Classics

This course takes you through the history of the Greek world during one of its most significant periods. It examines the relationships between Greek cities, and in particular the Peloponnesian War between Athens and its allies, and Sparta and its allies. It also looks at the importance of the Persian empire in this period, and examines social issues including democracy, slavery, and gender roles and relations.

Ancient Greek and Roman literature (covering a period from approximately 800 BCE to 500 CE) is in many ways the basis of our own culture and our own way of thinking; numerous literary texts produced in classical antiquity have been highly influential on the literature of later periods and remain so to this day. This course provides an overview of the literary history of the classical world and presents, in its main part, an introduction to the most important works of Greek and Roman literature. All texts are read in translation.

This course involves the study of major literary genres of importance for the European literary tradition in translation. It is suitable for students of Classics as well as outside Classics, because it aims to help students to read widely and to engage with a broad range of literary-critical issues. The course focuses on Homer, but also includes reference to other archaic epics (e.g. Hesiod). Issues discussed include structure, plot, and character of the epics, the role of the gods, war and battle scenes, issues of gender and social values, the reception of Homer in later ages. 

This course is a detailed study of selected topics from the Archaic period, c.750-490 BC. It focuses on the origin and development of socio-cultural phenomena in the Greek world, from South Italy to Asia Minor. Topics include the development of new political systems such as tyranny, the origins of law and literacy, the formation of the polis, warfare and empire, as well as social issues such as the symposium and slavery.

This course examines myths in relation to culture and surveys representative theories of mythology. Students read classical myths, explore the cultural elements that gave rise to particular myths, and learn to apply this knowledge in an analysis of "modern" myths, beginning with folktales and local legends.   

Topics include What is myth and why is it relevant?, The Dawn, The Olympian Gods, Gods and Human Beings, Death and Rebirth, Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus, Apollo and Artemis, Aphrodite, Myth and History, Heroes and demigods, Theseus and the Minotaur, Herakles, The Trojan War, Justice, vengeance, and punishment, The Tragic House of Atreus, Fate vs. human will, Oedipus, Medieval myths, Faust and Satan, and Folktales. 

This course combines a bold and sweeping overview of the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East over two millennia, with an exploration of the nature of empires and imperialism in antiquity. Students explore how imperial states built and maintained their power (including their efforts to assert and justify their power to themselves and their subjects); the experiences of other populations and cultures that were conquered or incorporated into ancient empires; and the contested legacies of imperial states, both in antiquity and today. As well as tracing the histories of large imperial or hegemonic powers, such as the Achaemenid Persians, the Hellenistic Greek ‘kingdoms’ and Rome, the course also introduces students to the wide range of other cultures that lived under and alongside them, including those of Babylonia, Judea, and Egypt.

This course examines the constructed images and historical realities of some of the most important peoples in the ancient world, other than the Greeks and the Romans. The three main directions of the course are: (1) an analysis of the concept of ‘barbarian’ in the Classical world; (2) an examination of selected Greek and Roman sources on Northern barbarians, especially Celts and Germani; (3) a study of these same peoples ‘from within’, i.e. based on archaeological and linguistic evidence. The course investigates the role which the so-called ‘barbarians’ of northern Europe played in ancient history, from the earliest documented contacts with the Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age, to the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.