Classical Studies 97a: Greek Culture and Civilization Fall MWF am: Boylston 103

Transcription

1 Classical Studies 97a: Greek Culture and Civilization Fall 2011 MWF am: Boylston 103 Instructor: Paul J. Kosmin Office hours: Monday to 1.00pm, Wednesday to 1.00pm in Boylston Hall, Room 215 TFs: Andrew Johnston Rebecca Katz Office hours: TBD Course Description This course will comprehensively cover the extraordinary history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age Minoan and Mycenaean palace civilizations to the Roman conquest of the East Mediterranean. Students will be introduced to the major political, social, economic, and cultural transformations in ancient Greece and the east Mediterranean. In addition, the class will explore a variety of major textual sources (in translation) and archaeological evidence to investigate the ways in which historians seek to understand the surviving traces of this brilliant ancient culture. Prescribed Texts and Readings Available at the Harvard Coop, and on reserve in Smyth library: - J. Boardman, J. Griffin, and O. Murrary, Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World (Oxford, 2002) - abbreviated as OHG - R. Morkot, The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece (London, 1997) - abbreviated as HAAG - The Landmark Herodotus, trans. Andrea Purvis (New York, 2007) - abbreviated as Hdt. NB. These may be available more cheaply for purchase online. Additional secondary readings (i.e. modern scholarship) will be available in scanned form on the course isite. They are listed below and appear in the weekly schedule as Additional Reading [number].

2 As there is no adequate source-book, selected ancient primary sources, other than Herodotus, will be available in scanned form on the course isite and in a ring-binder in the Classics Department (from which they should not be removed). They are listed in the weekly schedule. Examinations Weekly quiz: Students will take a short quiz at the start of every section (Friday) testing basic material covered so far: geography, dates, names, terminology etc. Mid-term and final exams: There will be one in-class mid-term examination (10/14/11) and one final examination (date TBD), each including IDs, short questions on lectures, and description and interpretation of passages from prescribed ancient texts and images of ancient artifacts shown during lectures. Assignments Students will write two research essays, each of not more than 3000 words. One paper must investigate a topic from either the Bronze Age and archaic period, and the other a topic from either the classical or Hellenistic periods; alternatively, periods can be compared. At least one of the papers must engage significantly with material evidence. The topics can be determined individually, in consultation with the TF and instructor, to suit the interests of each student. Drafts will not be read. Research Paper 1 is due Fri 10/7/11 Research Paper 2 is due Fri 12/9/11 Assessment Participation in classes and section: 10% Quizzes (average of ten best): 10% Research Paper 1: 20% Mid-term exam: 15% Research Paper 2: 20% Final exam: 25% List of Additional Readings (available on isite) 1 Chadwick, Linear B and Related Scripts (London 1987), chapters 1 and 2 2 Bernardi, Age-class Systems (Cambridge, 1985), pp.1-10, , Parker, Tyrants and Lawgivers in Shapiro (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece (Cambdridge, 2007), pp Wiesehöfer, Ancient Persia (London, 2007), pp Ober, The Athenian Revolution of 508/7 BCE in Doughtery and Kurke (eds.), Cultural Poetics in Archaic Greece (New York, 1998), pp Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (Princeton, 2011), pp Rhodes, Democracy and empire, in Samons (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles (Oxford, 2008), pp Kyle, Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World (Oxford, 2007), pp Cawkwell, Introduction to Xenophon, Hellenica (pp.7-46)

3 10 Ellis, The Unification of Macedonia in Hatzopoulos et. al. (ed.), Philip of Macedon (Athens, 2008), pp Ma, Kings, in Erskine (ed.) Blackwell Companion to Hellenistic World (Oxford, 2003), pp Gruen, The polis in the Hellenistic World, in Rosen and Farrell (eds.), Nomodeiktes: Greek Studies in honor of Martin Ostwald (Ann Arbor, 1993), pp Shipley, The Greek World After Alexander (London, 2000), pp

4 Week 1 Wed 8/31/11 Fri 9/2/11 Bronze Age Greece: Cycladic and Minoan civilizations The Mycenaean World Reading: HAAG pp.22-29, 36-37; Additional Reading 1* Sources: Linear B documents; Hittite letters Week 2 Mon 9/5/11 Wed 9/7/11 Fri 9/9/11 Labor Day: No Class. Bronze Age collapse: Homer and the Trojan War Reading: OHG chapter 2 Taplin, Homer (pp.47-81); HAAG Sources: Hdt , 1.171, 2.2; Homer, Iliad 1, Odyssey 7 and 8; selections from Pharaoh Merneptah s Great Karnak inscription Week 3 Mon 9/12/11 Wed 9/14/11 Fri 9/16/11 The Dark Ages s and the Emergence of the Polis Reading: OHG chapter 1 Forrest, Greece: The History of the Archaic Period (pp.13-46); HAAG Sources: Hdt ; Thucydides , 6.1-5; Cyrene foundation inscription Hesiod and the Orientalizing ing Revolution Reading: OHG chapter 3 Griffin, Greek Myth and Hesiod (pp ); HAAG Sources: Hdt , 5.58; Hesiod, Theogony Week 4 Mon 9/19/11 Wed 9/21/11 Sparta and Hoplite Warfare Reading: HAAG 80-81; Additional Reading 2* Sources: Hdt , ; selections from Tyrtaeus; Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians Lawgivers and Tyrants at Athens Reading: HAAG 56-59; Additional Reading 3*

5 Sources: Hdt , , 2.177, , 5.71, 5.92; selections from Solon; [Aristotle], Constitution of the Athenians 1-17 Fri 9/23/11 Week 5 Mon 9/26/11 Wed 9/29/11 Fri 9/30/11 The Wealth of Gyges: Lydia and Ionia Reading: OHG chapter 4 Bowie, Lyric and Elegiac Poetry (pp ) Sources: Hdt , , , , , , ; selections from the Presocratic philosophers; selections from Sappho and Alcaeus The Persian Empire, Eastern Superpower Reading: HAAG 70-71; Additional Reading 4* Sources: Hdt , , , , ; Old Persian inscriptions Week 6 Mon 10/3/11 Wed 10/5/11 Fri 10/7/11 Athenian Democracy Reading: Additional Reading 5* Sources: Hdt , , ; [Aristotle], Constitution of the Athenians 18-27; dedicatory inscriptions Herodotus and the Persian Wars Reading: Additional Reading 6* Sources: Hdt. ideally books 7-9, but certainly , , , , , 6.42, , 7.1-5, , 7.43, , , , , 8.41, , , 8.118, , Research earch Paper 1 due. Week 7 Mon 10/10/11 Wed 10/12/11 Columbus Day: No Class. Material culture: statues and vases

6 Reading: OGH chapter 12 - Boardman, Greek Art and Architecture (pp ); OHG chapter 6 Hornblower, Greece: The History of the Classical Period (pp ) Fri 10/14/11 Midterm exam Week 8 Mon 10/17/11 Wed 10/19/11 Fri 10/21/11 The Athenian Empire Reading: Additional Reading 7* Sources: Required: Old Oligarch; ; Thucydides Recommended: Hdt , ; Thucydides , , 2.65, Thucydides and the Peloponnesian Wars Reading: OHG chapter 8 Murray, Greek Historians (pp ) Sources: Required: Thucydides 1.1, , , 5.26, , , Recommended: Thucydides , , , , , , Week 9 Mon 10/24/11 Wed 10/26/11 Fri 10/28/11 Classical Greek cultural and intellectual developments Reading: OGH chapter 7 Levi, Greek Drama (pp ) Sources: Plato, Critias, Republic 1.327a-330c, 7.514a-522d; Aristotle, Politics Greek religion and magic Reading: OGH chapter 11 Robert Parker, Greek Religion (pp ) Sources: Cos Sacred Calendar; Homeric Hymn to Demeter; Theocritus, Idyll 2

7 Week 10 Mon 10/31/11 Wed 11/2/11 Fri 11/4/11 The Greek Family and Household Reading: OGH chapter 9 Murray, Life and Society in Classical Greece (pp ) Sources: Lysias 1; Gortyn lawcode columns 1-4 Delphi and Olympia Reading: Additional Reading 8* Sources: Selections from Pindar and Bacchylides; Pausanias, selections from books 5 and 6 Week 11 Mon 11/7/11 Wed 11/7/11 Fri 11/11/11 Xenophon and fourth-century Greece Reading: HAAG pp ; Additional Reading 9* Sources: Xenophon, Hellenica, selections Philip II and the Rise of Macedonia Reading: HAAG pp.72-73, , ; Additional Reading 10* Sources: Arrian, Anabasis 7.9; Demosthenes, Third Philippic Veterans Day: No Class. Week 12 Mon 11/14/11 Wed 11/16/11 Alexander the Great and the Conquest of Persia Reading: HAAG pp ; OHG chapter 13 Price, The History of the Hellenistic Period (pp ) Sources: Plutarch, Alexander The Hellenistic Kingdoms Reading: HAAG pp ; Additional Reading 11*

8 Sources: Appian, Syriaca, selections; Borsippa Cylinder; selections from 2 Maccabees; inscriptions Fri 11/18/11 Week 13 Mon 11/21/11 Wed 11/23/11 Fri 11/25/11 The Hellenistic Polis Reading: Additional Reading 12* Sources: Polybius ; Tyriaion inscription; selections from Plutarch, Demetrius Poliorcetes Thanksgiving Recess: No Class. Thanksgiving Recess: No Class. Week 14 Mon 11/28/11 Wed 11/30/11 Fri 12/2/11 Hellenistic religion and philosophy Reading: OHG chapter 15 Barnes, Hellenistic Philosophy and Science (pp ) Sources: Euhemerus, Hiera Anagraphe; Theocritus, Idyll 17; ithyphallic hymn for Demetrius Poliorcetes Polybius and the Coming of Rome Reading: HAAG pp ; Additional Reading 13* Sources: Selections from Polybius Fri 12/9/11 Research Paper 2 due.

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