Advanced Greek:

PREREQUISITE: CLASS-UA 10 OR FOUR YEARS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL GREEK.

Attic oratory is a fascinating corpus of ancient Greek writings, one that gives us insight into the political, social, economic, and educational aspects of the life in 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.

Readings of several speeches from the major Attic orators (Lysias, Aeschines, and Demosthenes). The course also examines the role of law in Athenian society, procedure in the Athenian courts, and rhetorical education and training.