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Classical Studies Greek Latin Ancient History

> Spring 2008 Classical Studies Courses

           

           Course Register Description




Classical Studies  

Art of Persuasive Speaking
CLST 135.301
Weber
T 1:30-4:30

Weigle Information Commons-Van Pelt Library

The Art of Argument and Persuasion prepares students to serve as paid CWiC speaking advisors who assist Penn students with classroom presentations. The course does so by exploring what makes speaking persuasive and how oratory functions and putting that exploration into practice. The Art of Argument and Persuasion is a practicum that aims to develop students' abilities as speakers, as critical listeners and as advisors able to help others develop those abilities. In addition to creating and presenting individual and group presentations, students analyze and critique a variety of examples of oral communication, including those of their peers.

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/cwic/join.html
Independent Study and Research
CLST 199.000
Instructor
TBA
 

Greek and Roman Mythology
CLST 200.401 crosslisted w/COML 200
Struck
MW 11:00-12:00

LOGN 17

Recitation Sections

     402 R 10:30-11:30 Bishop

LOGN 337

403 R 12:00-1:00 Traweek

MEYH B13

404 R   3:00-4:00 Traweek

MCNB 395

405 F 11:00-12:00 Whitbeck

COLL 318

406 F 11:00-12:00 Bishop

WILL 205

407 F 11:00-12:00 Turner

WILL 319

408 F 12:00-1:00 Turner

COLL 318

409 F 12:00-1:00 Whitbeck

LOGN 392

410 F 10:00-11:00 Turner

EDUC 114

  411 F 1:00-2:00 Whitbeck

MCNB 169

Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years.  Some of  them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding  of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and  their exploits and courage in the face of adversity.  Still others  are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into  trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these  tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them?  This course will  focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few  contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth  and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations.   We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans  themselves understood their own myths.  Are myths subtle codes that  contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses  of a particular culture?  Are they entertaining stories that people  like to tell over and over?  Are they a set of blinders that all of  us wear, though we do not realize it?  Investigate these questions  through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and  mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death.

Introduction to Mediterranean Archaeology
CLST 205.401 crosslisted w/ ARTH 205
Tartaron
TR 1:30-3:00

LOGN 402

Many of the world’s great ancient civilizations flourished on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea: the Egyptians, the Minoans and Mycenaeans, the Greeks and Romans, just to name a few. In this course, we will focus on the ways that archaeologists recover and interpret the material traces of the past, working alongside natural scientists, historians and art historians, epigraphers and philologists, and many others.  Archaeological sites and themes from over 2000 years of Mediterranean history will be presented.  Guest lectures by experts and meetings at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology will enhance the intellectual experience. This course is a non-technical introduction that assumes no prior knowledge of archaeology.

Visions of Rome in American and Italian Cinema
CLST 206.401 crosslisted w/ CINE 205
Farrell
MW 1:00-2:00

LOGN 402

Recitation Sections

402 R 3:00-4:00 Staff

WILL 320

403 F 1:00-2:00 Staff

EDUC 008

404 F 2:00-3:00 Staff

WILL 3

An overview of cinematic responses to the idea of Rome, ancient and modern, city and empire, place and idea, from the silent era to the present day. The emphasis will be on how successive visions of Rome reflect evolving political and social conditions on both sides of the Atlantic and the relative positions of the American and Italian film industries within the world market. Specific topics to be explored include the mutually-defining relationship between Italian and American society as reflected in the cinematic art, the dialectic between conceptions of antiquity and modernity, and the place of reception studies in approaches to both classical and contemporary material. Screenings of works by Federico Fellini, Cecil B. DeMille, William Wyler, Roberto Rossellini and other major directors.

Jerusalem
CLST 208.401 crosslisted w/ ANCH 208, JWST 208, NELC 288, & RELS 219
Irshai
T 1:30-4:30

LOGN 203

This course examines the role of the city of Jerusalem within the
ongoing polemics and dialogue between Christianity and Judaism in Late
Antiquity. The seminar focuses on the holy city of Jerusalem, exploring
the events leading to its demise in 70 CE at Roman hands and its fate in
the centuries that followed.   We will examine the complex history and
symbolic legacy of the city in the Jewish and Christian
imaginations--from the formative period of early Christianity when
Jerusalem was at the forefront of contention between the two groups, to
the relative demise of attention to the city in Jewish and Christian
thought during the 2nd and 3rd centuries under pagan Roman rule, to the
revival of interest in the 4th century under Roman Emperor Constantine,
with the appropriation of Jerusalem as a Christian city in a Christian
world. Following the fascinating transmutations in the history of the
holy city, this course explores the exchange of ideas between adherents
of both Judaism and Christianity in this ancient cradle of their pasts.

Greek Art and Architecture
CLST 220.601

crosslisted w/ARTH 220
McFadden
T 5:30-8:40

MEYH B7

Although many of us feel that we can recognize tragic stories, films, and eve
individuals, we would probably be hard-pressed to come up with a definition o
tragedy itself. In this course, we will be exploring the definitions and use
of Greco-Roman tragedy within western literary and intellectual history. In
particular, we will focus on the subject of the individual in tragedy:
representations of the rational and irrational mind and the relationship
between violence and the tragic body. We will see how the ancient texts
formulate these notions and examine the place of tragedy in later theories of
the self and civilization. In addition to a number of "classic" tragedies by
authors such as Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca, we will be reading works by
later (philosopher-) thinkers such as Aristotle, E. R. Dodds, Antonin
Artaud, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Roman Art and Architecture
CLST 221.401 crosslisted w/ ARTH 205
Rose
TR 3:00-4:30

BENN 201

Recitation Sections

402 W 5:00-6:00 Staff

BENN 138

403 R 1:30-2:30 Staff

JAFF 104

404 R 3:00-4:00 Staff

BENN 224

405 R 6:00-7:00 Staff

BENN 24

 

Ancient and Modern Constitution Making
CLST 310.401 crosslisted w/ GAFL 510
Mulhern
MW 2:00-3:30

FELS SWEEN

Constitutionmaking reemerged as an urgent issue in the Twentieth Century with the transformation of colonial empires after World War II and the collapse of the Soviet empire near the end of the century.  Constitutionmaking issues have made themselves felt also in the constitutionally more mature nations.  Even in the British Isles, for example, nationalist movements have prompted new constitutional arrangements.  And in the Twenty-First Century, as competition for control of Central Asia and the Middle East has reintensified, the written constitution has been hailed by some as the vehicle for changing long established cultures.  The most striking feature of constitutionmaking in the last two centuries may be its uneven success when it comes to reforming if not improving customs, character, habits, and actions.  Is an explanation to be found by going back to what appear to be the roots of constitutionmaking?

This course builds on contemporary scholarship to reconstruct what we may call the constitutiomaking tradition as it develops in the main ancient texts, which are read in English translations.  The ancient texts are taken from Herodotus, the Pseudo-Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, the author of the Aristotelian Athenian Constitution, Aristotle himself, Polybius, Cicero, Plutarch, Augustine, and the codifiers of Roman law.  The course traces this tradition through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and the classically trained thinkers of the Seventeenth Century, following linguistic and other clues that carry one up to Madison and put the work of the U.S. Constitutional Convention in a somewhat new light; and it continues through Nineteenth Century and Twentieth Century constitutionmaking into today’s constitutionmaking efforts in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe itself. 

Greek and Roman Magic
CLST 320.301
Struck
MW 2:00-3:30

LOGN 392

The Greeks are often extolled for making great advancements in  rational thinking.  Their contributions to philosophy, architecture,  medicine, and other fields argue that they surely did advance  rational thought.  However, this view gives us an incomplete  picture.  Many Greeks, including well-educated, prominent Greeks,  also found use for casting spells, fashioning voodoo dolls, toting  magical amulets, ingesting magic potions, and protecting their cities  from evil with apotropaic statues.  In this course you will learn how  to make people fall in love with you, bring harm to your enemies,  lock up success in business, win fame and respect of your peers, and  also some more general things about Greek and Roman society and  religion -- you will also learn what "apotropaic" means.

Pastoral Idylls?
CLST 322.301
Damon
MW 3:30-5:00

LOGN 392

Theocritus’ Idylls and Virgil’s book of pastoral poems, the Eclogues, served as model and inspiration for literary and other artists from the moment of their creation, and boast a hugely varied progeny. They continue to challenge and provoke, in part because both collections, in their different ways, embrace fundamental contradictions: these poems are not really pastoral, nor are they wholly idyllic. To make sense of this prolific instability, we will study the poems in their ancient literary and historical contexts. Texts will be read in English translation; no knowledge of Greek or Latin is required.

Love and Loss
CLST 325.301
Wilson
TR 1:30-3:00

LOGN 204

Love might seem like a universal human experience, as well as a deeply personal one. But our understanding and even our experience of desire is shaped by cultural tradition. This course will introduce you to some central texts in the western tradition of love poetry, by writers such as Sappho, Catullus, Ovid, Petrarch and Shakespeare. We will talk about whether ancient Greek and Roman literature about desire is different from later love poetry, and discuss the ways later writers have adopted, adapted and transformed their classical models. All readings will be in English. The course is open to anyone with an interest in poetry; no previous experience in classical studies is required.

Honors Thesis
CLST 398.000

Instructor

TBA

 

Independent Study and Resrach
CLST 399.000
Instructor
TBA

 

Independent Study and Research
CLST 499.000
Instructor
TBA

 

Post Bac Individual: Greek
CLST 402.601
Nishimura-Jensen
MW 3:30-5:00

WILL 1

Intensive Greek reading course for students in the Post- Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies.  This semester, we will read selections from the Homeric Hymns as well as several of Callimachus' hymns.  Permission of the instructor required.

Post Bac Individual: Latin
CLST 403.601
Damon
F 1:00-3:00

LOGN 337

Intensive Latin reading course for students in the Postbac program. This semester the emphasis will be on eloquentia from a variety of perspectives. Readings will include Cicero’s De imperio Cn. Pompei (all) and De oratore (selections), Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria (selections), Tacitus’ Dialogus (all), and Apuleius’ Florida (selections).

.

Topography of Athens
CLST 510.401
Romano
W 2:00-5:00

DRLB 3C8

A chronological survey of the buildings and monuments of Athens from the Bronze Age through the Roman period.   Particular emphasis is given to the political, religious, civic and funerary monuments that relate to the history and development of the city.  Consideration of the geographical setting of the city, including its rivers and mountains and their relationship to Attica is included.  The course will be taught as a seminar style course with assigned reports being presented by the students.  Grading is based on the oral and written reports.

Greek and Roman Magic
CLST 523.640
Struck
R 6:00-8:40

BENN 322

 

Material and Methods in Mediterranean Archaeology
CLST 526.401 crosslisted w/ ARTH 526
de Brestian
F 3:00-5:00

BENN 322

 

Seminar in Greek Archaeology
CLST 614.401
Tartaron
F 9:00-12:00

BENN 224

Grave Circles A and B at Mycenae, with their new funerary architecture and their rich offerings to the deceased, offer scholars one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence for the rise of the Mycenaean culture. The information they preserve continues to be the focus of a considerable amount of scholarship, and many aspects of their interpretation are controversial and hotly debated. Their importance cannot be overestimated, and all studies of the rise of the high cultures of the Late Bronze Age Aegean must consider them carefully. This seminar will include lectures and discussions as well as student presentations by the members of the class. Many student presentations will be oriented toward specific problems, with students presenting alternate interpretations by different scholars, setting the stage for class discussions. Grades are based on student presentations, class participation, and a research paper.

Early Book Technology
CLST 735.401 crosslisted w/ JWST 735 & RELS 735
Kraft
T 6:00-9:00

LOGN 204

Selected topics from current research interests relating to early Judaism and
early Christianity.

Independent Study and Research
CLST 999.000
Instructor
TBA

 
Greek  

Elementary Modern Greek II
GREK 016.680
Tsekoura
MW 5:00-7:00

BENN 17

 

Elementary Classical Greek II
GREK 102.301
Nishimura-Jensen
MWF 1:00-2:00

LOGN 204

Students complete their study of the morphology and syntax of Classical Greek.  We begin the semester with continuing exercises in grammar and translation, then gradually shift emphasis to reading unadapted Greek texts.
Greek Heritage Speakers II
GREK 115.680
Tsekoura
TBA
 

Intermediate Greek: Poetry
GREK 204.301
Staff
MW 11:00-12:00

WILL 5

Selections from Homer's ILIAD and/or ODYSSEY.

Demosthenes
GREK 309.301
McInerney
TR 12:00-1:30

LOGN 203

This semester we shall read Demosthenes' On the Crown. This speech, one of the masterpieces of Greek oratory, was delivered in 330 BC towards the end of Demosthenes' career. It has long been used as a valuable source of information on social, religious and political history, but it is also a pleasure to read for its clarity and vigour.

Supervised Study
GREK 399.000
Instructor
TBA

Preparation of Honors Thesis in Greek Literature.
Greek for Advanced
GREK 401.000
Instructor
TBA
For graduate students in other departments needing individualized study in
Greek literature.

Greek Prose Composition
GREK 530.301
Rosen
F 1:00-4:00

LOGN 392

 

Sophists
GREK 602.401

crosslsited w/COML 606
Rosen/Copeland
email instructors for

time and location

rrosen@sas.upenn.edu or rcopeland@sas.upenn.edu

The teachers, rhetoricians, and philosophers of 5th-century Athens known collectively as the Sophists were controversial in their own time, and they have occupied a controversial place in intellectual and cultural history ever since.  Plato polemicized against them, Aristophanes satirized them, Aristotle refuted them, and generations of rhetorical theorists in Greek and Latin attempted to differentiate their art from the supposedly debased model of sophistic rhetoric. All this despite the fact that in their day many of them could be considered foundational thinkers in areas we would call anthropology, linguistics, psychology and cultural studies. Sophistic thought found its way indirectly but powerfully into the Middle Ages, where it represented both a despised falsification of philosophical argument and a dangerously attractive logic of paradoxes and insolubilia.  Culturally the (spectral) figure of the Sophist served as image of both the familiar and the outsider, linked intimately with academic identity but also with the falsifier and heretic.  As in Antiquity, so in later periods the Sophist came to embody anxieties about persuasive discourse and negation.  But in the thought of Hegel and then Nietzsche, the Sophists were recovered and “rehabilitated” as a crucial moment in the history of philosophy, and among modern intellectual historians (Untersteiner, Jaeger, de Romilly) as well as philosophers (Heidegger, Derrida) their contributions have been reevaluated.

In this course, taught jointly by medievalist Rita Copeland and classicist Ralph Rosen, we study the Sophists in classical antiquity and in and their post-classical reception.  We will begin by getting as close as possible to them through the fragmentary records that remain of their own ideas and arguments, and then we will look at how they were represented philosophically by Plato and Aristotle as well as culturally by Aristophanes.  We will study their afterlife in Late Antiquity and especially the Middle Ages, in both Latin and vernacular contexts, with special attention to the seductions of “sophistic” as a form of logic and to the ways that the Sophist defined heresy debates in England.  We will consider the central role that they came to play in Hegel’s understanding of the history of philosophy and in Nietzsche’s antifoundationalist thought.  Throughout the semester we will also be considering twentieth-century philosophical and historical reassessments of their importance.

The readings for the course will all be available in English for students who do not read Greek or Latin.

Independent Study snd Research
GREK 999.000
Instructor
TBA
 
Latin  

Elementary Latin II
LATN 102.301
Sculin
MWF 10:00-11:00 R 10:30-11:30

WILL 321

LATN 102-302

Carli

MWF 11:00-12:00 R 10:30-11:30

LOGN 392

LATN 102.601

Christy
TR 6:30-8:40

WILL 3

Latin syntax and introduction to continuous prose.

Intermediate Latin Poetry
LATN 204.301
Mowbray
MWF 10:00-11:00

LOGN 203

LATN 204.302

Smith

MWF 11:00-12:00

LOGN 203

LATN 204.303

Damon

10:00-11:00

WILL 202

 

LATN 204-601

Urban

MW 4:30-6:00

WILL 204

The translation and interpretation of Latin poetry.

Roman Comedy
LATN 309.301
Wilson
TR 10:30-12:00

LOGN 203

The comedies of Plautus and Terence are some of the earliest extant works in Latin literature. These lively plays about rape, reversal and revelation, featuring domineering old fathers, crafty slaves, rebellious sons, innocent young girls, and hookers with hearts of gold, provide some of our best evidence for what life was like in Rome in the third and second centuries BC. Course requirements will include translation quizzes, short critical essays, and engagement with class discussion.
Supervised Study
LATN 399.000
Instructor
TBA
Preparation of Honors Thesis in Latin Literature.
Latin for Advanced
LATN 401.000
Staff
TBA
For graduate students in other departments needing individualized study in
Latin literature.

Advanced Latin Survey
LATN 540.301
Damon
MW 12:00-1:00

LOGN 392

Survey of Latin prose from the archaic period to Augustine.  Consideration will be given to cultural context, genre, and style.

Graduate Latin Poetry
LATN 602.301
Farrell
R 1:00-4:00

MCNB 409

Vergil, Aeneid. We will focus on two areas: intertextual issues,  especially involving Homer and ancient Homeric criticism, and the  representation of dissent within the poem as a possible reflection  of dissent within the culture of Augustan Rome.
Independent Study and Research
LATN 999.000
Staff
TBA
For doctoral candidates.
Ancient History  

Ancient Rome
ANCH 027.401

crosslisted w/HIST 027
Grey
MW 12:00-1:00

LOGN 17

Recitation Sections

402 R 9:00-10:00 Jones

WILL 319

404  F 10:00-11:00 Jones

WILL 315

405 F 11:00-12:00 Avery

MCNB 285

406 F 12:00-1:00 Sagstetter

MCNB 309

408 R 11:00-12:00 Sagstetter

WILL 319

411 R 12:00-1:00 Reiterman

PSYL A30

412 R 3:00-4:00 Avery

CAST A8

413 R 3:00-4:00 Reiterman

DRLB 4C8

The Roman Empire was one of the few great world states-one that unified a large area around the Mediterranean Sea-an area never subsequently united as part of a single state.  Whereas the great achievements of the Greeks were in the realm of ideas and concepts (democracy, philosophy, art, literature, drama) those of the Romans tended to be in the pragmatic spheres of ruling and controlling subject peoples and integrating them under the aegis of an imperial state.  Conquest, warfare, administration, and law making were the great successes of the Roman state.  We will look at this process from its inception and trace the formation of Rome's Mediterranean empire over the last three centuries BC; we shall then consider the social, economic and political consequences of this great achievement, especially the great political transition from the Republic (rule by the Senate) to the Principate (rule by emperors).  We shall also consider limitations to Roman power and various types of challenges, military, cultural, and religious, to the hegemony of the Roman state.  Finally, we shall try to understand the process of the development of a distinctive Roman culture from the emergence new forms of literature, like satire, to the gladiatorial arena as typical elements that contributed to a Roman social order.

Jerusalem
ANCH 208.401

crosslisted w/CLST 208, JWST 208, NELC 288, & RELS 219
Irshai
T 1:30-4:30

LOGN 203

This course examines the role of the city of Jerusalem within the
ongoing polemics and dialogue between Christianity and Judaism in Late
Antiquity. The seminar focuses on the holy city of Jerusalem, exploring
the events leading to its demise in 70 CE at Roman hands and its fate in
the centuries that followed.   We will examine the complex history and
symbolic legacy of the city in the Jewish and Christian
imaginations--from the formative period of early Christianity when
Jerusalem was at the forefront of contention between the two groups, to
the relative demise of attention to the city in Jewish and Christian
thought during the 2nd and 3rd centuries under pagan Roman rule, to the
revival of interest in the 4th century under Roman Emperor Constantine,
with the appropriation of Jerusalem as a Christian city in a Christian
world. Following the fascinating transmutations in the history of the
holy city, this course explores the exchange of ideas between adherents
of both Judaism and Christianity in this ancient cradle of their pasts.

Early Jewish Magic
ANCH 230.401

crosslisted w/JWST 229,

NELC 289, & RELS 229
Harari
R 1:30-4:30

LOGN 392

This course will deal with the Jewish culture of magic in Late Antiquity and
the early Middle Ages. It will focus on two aspects: how was Jewish magic
characterized within the evidence provided by "insiders," namely
practitioners, and how was it described and presented in "outsider" accounts,
mainly rabbinic sources. We will examine magical artifacts such as amulets
and magic bowls, as well as manuals and treatises of magic. The course
explores the beliefs, practices and aims of Jewish magic activity. At the
same time, we will delve into the political question of accusations of magic
and their role in the struggle of the religious elites for monopoly over
holiness and ritual power. All course materials will be in English.

Greek World After Alexanger the Great
ANCH 323.401

McInerney
TR 3:00-4:30

ARCH CREST

This class is designed as a detailed investigation of the world created by Alexander the Great. We will cover the three hundred year period known as the Hellenistic Age from the career of Alexander the Great (354-323 BC) until the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium (31BC). This was a period during which the world of the Greeks underwent extraordinary and far-reaching changes, as Greek culture was established as far afield as northwestern India, central Asia and Egypt. In the same period kingdoms controlled by Alexander’s Successors used Greek culture to define their rule, establishing a Greek culture of the elite in regions which previously had been dominated by the Persians. As Greek and non-Greek worlds collided, a new interpretation of Greek culture emerged, giving rise, among other things, to universities and professional schools, state subsidized health care, triumphalist architecture, the heroization of the noble savage, coinage with royal portraits, the deification of men and a multitude of other social, artistic and political forms familiar to us. It was an age of radical change, dislocation, as Greek populations colonized regions previously unknown to them.

Independent Study
ANCH 499.000

Instructor
TBA

 

Problems in Ancient History
ANCH 535.401

crosslisted w/HIST 535
Grey
T 2:00-5:00

MCNB 110

 

Indepdendent Study and Research
ANCH 999.000

Instructor
TBA