Ancient Greece
The Greeks enjoy a special place
in the construction of western culture and identity, and yet
many of us have only the vaguest notion of what their culture
was like. A
few Greek myths at bedtime when we are kids, maybe a Greek
tragedy like Sophokles' Oidipous when we are at school: these
are often the only contact we have with the world of the ancient
Mediterranean. The story of the Greeks, however, deserves
a wider audience, because so much of what we esteem in our
own culture derives from them: democracy, epic poetry, lyric
poetry, tragedy, history writing, philosophy, aesthetic taste,
all of these and many other features of cultural life enter
the West from Greece. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi had inscribed
over the temple, "Know Thyself." For us, that also means knowing
the Greeks. We will cover the period from the Late Bronze
Age, c. 1500 BC, down to the time of Philip of Macedon,
c. 350 BC, concentrating on the two hundred year interval
from 600-400 BC.
Hellenistic History: from Alexander
the Great to Cleopatra
The Hellenistic Age corresponds broadly to the
three hundred year period from the career of Alexander the
Great (354-324 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. This class
is about those changes, and attempts to evaluate the nature
of Hellenism.
Worlds Apart: Cultural Constructions of East
& West
Multiculturalism increasingly characterizes our
political, economic, and personal lives. This course
will focus on real and perceived differences between the so-called "East" and "West". Taking
a case study approach, we shall read and compare literary materials
from classical Greece and Rome, a major source of "Western" culture,
and Japan, an "Eastern" society. Through analysis of
these texts, we shall explore some of the concepts, values,
and myths in terms of how "East" and "West" define themselves
and each other: e.g. gender, sexuality, rationality, religion,
society, justice, nature, cultural diffusion, work, leisure,
life, and death. Readings will include selections from
Greco-Roman and Japanese myths, poetry, drama, essays, history,
and philosophy. Class format will be lecture with opportunity
for questions and discussion. Grading will be based
on midterm and final examinations, a short paper, and class
participation. No prerequisites.
Greece Under the Roman Empire
"Greece, the captive, took her savage victor
captive", runs the famous line from the Roman poet Horace. Traditionally
the complex relationship between Greece and Rome has been seen
from the Roman point of view, emphasizing the changes in Roman
culture as a result of Rome's contact with the Greeks. This
class takes a different approach, considering the impact on
Greece. We will use the results of archaeological survey
and excavation to chart the economic transformation of Greece,
especially in relation to the Roman colony at Korinth. This
will involve examining changes in land distribution, the growth
of road networks, and the increase in large public works such
as theatres, aqueducts and baths. We will also use writers
such as Dio Chrysostom and Pausanias to consider the effect
on the institutions of the traditional Greek city-state of
being incorporated into a single province, Achaia. We
will read some of the ancient novels, such as Longus' Daphnis
and Chloe, as well as the essays of Plutarch. There are
many avenues into the past, and the particular richness of
our sources for Roman imperial history makes it possible for
us to approach Greece from a variety of perspectives.
under construction...
