Syllabus | Fall 2012
Required Texts
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia, trans. Fagles (Penguin)
- Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound & Other Plays, trans. Vellacott (Penguin)
- New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, trans. Coogan, et al (Oxford)
- Curd, ed., Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia (2nd. edition), trans. McKirahan (Hackett)
- Euripides, Euripides V: Electra, The Phoenician Women, The Bacchae, trans. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
- Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Selincourt (Penguin)
- Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, and Shield, trans. Lombardo (Hackett)
- Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Fagles (Penguin)
- Martin, Ancient Greece (Yale)
- Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (Hackett)
- Sophocles, Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, trans. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
- The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, trans. Parkinson (Oxford)
- Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars, trans. Warner (Penguin)
- Various Readings on The Ancient Mediterranean and Western Asia available on e-reserves
E-Reserves
To access texts that are listed as being on e-reserves, find the day's reading assignments and follow the link to the text. You will need your kerberos username and password to be able to access the texts. Learn more about accessing e-reserves on Moodle.
Recommended Texts
Homer, The Iliad, trans. Lattimore (Chicago)
Williams and Colomb, The Craft of Argument (Concise Edition) (Chicago)
Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
All texts may be purchased at the Reed College Bookstore; limited numbers of each are on reserve in Hauser Library. Also on reserve or in the reference section: Oxford Classical Dictionary; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature; Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I; Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.
Papers, Writing Assignments, and Examinations
Four course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. If the due date for an assignment conflicts with a religious holiday or obligation that you wish to observe, please consult with your conference leader. A four-hour final examination for the fall semester will be given Thursday, December 13th – 8:00 am–noon in Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.
Writing Center
You can get additional help with all stages of the writing process from the Writing Center located in the Dorothy Johansen House. Drop-in help from writing tutors is available Sunday – Thursday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.; additional hours will also be available during weeks that a paper is due (contact the Writing Center for more information).
Schedule of readings
The Ancient Mediterranean and Western Asia
Please study the Basic Chronology of the Ancient World
+ Expand Weeks | - Collapse Weeks
Week 1
Mon 27 Aug
Homer, The Odyssey
Lecture: "Introduction to Homer and the Humanities" / Walter Englert
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: First line of The Iliad [mp3]; First line of The Odyssey [mp3]
Wed 29 Aug
Homer, The Odyssey
Lecture: "Perfect Strangers: Odysseus and the Mediterranean World" / Michael Faletra
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 31 Aug
Homer, The Odyssey
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapters 2 and 3, pp 16-50
Lecture: "Conversations with Gods" / Paul Hovda
Week 2
Mon 3 Sept
Labor Day
Wed 5 Sept
Homer, The Odyssey
Lecture: "The Hero at Home?" / Elizabeth Drumm
Additional Resource: Lecture Images
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 7 Sept
"The Great Hymn to Osiris", Lichtheim II, pp. 81-86 (on e-reserves)
"Coffin Text 148" (Simpson 263-265) (on e-reserves)
"Horus and Seth" (Lichtheim II:214-223) (on e-reserves)
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Lecture: "Sirius Rising: Religion and Art in Ancient Egypt" / Pancho Savery
Additional Resource: Lecture Images
Additional Resource: Lecture Images: Ancient Egypt at a Glance
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout: Quotes for Sirius Rising
FIRST PAPER DUE Saturday, Sept. 8th at 5 p.m. See Paper Topics
Week 3
Mon 10 Sept
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
"Pyramid Texts" (Lichtheim I:29-50) and "Coffin Texts" (Lichtheim I:131-133) (on e-reserves)
"The Book of the Dead" (Lichtheim II:119-132) (on e-reserves)
"The Dialogue of a Man and His Soul", Tale of Sinuhe and Other Egyptian Poems, pp. 151-65
"The Tale of Sinuhe", Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, pp. 21-53
Lecture: "Tomorrow is the Question: The Literature of Death" / Pancho Savery
Additional Resource: Lecture Images
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout: Bibliography
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout: Quotes
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout: Terms
Wed 12 Sept
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
"Sinuhe" and "The Teachings of Khety," Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, pp. 21-53, 273-83;
Frood, "Social Structure and Daily Life: Pharaonic," Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egypt, pp. 469-89, (on e-reserves);
Lecture: "’The Barbarian Born in the Homeland’: Literature and the Symbolic Order of the Middle Kingdom" / Nigel Nicholson
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 14 Sept
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
"Karnak," Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (on e-reserves);
"The Teaching for King Merikare," Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, pp. 212-234;
Spencer, "Priests and Temples: Pharaonic," Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egypt, pp. 255-73 (on e-reserves);
Lecture: "Monuments, Time and Power" / David Garrett
Additional Resource: Digital Karnak
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 4
Mon 17 Sept
Fowler, Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt (selections) (on e-reserves)
Foster, Ancient Egyptian Literature (selections) (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "The Egyptian Book of the Living" / Mari Jyväsjärvi
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 19 Sept
Hesiod , Theogony
Lecture: "Telling Creation" / Nathalia King
Additional Resource: Lecture Images
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 21 Sept
Hesiod, Works and Days
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 4, pp. 51-69
Lecture: "The World of Hesiod" / David Garrett
Week 5
Mon 24 Sept
Study these images before lecture and conference:
Hurwit: Idea of Order
Geometric vases
Red/white figure vases
Hurwit, The Art and Culture of Early Greece, pp. 71-124 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "The Aesthetics of Urn Burial" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Vase Study Guide
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 26 Sept
Study these images before lecture and conference:
Fighting Over Art
Kouroi
Kore
Hurwit, The Art and Culture of Early Greece, pp. 179-202 (on e-reserves);
Hall, "Ethnicity and Cultural Exchange," Blackwell Companion to Archaic Greece, chapter 31 (sections 1,2,3) (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Early Greek Sculpture and Temple Architecture" / Maureen Harkin
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 28 Sept
Presocratics Reader (2nd. edition), pp 1-126
Lecture: "The Presocratics and Religion" / Steve Arkonovich
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Greek Classic Theatre of Oregon: Helen of Troy, by Euripides
The Classical Greek Theatre of Oregon presents A. Loizidis National Theatre School of Greece performing "Helen of Troy" by Euripides. The play will be performed in the Cerf Amphitheatre for just one weekend, Friday Sept 28 and Saturday Sept 29, both days at 12 noon. Tickets: $10–15. Free admission to Reed students, faculty, and staff with Reed ID.
Week 6
Mon 1 Oct
Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, Archilochus, Tyrtaeus, Alcman, Solon, Stesichorus, Xenophanes, pp. 1-19, 31-38, 64-81, 107-111
Pindar's "Pythian 1" pp. 146-51
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 5, pp. 70-93
Lecture: "Early Greek Lyric Poetry and the Polis" / Hugo Moreno
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 3 Oct
Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, Sappho (pp. 51-63), Theognis, pp. 82-94, Ibycus, pp. 95-98, Anacreon, pp. 99-103
Lecture: "Defining Eros" / Nathalia King
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 5 Oct
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Axworthy, "Origins: Zoroaster, the Achaemenids, and the Greeks," A History of Iran, pp. 1-30 (on e-reserves);
Allen, "Royal Capitals," The Persian Empire, pp. 59-85 (on e-reserves);
Royal inscriptions (selections), The Persian Empire, Kuhrt, ed., 70-74, 141-158, 492-158, 492-495, 503-505 (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Empire of All Kinds" / Margot Minardi
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Bibliography
Additional Resource: Supplemental images of Achaemenid Persia
Additional Resource: Persepolis 3D
Additional Resource: Images from Allen, "Royal Capitals"
SECOND PAPER DUE Saturday, Oct. 6th, 5 p.m. See Paper Topics
Week 7
Mon 8 Oct
Genesis
Lecture: "A History of the Beginning" / David Garrett
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Table: Who Wrote Genesis?
Wed 10 Oct
Genesis
Lecture: "Babble" / Jan Mieszkowski
Thurs 11 Oct Lecture" Richard Neer, 7:00 pm, VLH
Fri 12 Oct
Selections from Exodus (1-35, 40.16-34)
Lecture: "Moses as a Nation Builder" / Tamara Metz
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Exodus Sources
OCTOBER 13 – OCTOBER 21: FALL BREAK
Week 8
Mon 22 Oct
Selections from Exodus (25-29; 31)
Selections from Ezra (1-4);
Selections from 1 Kings (5:1 – 9:9);
Jaffee, Early Judaism, pp. 20-25; 172-188 (on e-reserves)
(Suggested Additional Reading: Rosenberg, "The Jewish Temple at Elephantine" [on e-reserves])
Lecture: "Remembering the Temple" / Michael Foat
Wed 24 Oct
The Book of Esther
Lecture: "Narratives and Identities: Jews in the Persian Empire" / Gail Sherman
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 26 Oct
The Book of Job
Lecture: "The Book of Job: Approaches, Contexts, Readings" / Marat Grinberg
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 9
Mon 29 Oct
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
F. Lissarague, "The Athenian Image of the Foreigner", 101-24 (on e-reserves);
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 6, pp. 94-123
Lecture: "Greece Meets Persia; Athens and the Invention of the Barbarian" / Ellen Millender
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 31 Oct
Aeschylus, The Persians
Lecture: "The Other Point of View" / Jay Dickson
Fri 2 Nov
Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.170; 1.201-216
Lecture: "Oracular History and Athenian Empire" / Margot Minardi
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Bibliography
Week 10
Mon 5 Nov
Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 2.1-64, 2.113-120, 2.142-51, 2.164-182; 3.1-38, 3.66-89; 5.39-78.
Lecture: "Herodotus the Tourist: The Role of Ethnography in Herodotus’ Histories" / Ellen Millender
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 7
Nov Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 6.48-84, 6.103-131; 7.1-152, 7.172-239.
Lecture: "Herodotus: History and Narrative Form" / Maureen Harkin
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri 9 Nov
Herodotus, Histories, Bk/Ch. 8.1-103, 9.17-82, 9.108-122.
Lecture: Panel Discussion (Margot Minardi, Ellen Millender, Maureen Harkin)
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
THIRD PAPER DUE Saturday, Nov. 10th, 5 p.m. See Paper Topics
Week 11
Mon 12 Nov
Aeschylus, "Agamemnon" and "The Libation Bearers," Oresteia
Lecture: "Theater and Ritual" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Mon 12 Nov Lecture: Andrew Stewart, 7:00 p.m., VLH
Wed 14 Nov
Aeschylus, "The Eumenides," Oresteia
Lecture: "Justice in the Oresteia" / Peter Steinberger
Fri 16 Nov
Sophocles, Antigone
Lecture: "Antigone and Athenian Anxieties" / Tamara Metz
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Antigone Lecture Sources
Week 12
Mon 19 Nov
Visual Images: study these images before lecture and conference.
Kousser, "Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis" (on e-reserves);
Castriota, "The Parthenon Frieze, Persia and the Athenian Empire" (on e-reserves)
Lecture: "Iconoclasm, Image Excess, and Power: An Attempt at an Anthropology of the Visual in Ancient Athens" / William Diebold
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 21 Nov
PreSocratics: Presocratics Reader (2nd. edition), pp. 144-161
Lecture: "‘Sophists’ and Sophists"/ Troy Cross
NOVEMBER 22 – NOVEMBER 25: THANKSGIVING VACATION
Week 13
Mon 26 Nov
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Introduction, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.46;
Martin, Ancient Greece, chapter 8, pp. 147-62
Lecture: "Thucydides and the Purpose of History" / Walter Englert
Wed 28 Nov
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Bk/Ch. 2.1-2.65
Lecture: "Democracy Amid Disaster: Thucydides and the Plague of Athens" / Simon Finger
Fri 30 Nov
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Bk/Ch. 3.1-3.85, 5.13-5.24, 5.83-5.116
Lecture: "Thucydidean Thought" / Peter Steinberger
FOURTH PAPER DUE Saturday, Dec. 1st, 5 p.m. See Paper Topics
Week 14
Mon 3 Dec
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Bk/Ch. 6.1-6.41, 6.88-93, 6.105-7.18, 7.49-7.87, 8.65-8.71, 8.96-98
"The Limits of Democracy" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed 5 Dec
Euripides, The Bacchae
Panel on The Bacchae / Jan Mieszkowski, Elizabeth Drumm, Walter Englert