Course Syllabus

Course Description and Objectives

In this course we shall read major works of ancient Greek literature and explore facets of ancient Greek civilization. In the first half of the course, we shall focus on the mythic world of Homer's Odyssey and the λόγοι of Herodotus' Histories. In the second half, we shall move to classical Athenian tragedy and comedy and philosophy, and then to some of the Hellenistic Alexandrian poetry that most influences the Roman Republican and Augustan poets. Finally, we shall jump forward to the Second Sophistic to read Lucian's dialogues. We shall read all of these works in their cultural context, considering their place in an evolving world that calls itself Greek.

Your main task at home will be reading the ancient texts: there will be extensive reading, around two hours' worth per class. Together we shall discuss those texts and work toward placing them in their cultural and historical contexts. In class we shall move beyond the literature to consider other primary sources as well, such as inscriptions, coins, sculpture, vase paintings, and archaeological remains. There will also be weekly writing assignments and quizzes, and you will have two exams.

Classical Studies 360 provides you with five of the twelve necessary General University Requirement (GUR) credits in Humanities (HUM). Whenever you tell a story, see a film or a work of art, or ponder an ethical question, you are encountering the humanities. The humanities include academic disciplines that use critical, historical, and aesthetic approaches to explore how people experience and document their lives, examine and question the values of their societies, and creatively engage with their world. Currently, our courses in the humanities address the languages, literatures, fine arts, history, philosophies, and religions of Western cultural traditions.

Completion of the GURs will involve repeated effort in clusters of knowledge and skills. This process will provide students with both a range of foundational content knowledge and opportunities to develop, integrate, and extend their core capacities in a range of practices. Each GUR course incorporates both acquisition of content knowledge and extending students' core capacities in at least one cluster.

Social, Cultural and Historical Knowledge

Courses in this cluster focus on the foundational knowledge and aesthetic, theoretical, and methodological approaches for studying the diversity of human experience.

Civic, Ethical, and Environmental Knowledge

Courses in this cluster focus on knowledge of humans, their value systems, their organizations and contexts, and/or their place in the natural environment.

Communicative and Interpretive Skills

These skills focus on reading, interpreting, and communicating information through oral, print, and digital media and genres for audiences, both specialized and general.

Creative and Problem-Solving Skills

These skills focus on methods for solving complex problems, generating and designing innovative ideas, and creating aesthetically engaging works.

Critical and Reflective Skills

These skills include evaluating and contextualizing sources and information, applying various theoretical frameworks to examine and/or evaluate texts, knowledge, and truth claims, and identifying and examining one's own (and others') assumptions, values, and beliefs.

In addition to considering multiple works of Greek literature, you will engage in writing exercises and discussions on Canvas to explore ethical concerns of ancient literature and the complex relationship between ancient Greek literature and the modern Western cultures that often claim descent from ancient Greece.

On Keeping an Open Mind

While ancient Greece in one sense lies at the roots of modern Western civilizations, it also differed from modern cultures in many ways. Likewise, within ancient Greece there were many competing views on social and cultural issues, just as the modern world enjoys a diversity of perspectives. Some of the ancient Greek customs and ideas that you encounter in this class will seem very alien, and you may find some shockingly different from your own. Certainly ancient sexual practices (like Athenian pederasty) will prove challenging to modern moral beliefs.

The discomfort of learning about a foreign culture's practices and beliefs plays a part in Herodotus' Histories (3.38). Darius, king of the Persians, asked a group of Greeks if they would eat the corpses of their own fathers. The Greeks were disgusted. Then, Darius asked a group of Callatians if they would bury the corpses of their fathers. The Callatians were as disgusted with the thought of burial as the Greeks were with cannibalism. Try, like Darius, to keep an open mind and recognize that cultures differ in what they consider to be moral just as much as they do in their other customs.

Class Times and Location

Masterworks of Ancient Greek Literature meets every Monday and Wednesday from 3:00 PM until 5:10 AM in Fraser Hall 101.  Fraser 101 is the downstairs lecture hall, which will be obvious once you're in the building: look for stairs going down.

Lectures begin Wednesday, September 23, and continue through Wedneday, December 2. We do not meet on Wednesday, November 11 (Veterans Day) nor on Wednesday, November 25 (Thanksgiving Break). You will take the midterm examination and final examinations on Canvas, not in class, and you can take the final examination anywhere you like at any time during the exam week; you do not need to be in town.

Instructor

Miller Krause ( miller.krause@wwu.edu, (360) 650-4269)

Office Hours: in Miller Hall 122E:

• Monday and Wednesday: 2:00–2:50 PM
• Tuesday and Thursday: 10:30–11:00 AM

Textbooks

I have asked the bookstore to make the following books available; I have given the ISBN number and the list price of each.

• Costa, C. 2005. Lucian: Selected Dialogues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199555932. $15.
• Lattimore, R. [1967] 2007. The Odyssey of Homer. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. ISBN 978-0061244186. $20.
• Reeve, C. 2006. Plato on Love: Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, with Selections from Republic and Laws. Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 978-0872207882. $20.
• Sommerstein, A. 2008. Aristophanes: Lysistrata and Other Plays.  New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0140448146. $12 ($7 on Amazon).
• Waterfield, R. 1998. Herotodus: The Histories. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 978-0199535668. $11.

For other readings, I've provided links to translations freely available online.

The University bookstore should carry all of these books, but they can also be ordered online. Used books sell online for next to nothing if you shop around. Feel free to order used editions of these books, other editions, or even other translations as you like. The internet abounds with old translations that have entered the public domain, but students have reported difficulty reading nineteenth or even early twentieth century prose; Jowett's translation of Plato has proven a stumbling block in the past. The translations in the volumes listed above should prove easier.

I would strongly advise getting the recommended edition of Lucian: Selected Dialogues, because it contains easy to read translations and only the selections we'll be reading, which will save you the trouble of looking for his works.  The bookstore is also charging $60 for the e-book and $15 for the paperback, and I have no idea how that makes sense to anyone.

Students with Apple iOS and iPadOS devices will find all the Greek texts and English translations of most of them (just not Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the hymns or epigrams of Callimachus, or anything by Lucian) in the free Bellerophon app.

Grading

Grading Scale

Course Requirements

Reading

First and foremost, this is a literature class, and you need to read the literature. Readings are listed below on the syllabus and also on the Modules page, which doubles as a course checklist to help you keep track of readings, quizzes, assignments, and exams. You should read the day's readings before coming to class: the lecture will make more sense when you have read in preparation for class, and the lecture should in turn help clarify the reading. I have tried to make sure that longer readings fall on Mondays and shorter readings on Wednesdays, so that you have the weekend to reading the longer assignments. Sometimes, especially with Homer and Herodotus, we'll only be covering certain books or sections of books, so click on the assignment in Canvas to find those details.

Attendance and Participation (10%)

You should come to class. Every day, there will be a small attendance paper on which you will answer a question about the day's lecture. That will serve to record attendance, so be sure to turn in the attendance paper at the end of class.

I understand that emergencies do sometimes arise. Canvas will drop two absences automatically, with or without documentation. After that, you need to show me a very good reason for your absence if you do not want the attendance grade to diminish.

Athletes and anyone planning on missing class for athletics, university-sponsored events, military duty, or religious holidays should inform me of absences in advance. That lets me excuse absences and add time to Canvas assignments for those students in advance. Within the first two weeks of class, give me a letter listing the games/matches/meets, events, military service, or holidays requiring absences for the quarter, so that I can plan ahead to help you stay on track. I like planning ahead.

Assignments (25%)

There are eight assignments spread out across the quarter, about one every week.

Five brief, weekly writing assignments will require you to engage with themes and topics of five genres of ancient Greek literature; a sixth gives you visual context for Greek history. You will find these eight assignments as discussions on Canvas.  You will post your assignment to a small discussion group, where your peers will read and comment on your writing and you on theirs. More specific instructions will accompany each assignment. Be civil in your discussions, and try to be meaningful. 

There is also a Greek Alphabet Workbook with eight optional practice assignments to help you learn the Greek alphabet and two required assignments to help you read specific terms and names that you'll see in class.  

Quizzes (25%)

Six quizzes are scheduled. All open after class on Wednesday and are due on Friday but remain open until Saturday. Instead of taking each quiz in class, you will take it on Canvas. This means that you can take the quiz when you feel that you have studied enough, rather than being forced to take it, ready-or-not, the last ten minutes of class.

The quizzes have ten questions and a ten-minute time limit. You should not use your notes, books, or any other materials during the quizzes.  The time limit is there to keep you from looking up answers: you should know the answers before you take a quiz.

Should an emergency arise that keeps you from taking the quiz at any point by the end of Friday (the due date), Canvas will keep the quiz open for you for one more day (the deadline, namely Saturday). After the deadline, the quiz closes forever.

Midterm Examination (20%)

There will be a midterm examination on Canvas, between the units on History and Tragedy. The midterm examination has fifty questions and a one-hour time limit. It covers Homer and Herodotus.

Final Examination (20%)

The final examination will be available on Canvas during the exam week, so that you will be able to take the final examination at any time convenient to you during that week. The final examination has fifty questions and a one-hour time limit. It covers tragedy, comedy, philosophy, neoteric Alexandrian poetry, and Lucian.

Academic Integrity

Don't commit academic dishonesty. See the University's website on Academic Honesty.

Help

If you have questions about how to use Canvas, first read the Canvas Student Guide and the ATUS help page on Canvas. If you still need help after that, contact the ATUS Help Desk:

Web: atus.wwu.edu/help-desk
Email: helpdesk@wwu.edu
Phone: (360) 650-3333.

I have gathered other resources on the Help and FAQs page. For other questions, e-mail me at miller.krause@wwu.edu or stop by my office during office hours.