Syllabus - Spring 2017
Full Schedule
Week 1
Mon 23 Jan
Assignment
- Euripides, Medea
Lecture: Panel: "<em>Medea</em>"
Nathalia King, Tamara Metz, Pancho Savery
Wed 25 Jan
Fri 27 Jan
Assignment
- The Trial and Death of Socrates
Lecture: "A Kind of Gadfly"
Pancho Savery
Week 2
Mon 30 Jan
Assignment
- Plato, Republic, Books 1 - 2
Lecture: "Who is Cephalus?"
Peter Steinberger
Wed 1 Feb
Assignment
- Plato, Republic, Books 3-5
Lecture: "Sex, Gender and the Power(s) of Philosophy"
Tamara Metz
Fri 3 Feb
Assignment
- Plato, Republic, Books 6-7
Lecture: "Plato’s Metaphysics: A Solution to the Thucydidean Crisis of <em>Logos</em>"
Meg Scharle
Week 3
Mon 6 Feb
Wed 8 Feb
Assignment
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 1 - 2
Lecture: "The Function Argument"
Steven Arkonovich
Fri 10 Feb
Assignment
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 3 and 6
Lecture: "The Virtues of Character and the Virtues of Thought"
Nathalia King
Sat 11 Feb
Week 4
Mon 13 Feb
Assignment
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 10
Lecture: "Aristotelian Contemplation at Reed?"
Meg Scharle
Wed 15 Feb
Assignment
Aristotle, Politics, Books 1:1-7 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "Politics I and its Legacy"
David Garrett
Fri 17 Feb
Assignment
Denise Eileen McCoskey, Introduction to Race: Antiquity and Its Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1-34. (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "Did Race Matter in Classical Antiquity? Excavating the History of a Dangerous Idea"
Margot Minardi
Week 5
Mon 20 Feb
Assignment
Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander Romance 1.1-1.13 (on e-reserve)
J.J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age, Introduction. (on e-reserve)
T.W. Davids, The Questions of King Milinda. (on e-reserve)
Lecture: Panel: "From Polis to Poleis"
Tom Landvatter, Sarah Wagner-McCoy, Kristin Scheible
Wed 22 Feb
Assignment
Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference: http://rdc.reed.edu/workspace/
McKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, c. 300 BC to AD 700, pp 32-35 (Introductory Summary), Yale. (on e-reserve)
Freeman, pp. 314-332
Lecture: "Ancient Aliens: Material Culture and Identity in Hellenistic Alexandria"
Tom Landvatter
Fri 24 Feb
Assignment
Theocritus, 1-7, 11, 13, 15, 17
Freeman, pp. 333-354
Lecture: "Country Matters"
Robert Knapp
Week 6
Mon 27 Feb
Assignment
Polybius, Histories, Book 6, sections 1-39, 47, 50-58 (on e-reserve)
Freeman, pp. 369-401
Lecture: "Polybian Thought"
Peter Steinberger
Wed 1 Mar
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)
Lecture: "Matter and What Matters"
Troy Cross
Fri 3 Mar
Assignment
Lucretius, On The Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), Books 5 - 6
Lecture: "Lucretius and the Things of Nature"
David Garrett
Sat 4 Mar
Week 7
Mon 6 Mar
Assignment
Livy, The Rise of Rome; Ab Urbe Condita, Preface and Book 1Lecture: "How to Found a Republic: The Roman Example"
Tamara Metz
Wed 8 Mar
Assignment
Livy, The Rise of Rome; 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
Fri 10 Mar
Lecture: "'Restoring' the Republic"
Tom Landvatter
Sat 11 Mar
Spring Break
March 11 – March 19
Week 8
Mon 20 Mar
Assignment
Peter J. Holliday, “Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae” (available on JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045761)
Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference:
http://rdc.reed.edu/workspace/7135/lightbox
Browse the Ara Pacis Augustae In-depth Visual Documentation website:
http://www.reed.edu/ara-pacis/
Lecture: "Picturing Peace"
Margot Minardi
Wed 22 Mar
Assignment
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1 – 4
Lecture: "Epic and Allusion in Virgil's Aeneid"
Sarah Wagner-McCoy
Fri 24 Mar
Assignment
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5 – 7
Lecture: "Chastity, Guilt, and Tragic Embodiment in <em>The Aeneid</em>"
Dustin Simpson
Week 9
Mon 27 Mar
Assignment
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 8-9
Lecture: Panel: "The Limits of Humanity, Society, and the Individual"
Tamara Metz, Jessica Seidman, Kris Cohen
Wed 29 Mar
Assignment
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9 – 12; Homer, The Iliad, Book 24
Lecture: "This is the End"
Pancho Savery
Fri 31 Mar
Assignment
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1 – 3
Amy Sillman, After Metamorphoses (2015-16, 5 min video, looped 3x)
Lecture: "Media Theory: 1 CE-2017 CE"
Kris Cohen
Week 10
Mon 3 Apr
Assignment
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4 – 6, 15
Lecture: "Portrait of the Artist as Spider-Woman"
Jessica Seidman
Wed 5 Apr
Assignment
Epictetus, The Handbook
Seneca, Slaves, The stoic philosophy of Seneca: essays and letters of Seneca, pp. 191-195, Doubleday & Co., 1958 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Slavery and stoicism"
Sonia Sabnis, Margot Minardi, Paddy Riley
Fri 7 Apr
Assignment
Philo, On The Embassy to Gaius (pdf)Lecture: "Imperial Spectacle and the Invisible God."
Michael Faletra
Sat 8 Apr
Lecture: THIRD PAPER DUE
Week 11
Mon 10 Apr
Assignment
Paul, Romans (in The New Oxford Annotated Bible)
Freeman, pp. 564-581
Lecture: "Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and the Crisis of Revelation"
Steve Wasserstrom
Wed 12 Apr
Assignment
Gospel According to Matthew
Lecture: "But Who Do You Say That I Am?"
Michael Faletra
Fri 14 Apr
Week 12
Mon 17 Apr
Assignment
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).
Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference: http://rdc.reed.edu/workspace/
Lecture: "Christians, Pagans, and Jews at Dura Europos"
William Diebold
Wed 19 Apr
Assignment
Musurillo, Herbert, tr., The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, The acts of the Christian martyrs, pp. 108-131 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "The Martyrdom of Perpetua"
Nathalia King
Fri 21 Apr
Assignment
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pp. 1-91
Lecture: "Strange to Tell"
Jay Dickson
Week 13
Mon 24 Apr
Assignment
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pp. 92-158
Freeman, pp. 541-563
Lecture: "Beyond Cupid and Psyche"
Michael Faletra
Wed 26 Apr
Assignment
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pp. 159-218
Lecture: Panel: "Reading Empire"
Radhika Natarajan, Ian Desai
Fri 28 Apr
Assignment
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pp. 219-272Lecture: "Who Owns Apuleius?"
Sonia Sabnis
Wed 10 May
Final Exam
Wednesday, May 10, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Course Logistics
Required Texts
- Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. Ruden (Yale University Press)
- Aristophanes, Three Comedies: The Birds, The Clouds, The Wasps, trans. Arrowsmith (University of Michigan Press)
- Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Irwin (Hackett)
- 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, 3rd ed. (Oxford)
- 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)
- 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.
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 Jolie Griffin, Vollum 320). Turn in completed forms to David Garrett, Hum 110 Chair. 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 10, 2017 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m 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).