Professor Foster
efoster@wooster.edu
Luce 114
(330) 263-2352
Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, and Friday from 12:00 to 12:45.
(Senior IS
students will have priority on Tuesdays. I recommend you make an appointment
or call before you come in on any day.)
GREEK CIVILIZATION
Syllabus Course Goals: This course has several goals. It aims to make you familiar with the basic outline of Greek history, and with as much Greek culture as possible. At the same time, it aims to help you acquire a working knowledge of how we think we know about the ancient Greeks, and to give you some practice at drawing your own conclusions about an ancient society. What can we tell about ancient Athens from reading a tragedy produced in the fifth Century? What can we tell about Sparta from the ancient historians? What can we tell about Alexander the Great from the artworks that reproduce his likeness? The answers are complicated and fascinating. At the same time as learning about the broad variety of sources historians use to come to conclusions about a society, we will be reading great literature. As its final aim, this course attempts to introduce you to some of the questions about life, death, war, family, love, and nature with which the ancient Greek authors so valiantly wrestled. Required Texts: Sansone, Greek Civilization Warry, Warfare in the Ancient World Homer, Iliad (translator: Robert Fagles) Herodotus: On the War for Greek Freedom (translator: Samuel Shirley) From The Complete Greek Tragedies: Aeschylus II: Prometheus Bound Sophocles II: Ajax Sophocles I: Oedipus the King Euripides 1: Alcestis Euripides V: The Bacchae Plato: Symposium (translators: Nehamas and Woodruff) Assignments and Grading Scheme: 2 essays, a shorter 3-5 page paper, due September 26th, and a longer 6-8 page paper due at the end of the term. The short paper will be worth 10%; the longer paper will be worth 20% of your grade. 5 quizzes for 10% each. I will drop the lowest quiz mark, therefore, at the end of the year the quizzes will count for 40%. I will attempt to return all quizzes by the following Monday. Midterm quiz, also worth 10% of the mark. However, this mark may not be dropped. The midterm quiz will include questions from the first half of the course. Final Exam. The final exam will be cumulative, that is, it will include questions that range over the entire course. The final exam will be worth 20% of your grade. The Final Exam is on Wednesday, December 14th at 2:00 PM. Summary of the Marking Scheme: Short Essay: 10% Long Essay: 20% Quizzes: 40% Mid-term quiz: 10% Final Exam: 20% Learning Disabilities Any student with a documented learning disability is requested to speak with Pam Rose, Director of the Learning Center (ext. 2595), and with the instructor, as early in the semester as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. ACADEMIC HONESTY AND THE CODE OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY The College's expectations in regard to issues of academic honesty are fully articulated in the Code of Academic Integrity as published in the Scot's Key and form an essential part of the implicit contract between the student and the College. The Code provides a framework at Wooster to help students develop their own personal integrity. While you are a student at this college, you will be treated as adults. You are expected to know and abide by the rules of the institution as described in the Scot's Key and The Handbook of Selected College Policies (http://www.wooster.edu/policies). Particular attention should be directed to the appropriate use of materials available on-line through the Internet. It is important that you read and understand the ethical use of information (http://www.wooster.edu/library/sciref/Tutor/Ethics/ethics.html). Whether intentional or not, improper use of materials can be considered a violation of academic honesty. Cheating in any of your academic work is a serious breach of the Code of Academic Integrity and is grounds for an F for the entire course. Such violations include turning in another person's work as your own, copying from any source without proper citation, going beyond what is allowed in a group project, fabricating excuses and lying in connection with your academic work. You will be held responsible for your actions. If you are unsure as to what is permissible, always consult your course instructor. Course Calendar: Week 1 Aug 29: Introduction. The Syllabus, Texts, Assignments, Grades, etc. Topics for the first Essay. The Greek Alphabet. Assignment for next class: Read xi - xxiv in Sansone. Aug 31: Topics: Who were the Cycladic Peoples and the Minoans and how do we know? What sciences were involved in finding out about these people? What is the nature of the evidence, and to what conclusions does the evidence lead us? (The role of art in our assessment of the character of a people.) Assignment for next class: Read Chapter 1 in Sansone. Sept 2: Topics: How was our picture of the Mycenaeans formed? Who formed it, from what evidence and why? Assignment for next class: Read Chapter 2 in Sansone. Week 2 Sept 5: Quiz 1 (Early Greece). Topics: Emergence of Greece: technology, trade, alphabet, politics. Introduction to the Iliad. Assignment for next class: Iliad: books 1, book 2 up to line 585, book 3, and book 4. Sept 7: Topics: The quarrel, the heroes introduced, and how the truce is defeated, so that the war continues. Assignment: Iliad: books 6 and 9. Sept 9: Topics: Personal relations in the Iliad: love and friendship. Assignment: Iliad: books 16, 17, 18 and 20. Week 3 Sept 12: Topic: Does Homer think that war is glorious? War, Death, and Revenge in the Iliad. Assignment: Warry Chapter 1: Homeric and Mycenaean Warfare. Sept 14: Topic: Looking back on the Bronze Age. Why is there so much warfare? Assignment: Iliad: books 21, 22, and 24. Sept 16: Topic: Rage and forgiveness, youth and age, family and society in Homer. No reading assignment. Week 4 Sept 19: Quiz 2 (Homer). Topic: The Archaic Period. Assignment: Sansone: pp. 48 - 55 and 70 - 77; poetry hand-out. Sept 21: Topic: Archaic art, life, and political changes. Assignment: Herodotus: Translators' introduction vii -- xix, and pp. 51-74. Sept 23: Topic: Herodotus and the writing of narrative History. Assignment: Herodotus: 75-98. Week 5 Sept 26: First Essay Due. Herodotus and the Fascination of the Persian Empire. Assignment: Herodotus: 99-128. Sept 28: Topic: Why are empires expansionistic? Assignment: Herodotus: 128-164. Sept 30: How does Herodotus tell his main story? Is historical writing artistic, and if so, why? Characterization, plot, and literary style in Herodotus. Assignment: Herodotus: 164 - 189. Week 6 Oct 3: Quiz 3 (Herodotus). The consequences of the Persian Wars. Assignment: Warry: 30 -- 33, 34 - 39. Oct 5: Topic: Arms and Atoms. The materials of ancient warfare and of the world. Poetry, Philosphy, History, and Politics: Introduction to the Classical period. (The energy of a society comes from many different sources.) Assignment: Sansone: ch.7. Oct 7: Topic: What was Athenian Democracy really like? How did the Spartans compare? Assignment: reread Sansone chapter 7, add pages 119-125. Week 7 Oct 10: Topic: Tragedy and Democracy. Introduction to Greek tragedy. Assignment: Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound. Oct 12: Topic: Prometheus Bound. Assignment: Sophocles' Ajax. Oct 14: Topic: Sophocles' Ajax. Assignment: Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Week 8 Oct 17: Topics: Oedipus the King. No Reading Assignment. Oct 19: Mid-term Quiz (Major Focus: Sparta and Athens, Aeschylus and Sophocles). Topic: Introduction to Euripides. Assignment: Euripides' Alcestis. Oct 21: Topic: Alcestis. No reading assignment. Week 9 Break! Oct 26: Topic: Periclean Athens, the Delian League, the accumulating problems between the Greek City States. Assignment: Euripides' Bacchae. Oct 28: Topic: Bacchae. Assignment: Sansone: Chapter 9, and Thucydides handout #1. Week 10 Oct 31: Topic: Scientific History. What is the idea of scientific history? How did Thucydides acquire the reputation of being a scientific historian, and why do we want to think of him that way? Assignment: Thucydides handout #2. Nov 2: Topic: Narrative History: Herodotus and Thucydides compared. Assignment: Warry 40-53 (The Peloponnesian War). Nov 4: Topic: The Peloponnesian War. No reading assignment. Week 11 Nov 7: Quiz 4 (Euripides and Thucydides). Brief Digression: What's happening in Rome during this period? Assignment: Sansone, Chapter 10 (Euripides, Aristophanes, and Socrates). Nov 9: Topic: Cultural life in late fifth and early fourth century Athens. Aristophanes: Laughing at Socrates, Pericles, the tragedians, the people, the war, the gods… Assignment: Aristophanes handout. Nov 11: Aristophanes Movie. Assignment: Plato's Symposium xi-xxvi (translator's introduction) and 1-8. Week 12 Nov 14: Topic: The Dramatic Setting of a Platonic Dialogue. Assignment: Symposium 9-39. Nov 16: Topic: Speeches about Love? Assignment: Symposium 40-77 Nov 18: Topic: Socrates and Alcibiades. No Reading Assignment. Week 13 Nov 21: Quiz 5 (Aristophanes and Plato). Topic: Plato's life and the academy. Break! Week 14 Nov 28: Topic: The life of practices: Greek religion and private life. Assignment: Sansone 11. Nov 30: Topic: The fourth Century: advances in science, development of persuasive oratory, Pan-Hellenism, and Alexander. Assignment: Warry 70-84 Dec 2: Topic: Alexander's Empire. Reading assignment: Sansone ch.12 Week 15 Dec 7: Hellenistic Greece. No reading assignment. Dec 9: Second Essay Due. Break! Week 16 Final Exam: Wednesday, December 14th at 2:00 PM.