Courses

An introduction to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar. Designed to enable the student to read classical and epic Sanskrit as soon as possible.

Full details for CLASS 1331 - Elementary Sanskrit I

This course will focus on the stories about the gods and heroes of the Greeks as they appear in ancient literature and art. We will examine the relationship between myths and the cultural, religious, and political conditions of the society in which they took shape. Beginning with theories of myth and proceeding to the analysis of individual stories and cycles, the material will serve as a vehicle for improving your written communication skills. Assignments include preparatory writing and six essays focusing on readings and discussions in class.

Full details for CLASS 1531 - FWS: Greek Myth

Ancient Rome was a village the size of Ithaca that grew into a world empire. In this course students will be introduced to some of its literature, art, and famous personalities in the classical period (2nd c. BCE – 2nd c. CE). In it we will read the masterpieces of Latin literature, from Virgil's Aeneid to Ovid's Metamorphoses and from Catullus' lyrics to Livy's moralizing History of Rome. Special attention will be given to the late republic and Augustan period. No prior knowledge of the ancient world is necessary. All readings are in English.

Full details for CLASS 1615 - Introduction to Ancient Rome

This colloquium presents students with diverse approaches used to interest, educate and motivate people to consider, address and solve environmental and sustainability challenges. The 1-credit version consists of a series of lectures given by experts, people with different expertise and perspectives who are addressing a variety of environmental and sustainability problems.

Full details for CLASS 2000 - Environmental and Sustainability Sciences Colloquium

Review of grammar and reading of selections from Sanskrit epic poetry and narrative prose.

Full details for CLASS 2351 - Intermediate Sanskrit I

Limited to 18 students. Intended especially for first-year students. Students must apply in writing to chair, Department of Classics, 120 Goldwin Smith Hall. No prior knowledge necessary (all texts are in translation). What is necessary is a willingness to participate actively in two seminar meetings each week and occasional supplementary workshops with specially invited guests. This course covers a wide range of Greek literary and philosophical works as well as modern critical and philosophical writings. The focus throughout is on the status of language, the many forms of discourse that appear in the literature, and the attempts the Greeks themselves made to grapple with the challenges inherent in language as the medium of poetry and philosophy. The course inquires into the intellectual development of a culture infused with traditional, mythological accounts of the cosmos. It asks how poetic forms such as tragedy engage with philosophical discourse while creating intense emotional effects on audiences both during antiquity and beyond.

Full details for CLASS 2603 - Initiation to Greek Culture

Survey of the Greek myths, with emphasis on the content and significance of the myths in Mediterranean society, including the place of myth in Greek life and consciousness; the factors and influences involved in the creation of myths; and the use of myths for our understanding of Greek literature, religion, and moral and political concepts.

Full details for CLASS 2604 - Greek Mythology

How did the ancient Greeks and Romans understand differences in gender and sexuality? And how did their gendered identities intersect with other identity categories, like race, class, and citizenship status? In this introductory course we will explore these questions using a wide-ranging selection of philosophy, literature, medical writing, legal texts, magic spells, and material evidence. We will also ask how ancient ideas about sex and gender have influenced our own construction of these categories, and investigate the consequences of modern identification with antiquity. No prior knowledge about the ancient world is required, and all readings will be in English.

Full details for CLASS 2633 - Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece and Rome

An introductory survey of ancient Greek philosophy from the so-called Presocratics (6th century BCE) through the Hellenistic period (1st century BCE) with special emphasis on the thought of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Full details for CLASS 2661 - Ancient Philosophy

From democratic Athens to imperial Rome, the ancient economies of Greece and Rome ran on slave labor and slavery pervaded all areas of life: farming; industry; families; the civil service; police; and more. This course examines Athens and Rome as slave societies and how slavery was integrated into all social structures and accepted as normal. We will address the following topics: definitions of slavery (including chattel slavery, eventually the predominant form of servitude); the sources and numbers of slaves; the slave mode of production and the ancient economy; the treatment of slaves; resistance to slavery and slave revolts; emancipation and the position of freed people; the social position of slaves; the family life of slaves; slavery and the law (civil and natural); slaves in literature.

Full details for CLASS 2807 - Slavery in the Ancient World

To be taken only in exceptional circumstances. Must be arranged by the student with his or her advisor and the faculty member who has agreed to direct the study. To be approved by the DUS.

Full details for CLASS 3391 - Independent Study in Sanskrit, Undergraduate Level

Selected readings in Sanskrit literary and philosophical texts.

Full details for CLASS 3395 - Advanced Sanskrit I

Ancient political debates about democracy, empire, and justice appear in late fifth-century BCE Athenian dramatic, historical, and philosophical literatures composed against the backdrop of the 27-year Peloponnesian War over the control of Greece (which Athens lost). Reading selected tragedies of Euripides, comedies of Aristophanes, and philosophical dialogues of Plato, in combination with the history of Thucydides, this course retraces, explores, and interrogates these texts' complex, provocative, and surprisingly relevant arguments for and against the pursuit of equality (democracy), security (war and imperialism), goodness (aretê from "excellence" to "virtue"), and fairness (justice), and their often unexpected results in practice. All the readings for this course are in English and there are no prerequisites.

Full details for CLASS 3676 - Ancient Political Thought

May be taken upon completion of one semester of work at the 3000-level. To be taken only in exceptional circumstances. Must be arranged by the student with his or her advisor and the faculty member who has agreed to direct the study. To be approved by the DUS.

Full details for CLASS 3686 - Independent Study in Classical Civilization, Undergraduate Level

Have you ever been asked 'who are you' or 'which group do you belong to'? You would have noted how the answer shifts according to who is asking, in which context, etc. While everyone is unique, the possible replies in any one situation are largely defined at the level of society. What is less often realized, however, is that identity shows in particular in ways of doing: what and how one eats; what one wears and when; how one moves in a space. Archaeology is in a unique position to investigate these questions, and the Greek and Roman worlds offer a fruitful test ground, both because of their varied evidence, and because of their peculiar echoing in the modern world and its manifold identities. This course will address current theories about identity and its formation, discuss the various facets of identity (e.g. gender, religion, ethnicity) in the Greek and Roman worlds, and introduce tools for studying identity in the past.

Full details for CLASS 3738 - Identity in the Ancient World

Introduction and training in dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) and its applications in archaeology, art history, climate and environment through lab work and participation in ongoing research projects using ancient to modern wood samples from around the world. Supervised reading and laboratory/project work. Possibilities exists for summer fieldwork in the Mediterranean, Mexico, and New York State.

Full details for CLASS 3750 - Introduction to Dendrochronology

How and why do landscapes come to inspire the religious imagination?   And why do religious practices, rituals, traditions, and beliefs take place in particular landscapes? This seminar treats these questions by focusing on the desert, both imagined and real, as it has shaped religious ascetic practice, especially the development of Christian monasticism in the Middle East.  We will read widely from monastic literatures, mostly from late ancient Egypt, to explore both the historical development of monasticism in Christianity and examine why the monastic impulse seems so closely tied to the "desert." In addition to reading saints lives and the stories of hermits, we will read early monastic rules, the desert fathers, and we will draw from archaeological sources to examine the varieties of ascetic practices in the deserts of late ancient Egypt, Gaza, Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. Throughout the course we will explore ancient and modern ideas about "wilderness" and we will explore parallels between ancient Near Eastern literatures and their nineteenth- and twentieth-century parallels in the American frontier and environmental literatures.

Full details for CLASS 4677 - Desert Monasticism

See "Honors" under Classics front matter.

Full details for CLASS 4721 - Honors: Senior Essay I

This course will explore archaeological and literary evidence for the production, display, ritual treatment, and cultural reception of sacred images in ancient Greece. We will focus on some of the most fertile and problematic themes relating to the representation of divine beings in material form, such as the potential and limitations of anthropomorphism; the use of alternative modes of material manifestation such as aniconism and theriomorphism (the representation of gods as animals); the relationship between "cult" and "votive" images; the replication and adaptation of cult statues to new contexts of display; and shifting attitudes to image-worship within polytheistic and monotheistic traditions. Students in Classics, Art History, Religious Studies and Anthropology should find this course of particular interest.

Full details for CLASS 6746 - Aesthetics of the Sacred in Classical Antiquity

A seminar on the archaeology of the Byzantine Empire, from the late Roman through to the early modern periods. Topics to be covered include: long-term changes in settlement patterns and urban development; the material traces of state and monastic control over productive landscapes; the idea of the border and the nature of its defense; and the fraught relationship between "Byzantine" and "classical" archaeologies.

Full details for CLASS 6754 - Byzantine Archaeology

An introduction to the field of Dendrochronology and associated topics with an emphasis on their applications in the field of archaeology and related heritage-buildings fields. Course aimed at graduate level with a focus on critique of scholarship in the field and work on a project as part of the course.

Full details for CLASS 6755 - Archaeological Dendrochronology

Pedagogical instruction and course coordination. Requirement for all graduate student teachers of LATIN 1201-LATIN 1202 and first-year writing seminars.

Full details for CLASS 7345 - Graduate TA Training

Archaeology studies the past through its material remains. In doing so, it builds on wide-ranging theories and methods to develop its own disciplinary toolbox. This graduate seminar explores this toolbox, treating a topic of broad theoretical and/or methodological interest such as emerging topics in archaeological thought, the history of archaeological theory, key archaeological methods, themes that tie archaeology to the wider domain of the humanities and social sciences, or some combination of the above. The seminar is taught by various members of the Archaeology faculty, each of whom offers their own version of the seminar. The seminar is required for incoming CIAMS M.A. students, and needed for CIAMS membership for Ph.D. students.

Full details for CLASS 7700 - CIAMS Core Seminar in Archaeological Theory and Method

Introduction to Attic Greek. Designed to enable the student to read the ancient authors as soon as possible.

Full details for GREEK 1101 - Elementary Ancient Greek I

Combines reading of classical Greek prose texts (Lysias, Plato, Xenophon) with systematic review of forms presented in GREEK 1102, study of advanced grammar, vocabulary-building and sight-reading exercises.

Full details for GREEK 2101 - Intermediate Ancient Greek I

Undergraduate seminar in Greek. Topic: Fall, Plato; Spring, Euripides.

Full details for GREEK 3120 - Seminar in Greek

May be taken upon completion of one semester of work at the 3000-level. To be taken only in exceptional circumstances. Must be arranged by the student with his or her advisor and the faculty member who has agreed to direct the study. To be approved by the DUS.

Full details for GREEK 3185 - Independent Study in Greek, Undergraduate Level

Reading and translation of Greek Philosophical texts.

Full details for GREEK 7161 - Greek Philosophical Texts

Topics in this course will vary by semester.

Full details for GREEK 7171 - Graduate Seminar in Greek

Introductory course designed to prepare students to start reading Latin prose at the end of a year. The class moves swiftly and includes extensive memorization of vocabulary and paradigms; study of Latin syntax; and written homework, quizzes, tests, and oral drills.

Full details for LATIN 1201 - Elementary Latin I

Provides a comprehensive but streamlined review of the forms and syntax typically covered in LATIN 1201 and LATIN 1202 or a comparable first-year Latin sequence. It begins with a quick review of the most basic grammar and continues at a more deliberate pace with second-term material (LATIN 1202). The final part of the course is devoted to the reading of unchanged selections from Classical Latin authors as a transition to the study of Latin literary texts in more advanced courses. For students who receive an A- or higher, the sequence is continued by LATIN 2201; those who receive a B+ or lower should continue with LATIN 1205.

Full details for LATIN 1204 - Latin in Review

Introduces students to reading original Latin text (fall, Livy's Rome; spring, Cicero's Letters ). Covers complex syntax and reviews the grammar presented in LATIN 1202, LATIN 1204.

Full details for LATIN 1205 - Intermediate Latin I

 A reading of Sallust's Bellum Catilinae. We will read the text with close attention to both syntax and the astonishing events of the second Catilinarian conspiracy.

Full details for LATIN 2201 - Latin Prose

Latin, like any language, is only mastered when one can speak it. Yet the goal of spoken Latin, unlike modern languages, is not conversational fluency. Rather, by formulating one's own thoughts into Latin and expressing them in real human-to-human interaction, one experiences the unique structural, grammatical, and syntactical features of Latin actively and not just passively. This, in turn, enhances reading comprehension. Remaining rooted in and drawing inspiration from real authors including Plautus, Cicero, Erasmus, Newton, and many others, students will be able to talk about their favorite sports team, television show, musician, or video game, as well as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and baking cookies (all presentations students have given in the past!). Students should come to this course with a solid grounding in Latin grammar, although no previous spoken Latin is presumed.

Full details for LATIN 2207 - Conversational Latin I

No classical author has had a greater impact on how we think about love than Ovid. We'll read the Heroides, the Amores, the Ars Amatoria, the Remedia Amoris, as well as the Medicamina Faciei Femineae to discover why.

Full details for LATIN 2209 - Latin Poetry

Building on the intermediate level to acquire a literary vocabulary and syntactic structures, this course prepares students for independent reading of major authors entirely in the original language. It is accompanied by intense discussion and analysis leading to a mentored research project informed by secondary literature but based on close textual study.

Full details for LATIN 3220 - Rapid Reading in Latin

May be taken upon completion of one semester of work at the 3000-level. To be taken only in exceptional circumstances. Must be arranged by the student with his or her advisor and the faculty member who has agreed to direct the study. To be approved by the DUS.

Full details for LATIN 3286 - Independent Study in Latin, Undergraduate Level

The department teaches various topics which may vary by semester.

Full details for LATIN 6201 - Advanced Readings in Latin Literature

Reading and translation of Latin philosophical texts.

Full details for LATIN 7262 - Latin Philosophical Texts