Syllabus | Fall 2011
Required Texts
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia, trans. Fagles (Penguin)
- Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound & Other Plays, trans. Vellacott (Penguin)
- New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, trans. Coogan, et al (Oxford)
- Curd, ed., Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia, trans. McKirahan (Hackett)
- Euripides, Euripides V: Electra, The Phoenician Women, The Bacchae, trans. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
- Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Selincourt (Penguin)
- Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, and Shield, trans. Lombardo (Hackett)
- Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Fagles (Penguin)
- Martin, Ancient Greece (Yale)
- Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (Hackett)
- Sophocles, Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, trans. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
- The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, trans. Parkinson (Oxford)
- Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars, trans. Warner (Penguin)
- Various Readings on The Ancient Mediterranean and Western Asia 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. Learn more about accessing e-reserves on Moodle.
Recommended Texts
Homer, The Iliad, trans. Lattimore (Chicago)
Williams and Colomb, The Craft of Argument (Concise Edition) (Chicago)
Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
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 Robert Knapp, chair of Hum 110, Eliot 406. 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 four-hour final examination for the fall semester will be given Tuesday, December 13th – 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm in 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).
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
The Ancient Mediterranean and Western Asia
Please study the Basic Chronology of the Ancient World
+ Expand Weeks | - Collapse Weeks
Week 1
Mon 29 Aug
Homer, The Odyssey
Lecture: "Introduction to Homer and the Humanities" / Walter Englert
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 31 Aug
Homer, The Odyssey
Lecture: "Perfect Strangers: Odysseus and the Mediterranean World" / Michael Faletra
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 2 Sept
Homer, The Odyssey
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapters 2 and 3, pp 16-50
Lecture: "Conversations with Gods" / Paul Hovda
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 2
Mon 5 Sept
Labor Day
Wed 7 Sept
Homer, The Odyssey
Lecture: "The Hero at Home?" / Elizabeth Drumm
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 9 Sept
"The Great Hymn to Osiris", Lichtheim II, pp. 81-86 (on e-reserves)
"Coffin Text 148" (Simpson 263-265) (on e-reserves)
"Horus and Seth" (Lichtheim II:214-223) (on e-reserves)
"The Tale of Sinuhe" (Parkinson 21-53) (not on e-reserve, hard copy in bookstore)
Lloyd, "Chronology," Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egypt, pp. xxxii-xlv (on e-reserves)
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Lecture: "Sirius Rising: Religion and Art in Ancient Egypt" / Pancho Savery
FIRST PAPER DUE Saturday, Sept. 10th at 5 p.m., See Paper Topic
Week 3
Mon 12 Sept
"Pyramid Texts" (Lichtheim I:29-50) and "Coffin Texts" (Lichtheim I:131-133) (on e-reserves)
"The Book of the Dead" (Lichtheim II:119-132) (on e-reserves)
"The Tale of Sinuhe" (Parkinson 21-53) (not on e-reserve, hard copy in bookstore)
"The Dialogue of a Man and His Soul" (Parkinson 151-165) (not on e-reserve, hard copy in bookstore)
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Lecture: "Tomorrow is the Question: The Literature of Death" / Pancho Savery
Wed 14 Sept
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
"Sinuhe" and "The Teachings of Khety," Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, pp. 21-53, 273-83;
Frood, "Social Structure and Daily Life: Pharaonic," Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egypt, pp. 469-89, (on e-reserves);
Lecture: "’The Barbarian Born in the Homeland’: Literature and the Symbolic Order of the Middle Kingdom" / Nigel Nicholson
Fri 16 Sept
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
"Karnak," Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (on e-reserves);
"The Teaching For King Merikare," Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, pp. 212-234;
Spencer, "Priests and Temples: Pharaonic," Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egypt, pp. 255-73 (on e-reserves);
Lecture: "Monuments, Time and Power" / David Garrett
Week 4
Mon 19 Sept
Fowler, Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt (selections) (on e-reserves)
Foster, Ancient Egyptian Literature (selections) (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Reading the Genres of Egyptian Poetry" / Gabriele Hayden
Wed 21 Sept
Hesiod , Theogony
Lecture: "Telling Creation" / Nathalia King
Greek Classic Theatre
Iphigeneia in Tauris: the performing company is the theatrical group of Leonidas Loizidis from Greece. September 21, 22, 24, noon; September 23, noon and 3 p.m.; September 25, 4 p.m.; Cerf Amphitheatre.
Fri 23 Sept
Hesiod, Works and Days
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 4, pp. 51-69
Lecture: "The World of Hesiod" / David Garrett
Week 5
Mon 26 Sept
Study these images before lecture and conference:
Hurwit: Idea of Order
Geometric vases
Red/white figure vases
Hurwit, The Art and Culture of Early Greece, pp. 71-124 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "The Aesthetics of Urn Burial" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Vase Study Guide
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Slides
Wed 28 Sept
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Hurwit, The Art and Culture of Early Greece, pp. 179-202 (on e-reserves);
Hall, "Ethnicity and Cultural Exchange," Blackwell Companion to Archaic Greece, chapter 31 (sections 1,2,3) (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Fighting Over Art: Temples, Statues and Class in the 6th Century BCE" / Nigel Nicholson
Additional Resource: Hurwit images: Edge of Disorder
Additional Resource: Lecture Slides
Fri 30 Sept
Presocratics Reader, pp 1-16, 53-71;
Vernant, The Origins of Greek Thought, pp. 102-129 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "The Presocratics and Religion" / Steve Arkonovich
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 6
Mon 3 Oct
Presocratics Reader, pp 17-51, 79-88, 97-107;
Lecture: "Parmenides and the Roots of Western Philosophy" / Paul Hovda
Wed 5 Oct
Miller, Greek Lyric: Archilochus, Tyrtaeus, Alcman, Solon, Stesichorus, Xenophanes, pp. 1-19, 31-38, 64-81, 107-111
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 5, pp. 70-93
Lecture: "How to Read Poetry and Why" / Marat Grinberg
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 7 Oct
Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, Sappho (pp. 51-63), Theognis, pp. 82-94, Ibycus, pp. 95-98, Anacreon, pp. 99-103
Lecture: "Defining Eros" / Nathalia King
SECOND PAPER DUE Saturday, Oct. 8th, 5 p.m. See Paper Topic
Week 7
Mon 10 Oct
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Axworthy, "Origins: Zoroaster, the Achaemenids, and the Greeks," A History of Iran, pp. 1-30 (on e-reserves);
Allen, "Royal Capitals," The Persian Empire, pp. 59-85 (on e-reserves);
Royal inscriptions (selections), The Persian Empire, Kuhrt, ed., 70-74, 141-158, 492-158, 492-495, 503-505 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Empire of All Kinds" / Margot Minardi
Additional Resource: Supplemental images of Achaemenid Persia
Additional Resource: Persepolis 3D
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Bibliography for "Empire of All Kinds"
Wed 12 Oct
Genesis
Lecture: "The Geneses of Genesis" / Michael Faletra
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 14 Oct
Genesis
Lecture: "Another Abraham" / Jan Mieszkowski
OCTOBER 15 – OCTOBER 23: FALL BREAK
Week 8
Mon 24 Oct
Selections from Exodus (1-24,32-35, 40.16-34)
Lecture: "Moses as a Nation Builder" / Tamara Metz
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 26 Oct
Selections from Ezra (1-4);
Selections from Nehemiah (1-2);
Selections from 1 Kings (5:1 – 9:9);
Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 20-25; 172-188 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Remembering the Temple" / Michael Foat
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 28 Oct
The Book of Esther
Lecture: "Narratives and Identities: Jews in the Persian Empire" / Gail Sherman
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 9
Mon 31 Oct
Book of Job
Lecture: "The Book of Job: Approaches, Contexts, Readings" / Marat Grinberg
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 2 Nov
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
F. Lissarague, "The Athenian Image of the Foreigner", 101-24 (on e-reserves);
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 6, pp. 94-123
Lecture: "Greece Meets Persia; Athens and the Invention of the Barbarian" / Ellen Millender
Week 10
Mon 7 Nov
Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.170; 1.201-216
Lecture: "Herodotus and the Historian’s Craft" / Michael Breen
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 9 Nov
Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 2.1-64, 2.113-120, 2.164-182; 3.1-38, 3.61-89
Lecture: "Herodotus the Tourist: The Role of Ethnography in Herodotus’ Histories" / Ellen Millender
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 11 Nov
Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 7.1-153, 7.172-8.103, 9.114-122
Lecture: "Herodotus: History and Narrative Form" / Maureen Harkin
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
THIRD PAPER DUE Saturday, Nov. 12th, 5 p.m. See Paper Topic
Week 11
Mon 14 Nov
Aeschylus, "Agamemnon" and "The Libation Bearers," Oresteia
Lecture: "Theater and Ritual" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Slides
Wed 16 Nov
Aeschylus, "The Eumenides," Oresteia
Lecture: "Justice in the Oresteia" / Peter Steinberger
Fri 18 Nov
Sophocles, Antigone
Lecture: "Antigone and Athenian Anxieties" / Tamara Metz
Week 12
Mon 21 Nov
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Kousser, "Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis" (on e-reserves);
Castriota, "The Parthenon Frieze, Persia and the Athenian Empire" (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Iconoclasm, Image Excess, and Power: An Attempt at an Anthropology of the Visual in Ancient Athens" / William Diebold
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 23 Nov
"Ancient Greeks on the Modern Stage" / Kathleen Worley and members of the Reed Theatre Department
NOVEMBER 24 – NOVEMBER 27: THANKSGIVING VACATION
Week 13
Mon 28 Nov
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Introduction, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.146;
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 8, pp. 147-62
Lecture: "Thucydides and the Purpose of History" / Walter Englert
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 30 Nov
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Bk/Ch. 2.1-2.65
Lecture: "Law, Virtue, and the Problem of Democracy" / Michael Breen
Fri 2 Dec
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Bk/Ch. 3.1-3.85, 5.13-5.24, 5.83-5.116
Lecture: "Thucydidean Thought" / Peter Steinberger
FOURTH PAPER DUE Saturday, Dec. 3rd, 5 p.m. See Paper Topics
Week 14
Mon 5 Dec
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Bk/Ch. 6.1-6.41, 6.105-7.18, 7.49-7.87, 8.65-8.71, 8.96-98
Lecture: "The Limits of Democracy" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 7 Dec
Euripides, The Bacchae
Panel on The Bacchae / Elizabeth Drumm, Walter Englert, Paul Hovda