HUMANITIES 110
REED COLLEGE
Spring 2006

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Apuleius, trans. Lindsay, The Golden Ass (Indiana University Press)
Athanasius, Life of St. Antony the Great (Eastern Orthodox)
Augustine, Confessions (Oxford University Press)
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha/ New Revised Standard Version: College Edition
(Oxford University Press)
Brown, World of Late Antiquity (W. W. Norton)
Freeman, Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford)
Josephus, The Jewish War (Penguin USA)
Livy, The Rise of Rome, Books 1-5 (Oxford)
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, trans. W. Englert (Focus Philosophical Library)
Martin, Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale)
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 Publications)
Readings on the Roman World (Pamphlet / Bookstore)

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:

Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
Williams, The Craft of Argument (Chicago)

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.

CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENTS:

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.

PAPERS, WRITING ASSIGNMENTS, AND EXAMINATIONS:

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 11 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 8, 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.,in Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the mid-term or final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.

ELECTRONIC ACCESS:

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 Academic Life and Departments, or directly at: http://web.reed.edu/academic/departments/Humanities/Hum110 Many of the course materials are also archived in Microsoft Word format on the Courses Server (via the Chooser in the zone Academic Servers).

 

SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND LECTURES

Week 1

Mon 23 Jan
Charles Freeman, Egypt, Greece and Rome, chapters 16-21 (First Edition) or chapters 18-23 (Second Edition)
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapters 9 and 10; Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System" (in Readings)
Lecture: Observing Imperialism: Alexander, Hellenism and the Rise of the Roman Machine / Pancho Savery

Wed 25 Jan
Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura), Books 1 and 3
Lecture: The Way Things Are/ Walter Englert

Fri 27 Jan
Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura), Books 5 and 6
Lecture: Epicurean Naturalism/ Paul Hovda

Friday Jan. 27 Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick), film presentation, 7:00-10:00 pm, Psych. 105

Week 2

Mon 30 Jan
Jan. Livy, The Rise of Rome, Preface and Book I, pp. 3-70
Lecture: Livy and the Re-Creation of Rome / Walter Englert

Wed 1 Feb
Livy, The Rise of Rome, Book 2 and Book 5.19-end, pp. 71-139, 302-341
Lecture: Livy and Roman Virtue / Tony Iaccarino

Fri 3 Feb
Augustus, The Accomplishments of Augustus; Suetonius' "Augustus" from The Twelve Caesars (both in Readings)
Lecture: From Octavian to Augustus / Ellen Millender

Week 3

Mon 6 Feb
Peter J. Holliday, "Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae" (in Readings)
Lecture: Contexts for the Ara Pacis / William Diebold

Wed 8 Feb
Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller, The Roman Empire, Chapters 2, 6-9, Conclusion (in Readings).
Lecture: Families and Friends / Michael Breen

Fri 10 Feb
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1-4
Lecture: Homer through Roman Eyes / Laura Leibman

FIRST PAPER DUE: Saturday, Feb 11th, 5 p.m.

Week 4

Mon 13 Feb
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5-8
Lecture: Virgil and Ekphrasis / Elizabeth Drumm

Wed 15 Feb
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9-12
Lecture: The Ending of the Aeneid / Walter Englert

Fri 17 Feb
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-3
Lecture: Erring by Design / Jay Dickson

Saturday Feb 18 I, Claudius ("Family Matters" "Poison is Queen"), video presentation,
7:00-9:00 pm, VLH

Week 5

Mon 20 Feb
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4-6, 15
Lecture: Generic Transformations / Elizabeth Drumm

Tuesday Feb 21 I, Claudius ("Zeus! By Jove," "A God in Colchester"), video
presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, VLH

Wed 22 Feb
Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: On Providence, On the Tranquillity of the Mind, and Letters, 47, 65, 70
Lecture: New World Order / Jan Mieszkowski

Fri 24 Feb
Tacitus, Annals, pp. 31-60, 90-99, 104-128
Lecture: Between Republic and Empire / Michael Breen

Week 6

Mon 27 Feb
Tacitus, Annals, pp. 157-255
Lecture: Representations of the Emperor / William Diebold

Wed 1 March
Tacitus, Annals, pp. 275-324, 335-397
Lecture: Gossip / Jay Dickson

Fri 3 March
Tacitus, Germania in The Agricola and the Germania; Tacitus, Histories 5. 1-10 (in Readings)
Lecture: Two Cities: Identity and Alterity / Nathalia King

Week 7

Mon 6 March
Genesis: 1-21; Stephen Geller, "The Religion of the Bible"; Marc Zvi Brettler, The Canonization of the Bible" (both in Readings)
Lecture: Reading Scripture / Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

Wed, 8 March
Genesis 21-50
Lecture: Sacrifices and Stories / Gail Sherman

Fri 10 March
MID-TERM EXAM: 9-9:50 a.m., in VLH

11-18 MARCH: SPRING BREAK

Week 8

Mon 20 March
Exodus 1-23
Lecture: History as Sacred Text / David Garrett

Wed 22 March
Exodus 24-40
Lecture: To Distinguish Holy from Unholy: Sacrifice and Purities in the Torah / Steve Wasserstrom

Fri 24 March
Isaiah 40-55; Amos
Lecture: Hebrew Prophecy: Universality and Particularity / Steve Wasserstrom

SECOND PAPER DUE: Saturday, March 25th, 5 p.m.

Week 9

Mon 27 March
Romans; Acts 9-19
Lecture: Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles / Robert Knapp

Wed 29 March
Josephus, The Jewish War, pp. 27-31, 133-148, 307-354, 387-405.
Lecture: Varieties of Religious Experience / Nathalia King

Thursday March 30 "From Jesus to Christ," video presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, Bio. 19

Fri 31 March
Gospel of Matthew; Gospel of Thomas (in Readings)
Lecture: Interpretation in Matthew and Thomas / Gail Sherman

Week 10

Mon 3 April
Gospel of John
Lecture: Between Jew and Hellene: The Emerging Christian Community of the Gospel of John / Ellen Stauder

Tuesday April 4 "From Jesus to Christ," video presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, VLH

Wed 5 April
The Tractate Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers) (in Readings); Benjamin Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretration" (in Readings)
Lecture: Tractate Avot and Rabbinic Law / Steve Wasserstrom

Fri 7 April
Annabel Jan Wharton, Refiguring the Post Classical City (in Readings)
Lecture: Jews and Christians in Dura-Europos / William Diebold

Week 11

Mon 10 April
Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, pp. 1-112
Lecture: Imaging Roman Africa / Laura Leibman

Wed 12 April
Apuleius, The Golden Ass
Lecture: Story-telling and the Novel / Maureen Harkin

Fri 14 April
Apuleius, The Golden Ass; Alex Nice, “The Goddess Isis and the Roman World” (in Readings)
Lecture: A Serious Joke: The Golden Ass Between Religion and Philosophy / Steve Wasserstrom

Week 12

Mon 17 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 19 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 21 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: This Self that Thinks / Lena Lencek

THIRD PAPER DUE: Saturday, April 22nd, 5 p.m.

Week 13

Mon 24 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Augustine and Ambrose in Milan / William Diebold

Wed 26 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Augustine and the Problem of Evil / Steve Arkonovich

Fri 28 April
Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: The End / Jan Mieszkowski

FINAL EXAM: Monday, May 8, 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., in Vollum Lecture Hall