Syllabus | Fall 2009
Required Texts
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia, trans. Fagles (Penguin)
- Aristophanes, Three Comedies: The Birds, The Clouds, The Wasps, ed. Arrowsmith (Chicago)
- Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Irwin (Hackett)
- Curd, ed., Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia, trans. McKirahan (Hackett)
- Euripides, Euripides V: Electra, The Phoenician Women, The Bacchae, ed. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
- Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
- Herodotus, The History, trans. Selincourt (Penguin)
- Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, and Shield, trans. Lombardo (Hackett)
- Homer, The Iliad, trans. Lattimore (Chicago)
- Martin, Ancient Greece From Pre-Historic to Hellenistic Times (Yale)
- Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (Hackett)
- Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Grube (Hackett)
- Plato, Republic, trans. Reeve (Hackett)
- Sophocles, Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, ed. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
- Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars, trans. Warner (Penguin)
- Various Readings on Ancient Greece available on e-reserves
E-Reserves
To access texts that are listed as being on e-reserves, find the day's reading assignments and follow the link to the text. You will need your kerberos username and password to be able to access the texts.
Recommended Texts
Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Fagles (Penguin)
Williams and Colomb, The Craft of Argument (Concise Edition) (Chicago)
All texts may be purchased at the Reed College Bookstore; limited numbers of each are on reserve in Hauser Library. Also on reserve or in the reference section: Oxford Classical Dictionary; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature; Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I; Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.
Conference Assignments
The Registrar makes initial assignments to conferences in this course that continue through the year. Students who subsequently find it necessary to change conferences must petition the Humanities staff (forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Registrar or from Kathy Kennedy, Chem 303). Return completed forms to Ann Delehanty, chair of Hum 110, Vollum 318. No conference changes will be permitted after the second week of the term.
Papers, Writing Assignments, and Examinations
Four course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. If the due date for an assignment conflicts with a religious holiday or obligation that you wish to observe, please consult with your conference leader. A mid-term examination will be given on Friday, October 16th from 9:00-9:50 a.m. in Vollum Lecture Hall. A four-hour final examination for the fall semester will be given Tuesday, December 15th – 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. in Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the mid-term or final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.
Writing Center
You can get additional help with all stages of the writing process from the Writing Center located in the Dorothy Johansen House. Drop-in help from writing tutors is available Sunday – Thursday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.; additional hours will also be available during weeks that a paper is due (contact the Writing Center for more information).
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Week 1
Mon 31 Aug
Homer, The Iliad
Additional Resource: Hum 110 Iliad Homepage
Lecture: "The Beginning" / Jan Mieszkowski
Wed 2 Sept
Homer, The Iliad
Lecture: "Oral Tradition in Homer: Giving Form to Action" / Nathalia King
Fri 4 Sept
Homer, The Iliad; Martin, Ancient Greece, chapters 2 and 3 (pp. 16-50)
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Divine and Human Morality in the Iliad" / Ann Delehanty
Week 2
Mon 7 Sept
Labor Day
Wed 9 Sept
Homer, The Iliad
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Powerpoint [PDF 7.2M]
Lecture: "The Agonistic Exchange of Wealth and Praise in Homeric Greece" / Christopher Roberts
Fri 11 Sept
Homer, The Iliad; Miller, Greek Lyric: Theognis & Anacreon (pp. 82-94 & 99-103)
Lecture: "Love Is a Battlefield" / Jay Dickson
Week 3
Mon 14 Sept
Hesiod, Theogony; Vernant, "Feminine Figures of Death" on e-reserve
Lecture: "Why All This Talk of Gods?"/ Kambiz GhaneaBassiri
Wed 16 Sept
Hesiod, Works and Days
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "The Political Economy of Archaic Greece (or, Hesiod's Agoraphobia)" / David Garrett
Fri 18 Sept
Hurwit, Jeffrey (chapter from The Art and Culture of Early Greece) pp.71-124 on e-reserve
Look at these slides before lecture & conference:
Archaic vases
Geometric vases
Black figure vases
Red/white figure vases
Additional Resource: Vase Study Guide
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Powerpoint
Lecture: "The Aesthetics of UrnBurial"/ Robert Knapp
FIRST PAPER DUE Saturday, Sept. 19th at 5 p.m. View Paper Topics
Week 4
Mon 21 Sept
Miller, Greek Lyric: Archilochus, Tyrtaeus, Alcman, Solon, Stesichorus, Xenophanes (pp. 1-19, 31-38, 64-81, 107-111); Martin, Ancient Greece, chapters 4 and 5 (pp. 51-93)
Additional Resource: Hum110 Greek lyric Homepage
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "How to Read Poetry and Why" / Marat Grinberg
Wed 23 Sept
Miller, Greek Lyric: Sappho (pp. 51-63) and re-read Theognis & Anacreon (pp. 82-94 & 99-103); Hallett, "Sappho in Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality" (Available through JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173393)
Lecture: "Putting the I in Ideology" / Nigel Nicholson
Fri 25 Sept
PreSocratics Reader (pp. 1-16, 25-60, 79-92)
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "On Being and Being 'Pre'" / Jon Naito
Week 5
Mon 28 Sept
Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.170; 1.201-216; Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 6 (pp. 94-123)
Additional Resource: Bibliography for "Oracular History and Athenian Empire"
Additional Resource: Maps for Herodotus
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Oracular History and Athenian Empire" / Margot Minardi
Wed 30 Sept
Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 2.1-64, 2.113-120, 2.164-182; Bernal, "The Image of Ancient Greece as a Tool for Colonialism and European Hegemony" and Burstein, "A Contested History: Egypt, Greece and Afrocentrism," both on e-reserve; Barbara Fowler, Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt (selections) on e-reserve (Bernal, Burstein, Fowler)
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Black Athena" / Pancho Savery
Fri 2 Oct
Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 3.1-38, 3.61-89, 5.55-6.140; Finley, "Was Greek Civilization Based on Slavery?" on e-reserve
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Herodotus and/or the Rest of Us" / Robert Knapp
Week 6
Mon 5 Oct
Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 7.1-153, 7.172-8.103, 9.114-122; Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 7 (pp. 124-146)
Look at these slides before lecture & conference: Euphronios slides
Lecture: "'Bound by a single fate': Explorations of the Concept of Equality" / Nathalia King
Wed 7 Oct
Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Agamemnon
Additional Resource: Greek theater
Additional Resource: Slides of Theater/Public Space
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: "Theater and Ritual" Powerpoint [22M]
Lecture: "Theater and Ritual" / Robert Knapp
Fri 9 Oct
Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Libation Bearers
Look at these slides before lecture & conference: Verbal and Visual Oresteias
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Verbal and Visual Oresteias" / William Diebold
SECOND PAPER DUE Saturday, Oct. 10th, 5 p.m. View Paper Topics
Week 7
Mon 12 Oct
Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Eumenides
Lecture: "De Organographia" / Philip and Gayle Neumann
Wed 14 Oct
Sophocles, Antigone
Lecture: "Tragedy, Conflict, Dust" / Jan Mieszkowski
Fri 16 Oct MID-TERM EXAM: 9:00-9:50 a.m. in VLH
OCTOBER 17 – OCTOBER 25: FALL BREAK
Week 8
Mon 26 Oct
Lysias, "Funeral Speech" (pp. 27-37), "Against Pancleon" (pp. 247-251), and "Against Nicomachus", pp. 298-307 on e-reserve
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Unity and Hierarchy in Athenian Society" / Kathryn Steed
Wed 28 Oct
Pollitt, "The World Under Control" (from Art & Experience in Classical Greece, chapter 3, pp. 64-110) on e-reserve
Look at this website and this slide show before lecture & conference:
Tour of Parthenon frieze
Slides of Parthenon
Additional Resource: Temple Study Guide
Additional Resource: Hum110 Parthenon Homepage
Lecture: "The Parthenon and its Sculpture" / William Diebold
Fri 30 Oct
Strassler apparatus on e-reserve; Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 8 (pp. 147-162); Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Introduction, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.146;
Lecture: "Spartan Torpor vs. Athenian Dynamism" / Ellen Millender
Week 9
Mon 2 Nov
Thucydides, Bk/Ch. 2.1-2.65; Ps-Xenophon, "The Constitution of the Athenians" on e-reserve
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Law, Virtue, and the Problem of Democracy" / Michael Breen
Wed 4 Nov
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Presentation [PDF 9M]
Lecture: "Oedipus Tyrannos: Tragic Form and Function" / Robert Knapp
Fri 6 Nov
Thucydides, Bk/Ch 3.1-3.85, 5.13-5.24, 5.83-5.116
Lecture: "Thucydidean Thought" / Peter Steinberger
Week 10
Mon 9 Nov
Thucydides, Bk/Ch 6.1-6.41, 6.105-7.18, 7.49-7.87, 8.65-8.71, 8.96-98
Lecture: "Thucydides: Tragedian, Historian, and Political Ethicist" / Nathalia King
Wed 11 Nov
Euripides, The Bacchae; Martin, Ancient Greece, ch. 8 (pp. 147-173)
Additional Resource: Hum110 Bacchae Homepage
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "Possessed by Bacchus" / Elizabeth Drumm
Fri 13 Nov
Plato, Euthyphro, Apology and Crito in The Trial and Death of Socrates; Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 8 (pp. 162-173)
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Lecture: "A Kind of Gadfly" / Pancho Savery
THIRD PAPER DUE Saturday, Nov. 14th, 5 p.m. View Paper Topics
Week 11
Mon 16 Nov
Aristophanes, The Clouds; Pre-Socratics Reader, pp. 99-104
Lecture: "The Comic City" /Nigel Nicholson
Wed 18 Nov
Plato, The Republic
Lecture: "First Problems: The Beginning of the Republic and the End of the Gods" / Steve Wasserstrom
Fri 20 Nov
Plato, The Republic
Lecture: "Sex, Gender and the Powerof Philosophy" / Tamara Metz
Week 12
Mon 23 Nov
Plato, The Republic
Lecture: "Platonic Metaphysics in The Republic" / Margaret Scharle
Wed 25 Nov
Plato, The Republic
Lecture: "The Republic: 'There is nothing like this'"/ Robert Knapp
NOVEMBER 26 – NOVEMBER 29: THANKSGIVING VACATION
Week 13
Mon 30 Nov
Vernant, "The Birth of Images" on e-reserve; Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 9 (pp. 174-197)
Look at these images prior to lecture/conference:
Kouroi
Kore
5th-and 4th-century sculptures
Additional Resource: Hum110 Kouroi Homepage
Lecture: "Defining Art" / Ann Delehanty
Wed 2 Dec
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, book 1;
Lecture: "The Function Argument" / Steve Arkonovich
Fri 4 Dec
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, books 2, 3 and 6
Lecture: "Acting Justly or Just Acting?: Assessing Aristotle's Model of Virtue" / Ann Delehanty
FOURTH PAPER DUE Saturday, Dec. 5th, 5 p.m. View Paper Topics
Week 14
Mon 7 Dec
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, books 8 and 9
Lecture: "Egoism, Altruism and Friendship" / Steve Arkonovich
Wed 9 Dec
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, book 10
Lecture: "Contemplation and the Honor Principle" / Margaret Scharle