This class tracks Egypt’s entanglement in the Greco-Roman world from the country’s initial welcoming of Greek merchants and mercenaries to the point at which Justinian shuttered its last remaining temple. In examining archaeological, textual, and artistic evidence, we’ll pay close attention to the flashpoints that divided society along ethnic lines (
viz
. Egyptian, Nubian, Levantine, Greek, and Roman inhabitants) and according to religious belief (among polytheists of Egyptian and Greek heritage, Jewish Egyptians, and Christians) as well as to syncretism, mixed marriages, and other integrative aspects of society.
Considers cinematic representations of the ancient Mediterranean world, from early silent films to movies from the present day. Explores films that purport to represent historical events (such as Gladiator) and cinematic versions of ancient texts (Pasolinis Medea). Readings include ancient literature and modern criticism.
Program of research in ancient studies under the direction of an advisor associated with the program, resulting in a research paper. Outline and bibliography must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies before credit will be awarded for ANCS V3995.
Prerequisites: the director of undergraduate studies permission. A program of research in Latin literature. Research paper required.
Prerequisites: at least four semesters of Latin, or the equivalent. Intensive review of Latin syntax with translation of English sentences and paragraphs into Latin.
This seminar sets Homer's Iliad and Sappho's lyric poems in relation to each other around topics involving time – including narrative time, beginnings and endings, timeliness, and temporality, as well as rhythm and tempo, syncopation, bodily timing and performance, and chronotopic dynamics. It proposes to think as well about textual time, meaning both how different genres orchestrate time and tempo but also how these authors are treated in ancient and modern reception. We will read theoretical studies of time and temporality, the event, and periodicity, as well as those more focused on genre and occasional performance. Discussions will center around close attendance on specific images and dynamics in the ancient texts, as well as the ways in which theoretical frames may illuminate these. Thus, for instance, seminars juxtapose the epic punctuation of bodies in space with Sappho's female lovers on the move, with scholarly readings deployed to critique the epic-lyric divide around these dynamics. A central and recurrent figure in this scheme is Helen, who is presented in Homeric epic as the central catalyst for the violent unfolding of events (i.e., the Trojan War) and who functions in lyric poetry as a cathexis for the violent consequences of desire.
The Classical Studies Research Seminar offers students of the Classical Studies Graduate Program the opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on it. It is mandatory for CLST students who are in their dissertation phase to present their work once every academic year in the CLST Research Seminar or CLST Research Group.