Syllabus | Fall 2019
Coming Up
Wed 13 Nov
Assignment
- Gallery: Parthenon
- Rachel Kousser, “Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis,” Art Bulletin 91.3 (2009): pp. 263-282
Lecture: "Architecture, Memory and Meaning: The Parthenon and Beyond"
Christian Kroll
Fri 15 Nov
Assignment
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.1-23, 1.66-88, 1.118-125, 1.139-145
Lecture: “Words, Deeds, and Meanings”
David Garrett
Mon 18 Nov
Assignment
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 2.11, 2.34-65
Lecture:
Paul Vadan
Course Logistics
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1977.
- Aristophanes. Lysistrata. Trans. Sarah Ruden. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003.
- Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Terence Irwin. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007.
- Berlin, Adele, and Mark Zvi Brettler, eds. The Jewish Study Bible: Tanakh Translation. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Curd, Patricia, ed. A Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia. Trans. Richard D. McKirahan. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2011.
- Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt. London: Penguin, 2003.
- Hesiod. Works and Days and Theogony. Trans. Stanley Lombardo Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993.
- Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
- Miller, Andrew M., ed. Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1996.
- Parkinson, R. B., ed. and trans. The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, 1940-1640 B.C. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Plato. The Trial and Death of Socrates. Trans. G. M. A. Grube, rev. John M. Cooper. 3rd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000.
- Plato. Symposium. Trans. Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989.
- Plato. Protagoras. Trans. Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992.
- Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Trans. Rex Warner. New York: Penguin, 1954.
Additional assigned texts are available on e-reserves accessible via links embedded in the syllabus below. You will need your Reed username and password to access these texts. Please bring a copy of the day’s reading assignment to class each day. The library has on reserve a limited number of the required books, as well as multiple copies of a course packet containing the electronic readings.
CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENTS
Humanities 110 is a yearlong course, and students are generally expected to remain in the same conference throughout the year. The Registrar assigns all students to conferences at the beginning of the year. Thereafter, students may change conferences only due to academic schedule conflicts and only with the authorization of the course Chair, Margot Minardi. Any student who wishes to initiate such a change should contact Prof. Minardi for the appropriate form. Students granted a schedule change will be assigned to new sections based on available slots; requests to move into a particular conference generally cannot be honored. No conference changes are permitted after the second week of the term.
At mid-year, students who must move to a different conference for spring term due to a schedule conflict with another spring course may petition Prof. Minardi for permission to do so. Again, these requests will only be approved in the case of an academic schedule conflict. To initiate such a request, please email Prof. Minardi after November 18.
PAPERS, WRITING ASSIGNMENTS, AND EXAMINATIONS
Four course-wide papers will be assigned in the fall semester, due at the times designated on the syllabus. Individual conference leaders may assign additional writing. 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 spring semester will be given at the end of the semester; the format, date, and time will be announced later in the semester. Rescheduling of the final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS
If you have a documented disability requiring accommodations, please contact Disability Support Services. Notifications of accommodations on exams, papers, other writing assignments, or conferences should be directed to your conference leader. Notifications of accommodations regarding lectures can be directed to the chair of the course, Margot Minardi. You are advised to consult with your conference leader about how your accommodations might apply to specific assignments or circumstances in this course.
RESOURCES FOR SUPPORT
Your conference leader is your first line of support for any questions you have about the course. Please also be sure to explore the Hum 110 website for additional information. The Course Resources page provides brief introductions to upcoming readings and suggestions for how to approach them. The Writing in Hum 110 page provides tips on the writing process.
The Writing Center is a particularly valuable resources for Hum 110 students working on papers. You can get help with all stages of the writing process from peer tutors at the Writing Center, which is located in the Dorothy Johansen House. Drop-in help from writing tutors is available Sunday through Thursday, 7:00-10:00 p.m.; additional hours will be held in Trillium, Naito/Sullivan, and Cross Canyon residence halls on Friday nights before paper due dates.
For additional information about support resources available to you on the Reed campus, please see Student Life’s Key Support Resources for Students.
If you have questions that aren’t answered here, please consult your conference leader or email Hum110@reed.edu.
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Week 1
Mon 2 Sep
Labor Day - Campus closed
Wed 4 Sep
Assignment
Please note: the full Fall 2019 e-reserves reading packet link has been taken down for now. We received many reports of the file being too large and crashing printers. Until we resolve this issue, please use the links listed under each lecture day to access the readings.
Readings for September 4:
- Christina Riggs, “Forty Centuries,” in Egypt: Lost Civilizations (London: Reaktion Books, 2017), pp. 33-57
- Christina Riggs, “Four Little Words,” in Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 3-18
- Gallery: Narmer Palette and Great Pyramid
Lecture: “Stairway to Heaven: The Great Pyramid in and out of Context”
Tom Landvatter
Fri 6 Sep
Assignment
- “The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant,” in The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, ed. and trans. Parkinson, R. B. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 54-88
- Charles Freeman, “Egypt, the Gift of the Nile, 3200-1500 BC,” in Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean, second ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 40-62
- Image gallery: boats and scales
Lecture: “Speaking Ma’at, Doing Ma’at, Making Ma’at: The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant”
Nathalia King
Week 2
Mon 9 Sep
Assignment
- “The Tale of Sinuhe,” in The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, ed. Parkinson, pp. 21-53
Lecture: “Sinuhe’s Flight”
Elizabeth Drumm
Wed 11 Sep
Assignment
- “The Teaching for King Merikare,” in The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, ed. Parkinson, pp. 212-234
- “The Teaching of the Vizier Ptahhotep,” in The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, ed. Parkinson, pp. 246-272
- “The Teaching of Khety,” in The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, ed. Parkinson, pp. 273-283
Lecture: “Proverbs, Popular Wisdom, and Persuasion”
Nigel Nicholson
Fri 13 Sep
Assignment
- Digital Karnak (UCLA website, now archived)
- Explore Introduction to the Temple of Karnak, including reading the PDF “Guide” and watching the two videos linked at the bottom of the page.
- Choose at least TWO other pages of “Thematic Videos and Instructional Texts” (linked on the left side of the screen) to explore.
- Locate the images from the Gallery in the virtual Karnak.
- Gallery: Karnak
Lecture: “A Palace of the Gods at the Center of the World”
David Garrett
Week 3
Mon 16 Sep
Assignment
- “Obelisk Inscription of Hatshepsut,” in Writings from Ancient Egypt, trans. Toby Wilkinson (London: Penguin, 2016), 191-196.
- “The Birth Narrative from Deir el-Bahri: Hatshepsut’s Birth and Coronation Narratives,” compiled and edited by Thomas Landvatter (2019). Please note: The version in the printed e-reserves packets on library reserve is outdated.
- Cathleen A. Keller, “The Statuary of Hatshepsut,” in Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, ed. Catharine A. Roehrig (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), pp. 158-173
- Gallery: Hatshepsut
Lecture: "I’m with Her: Gender, Power, and Kingship in the Monuments of Hatshepsut"
Tom Landvatter
Wed 18 Sep
Assignment
- September 18 reading packet
- Introduction to Egyptian Love Lyrics
- Selections from Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt, trans. Barbara Hughes Fowler (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), pp. xiii-xv, 6-9, 17, 38-41, 57-58, 66-67
- Selections from Love Songs of the New Kingdom, trans. John L. Foster (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974), front matter, pp. 67, 70-73, 102.
Lecture: “Familiar and Strange: Love Poetry of the New Kingdom”
Dustin Simpson
Fri 20 Sep
Assignment
- Tom Buckley, "The Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb," and selected colored plates in Treasures of Tutankhamun: Catalogue (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976), pp. 9-18, 32-33, 36-39, 48-57, 72-73, 80-81, 134-135
- David P. Silverman, Josef W. Wegner, and Jennifer Houser Wegner, “Prologue: Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, Given Life Forever and Ever?” and “Tutankhamun: The Return to Tradition,” in Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: Revolution and Restoration (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006), pp. 1-9, 161-183
Lecture:
Sarah Wagner-McCoy
Sat 21 Sep
FIRST PAPER DUE
Saturday, September 21, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 4
Mon 23 Sep
Assignment
- Introduction to Achaemenid Era Inscriptions
- Inscriptions from the Achaemenid era, from The Persian Empire, vol. I, ed. Amelie Kuhrt (New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 70-74, 117-122, 141-158, 492-495, 503-505
- Gallery: Achaemenid Persians in Egypt and Beyond
Lecture: “Empire of All Kinds: Achaemenid Persians in Egypt and Beyond”
Margot Minardi
Wed 25 Sep
Assignment
- Genesis, chapters 1-22 (focus on 1-11), plus introduction to Genesis from The Jewish Study Bible
- Martin S. Jaffee, "Introduction" and “Political and Cultural Settings of Early Judaism,” in Early Judaism: Religious Worlds of the First Judaic Millennium, second ed. (Bethesda: University Press of Maryland, 2006), pp. 1-48
Lecture: "Babble"
Jan Mieszkowski
Thu 26 Sep
Guest lecturer (optional event)
"Eloquently Responding to Great Works of Ancient Egyptian Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant."
Chike Jeffers (Associate Professor of Philosophy, Dalhousie University)
4:30 PM, reception in Vollum foyer; 5:00 PM lecture in Vollum lecture hall
Fri 27 Sep
Assignment
- Genesis, chapters 23-50
Lecture: "Genesis, Gender, and Generation(s)"
Gail Sherman
Week 5
Mon 30 Sep
Assignment
- Exodus, chapters 1-15, plus introduction to Exodus from The Jewish Study Bible
Lecture: “A People in Between: Exodus and the Israelites at the Crossroads of Empire”
Margot Minardi
Wed 2 Oct
Assignment
- Exodus, chapters 15-35; 40.16-34
Lecture: “Moses as a Nation Builder”
Tamara Metz
Fri 4 Oct
Assignment
- Esther
Lecture: "Narratives and Identities, Gender and Genre: Jews in the Persian Empire"
Gail Sherman
Week 6
Mon 7 Oct
Assignment
- Homer, The Iliad, Books 1-6 (focus on 1, 2, 6)
Lecture: "The Oral Tradition in Homer: the Extended Simile as an Analysis of Action"
Nathalia King
Wed 9 Oct
Assignment
- Homer, The Iliad, Books 7-12 (focus on 9, 11)
- Gallery
Lecture: "The Shield of Achilles: Word and Image in 8th-Century Greece"
William Diebold
Fri 11 Oct
Assignment
Homer, The Iliad, Books 13-18 (focus on 15, 16, 18)Lecture: "Fate in the Iliad"
Paul Hovda and Meg Scharle
Sat 12 Oct
SECOND PAPER DUE
Saturday, October 12, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 7
Mon 14 Oct
Assignment
- Homer, The Iliad, Books 19-24 (focus on 19, 22, 24)
Lecture: "Memory Three Ways at the End of the Iliad"
Laura Zientek
Tue 15 Oct
“An Iliad” Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative production (optional event)
7:00 PM, Vollum Lecture Hall
Wed 16 Oct
Assignment
- Hesiod, Works and Days, in Works and Days and Theogony, pp. 23-60
Lecture: "Hesiod’s Works and Days: The “Other” Epic"
Lena Lencek
Fri 18 Oct
Assignment
- “Archilochus” in Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, pp. 1-12
- “Alcman” in Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, pp. 31-37
- “Solon” in Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, pp. 64-76
Lecture: “How to Read Poetry and Why”
Marat Grinberg
Sat 19 Oct
Fall Break
October 19-October 27
Week 8
Mon 28 Oct
Assignment
- “Sappho” in Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, pp. 51-63
Lecture: “Speaking Sappho: Lyric Form, Lyric Voice”
Lucía Martínez Valdivia
Wed 30 Oct
Assignment
- Presocratics Reader: Thales (pp. 13-15); Anaximenes (pp. 19-22); Xenophanes (pp. 31 -38); Heraclitus (pp. 39-54); Parmenides (pp. 55-65).
Lecture: "If horses had hands..."
Troy Cross
Fri 1 Nov
Assignment
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia: “Agamemnon”
Lecture: "Drama Queens"
Jan Mieszkowski
Week 9
Mon 4 Nov
Assignment
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia: “Libation Bearers” and “Eumenides”
- Gallery
Lecture: “Verbal and Visual Oresteias”
William Diebold
Wed 6 Nov
Assignment
- Herodotus, Histories, 1.1-12, 1.25-94, 1.107-140, 1.201-216
Lecture: “Oracular History and Athenian Empire”
Margot Minardi
Fri 8 Nov
Assignment
- Herodotus, Histories, 2.1-64, 2.113-120, 2.142-151, 2.164-182, 3.30-3.89
Lecture: "Myth and History"
Ariadna García-Bryce
Sat 9 Nov
THIRD PAPER DUE
Saturday, November 9, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 10
Mon 11 Nov
Assignment
- Herodotus, Histories, 7.8-57, 7.101-104, 7.138-140, 7.201-238, 8.40-99, 9.114-122
Lecture: “Interpreting the Persian Wars”
Radhika Natarajan
Wed 13 Nov
Assignment
- Gallery: Parthenon
- Rachel Kousser, “Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis,” Art Bulletin 91.3 (2009): pp. 263-282
Lecture: "Architecture, Memory and Meaning: The Parthenon and Beyond"
Christian Kroll
Fri 15 Nov
Assignment
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.1-23, 1.66-88, 1.118-125, 1.139-145
Lecture: “Words, Deeds, and Meanings”
David Garrett
Week 11
Mon 18 Nov
Assignment
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 2.11, 2.34-65
Lecture:
Paul Vadan
Wed 20 Nov
Assignment
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 3.36-50, 3.69-85, 5.85-113, 6.8-24, 7.42-87
Lecture:
Peter Steinberger
Thu 21 Nov
Optional lecture sponsored by Hum 110, the English dept., and the Religion depts.
"Gender Bending in the Stories of Joseph and Esther in the Hebrew Bible"
Rachel Adelman (Hebrew College)
4:30 PM, Psych 105
Fri 22 Nov
Week 12
Mon 25 Nov
Assignment
- Plato, “Euthyphro” and “Apology,” in Trial and Death of Socrates, pp. 1-42
Lecture:
Pancho Savery
Wed 27 Nov
Assignment
- Plato, Symposium
Lecture:
Jan Mieszkowski and Paul Hovda
Thu 28 Nov
Thanksgiving Break
November 28-December 1
Week 13
Mon 2 Dec
Wed 4 Dec
Assignment
- Plato, Protagoras, 334a-362c
Lecture:
Meg Scharle
Fri 6 Dec
Sat 7 Dec
FOURTH PAPER DUE
Saturday, December 7, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 14
Mon 9 Dec
Assignment
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 3.1-5, 6
Lecture:
Nathalia King
Wed 11 Dec
Assignment
- Aristotle, Politics, trans. C.D.C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998), I.1-7, 12-13; II.1-2; III.1-4, 6-7 (pp. 1-12, 21-25, 26-28, 65-73, 75-78)
Lecture: “Aristotle’s Politics of Exclusion and Inclusion”
David Garrett
Week 15
Mon 16 Dec
Final Exam
Monday, December 16, 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Exam Instructions