Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Syllabus - Spring 2016

Jump to course logistics

Full Schedule

Week 1

Mon 25 Jan

Assignment

  • Euripides, Medea

Lecture: "The Problem With Being a Barbarian"
Ann Delehanty

Wed 27 Jan

Assignment

  • The Trial and Death of Socrates

Lecture: "A Kind of Gadfly"
Pancho Savery

Fri 29 Jan

Assignment

  • Aristophanes, The Clouds

Lecture: "The Comic City"
Nigel Nicholson

Week 2

Mon 1 Feb

Assignment

  • Plato, Republic, Books 1 - 2

Lecture: "Who is Cephalus?"
Peter Steinberger

Wed 3 Feb

Assignment

  • Plato, Republic, Books 3 - 5

Lecture: "Sex, Gender and the Power(s) of Philosophy"
Tamara Metz

Fri 5 Feb

Assignment

  • Plato, Republic, Books 6 - 7

Lecture: "Platonic Metaphysics"
Walter Englert

Week 3

Mon 8 Feb

Assignment

  • Plato, Republic, Books 8 - 10 

Lecture: "Image Worlds”
Kris Cohen

Wed 10 Feb

Assignment

  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 1 - 2

Lecture: “The Function Argument”
Steven Arkonovich

Fri 12 Feb

Assignment

  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 3 and 6

Lecture: “Acting Justly or Just Acting: On Becoming Virtuous"
Ann Delehanty

Week 4

Mon 15 Feb

Assignment

  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 10

Lecture: “What Aristotle Had That We Do Not"
Troy Cross

Wed 17 Feb

Assignment

  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book 10:6-9; Politics, Books 1:1-7 and 12-13 (on e-reserve)

Lecture: "The Virtue of Political Science"
Tamara Metz

Lecture Handout
Fri 19 Feb

Assignment

  • Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference
  • Stewart, Andrew, "The Alexandrian Style: A Mirage?" pp. 231-246 (on e-reserve)
  • Freeman, pp. 314-332 (2nd edition) or 313-331 (3rd edition)

Lecture: "Ancient Aliens: Material Culture and Identity in Hellenistic Alexandria"
Tom Landvatter

Sat 20 Feb

First Paper Due

Due Saturday, February 20, at 5:00 PM to your conference leader.

View Paper Topics

Week 5

Mon 22 Feb

Assignment

  • Theocritus, 1-7, 11, 13, 15, 17
  • Freeman, pp. 333-354 (2nd edition) or 332-354 (3rd edition)

Lecture: "Country Matters"
Robert Knapp

Wed 24 Feb

Assignment

  • Polybius, Histories, Book 6, sections 1-39, 47, 50-58 (on e-reserve)
  • Freeman, pp. 369-401 (2nd edition) or 368-399 (3rd edition)

Lecture: "Polybian Thought"
Peter Steinberger

Fri 26 Feb

Assignment

  • Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), Book 1 (lines 1-637, 921-1117), Book 2 (lines 1-293), and Book 3 (all);
  • Garnsey & Saller, The Roman Empire, chapter 9 (on e-reserve)

Lecture: "Lucretius, Rome, and the Nature of the Universe"
Walter Englert

Week 6

Mon 29 Feb

Assignment

  • Lucretius, On The Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura). Books 5 - 6

Lecture: "Lucretius and the Things of Nature"
Ralph Drayton

Wed 2 Mar

Assignment

  • Cicero, On Duties III
  • Freeman, pp. 402-428 (2nd edition) or 400-427 (3rd edition)

Lecture: "Cicero and Roman Philosophy"
Walter Englert

Fri 4 Mar

Assignment

  • Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Preface and Book 1

Lecture: "How to Found a Republic: The Roman Example"
Tamara Metz

Week 7

Mon 7 Mar

Assignment

  • Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book 2.1-25, Book 3.25-29, Book 4.13-16, and Book 5.19 - end

Lecture: "Republican Virtue"
Robert Knapp

Wed 9 Mar

Assignment

  • Augustus, Res Gestae; Suetonius, Life of Augustus (both on e-reserve)
  • Freeman, pp. 429-444 and 450-464 (2nd edition) or 428-443 and 449-464 (3rd edition)

Lecture: "From Octavian to Augustus"
Ellen Millender

Fri 11 Mar

Assignment

Lecture: "Picturing Peace"
Margot Minardi

Sat 12 Mar

Second Paper

Due Saturday, March 12, at 5:00 PM to your conference leader.

View Paper Topics

Week 8

Mon 14 Mar

Assignment

  • Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1 – 4

Lecture: "Epic and Allusion in Virgil's Aeneid"
Sarah Wagner-McCoy

Wed 16 Mar

Assignment

  • Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5 – 7

Lecture: "The Two Faces of Aeneas: Private Feeling and Public Duty"
Dustin Simpson

Fri 18 Mar

Assignment

  • Virgil, Aeneid, Books 8-9

Lecture: Panel
Ann Delehanty, Tamara Metz, David Garrett, Kris Cohen

Sat 19 Mar

Sprink Break

March 19 – March 27

Week 9

Mon 28 Mar

Assignment

  • Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9 – 12
  • Homer, The Iliad, Book 24

Lecture: "This is the End"
Pancho Savery

Wed 30 Mar

Assignment

  • Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1 – 3

Lecture: "Language, Power, Change"
Gail Sherman

Fri 1 Apr

Assignment

  • Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4 – 6, 15

Lecture: "Portrait of the Artist as Spider-Woman"
Jessica Seidman

Week 10

Mon 4 Apr

Assignment

  • Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: "On the Tranquility of the Mind," "On Providence, and "Letter 70"

Lecture: "Public Philosophy"
Jan Mieszkowski

Wed 6 Apr

Assignment

  • Epictetus, The Handbook; Seneca, "On Slavery"

Lecture: "Stoicism, Epictetan Style"
Paul Hovda

Fri 8 Apr

Assignment

  • Paul, Romans (in The New Oxford Annotated Bible)
  • Freeman, pp. 564-581 (2nd edition) or 579-600 (3rd edition)

Lecture: "Messiah and Gentiles"
Mike Foat

Week 11

Mon 11 Apr

Assignment

  • Josephus, The Jewish War, pp. 27-31, 133-148, 307-354, 387-405
  • Martin Jaffee, Early Judaism, Chapter 1, pp. 19-45 (on e-reserve)

Lecture: "Josephus: Historian, Traitor, Hero?"
Marat Grinberg

Wed 13 Apr

Assignment

  • Gospel According to Matthew

Lecture: "Tradition and Innovation in the Gospel of Matthew"
Michael Faletra

Fri 15 Apr

Assignment

  • The Gospel of John

Lecture: "Word!"
Kristin Scheible

Sat 16 Apr

Third Paper Due

Due Saturday, April 16, at 5:00 PM to your conference leader.

View Paper Topics

Week 12

Mon 18 Apr

Assignment

  • Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference
  • Tessa Rajak, "The Dura-Europos synagogue:  Images of a Competitive Community," 141-154 (on e-reserve)
  • Patricia DeLeeuw, "A Peaceful Pluralism: the Durene Mithraeum, Synagogue, and Christian Building" 189-199 (on e-reserve)

Lecture: "Christians, Pagans, and Jews at Dura Europos"
William Diebold

Wed 20 Apr

Assignment

Lecture: "Did Race Matter in Classical Antiquity? Tacitus's Germans and the History of a Bad Idea"
Margot Minardi

Fri 22 Apr

Assignment

  • Apuleius, The Golden Ass

Lecture: "Strange to Tell"
Jay Dickson

Week 13

Mon 25 Apr

Assignment

  • Apuleius, The Golden Ass
  • Freeman, pp. 541-563

Lecture: "Beyond Cupid and Psyche"
Michael Faletra

Wed 27 Apr

Assignment

Apuleius, The Golden Ass

Lecture: "Place and Space in Apuleius"
Gail Sherman

Fri 29 Apr

Lecture: Final Panel: "What Was That?"
Jan Mieszkowski, Tamara Metz, Margot Minardi, Lucia Martinez

Mon 9 May

Final Exam

Monday, May 9, 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Course Logistics

Required Texts

  • Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. Lindsay (Indiana University Press)
  • Aristophanes, Three Comedies: The Birds, The Clouds, The Wasps, trans. Arrowsmith (University of Michigan Press)
  • Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Irwin (Hackett)
  • Cicero, Selected Works, trans. M. Grant (Penguin)
  • Epictetus, The Handbook, trans. Nicholas P. White (Hackett)
  • Euripides, Euripides I, ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press)
  • Freeman, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, 2nd ed. (Oxford)
  • Josephus, The Jewish War, trans. Williamson (Penguin)
  • Livy, The Rise of Rome; Ab Urbe Condita, trans. Luce (Oxford)
  • Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, trans. Englert (Focus Philosophical Library)
  • The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha New Revised Standard Version: College Edition (Oxford)
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Melville (Oxford)
  • Plato, Republic, trans. Reeve (Hackett)
  • Plato, Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Grube (Hackett)
  • Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters, trans. Hadas (Norton)
  • Theocritus, Idylls, trans. Verity (Oxford)
  • Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Mandelbaum (Bantam Doubleday Dell)
  • Various readings on the Roman World available on e-reserves

Recommended Texts

  • Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
  • Williams, The Craft of Argument (Univ. of Chicago Press)

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. Learn more about accessing e-reserves on Moodle. Please bring a copy of the day's reading assignment to class.

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 due to time conflicts must petition the chair of Humanities 110. Forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Registrar or from Kathy Kennedy, Chem 303. Turn in completed forms to Humanities 110 Chair as soon as possible. No conference changes will be permitted after the second week of the term.

Papers, Writing Assignments, and Examinations

Three course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. Individual conference leaders may assign additional writing. A final examination for the spring term will be given in finals week, May 9, 1-5pm. Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the 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).