HUMANITIES 110
REED COLLEGE
Spring 2008
Apuleius, The Golden Ass (Indiana Univ. Press)
Athanasius, Life of St. Antony the Great (Eastern Orthodox)
Augustine, Confessions (Oxford World Classics)
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha/ New Revised Standard Version: College Edition
(Oxford Univ. Press)
Brown, World of Late Antiquity (W. W. Norton)
Jaffee, Early Judaism (Univ. Press of Maryland)
Josephus, The Jewish War (Penguin USA)
Livy, The Rise of Rome, Books 1-5 (Oxford World Classics)
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (Focus Philosophical Library)
Martin, Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale Univ. Press)
Ovid, Metamorphoses (Oxford World Classics)
The Essential Plotinus, ed. E. O'Brien (Hackett).
Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca (W. W. Norton)
Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania (Penguin USA)
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin USA)
Virgil, The Aeneid (Bantam Doubleday Dell)
Readings on the Roman World (Pamphlet / Bookstore)
Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
Williams, The Craft of Argument (Univ. of Chicago Press)
All texts may be purchased at the Reed College Bookstore; a limited number of each is on reserve in the Library. Also on reserve: Oxford Classical Dictionary; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature; Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I; Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.
The Registrar makes initial assignments to conferences in this course that continue through the year. Students who subsequently find it necessary to change conferences must petition the Humanities staff (forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Registrar or from Kathy Kennedy, Chem 303). Turn in completed forms to Jay Dickson Hum 110 Chair, in ETC 218. No conference changes will be permitted after the second week of the term.
Three course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. A mid-term examination will be given on Friday, March 14th from 9:00-9:50 a.m. in Vollum Lecture Hall. A final examination for the spring term will be given in finals week, Monday, May 12th, 8AM-12noon in Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the mid-term or final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.
An archive of course materials for Humanities 110 is available on the course's web page. It includes the syllabus, paper topics, and many of the lecture handouts from this year and last year, as well as some pages designed to help students tap Internet resources on course-related subjects. The web page may be reached through Reed's main page via Academics > Departments, or directly at: http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/hum110. Many of the course materials are also archived in Microsoft Word format on the Courses Server (via the Finder in Network > Academic Servers).
Mon. 28 Jan.
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapters 9 and 10; Polybius, from The Rise of the Roman Empire; “The Roman Republic,” from Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, eds, Oxford Classical Dictionary (both in Readings)
Lecture: Observing Imperialism: Alexander, Hellenism and the Rise of
the Roman Machine / Pancho Savery
Wed. 30 Jan.
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), Book 1 (pp. 1-637, 921- 1117), Book 2 (pp. 1-293), and Book 3 (all)
Lecture: Epicurean Naturalism / Paul Hovda
Fri. 1 Feb.
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), Books 5 and 6
Lecture: The Trouble with Being Dead / Steve Arkonovich
Fri 1 Feb. Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick), film presentation, 7:00-
10:00PM, VLH
Mon. 4 Feb.
Livy, The Rise of Rome, Preface and Book I and II.1-25 (pp. 3-96)
Lecture: What is a Body Politic? / Nathalia King
Wed. 6 Feb.
Livy, The Rise of Rome, Book 5.19-end (302-341); Clifford Geertz, “Religion as
a Cultural System” (in Readings) ; Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller, The
Roman Empire, chapter 9
No lecture
Fri. 8 Feb.
Augustus, The Accomplishments of Augustus; (in Readings); Jas Elsner, “Text
and the Propaganda of Monuments in Augustan Rome” (in Readings);
Horace, “Cleopatra” and “The Reign of Augustus” (in Readings)
Lecture: From Octavian to Augustus / Ellen Millender
Mon. 11 Feb.
Images of the Ara Pacis, available at: http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/ (click
“Monumente” on the left side of the screen, then click the “Ara Pacis”
icon; be warned the site is in German); Peter J. Holliday, "Time,
History, and Ritual on the Ara PacisAugustae" (available on JSTOR:
http://www.jstor.org/view/00043079/sp020046/02x1097e/0 );
Virgil, “Eclogue 4” (in Readings)
Lecture: Contexts for the Ara Pacis / William Diebold
Wed. 13 Feb.
Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller, The Roman Empire, Chapters 6-8 and
Conclusion; Pliny the Younger, Letters 2.17 and 6.16 (in Readings); “The
Humble Townspeople: From the Walls of Pompeii” (in Readings)
Lecture: My So-Called Roman Life / Laura Leibman
Fri. 15 Feb.
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1-4
Lecture: Eros and Empire / Michael Faletra
FIRST PAPER DUE: Saturday, Feb. 16, 5PM
Mon. 18 Feb.
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5-8
Lecture: Virgil and Ekphrasis / Elizabeth Drumm
Wed. 20 Feb.
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9-12
Lecture: A Beautiful Death, Roman Style/ Sonia Sabnis
Fri. 22 Feb.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-3
Lecture: Metamorphoses / Maureen Harkin
Mon. 25 Feb.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4-6, 15
Lecture: Generic Transformations / Elizabeth Drumm
Wed. 27 Feb.
Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: On Providence, On the Tranquillity of the
Mind, and Letters, 47, 70, 92
Lecture: Public Philosophy / Jan Mieszkowski
Fri. 29 Feb.
Tacitus, Annals, pp. 31-60, 90-99, 104-128
Lecture: “Distasteful” History: Tacitus’ Annals of Imperial Rome / Ariadna
García-Bryce
Mon. 3 March
Tacitus, Annals, pp. 157-255
Lecture: Representations of the Emperor / William Diebold
Wed. 5 March
Tacitus, Annals, pp. 275-324, 335-397
Lecture: Gossip / Jay Dickson
Fri. 7 March
Tacitus, Germania in The Agricola and the Germania; Tacitus, Histories 5. 1-
10 (in Readings)
Lecture: Two Cities: Identity and Alterity / Nathalia King
Mon. 10 March
Genesis 1-21; Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 1-16 & 19-28
Lecture: A History of a Sacred Text / David Garrett
Wed. 12 March
Genesis 21-50; Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 49-67
Lecture: Interpreting Indeterminacy: Literary Strategies in Reading the
Bible / Marat Grinberg
Fri. 14 March
MID-TERM EXAM: 9-9:50AM, in VLH
15-23 MARCH: SPRING BREAK
Mon. 24 March
Exodus 1-23; Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 67-74
Lecture: Sacred Texts: From Epic Verse to Prose History / David Garrett
Wed. 26 March
Exodus 24-40, Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 172-88
Lecture: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth / Laura Leibman
Fri. 28 March
Isaiah 40-55; Amos; Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 90-113
Lecture: Hebrew Prophecy: Universality and Particularity / Steve Wasserstrom
SECOND PAPER DUE: Saturday, March 29, 5PM
Mon. 31 March
Romans; 1 Corinthians 1-4, 11; Galatians 1-2
Lecture: Romans and Pauline Christianity / Emma Wasserman
Wed. 2 April
Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 28-46; Josephus, The Jewish War, pp. 27-31, 133-148, 307-354, 387-405 (read Jaffee first)
Lecture: Varieties of Religious Experience / Nathalia King
Thursday April 3 "From Jesus to Christ," video presentation, 7:00-9:00PM, VLH
Fri. 4 April
Gospel of Matthew; Gospel of Thomas (in Readings)
Lecture: Interpretation in Matthew and Thomas / Gail Sherman
Mon. 7 April
Gospel of John
Lecture: Between Jew and Hellene: The Emerging Christian Community
of the Gospel of John / Ellen Stauder
Tuesday April 8 "From Jesus to Christ," video presentation, 7:00-9:00PM, VLH
Wed. 9 April
Apuleius, The Golden Ass
Lecture: Telling Stories / Gail Sherman
Fri. 11 April
Apuleius, The Golden Ass; Alex Nice, “The Goddess Isis and the Roman
World” (in Readings)
Lecture: Apuleius and Resistance to Empire / Sonia Sabnis
Mon. 14 April
The Tractate Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers) (in Readings); Jaffee, Early
Judaism, pp. 74-86
Lecture: Tractate Avot and Rabbinic Law / Steve Wasserstrom
Wed. 16 April
Annabel Jane Wharton, Refiguring the Post Classical City (in Readings); also, see the photos in Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 183-86.
Lecture: Jews and Christians in Dura-Europos / William Diebold
Fri. 18 April
Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, pp. 1-112
Lecture: Imaging Roman Africa / Laura Leibman
Mon. 21 April
The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas (in Readings); Athanasius, Life
of St. Anthony, chapters I, II, VI, and XVII
Lecture: The Martyrdom of Perpetua / Nathalia King
Wed. 23 April
Plotinus, I.6 ("Beauty"), pp. 33-44; V.9, ("The Intelligence, The Ideas and
Being"), pp. 45-58
Lecture: Plotinus and His Roots in Plato and Aristotle / Margaret Scharle
Fri. 25 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: “So Tiny a Child, So Many Pages” / Nigel Nicholson
THIRD PAPER DUE: Saturday, April 26, 5PM
Mon. 28 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Augustine and Ambrose in Milan / William Diebold
Wed. 30 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Augustine and the Problem of Evil / Steve Arkonovich
Fri. 2 May
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: The End / Jan Mieszkowski