Courses and Schedules

The most up to date course listings are available in PDF form on the Classical Studies Course Catalog page. Schedules for each semester can be found on the Registrar's page. Below are the courses listed in the 2007-2008 Catalog.

Department of Classical Studies

Professor: Marvin, Starr, Rogers A, Dougherty (Chair)
Assistant Professor: Gilhuly A, Goslin
Instructor: Teegarden, Blake

Classical Studies explores ancient Greek and Roman culture across the Mediterranean basin, from the second millennium BCE to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. The organizing idea of the field is not a single method or a discipline, but the study of Greco-Roman antiquity (and its influence up to the present day) in all its richness and diversity, its familiarity and its strangeness: languages and literatures, archaeology, epigraphy, history, art history, politics, law, science, philosophy, religion, and mythology. In this respect, Classical Studies is the original and most wide-ranging of interdisciplinary fields; it can stand alone as a dynamic and challenging field of study or can complement almost any other major in a liberal arts program.

The Department of Classical Studies offers three closely related major programs: Greek, Latin, classical civilization. Majors in Greek and Latin are based entirely on courses in the original languages while the classical civilization major combines work in the original languages with courses taught in English on the history, literature, society, and material culture of the ancient world. A related, interdepartmental major, classical and Near Eastern archaeology, brings together courses in classical studies with course work in other departments. Classes in Greek and Latin are conducted in English and encourage close analysis of the ancient texts, with emphasis on their literary and historical values.

The department reserves the right to place a new student in the course for which she seems best prepared regardless of the number of units she has offered for admission. The department requires its own placement test for students interested in enrolling in Latin courses other than LAT 101/102.

Qualified students are encouraged to spend a semester, usually in the junior year, on study abroad. Limited departmental funds are available for foreign study. Excellent programs are available in Rome and Athens.

Classical Civilization

AN INTERDEPARTMENTAL MAJOR

The major in classical civilization offers the opportunity to explore the ancient world through an integrated, cohesive program of courses worked out by the student and her advisor. Individual programs are tailored to meet students’ specific interests, such as classical literature, ancient theater, ancient philosophy and political theory, ancient religion, and the classical tradition.

CLCV 102 Uncovering the Ancient World: An Introduction to the Worlds of Greece and Rome
Starr

Instead of excavating an entire site, archaeologists often start by digging exploratory trenches, an approach this course will take to exploring both what we know about Greece and Rome and, as important, how we know what we know. Through specific investigative projects, we’ll explore major topics in the ancient world, such as Homeric Greece, culture and empire in the Athens of Pericles, the founding of Rome, and the interplay of cultures in the Roman empire. We’ll probe the various kinds of evidence we have, including literature, art, architecture, religious artifacts, historical documents, and legal cases, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages each type of evidence presents.
Prerequisite: None
Distribution: Historical Studies or Language and Literature
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 104 Classical Mythology
Dougherty

Achilles’ heel, the Trojan Horse, Pandora’s Box, an Oedipal complex, a Herculean task – themes and figures from Classical mythology continue to play an important role in our everyday life. We will read the original tales of Classical heroes and heroines together with more modern treatments in film and literature. Why do these stories continue to engage, entertain, and even shock us? What is the nature and power of myth? Readings from ancient sources in English translation.
Prerequisite: None
Distribution: Language and Literature or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 210/310 Greek Tragedy: Plays, Politics, Performance
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

The fifth-century Athenian playwrights, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, produced brilliant tragedies that continue to haunt us today and to define our notion of drama. At the same time, the Athenian people forged the democratic principles that form the basis for our own political institutions. The element of performance, common to both drama and democracy, provides an important key to understanding this interesting confluence of theater and politics, and this class will combine the close reading (in English) of ancient Greek tragedies with the viewing of a selection of contemporary dramatic performances such as modern Italian cinema, Black Gospel traditions, and contemporary productions of Greek drama. This course may be taken as either 210 or, with additional assignments, 310.
Prerequisite: 210 open to all students; 310 by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Arts, Music, Theatre, Film, Video or Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 211/311 Epic and Empire
Blake

In a climactic scene of Virgil's Aeneid, the ghost of Aeneas' father tells his son:

'Yours will be the rulership of nations, remember, Roman, these will be your arts: to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer, to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud.'

In this moment the epic claims to define the empire. This course questions the relationship of ancient literary epic to its political and social context: how is the epic a mirror of power structures, national identities, gender roles, and the violence of war? We will read the Iliad and the Odyssey, then focus on Virgil's Aeneid and Lucan's Civil War both as representatives of the genre and as individual poems within the context of Roman imperialism. We will continue to ask how later epics reflect their generic predecessors as well as their contemporary societies as we consider post-classical uses and abuses of epic such as Pope's Rape of the Lock, Walcott's Omeros, and Atwood's Penelopiad. This course may be taken as either 211 or, with additional assignments, 311.
Prerequisite: 211 open to all students; 311 by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Historical Studies or Language and Literature
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 212/312 On the Road: Travel in Literature and Film from Homer’s Odyssey to Thelma and Louise
Dougherty
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

If you can’t travel yourself, you can always read about it. This course will focus on the lure of travel, the companionship of the road, and the complicated issues of return. We will also consider the impact of gender on the construction of travel, the connection between travel and romance, and the association of travel and knowledge. How do these (and other) themes laid out so forcefully in the Odyssey continue to dominate works of literature and film? Readings will include Homer’s Odyssey, Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Kerouac’s On the Road; films will include The Return of Martin Guerre, and Thelma and Louise. This course may be taken as either 212 or, with additional assignments, 312.
Prerequisite: 212 open to all students; 312 by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Arts, Music, Theatre, Film, Video or Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 213/313 Gender in Antiquity
Gilhuly
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Do notions of gender change over time? In this course, we will explore how gender was constructed in antiquity and how it functioned as an organizational principle. Through close readings of selections from Greek and Roman epic, lyric poetry and drama, as well as philosophical and historical texts, we will analyze ancient gender norms, exploring how they were bent, dressed up, and used. This course may be taken as either 213 or, with additional assignments, 313.
Prerequisite: 213 open to all students; 313 by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Historical Studies
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 230/330 War: From Troy to Baghdad
Rogers
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

War is undoubtedly bad. But human beings have always practiced war. Indeed war preceded history itself by tens of thousands of years – if by history we mean the written inquiry into the past. But what causes wars? How have wars been justified historically? How are wars won and lost? What are their effects? In this class we examine a series of case studies in warfare, including the Trojan War, the Peloponnesian War, and the Roman Punic Wars. We will read classic accounts of warfare, theoretical literature about tactics, strategy and logistics, and also will analyze how war is represented in other media, such as art and film. This course may be taken as either 230 or, with additional assignments, 330.
Prerequisite: 230 open to all students; 330 by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Historical Studies or Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 236/336 Greek and Roman Religion
Rogers
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

The founders of Western civilization were not monotheists. Rather, from 1750 BC until 500 AD the ancient Greeks and Romans sacrificed daily to a pantheon of immortal gods and goddesses who were expected to help mortals to achieve their earthly goals. How did this system of belief develop? Why did it capture the imaginations of so many millions for over 2000 years? What impact did the religion of the Greeks and Romans have upon the other religions of the Mediterranean, including Judaism and Christianity? Why did the religion of the Greeks and Romans ultimately disappear? This course may be taken as either 236 or, with additional assignments, 336.
Prerequisite: 236 open to all students;
336 by permission of instructor. Not open to students who have taken REL [236].
Distribution: Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 243 Roman Law
Starr

Ancient Roman civil law; its early development, codification, and continuing alteration; its historical and social context (property, family, slavery); its influence on other legal systems. Extensive use of actual cases from antiquity.
Prerequisite: None
Distribution: Historical Studies or Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 245/345 Slavery and Society in the Graeco-Roman World
Rogers
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Some historians have argued that the development of democracy in ancient Athens depended upon the existence of slave labor in Athens. In Republican Rome, where the children of freed slaves could become Roman citizens, scholars have claimed that the majority of Roman citizens were the descendants of slaves by the end of the first century B.C.E. How was slavery defined in the ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman world? What were the political, social, and economic effects of slavery upon the Greek city-states and Rome? How did the Romans incorporate ex-slaves into Roman society? Was there any opposition to slavery? In this seminar we will briefly examine slavery in the ancient Near East and then trace the development of slavery in Greece and Rome from the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. until the fourth century C.E. This course may be taken as either 245 or, with additional assignments, 345.
Prerequisite: 245 open to all students; 345 by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Historical Studies
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 250 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission. D
istribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 250H Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 0.5

CLCV 350 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open to juniors and seniors by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 350H Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 0.5

CLCV 360 Senior Thesis Research

Prerequisite: By permission of the department. See Academic Distinctions.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

CLCV 370 Senior Thesis

Prerequisite: 360 and permission of department.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology

AN INTERDEPARTMENTAL MAJOR

Director: Marvin

The purpose of a major in classical and Near Eastern archaeology is to acquaint the student with the complex societies of the Old World in antiquity. The program for each student will be planned individually from courses in the Departments of Anthropology, Art, Classical Studies, History, Philosophy, and Religion as well as from the architecture and anthropology programs at MIT. The introductory course in archaeology (ANTH 206) or its equivalent is required for all archaeology majors. Students who concentrate in classical archaeology must normally have at least an elementary knowledge of both Greek and Latin, and take both Greek and Roman history as well as Greek and Roman art. Students who concentrate on the ancient Near East must have at least an elementary knowledge of one ancient Near Eastern language. Attention is called to Hebrew 101-102 and 201-202 and to the Brandeis exchange program. Students should plan for at least one summer of excavation and/or travel.

CNEA 350 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission to juniors and seniors.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

CNEA 360 Senior Thesis Research

Prerequisite: By permission of Director. See Academic Distinctions.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

CNEA 370 Senior Thesis

Prerequisite: 360 and permission of department.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

Major in Greek

A major in Greek provides an opportunity to learn about the ancient Hellenic world directly through the study of ancient language and to examine the authors’ original idiom and expression in historical context.

GRK 101 Beginning Greek I
Dougherty

An introduction to ancient Greek language. Development of Greek reading skills.
Prerequisite: Open to students who do not present Greek for admission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

GRK 102 Beginning Greek II
Goslin

Further development of language skills and reading from Greek authors.
Prerequisite: 101 or equivalent
Distribution: None
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

GRK 201 Plato
Blake

Study of selected dialogues of Plato. Socrates in Plato and in other ancient sources; Socrates and Plato in the development of Greek thought; the dialogue form, the historical context. Selected readings in translation from Plato, Xenophon, the comic poets, and other ancient authors.
Prerequisite: 101 and 102 or two admission units in Greek or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

GRK 202 Homer
Goslin

Study of selected books in Greek from Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey with emphasis on the oral style of early epic; further reading in Homer in translation; the archaeological background of the period.
Prerequisite: 201
Distribution: Historical Studies or Language and Literature
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

GRK 250 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

GRK 250H Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 0.5

GRK 301 Archaic Lyric Poetry
Dougherty
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

In Greece down through the fifth century everyone sang and knew songs, and there was a highly elaborate system of songs for different occasions – marriage, athletic victory, a farewell to a friend. We will read the lyric poetry of Sappho, Alcaeus, and Pindar together with the elegies of Archilochus, Solon, and Theognis in an effort to appreciate the “song culture” of the archaic period. What are the generic characteristics of different kinds of song? At what kinds of occasions were they performed?
Prerequisite: 201 or 202 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

GRK 302 Greek Historical Prose
Gilhuly
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Readings from Greek historians including but not limited to Herodotus, Thucydides, and, Xenophon. Close reading combined with analysis of both primary and secondary sources. Texts will be considered in their broader social, political and literary contexts.
Prerequisite: 202 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

GRK 303 Advanced Greek: Aristotle
Goslin

Translation and discussion of selected works of Aristotle (e.g., Poetics, Politics, Rhetoric.) Supplementary readings in Greek and English from other ancient authors, and from modern scholarship on various literary, philosophical, cultural, and political issues.
Prerequisite: 202 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

GRK 304 Greek Tragedy
Dougherty

Close readings and discussion of a play (or plays) from the extant works of the Athenian playwrights – Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Translation and discussion of the Greek text will be supplemented with additional readings of Greek dramas in translation as well as secondary readings on issues relating to the plays and their broader literary, social, political and cultural contexts.
Prerequisite: 202 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

GRK 350 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open to juniors and seniors by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

GRK 350H Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 0.5

GRK 360 Senior Thesis Research

Prerequisite: By permission of the department. See Academic Distinctions.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

GRK 370 Senior Thesis

Prerequisite: 360 and permission of department.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

Major in Latin

A major in Latin provides an opportunity to learn about the ancient Roman world directly
through the study of ancient language and to examine the authors’ original idiom and
expression in historical context.

LAT 101 Beginning Latin I
Reay

Introduction to the Latin language; development of Latin reading skills.
Prerequisite: Open to students who do not present Latin for admission or permission of instructor.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

LAT 102 Beginning Latin II
Starr

Further development of Latin reading and language skills.
Prerequisite: 101
Distribution: None
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

LAT 200 Intermediate Latin I: Introduction to Roman Literature and Culture
Starr

After reviewing Latin grammar in as much detail as necessary, we’ll start to make the transition from Latin grammar to Latin literature and Roman culture. Selections in Latin from such authors as Catullus (poetry), the emperor Augustus (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus), and Perpetua (one of the earliest known women Latin authors). Topics to be studied might include social status and identity (what defined you? might your status/identity change, whether for better or worse?) and Rome’s relation to Greece, which Rome conquered but which long dominated Roman culture, or the nature and function of literature in Roman life.
Prerequisite: 102 or three admission units in Latin or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

LAT 201 Intermediate Latin II: Vergil and Augustus
Blake

Vergil’s Aeneid, Georgics, and Eclogues in their literary context of both Greek poetry (Homer, Apollonius of Rhodes, Euripides) and Latin poetry (Ennius, Lucretius, Catullus, Horace) and in their historical context in the reign of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Readings in Latin from Vergil and in translation from other ancient works. Use of Internet resources on Vergil and Rome.
Prerequisite: 200 or four admission units in Latin; by permission of instructor with three admission units in Latin.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

LAT 250 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

LAT 250H Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 0.5

LAT 304 Cicero
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Rome’s ruling elite defined itself relationally: male, not female; Roman, not Greek; free, not slave; present embodiments of a peculiarly Roman past. This course will look to the diverse works of Cicero to investigate elite identity and its uses during the late Republic. We’ll explore various categories by which identity was constructed and contested, their various textual expressions, their cultural, political, and social value for both the elite in general, and Cicero individually.
Prerequisite: 201 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature or Historical Studies
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

LAT 307 Catullus
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Tormented lover, urbane jester, obscene abuser, political subversive, poetic revolutionary – the personae of Catullus are as varied as the poems that produce them. This course is a topical investigation of Catullus’ poetry and its Roman contexts. Topics will include: poetry and biography; allusion, aesthetics and the ‘New Poetry’; social performance and self-representation; Roman masculinity and femininity; obscenity and invective; sex, poetry and power. Readings will draw on a variety of theoretical orientations that inform Catullan criticism: biography, psychoanalysis, intertextuality, feminism, New Historicism.
Prerequisite: 201 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

LAT 309 Roman Elegy
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Indebted to their Greek predecessors in so many genres, the Romans nevertheless claimed the erotic elegy as their own innovation. Catullus, Gallus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid developed the form which became the predecessor of the love language and literature of Europe.
Prerequisite: 201 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

LAT 310 Roman Historical Myths
Starr
NOT OFFERED IN 2007-08.

Romans based their history in myth and made their history into myths. This course includes reading from major authors such as Livy, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Propertius, and Tacitus, focusing on historical myths such as “Romulus and Remus,” the “Rape of the Sabine Women,” “Tarquinius Superbus,” and “Hercules and Cacus.” We will then examine how later Romans reworked those myths to serve current political purposes, and how they transformed historical events into powerful myths.
Prerequisite: 201 or permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature or Historical Studies
Semester: N/O
Unit: 1.0

LAT 311 Satire
Starr

The Romans claimed satire as the only uniquely Roman literary genre. Its subjects varied widely from philosophy and morality to dinner parties, love affairs with gladiators, and the details of everyday life; its tone ranged from Horace’s smiling critiques to Juvenal’s outrage. Focusing in Latin on Horace’s and Juvenal’s Satires, we’ll also read extensively in other satirists in translation and in modern scholarship as we examine how satirical writing developed in Rome and what it reveals about the Romans.
Prerequisite: 201 or a 300-level Latin course or permission of instructor. Not open to students who took this course as LAT 319 in spring 2005.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: Fall
Unit: 1.0

LAT 314 Pliny’s Letters
Teegarden

This course treats the concepts and practices that structured Romans’ lives: including personal relationships (e.g., friends, children, and parents); attitudes toward work, leisure, and recreation (e.g., literature, popular entertainment, banquets); and citizenship. Readings from selected Latin authors of the Republican and imperial period including especially Pliny the Younger.
Prerequisite: 201 or a 300-level Latin course or by permission of instructor.
Distribution: Language and Literature
Semester: Spring
Unit: 1.0

LAT 350 Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open to juniors and seniors by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

LAT 350H Research or Individual Study

Prerequisite: Open by permission.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 0.5

LAT 360 Senior Thesis Research

Prerequisite: By permission of the department. See Academic Distinctions.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

LAT 370 Senior Thesis

Prerequisite: 360 and permission of department.
Distribution: None
Semester: Fall, Spring
Unit: 1.0

• Contact: Pat Bois, pbois@wellesley.edu
• Created By: Rebecca Kayes '07
• Created: June, 2007
• Last Modified: August 9, 2007
• Expires: September 1, 2007