to those who would come after them. They created, and attempted to perfect, the art of history. However: “What is history and how should it be written? How does it differ from other forms of writing? What responsibility does the historian bear?” These are some of the questions posed by Professor John Marincola, a former member of the Classics Department at NYU, in a book just published: On Writing History from Herodotus to Herodian. In response to these questions, Marincola engages the ancients to talk for themselves, translating all of the most important passages written by Herodotus and the rest, in which these men grapple with the parameters of the task they had undertaken. Marincola’s book will be our chief text during the semester (it is almost 600 pages). Via his translations of the ancients, and then through the comments he makes about these texts, we will discover what history meant to the ancient historians, as well as what those early historians meant the writing of history to be.
CLASS-UA 314, same as HEL-UA 124 & ARTH-UA 850.005, Greek Sculpture: Prayers in Stone
M&W, 11:00-12:15, Joan Connelly
From the “Snake Goddesses” of Minoan Crete, to the marble kouroi of archaic sanctuaries, from the Parthenon sculptures to the Pergamene Altar, the Greeks devoted enormous resources to the sculpting of images. This course examines sculptural production in Greece from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period, with careful attention to materials, techniques, styles, iconography, authorship, patronage, and settings. The votive function of images as “pleasing gifts” for the gods, their apotropaic role in protecting tombs and temples, and the commemorative function of sculptured grave markers will be considered within the broader context of signification. Special topics include: divine images, corporality, athletic statuary, portraiture, and architectural decoration. Sculptures will be examined within the framework of critical theories of representation, mimesis, aesthetics, and reception, as well as within their broader social, political, and historical contexts.
CLASS-UA 404, Identical to RELST-UA 404 Classical Mythology
T&TH, 11:00-12:15, Raymond Capra
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.
CLASS-UA 874 Advanced Latin
T&TH, 3:30-4:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
The class is a close reading of one of the most surprising masterpieces of Latin Literature, book XI of Apuleius Metamorphoses, where a human turned ass then human again becomes a mystic follower of the religion of Isis, the 'Egyptian' goddess. Issues of grammar, syntax, diction and style will be discussed in class, and participants will improve their grasp of the language as well the literature of ancient Rome. Prior experience of the Latin Language is required.
CLASS-UA 972, Advanced Greek, Greek Tragedy: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos
M&W, 9:30-10:45, David Sider
CLASS-UA 210, same as SCA-UA 744.003, Representing Ancient Gender Sexuality in Greece & Rome
M&W 11:00-12:15, David Sider
An examination of the complexity of classical Greek and Roman attitudes towards gender roles (some relaxed and some strict) and sexual practices. Our main sources will be their own contemporary texts (Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Theophrastus, etc., as well as graffiti) and paintings, supported by several modern books and handouts on the subject. A term paper will be expected.
CLASS-UA 291.002, same as HEL-320, Greek Tragedy and Modern Greece
TH, 3:30PM-6:00PM Liana Theodoratou and Olga Taxidou
This course examines the ways in which Greek Tragedy is re-imagined within the broader context of Modern Greek culture from the early twentieth century to today. It is based on the premise that the encounter with the ancient texts enables Modern Greek writers, playwrights, and directors to think through, embody, and sometimes problematize concerns about nationhood, tradition and modernity, classicism and experimentation. Greek Tragedy is approached both thematically and formally, as text and vehicle for performance. This interface between the ancients and the moderns acquires particular relevance and urgency at moments of political crisis, such as the civil war, the military dictatorship, and the contemporary refugee crisis. This course will approach this dialogue within these specific historico-political contexts and concentrate on the modes of writing and re-writing it has helped to shape. We will examine the classical play-texts and the ways they have been re-imagined not only on the stage, but also in Greek poetry, fiction, music, and film. Visits from Greek filmmakers, theater directors, and artists will be an essential component of this course.
CLASS-UA 293.001, same as HEL-UA 140, Re-imagining Greek Tragedy
T, 3:30PM-6:00PM, Olga Taxidou
The encounters with Greek Tragedy throughout the ages have not only shaped our understanding of theatre in the Western canon, but have also informed basic concepts and theories of classicism, neo-classicism and humanism more broadly. A privileged genre in aesthetic theory, its powerful roles (like Clytemnestra, Oedipus, Antigone) have had a huge impact on modern thinking, from psychoanalysis and philosophy to legal and political theory. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to Greek Tragedy, bringing together critical languages from Classics, Theatre Studies, Performance Theory, but also philosophy and critical theory. Through a series of close readings of key play-texts by the three tragedians – Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides – this course will analyse the development of Greek tragedy as a dramatic genre and vehicle for performance within the context of the democratic city-state. It will also look at the ways these texts have been re-written and re-imagined for performance within the broader context of modernity.
CLASS-UA, 003 Elementary Latin I
001. M-Th 9:30-10:45, TBA
002. M-Th 3:30-4:45, TBA
Introduction to the essentials of Latin, the language of Vergil, Caesar, and Seneca. 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.
CLASS-UA 005, Intermediate Latin I: Reading Prose
001. M, T, Th 12:30-1:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
002. M, T, W 3:30-4:45, Calloway Scott
Teaches second-year students to read Latin prose through comprehensive grammar review; emphasis on the proper techniques for reading (correct phrase division, the identification of clauses, and reading in order); and practice reading at sight. Authors may include Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Petronius, or Pliny, at the instructor's discretion.
CLASS-UA 007, Elementary Ancient Greek I, M-Th 11:00-12:15, David Sider
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.
CLASS-UA009, Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato, M, T, W 2:00-3:15, Laura Viidebaum
Reading of Plato’s Apology and Crito and selections from the Republic. The purpose of the course is to develop facility in reading Attic prose. Supplements readings in Greek with lectures on Socrates and the Platonic dialogues.
CLASS-UA 212, same as HIST-UA 629, Everyday Life in Ancient Rome, T&Th 2:00-3:15, David Levene
This course will study daily life as it was lived by Romans in the period of the late Republic and early Empire: how they worked and worshipped, how they dressed, fed and entertained themselves. We will look at questions of family life and social status, at rich and poor, at slaves and free, at the lives of men, women and children. We will consider marriage and divorce, crime and punishment, law and property. All of these issues will be examined primarily through original texts in which Roman authors like Horace, Martial and Juvenal described their own lives and those of their contemporaries.
CLASS-UA 242, same as HIST-UA 200 and HEL-UA 242, History of Greece: From the Bronze Age-Alexander, T&Th 12:30-1:45, Barbara Kowalzig
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.
CLASS-UA 291.001, Education in Ancient Greece & Rome, M&W 2:00-3:15, Raffaella Cribiore
This course will cover questions regarding ancient education from Plato and the sophists to Hellenistic and late Roman times. Students will inquire about literacy in antiquity, the location of schools, the existence of a fixed curriculum from the Hellenistic age on, and the place education (especially upper education) had in society. Particular emphasis will be put on rhetorical education. The course will be based on literary and archaeological sources.
CLASS-UA 291.002, same as SCA-UA 860.001, COLIT-UA 160.001, Classical Literature and Philosophy, Monday, 6:20-7:45, Emanuela Bianchi
We will explore the co-emergence of philosophy and various literary genres (epic, lyric poetry, dialogue, tragedy, comedy) in classical antiquity, as well as developments in literary and rhetorical theory. Through close and critical readings of primary texts we will inquire into how certain themes (e.g. justice, truth, love, desire, writing, persuasion) are expressed across different genres, and how (and how successfully) philosophy and the emerging arts of poetics and rhetoric distinguish themselves throughout classical antiquity. Throughout our study we will hold gender as a guiding question, asking how the texts deploy gender as an organizing principle and how conceptions of gender are thereby produced and consolidated in them. Authors include Homer, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Sappho, Euripides, and Aristophanes as well as recent commentators.
CLASS-UA 293.001, Cleopatra and Her World: Archaeologies of Alexandria, Rome, and the Hellenistic Mediterranean, Monday 3:30-6:00, Joan Breton Connelly
The old maxim “history is written by the victors” challenges students engaged in reconciling written texts with what is recovered through archaeological excavation. This is especially true for the Mediterranean World during the late Hellenistic period. This course focuses on material culture from the second half of the first century B.C. at Alexandria in Egypt, across the eastern Mediterranean, to the Aegean Islands, Cyrenaica, and on to Rome. Focusing on architecture, sculpture, ceramics, seals, coins, mosaics, metal ware and other decorative arts, we will look at the intersection of “Alexandrianism,” with the cultural and artistic traditions of Greece, Egypt, and Rome during the very Late Republic. At the center of this world is the vibrant personality of Cleopatra VII, last of the Ptolemaic rulers. We will examine the textual evidence for her dynamic rule within the broader contexts of what archaeology offers in balancing this picture. Focus will placed on: the interaction of Greek and Egyptian religious systems; “Fusion,” “Hybridity,” “Hellenicity,” and “Egyptianness” across the wider cultural sphere; economic and social history; and the maritime world.
CLASS-UA 293.002, Ancient Medicine: From Hippocrates-Galen, T&Th 11:00-12:15 Calloway Scott
Graeco-Roman medicine, and the figures of Hippocrates and Galen in particular, is often thought of as the pre-cursor to modern, western bio-medicine. Challenging this notion, this course will take a broad view of ancient medicine, introducing students to the major figures, ideas, and theoretical trends within the history of medicine from Classical Greece to the Roman empire, taking care to place them in their social and cultural contexts. Moving chronologically from Classical Greece (500 BCE) to the Roman Empire (250 CE), we will explore the most important works of the ancient medical tradition, addressing a wide variety of topics including etiology and nosology; anatomy and physiology; gynecology and embryology; as well as pharmacy and therapeutics. Crucially, we will also examine the methods, strategies, and limits of making authoritative knowledge in the ancient world, in order to better understand the historical relationships between ancient and modern medical science. All readings will be in English translation.
CLASS-UA 294.001, Classics & Social Justice, T&Th 3:30-4:45, Peter Meineck
This new seminar will examine how classical scholarship is currently being used in social justice and public outreach programs in the United States. Topics will include; classics based programs that work on immigration, refugees, prisons, disability, economically disadvantaged, diversity, LGBTQ, Women and gender equality, veterans, emergency first responders, at-risk children, seniors, museums and cultural institutions, public humanities, and education. This class will include guest speakers who work on these public programs, close study of ancient texts and material culture artifacts, the distribution of government and private funding, and a final project on a classics-based public program idea. We will be exploring the use of classical material in theatre, public discussion groups, at-risk after-school programs, prisons, with veteran-groups and in helping to explore the issues of modern democracy, different marginalized groups, and social equality. This course is aimed at all undergraduate students and a proficiency of knowledge of classical material or ancient languages is not required.
CLASS-UA 294.002, same as HBRJD-UA 422.001, Living the Good Life: Greek & Jewish Perspectives, M&W 2:00-3:15, Michah Gottlieb
What makes a life well-lived? Central questions to be explored will include: Does living well require acquiring knowledge and wisdom? What is the place of moral responsibility in the good life? Is the good life, a happy life or does it require sacrificing happiness? Does religion lead to living well or does it hinder it? What is friendship and how does it contribute to the good life? Study of primary texts by the following thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Avot, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Hermann Cohen.
CLASS-UA 296, (2 point course) The Ancient Roman Law of Delict, Friday 12:30-1:45, Michael Peachin
A man sends his son to a shoemaker to work as an apprentice. The shoemaker, in attempting to teach the boy this craft, resorts to physical punishment, which was a usual device in Roman education. He hits the boy on the head with a wooden shoe last. Unfortunately, the shoemaker/teacher does this with too much force, and so, knocks the boy’s eye out. Thus, the Roman legal experts had to decide what monetary recompense, if any, was due to the father for the damage done to his boy. Here is another example of delict in the Roman world. Person A is carrying a very heavy load, and does not pay attention to the fact that the ground is slippery. He therefore stumbles, and the load he is carrying slips from his grasp, strikes a slave who belongs to person B, and kills the slave. What sum of money, if any, does A now owe to B, since A has now destroyed property (the slave) belonging to B? These are famous sample cases involving the Roman law of delict (tort).
In this course, we will use a case book, which takes us through the intricacies of how the ancient Roman legal experts constructed this area of their law. The situations they imagine are often quite foreign, even bizarre, to the modern observer. However, the manner in which these Roman experts construct their law is supremely sophisticated, and serves as an extraordinarily good introduction to legal reasoning. This course, then, will offer both a highly interesting glimpse of the ancient Roman social and cultural world, along with a splendid opportunity to cut one’s teeth on some top notch legal reasoning.
This will be a two-point course. We will meet once weekly, on Fridays. And please note that a two-point course like this will allow students to use the extra two points of credit per term (n.b.: NYU tuition automatically includes 18 points of course credit per term, not merely 16 points), which generally are left unused.
CLASS-UA 305, Identical to ARTH-UA 850.002, Introduction to Archaeology, M&W 11:00-12:15, Joan Breton Connelly
This course presents an introduction to the archaeology of the Mediterranean world, examining the history and contexts of sites and monuments as well as the methods, practices, and research models through which they have been excavated and studied. From Bronze Age palaces of the Aegean, to the Athenian Acropolis, to the cities of Alexander the Great, the Roman forum, Pompeii, and the Roman provinces, we consider the ways in which art, archaeology, architecture, everyday objects, landscape, urbanism, technology, and ritual teach us about ancient Greek and Roman societies. Special focus is placed on reception, origins of archaeology in the Renaissance, 19th to 20th-century humanistic and social scientific approaches, and postmodern social constructions of knowledge.
CLASS-UA 646, same as RELST-UA 840, Early Christian Theology, M&W 9:30-10:45, Adam Becker
What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ was both human and divine? How can the Christian divinity be one yet three? How are the sacraments such as baptism effective? Do we have freewill? These were some of the pressing questions the Church Fathers addressed in the early centuries of Christian history and their answers contributed to the Christian theological tradition for centuries to come. In this course we will examine some of the classic works of early Christian theology. Despite the often highly rhetorical and polemical characterof their writings the Church Fathers nevertheless developed an intellectually rigorous field of knowledge, one that has had a significant intellectual historical as well as socio-political impact in the history of the Church. This is not a theological course but rather an introduction to some of the key texts in a historically significant mode of theological inquiry.
CLASS-UA 700, same as PHIL-UA 122, Greek Thinkers, M&W 11:00-12:15, Laura Viidebaum
Western theorizing begins with the Greeks, who can be said to have invented or introduced all manner of thinking about the universe and human nature. Illustrative texts from the presocratics, mathematicians, philosophers, historians, and tragedians will be read.
CLASS-UA 875, Advanced Latin: Horace: ‘Sermones’, M&W 9:30-10:45, Matthew Santirocco
This course will be devoted to close reading and critical interpretation of selected satires from Books 1 and 2 of Horace's 'Sermones,' with subsidiary readings from other satirists such as Persius and Juvenal. In addition to focussing on matters of language and style, the course will also explore the origins and development of satire (a genre which the Romans claimed to have invented); the historical background and political subtext of the poems; the role of literary patronage; the philosophical substrate of the poems; the relationship between the satires and Horace's other works (i e., his lyric poems and epistles); and, finally, the reception of Horace from antiquity onwards. Students will be assessed on the basis of a midterm and final exam, an oral class report, and a short paper.
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.
CLASS-UA 003 Elementary Latin I
001. M-TH 9:30-10:45, Rebekah Rust
002. M-TH 3:30-4:45, Mikael Papadimitriou
Introduction to the essentials of Latin, the language of Vergil, Caesar, and Seneca. 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.
CLASS-UA 005 Intermediate Latin I: Reading Prose
001. M, T, W 9:30-10:45, Calloway Scott
002. M, T, TH 12:30-1:45, Adam Becker
Teaches second-year students to read Latin prose through comprehensive grammar review; emphasis on the proper techniques for reading (correct phrase division, the identification of clauses, and reading in order); and practice reading at sight. Authors may include Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Petronius, or Pliny, at the instructor's discretion.
CLASS-UA 007 Elementary Ancient Greek I, 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.
CLASS-UA009 Intermediate Ancient Greek I: Plato, M, T, W 2:00-3:15, Raffaella Cribiore
Reading of Plato’s Apology and Crito and selections from the Republic. The purpose of the course is to develop facility in reading Attic prose. Supplements readings in Greek with lectures on Socrates and the Platonic dialogues.
CLASS-UA 146 Greek and Roman Epic, T&TH 12:30-1:45, Alessandro Barchiesi
Detailed study of the epic from its earliest form, as used by Homer, to its use by the Roman authors. Concentrates on the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer and on Vergil’s Aeneid, but may also cover the Argonautica of the Alexandrian poet Apollonius of Rhodes and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as well as the epics representative of Silver Latin by Lucan, Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus.
CLASS-UA 291.00 Cities and Sanctuaries of Ancient Greece, M&W 11:00-12:15, Joan Connelly
What impact did built urban development have on local communities across the ancient Greek world? What was the relationship between sacred spaces and the growth and structure of Greek cities? This survey examines Greek urban and religious centers from the time of their foundation through the end of Roman rule. We will look at landscape, topography, archaeology, local myth narratives, and the ways in which religious, political, social, economic, and cultural forces shaped the growth and development of cities and sanctuaries. Special emphasis on: the relation between architecture and society, city planning and design, continuity of sacred space, construction methods and innovations, connectivity of sites, as well as the theories and concepts that inform the study of Greek urbanism. Micro-scale as well as regional trends will be considered along with the role of urban borderscapes as arenas for social, political and cultural interaction.
CLASS-UA 292 History of Ancient Law, M&W 11:00-12:15, Michael Peachin
Examines the development of law and legal systems and the relationships of these to the societies that created them, starting with some ancient Near Eastern systems and working down to the Roman period. The main focus is on the fully developed system of Roman law.
CLASS-UA 293.001 (ARTH-UA 850.003) Greek Islands: Myth, Archaeology, and Networks, M 3:30-6:00, Joan Connelly
From the birth of Apollo on Delos to the Byzantine monasteries of Patmos; from the from the copper mines of Cyprus to the marble quarries of Naxos; from the palaces of Minoan Crete to the Crusader castles of Rhodes, Greek islands comprise a dynamic arena of ecological, cultural, religious, political, economic, and strategic interaction. This course examines the phenomenon of Insularity across the Greek world from Prehistory through Byzantine times with special emphasis on archaeology and material culture. We shall look at the functions and exploitation of islands as places of isolation and connectivity; of refuge and exile; as geo-political/strategic hubs and uninhabited wastelands; as resource-rich and utterly barren. Special emphasis on: ecology and environment; art and architecture; myth and history; religious, political and economic networks; colonization; related coastcapes and maritime ‘small worlds’.
CLASS-UA 293.003 (HBRJD-UA 150) Ancient Egyptian Mythology and Religion, M&W 2:00-3:15, Ann Macy Roth
Ancient Egyptian Mythology and Religion will focus on many aspects of Egyptian religion: conceptions of the divine in a polytheistic context, temple ritual, hymns, personal piety, the relationship between religion and magic, mortuary religion and its evolution and material consequences. Questions will be approached through both study of the primary sources in English translation: myths (very broadly conceived), other religious writings (including mortuary texts such as the Book of the Dead and the Underworld books), as well as art and artifacts connected with religious practice, such as amulets and votives. In addition, students will read the standard secondary source analyses by noted historians of Egyptian religion and critique them based on the primary sources.
CLASS-UA 294.001 (THEA-UT 732.001) Staging Greek Drama: Playing the Greeks, R 3:30-6:10, Peter Meineck
This new course combines practical workshops with scholarly discussion to examine different aspects of how ancient Greek plays were staged. Themes include masks, movement, the chorus, gender, narrative, music, ritual, space, politics, social conflict, trauma, and emotions. Students will work in a studio environment on the texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander in translation. Students interested in classical drama, acting and directing, ancient Greek literature and culture will participate in a mixed class of TSOA and CAS students.
This class is taught by Peter Meineck, Professor of Classics in the Modern World at NYU and the founding director of Aquila Theatre (www.aquilatheatre.com).
CLASS-UA 846 (RELST-UA.846) Virgins, Martyrs, Monks & Saints in Early Christianity, T&TH 9:30-10:45, Adam Becker
What was it about Christianity that it made it so popular in the ancient world? Was it the martyrs volunteering for public execution? Monks’ sexual renunciation? The isolation of hermits living on the tops of columns in the wilderness? Or perhaps orthodoxy and its politically divisive anxieties about heretics and Jews? In fact, all these things (and more) explain how a small Jewish messianic sect from Palestine became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. This course will provide an introduction to the big questions in the history of early Christianity. The focus will be on early Christian literature, such as martyr texts, saints’ lives, and works of monastic spirituality and mysticism. Issues addressed will include the Christian reception of Greco-Roman antiquity, the origins of anti-Semitism, gender and sexuality in the early Church, and the emergence of Christian theology.
CLASS-UA 871 Advanced Latin: Lucretius, M&W 9:30-10:45, David Sider
CLASS-UA 975 Advanced Greek: Philosophy, M&W 6:30-9:00, Marko Malink
CLASS-UA 150, 1st summer session, Archaeological Excavation at Yeronosis in Cyprus. Permission of instructor required.
CLASS-UA 404, Identical RELST-UA 404, Classical Mythology
Section 001: 1st summer session, M-Th, 9:30-11:05, Rebekah Rust
Section 002: 2nd summer session, M-Th, 9:30-11:05, Rebecca Sausville
Discusses the myths and legends of Greek and Roman mythology and the gods, demigods, heroes, nymphs, monsters, and everyday mortals who played out their parts in this mythology. Begins with creation, as vividly described by Hesiod in the Theogony, and ends with the great Trojan War and the return of the Greek heroes, especially Odysseus. Roman myth is also treated, with emphasis on Aeneas and the foundation legends of Rome.
CLASS-UA 2 Intensive Elementary Latin, M-F, 8:00 - 9:15, Instructor TBA
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.
CLASS-UA 4 Elementary Latin
001: M-TH, 9:30 - 1045, Christopher Parmenter
002: M-TH, 3:30 - 4:45, Celia Campbell
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.
CLASS-UA 6 Intermediate Latin
001: M,T,TH, 9:30 - 10:45, Nicholas Rynearson
002: M,T,W, 3:30 - 4:45, Emilia Barbiero
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.
CLASS-UA 8 Elementary Greek II, M-TH, 11:00 - 12:15, Laura Viidebaum
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.
CLASS-UA 10 Intermediate Ancient Greek II: Homer, M,T,W, 9:30 - 10:45, Anne Carson
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.
CLASS-UA 242, identical to HIST-UA 200, HEL-UA242 Greek History from the Bronze Age to Alexander, 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. and is connected to the civilization that lay to the east, rooted in Egypt and Mesopotamia. This course traces Greek history from the Greeks’ earliest appearance to the advent of Alexander.
CLASS-UA 291, identical to HRBJD-UA 422 Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives, T&TH, 11:00 - 12:15, Michah Gottlieb
The course will examine Greek and Jewish perspectives on the question: What makes a life well-lived? Central questions to be explored will include: Does living well require acquiring knowledge and wisdom? What is the place of moral responsibility in the good life? Is the good life, a happy life or does it require sacrificing happiness? Does religion lead to living well or does it hinder it? What is friendship and how does it contribute to the god life? The course will focus on close readings of primary texts by the following thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Avot, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Hermann Cohen.
CLASS-UA 292 History of Ancient Law, T&TH, 9:30 - 10:45, Andrew Monson
Examines the development of law and legal systems and the relationships of these to the societies that created them, starting with some ancient Near Eastern systems and working down to the Roman period. The main focus is on the fully developed system of Roman law.
CLASS-UA 293 Through the Eyes of Coins: Trade & Wealth in the Ancient World, T 3:30 - 6:00, Peter Van Alfen and Gilles Bransbourg (both 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.
CLASS-UA 314, identical to ARTH-UA 850, Greek Sculpture: Prayers in Stone, M&W, 2:00 - 3:15, Joan Connelly
From the “Snake Goddesses” of Minoan Crete, to the marble kouroi of archaic sanctuaries, from the Parthenon sculptures to the Pergamene Altar, the Greeks devoted enormous resources to the sculpting of images. This course examines sculptural production in Greece from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period, with careful attention to materials, techniques, styles, iconography, authorship, patronage, and settings. The votive function of images as “pleasing gifts” for the gods, their apotropaic role in protecting tombs and temples, and the commemorative function of sculptured grave markers will be considered within the broader context of signification. Special topics include: divine images, corporality, athletic statuary, portraiture, and architectural decoration. Sculptures will be examined within the framework of critical theories of representation, mimesis, aesthetics, and reception, as well as within their broader social, political, and historical contexts.
CLASS-UA 353, identical to ARTH-UA 104, Greek Architecture, M&W 12:30 - 1:45, Anne Kontokosta
Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTH-UA 601), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam.
History of Greek architecture from the archaic through the Hellenistic periods (eighth to first centuries B.C.E.). Provides a chronological survey of the Greek architectural tradition from its Iron Age origins, marked by the construction of the first all-stone temples, to its radical transformation in the late Hellenistic period, most distinctively embodied in the baroque palace architecture reflected in contemporary theatre stage-buildings. The lectures, accompanying images, and readings present the major monuments and building types, as well as such related subjects as city planning and urbanism, building methods, and traditions of architectural patronage.
CLASS-UA 404, identical to RELST-UA 404 Classical Mythology, 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.
CLASS-UA 700, identical to PHIL-UA 122, Greek Thinkers, T&TH, 11:00 - 12:15, Marko Malink
This is an introduction to central themes in ancient Greek philosophy and their literary background. We will discuss topics such as destiny, freedom, fatalism, contingency, necessity, the nature of human agency, and the nature of human knowledge. Authors to be discussed include Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Chrysippus. This course will help you develop the skills needed to read ancient philosophers profitably on your own. We will spend at least some of our time lingering over fairly short passages, thinking about how to discern more clearly the questions being raised and the answers and arguments being given. We'll also practice standard philosophical skills such as clarifying concepts, noticing distinctions, and analyzing and evaluating arguments.
CLASS-UA 701, identical to COLIT-UA 852, Socrates and His Critics, T&TH, 11:00 - 12:15, Vincent Renzi
Despite having written nothing himself, Socrates is—if not the most influential—certainly one of the most influential intellectual figures in the Western tradition, for it is with Socrates that “philosophy” seems first to move from natural history to an explicit concern for human affairs. Indeed, so great is the magnitude of this change that we continue to term earlier thinkers “pre-Socratic philosophers.” His stature is marked again in the name given to a distinctive form of philosophical literature, the Socratic discourse, and an approach to philosophical inquiry and instruction, the Socratic method. In antiquity, his thought, importantly, inspired Plato, Xenophon, the Stoics, the Skeptics, and the Cynics, beyond those thinkers stretching to influence in Rome and Judea...and four centuries before the presumed time of Jesus, Socrates had already suffered martyrdom for his idiosyncratic political, philosophical, and religious views. In modernity, his life both fascinates and repels the attention, notably, of Nietzsche; though criticisms of his mode of existence he had already endured in his own time at the hands of the comedian Aristophanes, among others. Given the state of the evidence, one can look only to the Despite having written nothing himself, Socrates is—if not the most influential—certainly one of the most influential intellectual figures in the Western tradition, for it is with Socrates that “philosophy” seems first to move from natural history to an explicit concern for human affairs. Indeed, so great is the magnitude of this change that we continue to term earlier thinkers “pre-Socratic philosophers.” His stature is marked again in the name given to a distinctive form of philosophical literature, the Socratic discourse, and an approach to philosophical inquiry and instruction, the Socratic method. In antiquity, his thought, importantly, inspired Plato, Xenophon, the Stoics, the Skeptics, and the Cynics, beyond those thinkers stretching to influence in Rome and Judea...and four centuries before the presumed time of Jesus, Socrates had already suffered martyrdom for his idiosyncratic political, philosophical, and religious views. In modernity, his life both fascinates and repels the attention, notably, of Nietzsche; though criticisms of his mode of existence he had already endured in his own time at the hands of the comedian Aristophanes, among others.
CLASS-UA 873, Advanced Latin, Petronius’ The Satyricon, T&TH, 2:00 - 3:15, Alessandro Barchiesi
A reading of the Latin text of Petronius, arguably the most original and surprising text of Classical Roman Literature, with the goal of promoting a deeper knowledge of the Latin language and its various levels, and of broadening the vision of Classical antiquity.
CLASS-UA 974, Advanced Greek: Orators, T&TH, 9:30 - 10:45, Laura Viidebaum
Readings of several speeches from the major Attic orators (Lysias, Aeschines, and Demosthenes). Also examines the role of law in Athenian society, procedure in the Athenian courts, and rhetorical education and training.