Courses

Courses by semester

Courses for

Complete Cornell University course descriptions are in the Courses of Study .

Course ID Title Offered
CLASS1331 Elementary Sanskrit I
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

Fall.
CLASS1531 FWS: Greek Myth
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 essays focusing on readings and discussions in class.

Full details for CLASS 1531 - FWS: Greek Myth

Fall, Spring.
CLASS1615 Introduction to Ancient Rome
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) and will read some of the greatest masterpieces of Latin literature. Special attention will be given to the late republic and Augustan periods, and to Roman ethics. No prior knowledge of the ancient world is necessary. All readings are in English.

Full details for CLASS 1615 - Introduction to Ancient Rome

Fall.
CLASS1704 Statues and Public Life
Recent events in the USA and across the globe have drawn attention to the dynamic and highly political role that statues play within public life. But why do so many societies create statues, and why do they set them up in prominent spaces? How do statues work? And why do they loom so large in the public imagination? Looking both to Ancient Greece and Rome and the modern West, this course examines the social, political, religious, and erotic power attributed to statues across diverse periods and contexts, paying special attention to current events in the USA. We will explore topics including the foundational role of statues for political states (from the Athenian Tyrannicides to the Statue of Liberty), the commemorative function of statues (such as victory monuments and war memorials), the destruction of statues (from Christian iconoclasm to Confederate monuments), creative "statue-hacks" (from Rome's Pasquino to Wall Street's "Fearless Girl") and objects of cult (from Olympian Zeus to weeping Madonnas). The course will encourage students to consider statues relevant to themselves and their communities, including the Cornell cast collection, statues on campus, and those in your own home town.

Full details for CLASS 1704 - Statues and Public Life

Fall.
CLASS2000 Environment and Sustainability Colloquium
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 - Environment and Sustainability Colloquium

Fall.
CLASS2351 Intermediate Sanskrit I
Readings from simple Sanskrit poetry: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Full details for CLASS 2351 - Intermediate Sanskrit I

Fall.
CLASS2603 Initiation to Greek Culture
Intended especially for first-year students. Students must apply in writing to chair, Department of Classics, 120 Goldwin Smith Hall. In this course, we will read and discuss a wide range of Greek literary and philosophical works as well as some modern critical and philosophical writings. Knowledge of Greek is not necessary: all texts are in English translation. What is necessary is a willingness to participate in seminar meetings each week and supplementary workshops with specially invited guests.  Our focus throughout is on close analysis of the texts, and the attempts the Greeks made to grapple with the world around them through literature. 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 epic and tragedy engage with philosophical discourse while creating intense emotional effects on audiences both during antiquity and beyond.  By the end of this course, you will have read a wide selection of Classical Greek literature and be able to perform close readings and comparative analysis of text and culture.  You will also hone your discussion and presentation skills in the seminar format, above all engaging with your peers in joint intellectual inquiry.   

Full details for CLASS 2603 - Initiation to Greek Culture

Fall.
CLASS2604 Greek Mythology
The stories of Greek Mythology have ignited the imaginations of writers and artists from antiquity to the present day, from the tragedy of Achilles to the adventures of Percy Jackson. This course surveys the most influential stories of Gods and Heroes in Greek myths, focusing on their place in ancient Greek and Roman literature, society and religion, but also tracing their course in intellectual and art history through the Renaissance to the present day.

Full details for CLASS 2604 - Greek Mythology

Fall, Winter, Summer.
CLASS2643 The Birth of Science: Discovering the World from Antiquity to Today
What can Aristotle, Archimedes, Hippocrates and other ancient scientists teach us about science as we know it today? In this course we will study the origins of scientific thought and experiment in mathematics, biology, medicine, astronomy and more in the ancient Mediterranean, comparing them to modern approaches as well as examples from classical China, the medieval Islamic world, Mesoamerica, and Africa. We will discuss questions about the philosophy of science and its socio-historical context and engage actively with ancient problem-solving methods.

Full details for CLASS 2643 - The Birth of Science: Discovering the World from Antiquity to Today

Fall.
CLASS2646 Magic and Witchcraft in the Greco-Roman World
This introductory course explores the roles of amulets, love potions, curse tablets, and many other magical practices in ancient Greek and Roman societies. In this course, you will learn how to invoke the powers of Abrasax, become successful and famous, get people to fall desperately in love with you, and cast horrible curses on your enemies! We will also examine a range of ancient and modern approaches to "magic" as a concept: what exactly do we mean by "magic," and how does it relate to other spheres of activity, like religion, science, and philosophy? When people (in ancient times or today) label the activities of others as "magic," what are the social and political consequences of that act? As we investigate the practices that Greeks and Romans considered "magical," we will also explore what those practices can teach us about many other aspects of life in the past, such as social class, gender, religion, and ethnic and cultural identity.

Full details for CLASS 2646 - Magic and Witchcraft in the Greco-Roman World

Fall.
CLASS2661 Ancient Philosophy
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

Fall.
CLASS2675 Ancient Greece from Helen to Alexander
An introduction to ancient Greek history from the era of the Trojan War to the conquests of Alexander the Great. Topics include the rise and fall of the Greek city-state, the invention of politics, democracy, warfare, women and the family. Course readings are in classical texts and modern scholarship.

Full details for CLASS 2675 - Ancient Greece from Helen to Alexander

Fall.
CLASS2711 Archaeology of the Roman World: Italy and the West
With megacities, long-distance trade, and fluid identities, the Roman empire can seem uncannily close to our modern world. This course adopts a thematic approach to explore whether this is a valid parallel, based on archaeological evidence ranging from temples to farms, from wine containers to statues.

Full details for CLASS 2711 - Archaeology of the Roman World: Italy and the West

Fall.
CLASS2729 Climate, Archaeology and History
An introduction to the story of how human history from the earliest times through to the recent period interrelates with changing climate conditions on Earth. The course explores the whole expanse of human history, but concentrates on the most recent 15,000 years through to the Little Ice Age (14th-19th centuries AD). Evidence from science, archaeology and history are brought together to assess how climate has shaped the human story.

Full details for CLASS 2729 - Climate, Archaeology and History

Fall.
CLASS3391 Independent Study in Sanskrit, Undergraduate 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 3391 - Independent Study in Sanskrit, Undergraduate Level

Fall, Spring.
CLASS3395 Advanced Sanskrit I
Selected readings in Sanskrit literary and philosophical texts.

Full details for CLASS 3395 - Advanced Sanskrit I

Fall.
CLASS3686 Independent Study in Classical Civilization, Undergraduate Level
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

Fall, Spring.
CLASS4626 Reinventing Biblical Narrative
Narratives, particularly sacred narratives, are not static or fixed but rather infinitely flexible and malleable.   Subject to multiple retellings—elaborations, modifications, and deletions—stories take on lives of their own even after they come to be written down. What happens to sacred stories when they are heard and read by different communities of interpreters? This is the broad question at the heart of this course, which will explore the diverse interpretations of biblical narratives (e.g., stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and his disciples, Joseph and Mary) found in Jewish and Christian literature from the second century BCE through the 6th century and beyond.  Writers like the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo and the Jewish historian Josephus, Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, gnostic literature, early rabbinic literature, and Christian patristic writers—these are some of the sources that we will study in this class.    At the conclusion of the seminar, we will explore briefly the retellings of biblical stories and use of biblical characters in the early Islamic materials, especially the Qur'an.    Throughout the semester, we will consider the historical contexts of biblical interpretation and the production, transmission, and use of texts in antiquity, including questions about literacy and orality, education, and the physical forms of ancient books.

Full details for CLASS 4626 - Reinventing Biblical Narrative

Fall.
CLASS4662 Topics in Ancient Philosophy
Advanced discussion of topics in ancient philosophy.

Full details for CLASS 4662 - Topics in Ancient Philosophy

Fall.
CLASS4670 Archaeology of the Phoenicians
The Phoenicians have long been an enigma, a people defined by distant voices. Originating from present-day Lebanon, they were Semitic speakers, renowned seafarers and transmitters of an innovative alphabet that transformed how Mediterranean and Near Eastern folk wrote their languages. Having left us virtually no texts of their own, their history has resembled a patchwork of recollections from Old Testament and Hellenistic times. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, reveal patterns of trade, colonization and socioeconomic transformations that make the Phoenicians less enigmatic while raising new questions. Our class explores the third and second millennium Canaanite roots of the Phoenicians, as well as the Biblical and Greco-Roman perceptions of their early first millennium heyday. We will explore the Phoenician homeland and its colonies, and investigate their maritime economy, language, and religion through both archaeological and textual sources. Temporally the focus is on Phoenician rather than Carthaginian or Punic history, thus up to about 550 BCE. The class has a seminar format involving critical discussions and presentations of scholarly readings, and requires a research paper.

Full details for CLASS 4670 - Archaeology of the Phoenicians

Fall.
CLASS4721 Honors: Senior Essay I
See "Honors" under Classics front matter.

Full details for CLASS 4721 - Honors: Senior Essay I

Multi-semester course: (Fall, Spring).
CLASS4722 Honors: Senior Essay II
See "Honors" under Classics front matter.

Full details for CLASS 4722 - Honors: Senior Essay II

Fall, Spring.
CLASS4801 Homer and Global Modernity
This course examines how Homer's epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad, have been read in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Homer has long been understood as important for defining and contesting European modernity (as a 'classic' or as 'universal'). We will be investigating what happens to Homer when writers and translators, such as Tariq Ali, CLR James, and Derek Walcott write back to Eurocentric ideas of modernity. Therefore we will trace the receptions in various media (popular film, critical theory, the novels of Toni Morrison) to understand how Homer articulates the concepts and crises of contemporary global culture.

Full details for CLASS 4801 - Homer and Global Modernity

Fall.
CLASS6681 Unconventional and Hybrid Warfare in Ancient Greece and Rome
Unconventional warfare, especially special operations, is often thought of as strictly a modern phenomenon, while hybrid warfare is a term of very recent origin. Yet both loom large in the record of ancient Greece & Rome. We look at case studies from the Trojan War to the Roman Empire, including, but not limited to, the Trojan War, the Peloponnesian War, the Punic Wars, and the wars of Antony and Cleopatra against Octavian. Readings in ancient sources and modern theorists.

Full details for CLASS 6681 - Unconventional and Hybrid Warfare in Ancient Greece and Rome

Fall.
CLASS6701 Advanced Readings in Archaeology
Introduction to core readings in Greek and Roman art and archaeology. 

Full details for CLASS 6701 - Advanced Readings in Archaeology

Fall.
CLASS6801 Homer and Global Modernity
This course examines how Homer's epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad, have been read in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Homer has long been understood as important for defining and contesting European modernity (as a 'classic' or as 'universal'). We will be investigating what happens to Homer when writers and translators, such as Tariq Ali, CLR James, and Derek Walcott write back to Eurocentric ideas of modernity. Therefore we will trace the receptions in various media (popular film, critical theory, the novels of Toni Morrison) to understand how Homer articulates the concepts and crises of contemporary global culture.

Full details for CLASS 6801 - Homer and Global Modernity

Fall.
CLASS7173 Topics in Ancient Philosophy
Advanced discussion of topics in ancient philosophy.

Full details for CLASS 7173 - Topics in Ancient Philosophy

Fall.
CLASS7345 Graduate TA Training
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

Fall, Spring.
CLASS7626 Reinventing Biblical Narrative
Narratives, particularly sacred narratives, are not static or fixed but rather infinitely flexible and malleable.   Subject to multiple retellings—elaborations, modifications, and deletions—stories take on lives of their own even after they come to be written down. What happens to sacred stories when they are heard and read by different communities of interpreters? This is the broad question at the heart of this course, which will explore the diverse interpretations of biblical narratives (e.g., stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and his disciples, Joseph and Mary) found in Jewish and Christian literature from the second century BCE through the 6th century and beyond.  Writers like the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo and the Jewish historian Josephus, Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, gnostic literature, early rabbinic literature, and Christian patristic writers—these are some of the sources that we will study in this class.    At the conclusion of the seminar, we will explore briefly the retellings of biblical stories and use of biblical characters in the early Islamic materials, especially the Qur'an.    Throughout the semester, we will consider the historical contexts of biblical interpretation and the production, transmission, and use of texts in antiquity, including questions about literacy and orality, education, and the physical forms of ancient books.

Full details for CLASS 7626 - Reinventing Biblical Narrative

Fall.
CLASS7727 Climate, Archaeology and History
An introduction to the story of how human history from the earliest times through to the recent period interrelates with changing climate conditions on Earth. The course explores the whole expanse of human history, but concentrates on the most recent 15,000 years through to the Little Ice Age (14th-19th centuries AD). Evidence from science, archaeology and history are brought together to assess how climate has shaped the human story.

Full details for CLASS 7727 - Climate, Archaeology and History

Fall.
CLASS7743 Archaeology of the Hellenistic Mediterranean
The conquests and death of Alexander served as catalysts for major cultural transformation. Throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, Greco-Macedonian dynasties came to rule over foreign populations in places as diverse as Egypt, the Near East, Central Asia, and northwestern India. The resulting interactions, conflicts, collaborations, and entanglements produced new practices, new forms of material culture, and new constructions of "Hellenicity."

Full details for CLASS 7743 - Archaeology of the Hellenistic Mediterranean

Fall.
GREEK1101 Elementary Ancient Greek I
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

Fall.
GREEK2101 Intermediate 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

Fall.
GREEK3120 Seminar in Greek
Undergraduate seminar in Greek. Topic: Fall, Aeschylus and Aristophanes; Spring, Lysias and Antiphon.

Full details for GREEK 3120 - Seminar in Greek

Fall, Spring.
GREEK3185 Independent Study in Greek, Undergraduate Level
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

Fall, Spring.
GREEK4455 Greek Dialects
The features and genetic relationships of the major dialects of ancient Greek, supplemented by the reading and analysis of representative epigraphical and literary texts.

Full details for GREEK 4455 - Greek Dialects

Fall.
GREEK6101 Advanced Readings in Greek Literature
Topic: Greek Tragedy: An Intensive Introduction. An introduction to the language and form of Greek tragedy, with intensive readings in Greek (300+ lines per week) from the three plays on the graduate reading list, and extensive study in English from many of the rest.

Full details for GREEK 6101 - Advanced Readings in Greek Literature

Fall.
GREEK7161 Greek Philosophical Texts
Reading and translation of Greek Philosophical texts.

Full details for GREEK 7161 - Greek Philosophical Texts

Fall, Spring.
GREEK7171 Graduate Seminar in Greek Fall.
GREEK7455 Greek Dialects
The features and genetic relationships of the major dialects of ancient Greek, supplemented by the reading and analysis of representative epigraphical and literary texts.

Full details for GREEK 7455 - Greek Dialects

Fall.
LATIN1201 Elementary Latin I
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

Fall.
LATIN1204 Latin in Review
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

Fall.
LATIN1205 Intermediate Latin I
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

Fall, Spring.
LATIN2201 Latin Prose
Cicero's Philippics – his fierce denunciations of Mark Antony delivered after the assassination of Julius Caesar – offer an insight into one of the most turbulent times in Roman – and world – history. Reading these orations with close attention to their rhetorical style and historical context reveals their political potency, leading to the death of the man who delivered them.

Full details for LATIN 2201 - Latin Prose

Fall.
LATIN2207 Conversational Latin I
Latin, like any language, is mastered only when one can speak it. Yet the goal of spoken Latin, unlike modern languages, is not necessarily 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, and this, in turn, leads to reading fluency. 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

Fall.
LATIN2209 Latin Poetry
Roman poets found ways of crafting language to make words spring into a new life and people shift into astonishing shapes. We will read selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses to see and enjoy how they (and their characters) remake thoughts and persons, and, at the same time, hone our own skills at understanding poetry.

Full details for LATIN 2209 - Latin Poetry

Fall.
LATIN3220 Rapid Reading in Latin
Topic: Seneca's De Clementia. 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

Fall.
LATIN3286 Independent Study in Latin, Undergraduate Level
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

Fall, Spring.
LATIN4223 Topics in Medieval Latin Literature
This topics seminar will explore genres, forms, and theories of Medieval Latin poetry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (with a few forays into the fourteenth century and beyond). Topics include biblical and liturgical verse, historical epic, philosophical and didactic poetry, satire and parody, the ars versificandi, and historical/contemporary critical approaches to Medieval Latin poetics (Faral, Raby, Norberg, Zumthor, Leupin, Tilliette, Kay, et al.).

Full details for LATIN 4223 - Topics in Medieval Latin Literature

Fall.
LATIN6201 Advanced Readings in Latin Literature Fall.
LATIN7223 Topics in Medieval Latin Literature
This topics seminar will explore genres, forms, and theories of Medieval Latin poetry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (with a few forays into the fourteenth century and beyond). Topics include biblical and liturgical verse, historical epic, philosophical and didactic poetry, satire and parody, the ars versificandi, and historical/contemporary critical approaches to Medieval Latin poetics (Faral, Raby, Norberg, Zumthor, Leupin, Tilliette, Kay, et al.).

Full details for LATIN 7223 - Topics in Medieval Latin Literature

Fall.
LATIN7262 Latin Philosophical Texts
Reading and translation of Latin philosophical texts.

Full details for LATIN 7262 - Latin Philosophical Texts

Fall.
Top