Department: Classics

Code Name Description
CLASSICS101G Advanced Greek: Euripides Students of this course will intensify their immersion in Classical Greek language and culture through a deep dive into tragedy via the Andromache of Euripides. Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the play focuses on the eponymous widow of Troy's...
CLASSICS101L Advanced Latin: Communication is Key. Cicero's De oratore Why should we care about (the art of) speaking well? How do we perfect it, and towards what ideal? These are the questions Marcus Tullius Cicero explores in his rhetorical and philosophical masterpiece of 55BC. A fictional dialogue of historical char...
CLASSICS102G Advanced Greek: Plato's Euthyphro We will read Plato's dialogue, the Euthyphro, in ancient Greek, focusing on the understanding of philosophical prose. Furthermore, we will also discuss the significance of text in the broader context of historiography, Athenian philosophy, and Atheni...
CLASSICS102L Advanced Latin: Roman Elegy: Propertius In this course we will explore the genre of Latin elegiac poetry as exemplified by one of its finest practitioners, the Augustan era lyric poet, Sextus Propertius. According to the famous rhetorician Quintilian, the elegiac verse of Roman poets such...
CLASSICS103G Advanced Greek: Lyric Poetry Invectives, love songs, drinking songs, elegies, and choral odes from 700-500 B.C.E. Readings include Sappho, Alcaeus, Archilochus, Mimnermus, Alcman, Solon, and Pindar. Classics majors and minors may repeat for credit with advance approval from the...
CLASSICS103L Late Latin Most of the literature that we read in Latin is from a relatively early period of the language's history; Classics curricula typically stop with Apuleius, who died in 170AD. However, Latin-speaking people wrote sophisticated texts, on every variety o...
CLASSICS104A Latin Syntax I Intensive review of Latin syntax. See CLASSICS 206A/B for supplemental courses. Students should take both syntax and semantics in the same quarters. Prerequisite for undergraduates: three years of Latin. First-year graduate students register for CLAS...
CLASSICS104B Latin Syntax II Intensive review of Latin syntax. See CLASSICS 206A/B for supplemental courses. Students should take both syntax and semantics in the same quarters. Prerequisite for undergraduates: three years of Latin. First-year graduate students register for CLAS...
CLASSICS105A Greek Syntax: Prose Composition The goal of this course is to provide a thorough review of Greek syntax, reinforced by reading selected short passages of Attic Greek in some detail, in order to develop a much greater command of the language and to increase reading skills as well as...
CLASSICS107 Late Greek This will be a class on Greek literature and language of Roman and Byzantine times. Late Greek has a huge corpus of texts in many genres both secular and Christian. This class will explore this literature and read texts both in translation and in t...
CLASSICS109 Singing Homer This will be an advanced class on Homer where we learn to recite his verses in their proper meter and with pitch accents. Reading out loud in class will be required, but memorization not required. Class will also cover the linguistics of Homer's arch...
CLASSICS110 Gods and Humans in Greek Philosophical Thought We will examine several key aspects of Greek religion: the Greek conception of the gods; how humans got messages from the gods through oracles, divination, and epiphanies; and the festival of the Eleusinian Mysteries. We will read fragments of Hera...
CLASSICS112 Introduction to Greek Tragedy: Gods, Heroes, Fate, and Justice Gods and heroes, fate and free choice, gender conflict, the justice or injustice of the universe: these are just some of the fundamental human issues that we will explore in about ten of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
CLASSICS113 Enchanted Images: Medieval Art and Its Sonic Dimension Explores the relationship between chant and images in medieval art. Examples are sourced from both Byzantium and the Latin West including the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Ste. Foy at Conques, and Santiago de Compostela...
CLASSICS115 Virtual Italy Classical Italy attracted thousands of travelers throughout the 1700s. Referring to their journey as the "Grand Tour," travelers pursued intellectual passions, promoted careers, and satisfied wanderlust, all while collecting antiquities to fill museu...
CLASSICS116 Human Rights in Comparative and Historical Perspective The course examines core human rights concepts and issues as they arise in a variety of contexts ranging from the ancient world to today. These issues include slavery, human trafficking, gender based violence, discrimination against marginalized grou...
CLASSICS118 Slavery, human trafficking, and the moral order: ancient and modern Slavery and trafficking in persons in the Greco-Roman world were legal and ubiquitous; today slavery is illegal in most states and regarded as a grave violation of human rights and as a crime against humanity under international law. In recent trend...
CLASSICS119 Abject Subjects and Divine Anamorphosis in Byzantine Art Entering the space of the church immediately interpellated the medieval subject, transforming him/her into an abject self, marred by sin. This psychological effect of pricking the conscience was enhanced by the architectural panopticon channeled thro...
CLASSICS11G Intermediate Greek: Prose Transition to reading Greek prose. Students will build upon morphology and syntax acquired in beginning Greek to develop confidence and proficiency in reading Greek prose. We will read Plato's Apology, one of the premier examples of Attic prose, a gr...
CLASSICS11L Intermediate Latin: Introduction to Literature Phonology, morphology, semantics, and syntax. Readings in prose and poetry, including Nepos (Life of Hannibal), Cicero, Catullus, and more. Analysis of literary language, including rhythm, meter, word order, narrative, and figures of speech.
CLASSICS123 Ancient Medicine Contemporary medical practice traces its origins to the creation of scientific medicine by Greek doctors such as Hippocrates and Galen. Is this something of which modern medicine can be proud? The scientific achievements and ethical limitations of an...
CLASSICS125 The Hindu Epics and the Ethics of Dharma The two great Hindu Epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, offer a sustained reflection on the nature of virtuous living in the face of insoluble ethical dilemmas. Their treatment of the concept of dharma, understood simultaneously as ethical action an...
CLASSICS126 The archaeology of death Death is a universal human experience, but one that evokes a wide range of cultural and material responses. Archaeologists have used mortuary and bioarchaeological evidence to try to understand topics as diverse as paleodemography, human health and d...
CLASSICS127 Dialogues with the Dead This seminar considers the dynamism and resilience of Greek art and culture. The dialogues in question are not with ancient shades in the underworld but with later artists who build on the creative vision (and blind spots) of the past to addressthe i...
CLASSICS128 Europe Before the Romans: Early Complex Societies This course will provide a broad introduction to theories of change in early complex societies and polities. Over the course of the quarter, we will examine a series of hotly debated theoretical frameworks. From the beginning, you will develop a case...
CLASSICS129 Human Rights in an Age of Great Power Rivalry, War, and Political Transformation As is well known, great and emerging power rivalries largely shaped the course of the 20th century through WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 21st century been characterized by the geopolitical reco...
CLASSICS12G Intermediate Greek: Plato and Poetry The goal of this course is to develop a greater fluency in reading Greek prose by reinforcing previously acquired knowledge of morphology and syntax through a reading of Plato¿s Ion and selections from the Republic. We will study Platonic critiques o...
CLASSICS12L Intermediate Latin: The Marvelous World of Pliny the Elder Pliny the Elder wrote an encyclopedic account of nature in the 1st century CE. Through this text, the Naturalis Historia, we may glimpse the wondrous and strange animals, plants, and minerals that populated the early Roman imperial world and how Plin...
CLASSICS12N Income and wealth inequality from the Stone Age to the present Rising inequality is a defining feature of our time. How long has economic inequality existed, and when, how and why has the gap between haves and have-nots widened or narrowed over the course of history? This seminar takes a very long-term view of t...
CLASSICS130 The Grandeur of Epic: Poetry, Narrative, and World from Homer to Evolutionary Biology Explores the mystery and power of epic. This ancient word, which at its root means "what is spoken," first classified certain traditions of archaic Greek poetry, especially Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It now appears everywhere from slang to contempora...
CLASSICS132 Whose Classics? Race and Classical Antiquity in the U.S. Perceived as the privileged inheritance of white European (and later, American) culture, Classics has long been entangled with whiteness. We will examine this issue by flipping the script and decentering whiteness, focusing instead on marginalized co...
CLASSICS133 Socrates and Social Justice In this class, we examine whether Socrates is a model for social justice. Socrates presents a complicated figure regarding issues of political action and social justice. Some view Socrates as a champion of liberty and individual conscience. Others se...
CLASSICS135 Ekphrasis in Antiquity and Beyond What is "Ekphrasis"? How was it theorized and practiced in antiquity and what is its appeal in the Renaissance and in modern times? Description, interpretation, and the senses; the relationship between the verbal and the visual in antiquity from Home...
CLASSICS136 The Greek Invention of Mathematics How was mathematics invented? A survey of the main creative ideas of ancient Greek mathematics. Among the issues explored are the axiomatic system of Euclid's Elements, the origins of the calculus in Greek measurements of solids and surfaces, and Arc...
CLASSICS139 Refugees, Race and the Greco-Roman World Who is a refugee and who gets to decide? How does race impact who is welcomed into a new community and who is turned away? And what does the Greco-Roman world have to do this? This course will explore these questions by surveying different forms of f...
CLASSICS13G Intermediate Greek: Homer's Odyssey This course serves as an introduction to Homeric Greek and to Homer's Odyssey specifically. We will be reading selections from the Odyssey in the original Greek to develop an understanding of the syntax, vocabulary, and dialect of Homeric Greek. Stud...
CLASSICS13L Intermediate Latin: Ovid's Heroides In this class we will read selections from Ovid's Heroides, a collection of elegiac epistolary poems. Through a focus on grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, the student will develop their fluency in Latin. We will analyze the literary language, includin...
CLASSICS13N Race, Blackness, Antiquity What was the definition of 'race' twenty-five hundred years ago? What did black skin color indicate in the centuries before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade? In this course, students will investigate the history of black skin color in Greek and Roman a...
CLASSICS14 Greek and Latin Roots of English (Formerly CLASSGEN 9) Goal is to improve vocabulary, comprehension of written English, and standardized test scores through learning the Greek and Latin components of English. Focus is on patterns and processes in the formation of the lexicon. Termin...
CLASSICS141 Ancient Greek Religion Survey of the religious practices of the ancient Greeks. Readings will be both from original sources and from modern scholarship. There are no prerequisites. Knowledge of ancient Greek will be useful, but not required. Undergrads should give one...
CLASSICS143 The Use of Classical Antiquity in Modern China This course examines the roles played by classical antiquity--Greek, Roman, and Chinese--in China's modernization process. Central topics of discussion include: the relationship between tradition and modernity, the relationship between China and the...
CLASSICS14N Ecology in Philosophy and Literature What can we do to help the environment? How do our conceptions of the environment affect our actions? In this class, we examine the basic principles of ecological thinking in Western culture. We explore the ways that different writers represent an...
CLASSICS150 Majors Seminar: Why Classics? Required of Classics majors and minors in junior or senior year; students contemplating honors should take this course in junior year. Advanced skills course involving close reading, critical thinking, editing, and writing. In-class and take-home wri...
CLASSICS151 Ten Things: An Archaeology of Design Connections among science, technology, society and culture by examining the design of a prehistoric hand axe, Egyptian pyramid, ancient Greek perfume jar, medieval castle, Wedgewood teapot, Edison's electric light bulb, computer mouse, Sony Walkman,...
CLASSICS152 The Ancient Anthropocene: An Unnatural History of Roman Environments This course will reflect on the significance of the Anthropocene over the short- and long-term by casting an environmental lens on the archaeology and history of Rome. It will draw from diverse paleo-environmental, archaeological, art historical, and...
CLASSICS154 Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Maritime Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean Why do we care about shipwrecks? What can sunken sites and abandoned ports tell us about our past? Focusing primarily on the archaeological record of shipwrecks and harbors, along with literary evidence and contemporary theory, this course examines h...
CLASSICS155 Sicily and the Sea Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily has for millennia represented a cultural crossroads and hub for the movement of peoples, objects, and ideas. Much of the island's history is reflected in sites and artifacts of maritime life: an...
CLASSICS156 Design of Cities Long-term, comparative and archaeological view of urban planning and design. Cities are the fastest changing components of the human landscape and are challenging our relationships with nature. They are the historical loci of innovation and change, a...
CLASSICS158 Theories of the Image: Byzantium, Islam and the Latin West This seminar explores the role of images in the three major powers of the medieval Mediterranean: the Umayyads, the Carolingians, and the Byzantines. For each the definition of an image- sura, imago, or eikon respectively-became an important means of...
CLASSICS15N Saints, Warriors, Queens, and Cows The literature of medieval Ireland (600-1400 AD) is rich in tales about war and adventure, pagan gods, and otherworld voyages. The sagas of kings and queens sit side by side (sometimes in the same medieval manuscripts) with stories of holy men and wo...
CLASSICS160 Design Thinking for the Creative Humanities This class introduces Design Thinking to students in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Under a growth mindset of creative exploration and experiment, we will share a tool kit drawn from design thinking and the arts to develop our imaginative capaci...
CLASSICS161 Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period The class considers the development of Greek art from 1000-480 and poses the question, how Greek was Greek art? In the beginning, as Greece emerges from 200 years of Dark Ages, their art is cautious, conservative and more abstract than life-like, clo...
CLASSICS162 Introduction to Greek Art II: The Classical Period The class begins with the art, architecture and political ideals of Periclean Athens, from the emergence of the city as the political and cultural center of Greece in 450 to its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404. It then considers how the Atheni...
CLASSICS163 Artists, Athletes, Courtesans and Crooks The seminar examines a range of topics devoted to the makers of Greek art and artifacts, the men and women who used them in life and the afterlife, and the miscreants - from Lord Elgin to contemporary tomb-looters and dealers - whose deeds have damag...
CLASSICS164 Roman Gladiators In modern America, gladiators are powerful representatives of ancient Rome (Spartacus, Gladiator). In the Roman world, gladiators were mostly slaves and reviled, barred from certain positions in society and doomed to short and dangerous lives. A fi...
CLASSICS165 Religions of Ancient Eurasia This course will explore archaeological evidence for the ritual and religions of Ancient Eurasia, including Greco-Roman polytheism, early Christianity, and early Buddhism. Each week, we will discuss the most significant themes, methods, and approache...
CLASSICS168 Engineering the Roman Empire Enter the mind, the drafting room, and the building site of the Roman architects and engineers whose monumental projects impressed ancient and modern spectators alike. This class explores the interrelated aesthetics and mechanics of construction that...
CLASSICS16N Sappho: Erotic Poetess of Lesbos Preference to freshmen. Sappho's surviving fragments in English; traditions referring to or fantasizing about her disputed life. How her poetry and legend inspired women authors and male poets such as Swinburne, Baudelaire, and Pound. Paintings inspi...
CLASSICS170 History of Archaeological Thought Introduction to the history of archaeology and the forms that the discipline takes today, emphasizing developments and debates over the past five decades. Historical overview of culture, historical, processual and post-processual archaeology, and top...
CLASSICS171 Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E. This course explores the art and architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus, Thessaloniki, and Palermo, 4th-15th centuries. Applying an innovative approach, we will probe questions of phenomeno...
CLASSICS173 Hagia Sophia This seminar uncovers the aesthetic principles and spiritual operations at work in Hagia Sophia, the church dedicated to Holy Wisdom in Constantinople. Rather than a static and inert structure, the Great Church emerges as a material body that comes...
CLASSICS179 Dancing in Ancient Greece and Rome What was the role of dance in Greek and Roman cultures? Who danced and who were their spectators? Dance as an art for its own sake and as a vehicle of meaning; aesthetics and ethics of ancient dance; Philosophical and Anthropological aspects of dance...
CLASSICS17N To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent (Formerly CLASSGEN 6N.) Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her...
CLASSICS17SC Classical California If you counted the many modern guises in which ancient Greece and Rome show up in our lives, how many could you find? You might consider, for example, words we speak, films we watch, buildings we use, political concepts we debate, styles we admire, m...
CLASSICS180 Introduction to Coptic I For graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Introductory grammar of Sahidic Coptic. Recommended: knowledge of other ancient languages. Enrollment by permission of instructor.
CLASSICS181 Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...
CLASSICS185 Reading the Archimedes Palimpsest In this course we learn to read Medieval Greek manuscripts, concentrating on the most exciting of them all: the Archimedes Palimpsest. We begin by learning the Greek mathematical language, through a brief reading of Euclid. Following that, we learn h...
CLASSICS186 African Archive Beyond Colonization From street names to monuments, the material sediments of colonial time can be seen, heard, and felt in the diverse cultural archives of ancient and contemporary Africa. This seminar aims to examine the role of ethnographic practice in the political...
CLASSICS187 Societal Collapse Sustained economic growth is an anomaly in human history. Moreover, in the very long term, sustained economic decline is common. Following a historical and cross-cultural perspective, we will study the causes of economic decline, the social and polit...
CLASSICS188 Greek Philosophy on Poetry and the Arts Focus on Plato and Aristotle in English translations; detailed interpretation of both the well-known and the less-known works of the two philosophers on the topic. How their ideas about poetry and the arts were reinterpreted and sometimes misinterpre...
CLASSICS189 Et in Arcadia Ego: The Pastoral Ideal, from Antiquity to the Present In this seminar we will explore ancient Greek and Roman ideas and images of the idealized landscape, reading examples of the pastoral ideal from Greek authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Theocritus, and Longus and Roman authors such as Vergil, Hora...
CLASSICS18N The Artist in Ancient Greek Society Given the importance of art to all aspects of their lives, the Greeks had reason to respect their artists. Yet potters, painters and even sculptors possessed little social standing. Why did the Greeks value the work of craftsmen but not the men them...
CLASSICS192 Latin (and Its Speakers) in Time and Space What do we mean by "Latin"? Our earliest Latin-language texts date to 600BC or earlier; our latest, to centuries after Rome's decline. We also have an astonishing range of Latin texts by people of every background: women, the enslaved, soldiers, merc...
CLASSICS193 Archaeology and Environmental Aesthetics What do archaeologists have to say about long-term human relationships with the environment? How might archaeology inform our understanding of current concerns with agency and climate change? In this seminar we will explore the key concepts and conce...
CLASSICS194 Greece and Rome: A new model of antiquity Join archaeologist Michael Shanks in a tour through more than a thousand years of history, 700 BCE to 450 CE, debunking a host of myths and misconceptions about Graeco-Roman antiquity and offering a fresh view of what was driving the motor of ancient...
CLASSICS197 Aristotle's Logic In this seminar we read through Aristotle's Prior Analytics, paying close attention to the relation between Aristotle's logic to Greek mathematics, and to its place within Aristotle's overall philosophy. Knowledge of Greek is not required. Open to ad...
CLASSICS198 Directed Readings (Undergraduate) (Formerly CLASSGEN 160.) May be repeated for credit.
CLASSICS199 Undergraduate Thesis: Senior Research (Formerly CLASSGEN 199.) May be repeated for credit
CLASSICS19N Eloquence Personified: How To Speak Like Cicero This course is an introduction to Roman rhetoric, Cicero's Rome, and the active practice of speaking well. Participants read a short rhetorical treatise by Cicero, analyze one of his speeches as well as more recent ones by, e.g., Kennedy, Martin Luth...
CLASSICS1G Beginning Greek No knowledge of Greek is assumed. Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language.
CLASSICS1L Beginning Latin Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language. No previous knowledge of Latin is assumed.
CLASSICS200G Special Topics: Greek Magic Texts This is a graduate level survey of magic and magic practices in Greek literary sources. We will read primary sources discussing magic, witchcraft, erotic spells, and ghosts from Herodotus through Lucian.
CLASSICS201G Greek Core 1: Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle on Poetry and Education Students will do close readings of Plato's Symposium, Republic 2, 3 and 10, Isocrates' Antidosis, and Aristotle's Poetics and Politics 8. Students will translate and analyze the Greek and gain a solid mastery of these texts in terms of diction, synta...
CLASSICS201L Latin Core I: Catiline In-depth reading (in selection or parts) of Cicero's Catilinarians, Pro Caelio, letters, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and Sallust's Bellum Catilinae. In class we'll translate and analyze these texts, reviewing grammatical issues as needed and concentr...
CLASSICS201LA Survey of Latin Literature: Special Topics One-year sequence focusing on the origins, development, and interaction of Latin literature, history, and philosophy. Greek and Latin material taught in alternate years. Focus is on translation, textual criticism, genre, the role of Greece in shaping...
CLASSICS202G Greek Core II: History of Literature Partial coverage of the reading lists for translation and general reading exams, within a framework that introduces philological method, history of scholarship, hermeneutics and various approaches to the construction of literary histories. Emphasis o...
CLASSICS202GB Survey of Greek Literature: Special Topics Required two-year sequence focusing on the origins, development, and interaction of Greek and Latin literature, history, and philosophy. Greek and Latin material taught in alternate years.
CLASSICS202L Latin Core II: Age of Nero In-depth reading of a major poet or a themed selection of poetry, e.g. Vergil, Horace or Ovid. Courses may be theme-based, e.g. Aeneas in Vergil and Ovid, or genre-based, combining representative selections of epic, elegy or satire from various autho...
CLASSICS203G Greek Core III: Aeschylus and Euripides In this course, students will translate and analyze two ancient Greek tragedies: Aeschylus' Suppliants (c. 463 BCE) and Euripides' Medea (431 BCE). As the only extant tragedy from Greek antiquity featuring characters who explicitly reflect on their b...
CLASSICS203L Latin Core III: History of Literature Selected coverage of the translation/general reading list, with readings chosen so as to broaden experience beyond Core I-II, and to plac texts from those courses in a broader frame. Overall, this course will help prepare students for translation and...
CLASSICS204A Latin Syntax I Intensive review of Latin syntax. See CLASSICS 206A/B for supplemental courses. Students should take both syntax and semantics in the same quarters. Prerequisite for undergraduates: three years of Latin. First-year graduate students register for CLAS...
CLASSICS204B Latin Syntax II Intensive review of Latin syntax. See CLASSICS 206A/B for supplemental courses. Students should take both syntax and semantics in the same quarters. Prerequisite for undergraduates: three years of Latin. First-year graduate students register for CLAS...
CLASSICS205A Greek Syntax: Prose Composition The goal of this course is to provide a thorough review of Greek syntax, reinforced by reading selected short passages of Attic Greek in some detail, in order to develop a much greater command of the language and to increase reading skills as well as...
CLASSICS206A The Semantics of Grammar I Some theoretical linguistics for Classics students, particularly Latin teachers. Concentrates on the meaning of the inflectional categories. 206A: Sets and functions, Tense, Aspect, Argument Structure, Location. 206B: Quantification, Plurality, Modif...
CLASSICS206B The Semantics of Grammar II Some theoretical linguistics for Classics students, particularly Latin teachers. Concentrates on the meaning of the inflectional categories. 206A: Sets and functions, Tense, Aspect, Argument Structure, Location. 206B: Quantification, Plurality, Modif...
CLASSICS207 Late Greek This will be a class on Greek literature and language of Roman and Byzantine times. Late Greek has a huge corpus of texts in many genres both secular and Christian. This class will explore this literature and read texts both in translation and in t...
CLASSICS208L Latin 400-1700 CE Readings in later Latin, drawing on the vast bodies of texts from the late antique, medieval and early modern periods. Each week students will prepare selections in advance of class meetings; class time will be devoted to translation and discussion....
CLASSICS209 Singing Homer This will be an advanced class on Homer where we learn to recite his verses in their proper meter and with pitch accents. Reading out loud in class will be required, but memorization not required. Class will also cover the linguistics of Homer's arch...
CLASSICS209L Advanced Latin: Horace, Odes In this course we will read Horace's Odes (1-3), a quintessential work of Augustan era lyric poetry which is among the most influential in all of Latin literature. This will be done through focused readings and regular group discussions on specific t...
CLASSICS20N Technologies of Civilization: Writing, Number and Money The technological keys to the growth of civilization that enabled the creation of complex societies and enhanced human cognition. The role of cognition in shaping history and the role of history in shaping cognition. Global perspective, emphasizing t...
CLASSICS210 Latin Prose Composition Latin Prose Composition pursues two goals: to help students consolidate their knowledge of Latin syntax by way of translating English sentences and (short) passages into Ciceronian Latin; and to help them appreciate differences in style by way of imi...
CLASSICS213 Proseminar: Documentary Papyrology The focus will be on documentary papyrology. Students will be introduced to the basics of the discipline.
CLASSICS214 Proseminar: Ancient Numismatics Graduate proseminar. Introductory overview of the heterogeneous coinages of antiquity, from the earliest coins of the Mediterranean to classical and Hellenistic Greek coins, Roman Republican, Imperial and provincial coinages as well as various ancien...
CLASSICS216 Human Rights in Comparative and Historical Perspective The course examines core human rights concepts and issues as they arise in a variety of contexts ranging from the ancient world to today. These issues include slavery, human trafficking, gender based violence, discrimination against marginalized grou...
CLASSICS218 Slavery, human trafficking, and the moral order: ancient and modern Slavery and trafficking in persons in the Greco-Roman world were legal and ubiquitous; today slavery is illegal in most states and regarded as a grave violation of human rights and as a crime against humanity under international law. In recent trend...
CLASSICS219 Methods and approaches for ancient historians The interests and evidence used by classical historians have evolved over the past 50 years from a discipline based largely on literary texts and interested in political and military history. In recent decades interest have shifted to include a heav...
CLASSICS21Q Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe Preference to sophomores. Focus is on excavation, features and finds, arguments over interpretation, and the place of each site in understanding the archaeological history of Europe. Goal is to introduce the latest archaeological and anthropological...
CLASSICS220 Pedagogy Workshop for Graduate Teachers The primary goal of this course is to prepare graduate students for teaching Humanities-centered courses, both at Stanford and at other institutions. Instruction will emphasize the pedagogy of courses typical to Classics departments (and similar), in...
CLASSICS233 Socrates and Social Justice In this class, we examine whether Socrates is a model for social justice. Socrates presents a complicated figure regarding issues of political action and social justice. Some view Socrates as a champion of liberty and individual conscience. Others se...
CLASSICS240 Historiography For History and Classics MA and coterm students. This course explores how historians have explored the past, and the strengths and limits of the methods they have employed. Beginning with a survey of non-western historiography, we then investigate th...
CLASSICS241 Ancient Greek Religion Survey of the religious practices of the ancient Greeks. Readings will be both from original sources and from modern scholarship. There are no prerequisites. Knowledge of ancient Greek will be useful, but not required. Undergrads should give one...
CLASSICS256 Design of Cities Long-term, comparative and archaeological view of urban planning and design. Cities are the fastest changing components of the human landscape and are challenging our relationships with nature. They are the historical loci of innovation and change, a...
CLASSICS258 Theories of the Image: Byzantium, Islam and the Latin West This seminar explores the role of images in the three major powers of the medieval Mediterranean: the Umayyads, the Carolingians, and the Byzantines. For each the definition of an image- sura, imago, or eikon respectively-became an important means of...
CLASSICS260 Design Thinking for the Creative Humanities This class introduces Design Thinking to students in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Under a growth mindset of creative exploration and experiment, we will share a tool kit drawn from design thinking and the arts to develop our imaginative capaci...
CLASSICS262 Sex and the Early Church Sex and the Early Church examines the ways first- through sixth-century Christians addressed questions regarding human sexuality. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between sexuality and issues of gender, culture, power, and resista...
CLASSICS26N The Roman Empire: Its Grandeur and Fall Preference to freshmen. Explore themes on the Roman Empire and its decline from the 1st through the 5th centuries C.E.. What was the political and military glue that held this diverse, multi-ethnic empire together? What were the bases of wealth and h...
CLASSICS273 Hagia Sophia This seminar uncovers the aesthetic principles and spiritual operations at work in Hagia Sophia, the church dedicated to Holy Wisdom in Constantinople. Rather than a static and inert structure, the Great Church emerges as a material body that comes...
CLASSICS279 Dancing in Ancient Greece and Rome What was the role of dance in Greek and Roman cultures? Who danced and who were their spectators? Dance as an art for its own sake and as a vehicle of meaning; aesthetics and ethics of ancient dance; Philosophical and Anthropological aspects of dance...
CLASSICS280 Introduction to Coptic I For graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Introductory grammar of Sahidic Coptic. Recommended: knowledge of other ancient languages. Enrollment by permission of instructor.
CLASSICS286 African Archive Beyond Colonization From street names to monuments, the material sediments of colonial time can be seen, heard, and felt in the diverse cultural archives of ancient and contemporary Africa. This seminar aims to examine the role of ethnographic practice in the political...
CLASSICS289 Et in Arcadia Ego: The Pastoral Ideal, from Antiquity to the Present In this seminar we will explore ancient Greek and Roman ideas and images of the idealized landscape, reading examples of the pastoral ideal from Greek authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Theocritus, and Longus and Roman authors such as Vergil, Hora...
CLASSICS292 Latin (and Its Speakers) in Time and Space What do we mean by "Latin"? Our earliest Latin-language texts date to 600BC or earlier; our latest, to centuries after Rome's decline. We also have an astonishing range of Latin texts by people of every background: women, the enslaved, soldiers, merc...
CLASSICS293 Archaeology and Environmental Aesthetics What do archaeologists have to say about long-term human relationships with the environment? How might archaeology inform our understanding of current concerns with agency and climate change? In this seminar we will explore the key concepts and conce...
CLASSICS297 Dissertation Proposal Preparation This course is to be taken twice during the third year of the Classics PhD program. It takes the form of a tutorial based on weekly meetings, leading to the writing of the dissertation prospectus. To register, a student obtain permission from the pro...
CLASSICS298 Directed Reading in Classics (Graduate Students) This course is offered for students requiring specialized training in an area not covered by existing courses. To register, a student must obtain permission from the Classics Department and the faculty member who is willing to supervise the reading....
CLASSICS29N Ancient Myth in Modern Poetry For millennia, the myths of ancient Greece and Rome have been objects of fascination and tools for exploring humanity's most abiding concerns: self, society, birth, death and the afterlife, the cosmos and the divine. In the 20th and 21st centuries, t...
CLASSICS2G Beginning Greek Continuation of CLASSICS 1G. Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language.
CLASSICS2L Beginning Latin (Formerly CLASSLAT 2.) Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language. Prerequisite: CLASSICS 1L or equivalent placement.
CLASSICS303 The Proverb in Ancient Greek Literature This course explores the use of the proverb in ancient Greek poetry and prose. We will examine the role proverbs play across the many different genres of Greek literature as part of a larger 'quotation culture' in antiquity, as evinced in oral perfor...
CLASSICS304 Developing a Classics Dissertation Prospectus This workshop concentrates on the development process of writing a successful dissertation proposal and clarifies expectations of the defense process. Includes peer reviews of draft proposals with an aim to present provisional proposals by the end of...
CLASSICS305 Post-humanism: archaeological perspectives What is the object of archaeological research? Do archaeologists reconstruct the human past? This seminar answers these questions by focusing on the concept of humanity. Challenging the radical separation of people and objects, culture and nature, va...
CLASSICS30N Making fun of History: Insults, Mockery and Abuse Language in Antiquity People have mocked one another for as long as there has been language with which to do it, but insults can be difficult to pin down: a word or phrase may seem mocking to one person and funny or friendly to another. Even praise can be insulting, in so...
CLASSICS31 Greek Mythology The heroic and divine in the literature, mythology, and culture of archaic Greece. Interdisciplinary approach to the study of individuals and society. Illustrated lectures. Readings in translation of Homer, Hesiod, and the poets of lyric and tragedy....
CLASSICS311 The Poetics of the Odyssey An intensive study of the entire poem, with particular attention given to problems of narrative construction, characterization, diction, and themes. Basic knowledge of Homeric language and versemaking is a prerequisite. Reading will cover about 500 l...
CLASSICS313 Enchanted Images: Medieval Art and Its Sonic Dimension Explores the relationship between chant and images in medieval art. Examples are sourced from both Byzantium and the Latin West including the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Ste. Foy at Conques, and Santiago de Compostela...
CLASSICS314 Through a broken lens? Reading fragments from the 2nd century The Romantics treated the fragment as an art form; as students of antiquity, we tend to mourn the loss they represent and strive to recover as much of that loss as possible through them. In this course, we'll read a selection of poetic (epic, drama,...
CLASSICS318 Aristophanes: Comedy, and Democracy Intensive study of three plays in Greek (Knights, Peace, Ecclesiazusae) and the rest of the corpus in English, with reference to formal features and a focus on how Old Comedy related to the democratic practices of Athens.
CLASSICS319 Abject Subjects and Divine Anamorphosis in Byzantine Art Entering the space of the church immediately interpellated the medieval subject, transforming him/her into an abject self, marred by sin. This psychological effect of pricking the conscience was enhanced by the architectural panopticon channeled thro...
CLASSICS324 Plato on the Soul: Phaedo, Republic, and Phaedrus In this seminar, we will analyze Plato's conceptions of the soul in the middle period dialogues. We will read the Phaedo and the Phaedrus in full, and Republic books 4-7. We will examine the incorporeality, temporality, rationality, desires, and divi...
CLASSICS328 Time, Narrative and the Self in Augustine's Confessions The course focuses on Augustine's conceptions of time, memory, narrative, and the self in the Confessions. We will analyze the genres of autobiography, biography, and autofiction. We will examine Augustine's theory of time and memory in relation to...
CLASSICS331 Words and Things in the History of Classical Scholarship How have scholars used ancient texts and objects since the revival of the classical tradition? How did antiquarians study and depict objects and relate them to texts and reconstructions of the past? What changed and what stayed the same as humanist s...
CLASSICS332 Theories of the state, violence, nationalism, and social order This seminar aims to provide a combination of broad overview and foundation intheoretical discussions relevant to state formation, empire, war and violence, thedisplacement of populations, and related issues. Needless to say such a course mustby natu...
CLASSICS34 Ancient Athletics How the Olympic Games developed and how they were organized. Many other Greek festivals featured sport and dance competitions, including some for women, and showcased the citizen athlete as a civic ideal. Roman athletics in contrast saw the growth o...
CLASSICS347 Greek Epigram Greek verse inscriptions first appeared in the 8th century BCE and have been found throughout the Greek speaking Mediterranean. Their popularity continued until the early Byzantine periods. This course will treat the unique dynamics of epigram as a f...
CLASSICS348 Philodemus: An Epicurean Thinker on Poetry and Music We will read and discuss Philodemus¿ surviving works on poetry and music as well as the particularly stimulating debates his influential ideas have inspired in classical scholarship over the last decades. An approach to Epicurean aesthetic thought wi...
CLASSICS349 Introduction to Ancient Aesthetics How was aesthetics conceptualized in Greek thought and what was its role and importance in lived experience at large? The major aesthetic debates in the areas of performance, literature, philosophy, and the visual arts. Extensive readings of the rele...
CLASSICS35 The Good Life: An Introduction to Ancient Greek Ethical Philosophy The ancient Greeks longed for happiness, but life often led to suffering and anxiety. In ancient Greece, the traditional value system focused on gaining honor, wealth, power, and success - external goods that could be taken away at any time. The Gr...
CLASSICS350 History of Classical Languages: Dialects of Ancient Greek An intensive study of the history of ancient Greek through close reading and analysis of selected literary and epigraphic texts. Attention will be paid to developments in phonology and morphology in the light of reconstructed Common Greek and Indo-Eu...
CLASSICS351 Ancient Slavery Why was slavery so pervasive in the Greco-Roman world? How did it relate to other modes of domination, and how did it compare to practices of enslavement in other times and places? We will explore these questions in ways that take account of the spec...
CLASSICS354 Space and Mapping How do we define cities and urban space, and why and how does that matter? How did cities and urban space work in the ancient Mediterranean? In this graduate seminar, we will work through some fundamental theoretical writings on cities and urbanism...
CLASSICS360 Ancient Mediterranean Ports As ¿nodes of density in the matrix of connectivity¿ (Horden and Purcell 2000), ports provided the fundamental infrastructure for interaction on which ancient Mediterranean societies were built. This seminar explores the interrelated cultural and envi...
CLASSICS363 Race in Greco-Roman Antiquity This course will investigate representations of black people in ancient Greek and Roman antiquity. In addition to interrogating the conflation of the terms "race" and "blackness" as it applies to this time period, students will learn how to critique...
CLASSICS364 Longinus On the Sublime What is the sublime and what makes this text one of the most influential works of literary criticism, both ancient and modern? Detailed discussion of the text in the context of ancient debates; its reception in early modern and modern times
CLASSICS365 Digital Humanities Methods for Classics This course will introduce students to methods for computationally analyzing literary, archaeological and historical evidence from the ancient Mediterranean world. Students will acquire programming skills in Python and experience with data science pr...
CLASSICS366 Classical Reception in the Black Diaspora From the ancient oral epics to contemporary literature from Africa, the Caribbean, and the USA, this seminar will examine the significance of Classics in the literatures and arts of Africa and the Black Diaspora. This course will also investigate the...
CLASSICS368 Gender, family, and household in ancient Rome The family and household were the fundamental units of production and reproduction in the Roman empire, embodying values and cultural assumptions about hierarchies of gender and status. This seminar will investigate the norms and assumptions as well...
CLASSICS369 Mobility and Migration in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond Movement is fundamental to the human experience, and few regions and periods were so strongly defined by movement as the ancient Mediterranean. This seminar explores concepts of mobility and migration through their varied material remains, situating...
CLASSICS37 Great Books, Big Ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome This course will journey through ancient Greek and Roman literature from Homer to St. Augustine, in constant conversation with the other HumCore travelers in the Ancient Middle East, Africa and South Asia, and Early China. It will introduce participa...
CLASSICS370 Topics in Roman Art and Visual Culture Ancient Roman visual culture both reflected and actively shaped political, social, cultural and economic situations. Artworks, imagery and things seen played roles in constructing experience, intervening in human relationships, representing meaning,...
CLASSICS381 Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...
CLASSICS382 High-Stakes Politics: Case Studies in Political Philosophy, Institutions, and Interests Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institution...
CLASSICS384A Ancient Greek Economic Development Historians have been arguing about ancient Greek economic development since the 1890s. By the 1980s, opinion had swung toward what is sometimes called - the Cambridge consensus. - This held that the Greek economy was a typical premodern one, in which...
CLASSICS384B Ancient Greek Economic Development Historians have been arguing about ancient Greek economic development since the 1890s. By the 1980s, opinion had swung toward what is sometimes called - the Cambridge consensus. - This held that the Greek economy was a typical premodern one, in which...
CLASSICS390 Origins of Political Thought Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and...
CLASSICS393 Ancient inequalities This seminar explores the history and archaeology of socio-economic inequality in the ancient world (broadly defined) from a comparative and transdisciplinary perspective.
CLASSICS395 Ancient Greek Rationality, Public and Private In this seminar, we'll consider ancient Greek views about and theories of practical rationality and compare and contrast them with some modern theories, especially theories of instrumental rationality. We'll consider both philosophic authors, especi...
CLASSICS399 Graduate Research in Classics For graduate students only. Individual research by arrangement with in-department instructors. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the research.
CLASSICS3G Beginning Greek Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language. Prerequisite: CLASSICS 2G or equivalent placement. CLASSICS 3G fulfills University language requirement.
CLASSICS3L Beginning Latin Vocabulary and syntax of the classical language. Prerequisite: CLASSICS 2L or equivalent placement. CLASSICS 3L fulfills the University language requirement.
CLASSICS40 The History of Ancient Greek Philosophy We shall cover the major developments in Greek philosophical thought, focusing on Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools (the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Topics include epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, ethics and political...
CLASSICS42 Philosophy and Literature Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel...
CLASSICS43 Exploring the New Testament To explore the historical context of the earliest Christians, students will read most of the New Testament as well as many documents that didn't make the final cut. Non-Christian texts, Roman art, and surviving archeological remains will better situa...
CLASSICS43N The Archaeological Imagination More than excavating ancient sites and managing collections of old things, Archaeology is a way of experiencing the world: imagining past lives through ruins and remains; telling the story of a prehistoric village through the remains of the site and...
CLASSICS44 Epic! Life, death, and glory in the Iliad and Odyssey The two epics attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer enshrine a vivid world of experience centered on the deeds and misdeeds of warriors and divinities, kings and queens, in the last days and aftermath of the Trojan War. The course examines these...
CLASSICS47 Ancient Knowledge, New Frontiers: How the Greek Legacy Became Islamic Science What is the relation between magic and science? Is religion compatible with the scientific method? Are there patterns in the stars? What is a metaphor? This course will read key moments in Greek and Islamic science and philosophy and investigate the...
CLASSICS4L Intensive Beginning Latin Equivalent to a year of beginning Latin (three quarters; CLASSICS 1L, 2L and 3L), this course is designed to teach the fundamentals of the Latin language in one quarter. We will focus primarily on acquiring the basics of Latin grammar, morphology, an...
CLASSICS52 Introduction to Roman Archaeology (Formerly CLASSART 81.) This course will introduce you to the material culture of the ancient Roman world, from spectacular imperial monuments in the city of Rome to cities and roads around the Mediterranean, from overarching environmental concerns...
CLASSICS54 Introduction to World Architecture This course offers an expansive and wide-ranging introduction to architecture and urban design from the earliest human constructions to the mid-20th century. The examples range from the Americas to Europe, the Middle East, South and East Asia. The di...
CLASSICS56 Decolonizing the Western Canon: Introduction to Art and Architecture from Prehistory to Medieval Traditional Art History viewed the Renaissance as its pinnacle; it privileged linear perspective and lifelikeness and measured other traditions against this standard, neglecting art from the Near East, Egypt, the Middle Ages, or Islam. This course wi...
CLASSICS57 Introduction to Digital Archaeology While the tools of Digital Archaeology frequently change, using digital tools has been part of the discipline for decades. These tools and approaches provide new forms of research, visualization, and outreach to archaeological investigations. This...
CLASSICS58 Egypt in the Age of Heresy Perhaps the most controversial era in ancient Egyptian history, the Amarna period (c.1350-1334 BCE) was marked by great sociocultural transformation, notably the introduction of a new 'religion' (often considered the world's first form of monotheism)...
CLASSICS60 Reading Aristotle's Ethics: Happiness and the Virtues of Character How should I live? What should I do to live a happy life? And what does happiness have to do with ethics? What might the best human life look like? What kind of friendships contribute to happiness--and to justice? In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle...
CLASSICS6G Biblical Greek This is a one term intensive class in Biblical Greek. After quickly learning the basics of the language, we will then dive right into readings from the New Testament and the Septuagint, which is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. No...
CLASSICS6L Latin 400-1700 CE Readings in later Latin, drawing on the vast bodies of texts from the late antique, medieval and early modern periods. Each week students will prepare selections in advance of class meetings; class time will be devoted to translation and discussion....
CLASSICS76 Global History: The Ancient World World history from the origins of humanity to the Black Death. Focuses on the evolution of complex societies, wealth, violence, hierarchy, and large-scale belief systems.
CLASSICS7G Biblical Greek This is a continuation of the Winter Quarter Biblical Greek Course. Pre-requisite: CLASSICS 6G or a similar introductory course in Ancient Greek.
CLASSICS801 TGR M.A. Project (Formerly CLASSGEN 801.)
CLASSICS802 TGR Ph.D. Dissertation (Formerly CLASSGEN 802.)
CLASSICS81 Ancient Empires: Near East Why do imperialists conquer people? Why do some people resist while others collaborate? This course tries to answer these questions by looking at some of the world's earliest empires. The main focus is on the expansion of the Assyrian and Persian Emp...
CLASSICS82 The Egyptians This course traces the emergence and development of the distinctive cultural world of the ancient Egyptians over nearly 4,000 years. Through archaeological and textual evidence, we will investigate the social structures, religious beliefs, and expre...
CLASSICS83 The Greeks 250 years ago, for almost the first time in history, a few societies rejected kings who claimed to know what the gods wanted and began moving toward democracy. Only once before had this happened--in ancient Greece. This course asks how the Greeks did...
CLASSICS84 The Romans How did a tiny village create a huge empire and shape the world, and why did it fail? Roman history, imperialism, politics, social life, economic growth, and religious change. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required; enroll in secti...
CLASSICS88 Origins of History in Greece and Rome What's the history of `History'? The first ancient historians wrote about commoners and kings, conquest and power - those who had it, those who wanted it, those without it. Their powerful ways of recounting the past still resonate today and can be ha...
CLASSICS92 Introduction to Greek Art and Archaeology This course will introduce students to the art and archaeology of Greece and the Greek world from the Neolithic through Early Roman periods. By integrating both historical and current approaches to the archaeology of Greece, this course aims to suppl...
CLASSICS93 Pots, People, and Press: Greek Archaeology in the Media Archaeological discovery has long captured the popular imagination, and the media undoubtedly plays a crucial role in this phenomenon. In the case of Greek archaeology, much of this imagination has been intertwined with the legacies of ancient Greek...
CLASSICS96 The Secret Lives of Statues Statues-human-shaped sculptures-populate the uncanny valley that separates inert matter from living entities. For humans, this 'other population' can engender profound emotional responses, embody potent ideas, and entangle the politics of the past an...
CLASSICS9N What Didn't Make the Bible Over two billion people alive today consider the Bible to be sacred scripture. But how did the books that made it into the bible get there in the first place? Who decided what was to be part of the bible and what wasn't? How would history look differ...
CLASSICS9R Humanities Research Intensive Everyone knows that scientists do research, but how do you do research in the humanities? This seven-day course, taught over spring break, will introduce you to the excitement of humanities research, while preparing you to develop an independent summ...