Results for CLASSICS

No knowledge of Greek is assumed. Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language.

Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language. No previous knowledge of Latin is assumed.

Over two billion people alive today consider the Bible to be sacred scripture. But how did the books that made it into the bible get there in the first place? Who decided what was to be part of the bible and what wasn't? How would history look differently if a given book didn't make the final cut and another one did? Hundreds of ancient Jewish and Christian texts are not included in the Bible. "What Didn't Make It in the Bible" focuses on these excluded writings. We will explore the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic gospels, hear of a five-year-old Jesus throwing temper tantrums while killing (and later resurrecting) his classmates, peruse ancient romance novels, explore the adventures of fallen angels who sired giants (and taught humans about cosmetics), tour heaven and hell, encounter the garden of Eden story told from the perspective of the snake, and learn how the world will end. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history. It is designed for students who are part of faith traditions that consider the bible to be sacred, as well as those who are not. The only prerequisite is an interest in exploring books, groups, and ideas that eventually lost the battles of history and to keep asking the question "why." In critically examining these ancient narratives and the communities that wrote them, you will investigate how religions canonize a scriptural tradition, better appreciate the diversity of early Judaism and Christianity, understand the historical context of these religions, and explore the politics behind what did and did not make it into the bible.

Transition to reading Greek prose. Students will build upon morphology and syntax acquired in beginning Greek to develop confidence and proficiency in reading Greek prose. We will read Plato's Apology, one of the premier examples of Attic prose, a gripping courtroom defense speech by Socrates in a capital case that ultimately became one of the foundational texts of philosophy.

Students will build upon and review morphology and syntax acquired in beginning Latin to develop confidence and proficiency in reading. Readings in prose and poetry, namely Nepos (Life of Hannibal) and Ovid. Analysis of literary language, including rhythm, meter, word order, narrative, and figures of speech.

Overview of the archaeology of Greece from the earliest times to today, with a focus on the first millennium BCE. Covers topics from farming and fighting to technology and art, asking why the material cultures created in Greece's archaic, classical, and Hellenistic periods have had a profound impact on the rest of the world.

We shall cover the major developments in Greek philosophical thought, focusing on Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools (the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Topics include epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, ethics and political theory. No prereqs, not repeatable.

Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel Cusk, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Beckett, plus thinkers like Nehamas, Nietzsche, Nussbaum, Plato, and Sartre. We'll also ask whether a disenchanted world can be re-enchanted; when, if ever, the truth stops being the most important thing; why we sometimes choose to read sad stories; whether we ever love someone for who they are; who could possibly want to live their same life over and over again; what it takes to make ourselves fully moral; whether it's ever good to be conflicted; how we can pull ourselves together; and how we can take ourselves apart. (This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.)

More than excavating ancient sites and managing collections of old things, Archaeology is a way of experiencing the world: imagining past lives through ruins and remains; telling the story of a prehistoric village through the remains of the site and its artifacts; dealing with the return of childhood memories; designing a museum for a community. The archaeological imagination is a creative capacity mobilized when we experience traces and vestiges of the past, when we gather, classify, conserve and restore, when we work with such remains to deliver stories, reconstructions, accounts, explanations, or whatever. This class will explore such a wide archaeological perspective in novels, poetry, fantasy literature, the arts, movies, online gaming, and through some key debates in contemporary archaeology about human origins, the spread of urban life, the rise and fall of ancient empires.

What is the relation between magic and science? Is religion compatible with the scientific method? Are there patterns in the stars? What is a metaphor? This course will read key moments in Greek and Islamic science and philosophy and investigate the philosophy of language, mathematical diagrams, manuscripts, the madrasa, free will, predestination, and semantic logic. We will read selections from Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Baha al-Din al-Amili, and others. This course is part of the Humanities Core, a collaborative set of global humanities seminars that brings all of its students and faculty into conversation. On Tuesdays you meet in your own course, and on Thursdays all the HumCore seminars (in session that quarter) meet together: https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/.

Why do imperialists conquer people? Why do some people resist while others collaborate? This course tries to answer these questions by looking at some of the world's earliest empires. The main focus is on the expansion of the Assyrian and Persian Empires between 900 and 300 BC and the consequences for the ancient Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks. The main readings come from the Bible, Herodotus, and Assyrian and Persian royal inscriptions, and the course combines historical and archaeological data with social scientific approaches. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required.

Advanced Greek class on the poet Theocritus, the Hellenistic poet who invented the pastoral genre. Most of the class will be spent translating his poems. Discussion of the poems with readings of secondary scholarship will also be included. Virgil's Eclogues which were modeled on Theocritus' Idylls will be read in translation, but not in Latin. Other Greek pastoral poets like Bion and Moschus may be read if time permits. Readings of Theocritus out loud and in meter will be encouraged, but this will not be the main focus of the class. Grad students are welcome in the class and can write a paper for extra units. No paper required for undergrads. Classics majors and minors must take course for letter grade. Classics majors and minors may repeat for credit with advance approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Books I-V of Livy's monumental History of Rome blend myth, legend, and historical truth to recount the period 'from the founding of the city' to the Gallic Sack in 390/387 BCE. In this course, we will examine large sections of Book I concerning the brothers Romulus and Remus, the kings of the Roman monarchy, and the fall of the Tarquins, as well as key episodes from Books II-V: the foundation of the Republic, the conflict of the orders, and Rome's wars with Latins, Etruscans, and Celts. Concurrently, we will discuss the purpose of Livy's composition, its value as a historical source, the circumstances of its production, and the narrative strategies employed by Livy. The course aims to improve reading fluency, and we will review grammar and vocabulary as necessary. Classics majors and minors must take for a letter grade and may repeat for degree credit with advance approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

This course explores controversial artworks and artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum which have been historically deemed as "erotic" and "pornographic," from wall paintings displaying sexual intercourse to ornaments in the shape of winged phalluses. Students learn about the early excavations of this material, the invention of the word "pornography," and the history of the "Secret Cabinet" in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, where items deemed too sensitive for the public eye were locked away for decades in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through this, we consider and engage with our own changing societal values surrounding such themes and objects. Students also learn and engage with multiple methodological and theoretical approaches that have been used to analyze "erotic" wall paintings and artifacts, including but not limited to psychoanalysis, "male gaze" theory, queer theory, and master-slave narratives.

Long-term, comparative and archaeological view of urban planning and design. Cities are the fastest changing components of the human landscape and are challenging our relationships with nature. They are the historical loci of innovation and change, are cultural hotspots, and present a tremendous challenge through growth, industrial development, the consumption of goods and materials. We will unpack such topics by tracking the genealogy of qualities of life in the ancient Near Eastern city states and those of Graeco-Roman antiquity, with reference also to prehistoric built environments and cities in the Indus Valley and through the Americas. The class takes an explicitly human-centered view of urban design and one that emphasizes long term processes.

The class considers the development of Greek art from 1000-480 and poses the question, how Greek was Greek art? In the beginning, as Greece emerges from 200 years of Dark Ages, their art is cautious, conservative and more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. While Homer describes the rippling muscles (and egos) of Bronze Age heroes, his fellow painters and sculptors prefer abstraction. This changes in the 7th century, when travel to and trade with the Near East transform Greek culture. What had been an insular society becomes cosmopolitan, enriched by the sophisticated artistic traditions of lands beyond the Aegean "frog pond." Imported Near Eastern bronzes and ivories awaken Greek artists to a wider range of subjects, techniques and ambitions. Later in the century, Greeks in Egypt learn to quarry and carve hard stone from Egyptian masters. Throughout the 6th century, Greek artists absorb what they had borrowed, compete with one another, defy their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. By the end of the archaic period, images of gods and mortals bear little trace of alien influence or imprint, yet without the contributions of Egypt and the Near East, Greek art as we know it would have been unthinkable.

The seminar examines a range of topics devoted to the makers of Greek art and artifacts, the men and women who used them in life and the afterlife, and the miscreants - from Lord Elgin to contemporary tomb-looters and dealers - whose deeds have damaged, deracinated and desecrated temples, sculptures and grave goods. Readings include ancient texts in translation, books and articles by classicists and art historians, legal texts and lively page-turners. Students will discuss weekly readings, give brief slide lectures and a final presentation on a topic of their choice, which need not be confined to the ancient Mediterranean.

In this course we learn to read Medieval Greek manuscripts, concentrating on the most exciting of them all: the Archimedes Palimpsest. We begin by learning the Greek mathematical language, through a brief reading of Euclid. Following that, we learn how to read Euclid from manuscript and, following that, we proceed to read the Archimedes palimpsest itself. Course requires one year of Greek.

From street names to monuments, the material sediments of colonial time can be seen, heard, and felt in the diverse cultural archives of ancient and contemporary Africa. This seminar aims to examine the role of ethnographic practice in the political agendas of past and present African nations. In the quest to reconstruct an imaginary of Africa in space and time, students will explore these social constructs in light of the rise of archaeology during the height of European empire and colonization. Particularly in the last 50 years, revived interest in African cultural heritage and preservation raises complex questions about the problematic tensions between European, American, and African theories of archaeological and ethnographic practice.

(Formerly CLASSGEN 160.) May be repeated for credit.

(Formerly CLASSGEN 199.) May be repeated for credit

Partial coverage of the reading lists for translation and general reading exams, within a framework that introduces philological method, history of scholarship, hermeneutics and various approaches to the construction of literary histories. Emphasis on the continuity and intersection of genres over a millennium of Greek literature. Readings will include handbook treatments (19th to 21st centuries), selected articles on theory, and commentaries on a number of works from archaic poetry to the Second Sophistic. Weekly written exercises in stylistic analysis and interpretation; midterm and final exams. Greek and Latin material taught in alternate years.

Graduate proseminar. Introductory overview of the heterogeneous coinages of antiquity, from the earliest coins of the Mediterranean to classical and Hellenistic Greek coins, Roman Republican, Imperial and provincial coinages as well as various ancient Oriental coinages. Topics include: numismatic terminology; techniques of coin production in antiquity; numismatic methodology (die studies; hoard studies; metrological analyses); quantifying coin production and ancient financial history; coins vs. other forms of money in antiquity; the study of ancient coinages in the Early Modern world. Students are expected to prepare talks on specific topics to be agreed upon. Required for ancient history graduate students; others by consent of instructor.

Sex and the Early Church examines the ways first- through sixth-century Christians addressed questions regarding human sexuality. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between sexuality and issues of gender, culture, power, and resistance. We will read a Roman gynecological manual, an ancient dating guide, the world's first harlequin romance novels, ancient pornography, early Christian martyrdom accounts, stories of female and male saints, instructions for how to best battle demons, visionary accounts, and monastic rules. These will be supplemented by modern scholarship in classics, early Christian studies, gender studies, queer studies, and the history of sexuality. The purpose of our exploration is not simply to better understand ancient views of gender and sexuality. Rather, this investigation of a society whose sexual system often seems so surprising aims to denaturalize many of our own assumptions concerning gender and sexuality. In the process, we will also examine the ways these first centuries of what eventually became the world's largest religious tradition has profoundly affected the sexual norms of our own time. The seminar assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

From street names to monuments, the material sediments of colonial time can be seen, heard, and felt in the diverse cultural archives of ancient and contemporary Africa. This seminar aims to examine the role of ethnographic practice in the political agendas of past and present African nations. In the quest to reconstruct an imaginary of Africa in space and time, students will explore these social constructs in light of the rise of archaeology during the height of European empire and colonization. Particularly in the last 50 years, revived interest in African cultural heritage and preservation raises complex questions about the problematic tensions between European, American, and African theories of archaeological and ethnographic practice.

This course is to be taken twice during the third year of the Classics PhD program. It takes the form of a tutorial based on weekly meetings, leading to the writing of the dissertation prospectus. To register, a student obtain permission from the prospective faculty advisor.

This course is offered for students requiring specialized training in an area not covered by existing courses. To register, a student must obtain permission from the Classics Department and the faculty member who is willing to supervise the reading. This course can be repeated for credit, not to exceed 20 units total.

This course explores the use of the proverb in ancient Greek poetry and prose. We will examine the role proverbs play across the many different genres of Greek literature as part of a larger "quotation culture" in antiquity, as evinced in oral performance, ancient reading habits, and educational practices. Part of our study will involve tracing the use, reuse, and transformation of certain proverbs to the extent that they become autonomous literary works in their own right. This will lead us to consider what separates a "quotation" from other discourse. Does anyone ever speak without "quoting" something? Texts include selections from Homer, Hesiod, Greek lyric poetry, Greek tragedy and comedy, Herodotus, Plato, and Aristotle. We will also have a special guest lecturer, Prof. Matthew Wright from the University of Exeter, on the surviving fragments of ancient Greek tragedy and Athens' quotation culture during the week we examine proverbs in tragedy.

This course will investigate representations of black people in ancient Greek and Roman antiquity. In addition to interrogating the conflation of the terms "race" and "blackness" as it applies to this time period, students will learn how to critique the interference of racial ideologies in modern scholarship, and they will cross-examine the role that race and cultural imperialism have played in the formation of the current discipline of Classics. Students will be invited to incorporate materials that they deem crucial into this discussion of skin color in Greco-Roman antiquity. Therefore, this course will benefit greatly from those with a broad spectrum of interests related to this topic.

For graduate students only. Individual research by arrangement with in-department instructors. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the research.

(Formerly CLASSGEN 801.)

(Formerly CLASSGEN 802.)