Classics

This course examines key concepts and values of the Western world that are still operating in our everyday life as individuals and members of a community-- political, social, and otherwise. It explores long-lived terms from their birth in the Greco-Roman world, their original meaning and function, and how we perceive them today.

Advanced Latin grammar including the tense system, the subjunctive, and the gerund(ive) are studied through simplified versions of original Latin authors, such as Ovid and Livy. The course includes an introduction to original Latin literature, offering accessible readings from classical Latin authors, such as Phaedrus, Horace, Pliny the Younger, Seneca and Cicero, all of whom are of constitutive importance to the Latin literary heritage.

 

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course examines Greek and Roman theatre as a whole (places of performance, festivals and dramatic competitions, poets and preserved works; directors, chorus, players; relationship with public and institutions; the different dramatic genres and their history) and develops a critical attitude towards the main issues concerning the Greek and Roman theatre. Course contents include dramatic performances in the ancient world, with a special regard to Athenian tragedy and its importance for the modern theatre, and Euripides and Alcestis.

This course examines mythical narratives from the ancient Greek and Roman traditions. Students explore some of the central patterns and themes in classical mythology. These include narratives of birth and creation, war and the warrior, fire and flood, animals, gods and humans. The course examines how these symbolic themes are incorporated into a diverse range of myths, including stories of the birth of the cosmos, Zeus's rule over the world, the foundation of cities and peoples, and hero myths in which men confront monsters. It also reviews the story of Troy, which is the quintessential Greco-Roman myth, and the many classical tales of metamorphosis. The course engages directly with these narratives in the surviving literary sources (especially epic and drama), and in classical art, which is a major source for the Greek and Roman myths.