HUMANITIES 110
REED COLLEGE, SPRING 2003
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Apuleius, trans. Lindsay, The Golden Ass (Indiana University Press)
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, Early History of Rome (Penguin USA)
OR Livy, The Rise of Rome, Books 1-5 (Oxford)
Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura) (Indiana University 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 Publications)
Readings on the Roman World (Pamphlet / Bookstore)
RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
Marius, A Writer’s Companion, 3rd ed. (McGraw)
Hacker, A Writer's Reference, 3rd ed. (Bedford)
Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (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 which 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 Stackhouse, Chem 303). Turn completed forms into Gail Sherman, Hum 110 Chair, in Lib. 388. 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 14 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 12, 6 - 10 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
Jan. 27 Charles Freeman, Egypt, Greece and Rome, chapters
16 to 20
Lecture: Observing Imperialism: Alexander, Hellenism and the Rise of the Roman Machine/Pancho Savery
Jan. 29 Livy, Early History of Rome, pp. 33-101
OR Livy, The Rise of Rome, pp. 3-70
Lecture: Livy and the Re-Creation of Rome/
Walter Englert
Jan. 31 Livy, Early History of Rome, pp. 105-180, 374-402
OR Livy, The Rise of Rome, pp. 71-139, 314-341
Lecture: What is a Body Politic?/Nathalia King
Week 2
Feb. 3 Augustus, The Accomplishments of Augustus; Suetonius' "Augustus" from The Twelve Caesars (both in Readings); Freeman, chapters 21 and 22.
Lecture: From Octavian to Augustus/Ellen Millender
Feb. 5 Holliday, "Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae"; Galinsky,"Art and Architecture" (both in Readings); Freeman, chapters 23 and 24.
Lecture: Contexts for the Ara Pacis/William Diebold
Feb 7 Garnsey and Saller, The Roman Empire, Chapters 2, 6-8, Conclusion (in Readings)
Lecture: Family Matters/Michael Breen
Week 3
Feb. 10 Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1-4
Lecture: Eros and Empire/Michael Faletra
Feb. 12 Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5-8
Lecture: Virgil and Ekphrasis/Elizabeth Drumm
Feb. 14 Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9-12
Lecture: The Ending of the Aeneid/Walter Englert
Week 4
Feb. 17 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-3
Lecture: Erring by Design/Jay Dickson
Feb 18 "The Roman Arena," video presentation, 8:00-9:00 pm, Vollum Lecture Hall
Feb. 19 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4-6, 15
Lecture: Meta-Metamorphoses/Ann Delehanty
Feb. 21 Tacitus, Annals, pp. 31-60, 90-99, 104-128
Lecture: Between Republic and Empire/Michael Breen
Feb. 22 "I, Claudius" ("Family Matters," "Poison is Queen"), video presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, Psychology 105
First Paper Due Saturday, Feb. 22nd 5 p.m.
Week 5
Feb. 24 Tacitus, Annals, pp. 157-255
Lecture: Representations of the Emperor/William Diebold
Feb. 25 "I, Claudius" ("Zeus! By Jove," "A God in Colchester"), video presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, Psychology 105
Feb. 26 Tacitus, Annals, pp. 275-324, 335-397
Lecture: Gossip/Jay Dickson
Feb. 28 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
Week 6
March 3 Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura),
Books 1 and 3
Lecture: Poetry and Philosophy in Lucretius/
Walter Englert
March 5 Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura),
Books 5 and 6
Lecture: The Trouble with Being Dead/Steve Arkonovich
March 7 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
March 10 Genesis: 1-21; Kugel and Greer, "The Rise of Scripture" (in Readings)
Lecture: Back to Basics/Jay Dickson
March 12 Genesis 21-50; Nancy Jay, "The Logic of Sacrifice" and "Sacrifice and Descent" (in Readings)
Lecture: Sacrifices and Stories/Gail Sherman
March 14 MID-TERM EXAM: 9-9:50 a.m., in VLH
15-23 MARCH:SPRING BREAK
Week 8
March 24 Exodus 1-7:19; 11-24; 32-40
Lecture: The Jewish Temple: Presence and Absence/
Steve Wasserstrom
March 26 Isaiah 40-55; Daniel; Amos; Fishbane, "Biblical Prophecy as a Religious Phenomenon" (in Readings)
Lecture: Hebrew Prophecy: Universality
and Particularity/Steve Wasserstrom
March 28 Josephus, The Jewish War, pp. 27-31, 133-48, and 287-408.
Lecture: Varieties of Heroic Experience/Nathalia King
Second Paper Due Saturday, March 29th, 5 p.m.
Week 9
March 31 Gospel of Matthew
Lecture: Genre, Audience, and Tradition in the Gospel of Matthew/Gail Sherman
April 2 The Tractate Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers); Cohen, "The Emergence of Rabbinic Judaism"; "The Rule of the Community" (all in Readings)
Lecture: Tractate Avot and Rabbinic Law/
Steve Wasserstrom
April 4 Paul, Romans; Acts 9-19; Frend, "Paul and the First Expansion 30-65" (in Readings)
Lecture: Commission Under Grace/Nathalia King
Week 10
April 7 Gospel of John
Lecture: Between Jew and Hellene: the Emerging Christian Community of the Gospel of John/
Ellen Stauder
April 8 "From Jesus to Christ," video presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, Psychology 105
April 9 Revelation
Lecture: Unveiled/Mike Foat
April 10 "From Jesus to Christ," video presentation, 7:00-9:00 pm, Psychology 105
April 11 Wharton, Refiguring the Post Classical City (in Readings)
Lecture: Dura-Europos in Context/William Diebold
Week 11
April 14 Apuleius, Golden Ass
Lecture: Maureen Harkin
April 16 Apuleius, Golden Ass
Lecture: A Serious Joke: The Golden Ass between Religion and Philosophy/Steve Wasserstrom
April 18 Hymns on Paradise (selected), by St. Ephrem the Syrian (In Readings)
Lecture: The Musical Paradise of the Luminous Virgins/Mike Foat
Week 12
April 21 The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas (in Readings); Brown, The World of Late Antiquity,
pp. 1-112
Lecture: The Martyrdom of Perpetua/Nathalia King
April 23 Plotinus, I.6 ("Beauty"), pp. 33-44; V.9, ("The Intelligence, The Ideas and Being"), pp. 45-58; III,8 ("Contemplation,"), pp. 162-176.
Lecture: The Way of Contemplation/Steve Wasserstrom
April 25 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: "So Tiny a Child, So Many Pages"/Nigel Nicholson
Third Paper Due Saturday, April 26th, 5 p.m.
Week 13
April 28 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Augustine and the Problem of Evil/
Steve Arkonovich
April 30 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: The Infinite Text or The Recesses of Memory/Ariadna Garcia-Bryce
May 2 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: The End/Jan Mieszkowski
May 12 FINAL EXAM, 6 - 10 p.m., Vollum Lecture Hall
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