Courses

This page displays the schedule of Bryn Mawr and Haverford College (in italics) courses in this department for this academic year. It also displays descriptions of courses offered by the department during the last four academic years.

For information about courses offered by other Bryn Mawr departments and programs or about courses offered by Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, please consult the Course Guides page.

For information about the Academic Calendar, including the dates of first and second quarter courses, please visit the College's calendars page.

Fall 2023 Greek Courses

Fall 2023 Latin Courses

Fall 2023 Classical Studies Courses

Spring 2024 Greek Courses

Spring 2024 Latin Courses

Spring 2024 Classical Studies Courses

COURSES IN GREEK

GREK B010 Traditional and New Testament Greek

Fall 2023

This is the first half of a year-long introductory course to ancient Greek. It is designed to familiarize students with the basic elements of classical Greek grammar and syntax as well as to provide them with experience in reading short sentences and passages in both Greek prose and poetry.

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GREK B011 Traditional and New Testament Greek

Spring 2024

This is the second half of a year-long introductory course to ancient Greek. It is designed to familiarize students with the basic elements of classical Greek grammar and syntax. Once the grammar has been fully introduced, students will develop facility by reading parts of the New Testament and a dialogue of Plato. Prerequisite: GREK B010.

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GREK B101 Herodotus

Not offered 2023-24

Greek 101 introduces the student to one of the greatest prose authors of ancient Greece, the historian, Herodotus. The "Father of History," as Herodotus is sometimes called, wrote one of the earliest lengthy prose texts extant in Greek literature, in the Ionian dialect of Greek. The "Father of Lies," as he is also sometimes known, wove into his history a number of fabulous and entertaining anecdotes and tales. His 'historie' or inquiry into the events surrounding the invasions by the Persian empire against the Greek city-states set the precedent for all subsequent historical writings. This course meets three times a week with a required fourth hour to be arranged. Prerequisite: GREK B010 and B011 or equivalent.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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GREK B104 Homer

Spring 2024

Greek 104 is designed to introduce the student to the epic poetry attributed to Homer, the greatest poet of ancient Greece, through selections from the Odyssey. Since Homer's poetic form is so important to the shape and texture of the Odyssey, we will examine the mechanics of Homeric poetry, both the intricacies of dactylic hexameter and the patterns of oral formulaic composition. We will also spend time discussing the characters and ideas that animate this text, since the value of Homer lies not merely in his incomparable mastery of his poetic form, but in the values and patterns of behavior in his story, patterns which remained remarkably influential in the Greek world for centuries. Prerequisite: One year of college-level Greek or equivalent.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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GREK B201 Plato and Thucydides

Fall 2023

This course is designed to introduce the student to two of the greatest prose authors of ancient Greece, the philosopher, Plato, and the historian, Thucydides. These two writers set the terms in the disciplines of philosophy and history for millennia, and philosophers and historians today continue to grapple with their ideas and influence. The brilliant and controversial statesman Alcibiades provides a link between the two texts in this course (Plato's Symposium and Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War), and we examine the ways in which both authors handle the figure of Alcibiades as a point of entry into the comparison of the varying styles and modes of thought of these two great writers. Suggested Prerequisites: At least 2 years of college Greek or the equivalent.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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GREK B202 The Form of Tragedy

Not offered 2023-24

This course will introduce the student to two of the three great Athenian tragedians-Sophocles and Euripides. Their dramas, composed two-and-a-half millenia ago, continue to be performed regularly on modern stages around the world and exert a profound influence on current day theatre. We will read Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos and Euripides' Bacchae in full, focusing on language, poetics, meter, and performance studies.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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GREK B403 Supervised Work

Writing Intensive

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GREK B601 Homer

Not offered 2023-24

We will focus on a careful reading of significant portions of the Homeric epics and on the history of Homeric scholarship. Students will develop an appreciation both for the beauty of Homer's poetics and for the scholarly arguments surrounding the interpretation of these texts.

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GREK B630 Euripides

Not offered 2023-24

In this seminar we will look closely at several plays of Euripides, paying special attention to the tragedian's language and meter. We will also read widely in 20th and 21st century scholarship on Euripides.

Writing Intensive

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GREK B644 Plato

Spring 2024

In the Phaedo, Plato presents a poignant picture of the last hours of Socrates.  Plato’s dialogues all prompt questions about how to read and understand the complex interchanges between the interlocutors, but no dialogue presents the stakes of the discussion as vividly as the Phaedo, where the debates on the nature of death and the soul are set against the background of Socrates’ imminent execution.  How ought one to live?  What does it mean to die?  How is the life of philosophy a practice for death?  In this seminar, we will explore the ideas of life and death, soul and body, philosophy and purification in the Phaedo.  In addition to a close reading of the text itself, we will sample from the scholarly debates over the understanding and interpretation of the Phaedo that have gone on over the past two and a half millennia of reading Plato’s Phaedo.

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Courses in Latin

LATN B001 Elementary Latin

Fall 2023

Latin 001 is the first part of a year-long course that introduces the student to the language and literature of ancient Rome. The first semester focuses upon the grammar of Latin, developing the student's knowledge of the forms of the language and the basic constructions used. Exercises in translation and composition aid in the student's learning of the language, while readings in prose and poetry from the ancient authors provide the student with a deeper appreciation of the culture which used this language.

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LATN B002 Elementary Latin

Spring 2024

Latin 002 is the second part of a year-long course that introduces the student to the language and literature of ancient Rome. The second semester completes the course of study of the grammar of Latin, improving the student's knowledge of the forms of the language and forms of expression. Exercises in translation and composition aid in the student's learning of the language, while readings in prose and poetry from the ancient authors provide the student with a deeper appreciation of the culture which used this language. Prerequisite: LATN B001.

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LATIN B110 Intermediate Latin

Fall 2023

Intensive review of grammar, reading in classical prose and poetry. For students who have had the equivalent of several years of high school Latin or are not adequately prepared to take LATN 101. This course meets three times a week with a required fourth hour to be arranged. Prerequisite: One year of college level Latin or equivalent.

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LATN B112 Latin Literature

Spring 2024

In the second semester of the intermediate Latin sequence, readings in prose and poetry are frequently drawn from a period, such as the age of Augustus, that illustrate in different ways the leading political and cultural concerns of the time. The Latin readings and discussion are supplemented by readings in the secondary literature. This course meets three times a week with a required fourth hour to be arranged. Prerequisite: LATN 101 or 110 or placement by the department.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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LATN B201- Topics: Advanced Latin Literature

In this course typically a variety of Latin prose and poetry of the high and later Roman empire (first to fourth centuries CE) is read. Single or multiple authors may be featured in a given semester.  

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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LATN B202 - Topics: Advanced Latin Literature

In this course typically a variety of Latin prose and poetry of the high and later Roman empire (first to fourth centuries CE) is read. Single or multiple authors may be featured in a given semester.  

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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LATN B203 Medieval Latin Literature

Not offered 2023-24

Selected works of Latin prose and poetry from the late Roman Empire through the 12th century. Prerequisite: At least one 200-level Latin course or equivalent.

Writing Intensive

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LATN B350 Topics in Latin Literature

Section 001 (Spring 2023): Late Latin Poetry
Section 001 (Fall 2023): Latin in Music
Section 001 (Spring 2024): Ovid

Fall 2023, Spring 2024

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

LATN B403 Supervised Work

Writing Intensive

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LATN B620 Martyrs, Mothers, Memoirs

Not offered 2023-24

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LATN B641 Roman Emotion: Modern Approaches to Ancient Emotion

Not offered 2023-24

Emotions have long been an object of study in psychology and neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and history, and historians have long been interested in the motivations and inner lives of individuals, much as they have generalized about the emotional states of people in collectives like villages, regions, and countries. In addition to broadening student knowledge of classical texts and scholarship related to cognitive life and emotion in classical Rome, the course will introduce students to the fundamentals of embodied cognition, its linguistic implications, situatedness in culture, and role in sociological approaches to literature and history. We will explore how ancient authors discuss and use the body to create meaning, how bodily meaning emerges through ancient texts, the ways in which cultural and environmental contexts shape the meaning of bodily experiences, how language is used to represent the various forms of social knowledge extrapolated from those experiences, and what implications such representations might have for our understanding of ancient culture and its reception. Students will also be encouraged to reflect upon their status as historically contingent viewers and the properties of authority that emerge from bodily knowledge within their own readerly context.

Writing Intensive

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LATN B648 Latin Epigram

Spring 2024

In this seminar we will explore the themes and aesthetics of the Latin epigram, a genre (or is it?) best known for its brevity and wit. After orienting ourselves in the epigrams of the Neoterics (Catullus, Cinna, Calvus, Caesar), our focus will turn to the poetry of Martial, whose accounts of Rome, its inhabitants, and their foibles exerted a profound influence on subsequent epigrammatists. We will consider Martial's poetry both thematically (poems on the city; women; scoundrels; patrons; long poems) and as constituents of organized, multi-faceted libri.  To deepen our appreciation of Martial's poetic project, we will take occasional forays into para-epigrammatic genres and works (Priapea, Catalepton), as well as the scattered epigrams of authors both familiar (Ovid, Lucan, Seneca, Petronius) and obscure. We will also consider the evolution the epigram from its inscriptional and epitaphic origins in Greek and Latin, and its development as a literary form by Hellenistic authors. In the final two weeks of the course, we will turn our attention to the reception of Martial by late antique (Ausonius, Claudian, Luxorius) and Neo-Latin poets (e.g. Pontano's Baiae, Panormita's Hermaphroditus, Marullo's reception of Catullus, Thomas More, John Owen).  Readings in the original will be supplemented with relevant scholarship throughout. Students will enhance their core work on Latin epigram by reading-independently or in small-groups-a complementary genre or author in the original related to their interests (e.g. Greek epigram, Horace' Satires, Latin elegy, carmina epigraphica, Juvenal, Flavian epic, Pliny's Epistles, Christian epigram).

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LATN B650 Topics in Latin Literature

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Latin in Music

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Ovid

Fall 2023, Spring 2024

Advanced reading and interpretation of Latin literature: content varies

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LATN B658 Late Latin Poetry

Not offered 2023-24

This course will survey the florescence of Latin poetry in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. At the heart of the course will be a study of some of Prudentius' works, for example the Hamartigenia and the Cathemerinon; works by Claudian, Ausonius, Avitus, Dracontius, and Paulinus of Nola may also be included. We shall analyze both the literary and (where applicable) the theological properties of these great works.

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LATN B663 Epistolography

Not offered 2023-24

Ancient letter-writing is suddenly garnering scholarly attention. Letters are being read by those with literary and philosophical interests, not simply for historical detail. While this course will attend to various categories of letters - embedded letters, inscribed letters, letters primarily for literary display - our principal focus wil be letters which were actually sent, and particularly correspondence of which both sides survives to us. We shall cover a wide chronological range, from the first century BC to the fifth century AD; our most sustained investigation will be of the letters of Cicero, Pliny, and Augustine, though we shall encompass many others along the way. In addition to the specific circumstances in which the letters were sent, we shall also address wider questions: how do letters negotiate the absence of their addressee? what ideas of friendship, or other affective connection, do they perform? what ideas of the self are entailed? how are ancient ideas of public and private letters played out? Finally, does it even make sense to speak of a separate genre of epistolography? The wide range of the course should make for some exciting answers. Cross listed as CSTS 663

Writing Intensive

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Courses in Classical Studies

CSTS B108 Roman Africa

Spring 2024

In 146 BCE, Rome conquered and destroyed the North African city of Carthage, which had been its arch-enemy for generations, and occupied many of the Carthaginian settlements in North Africa. But by the second and third centuries CE, North Africa was one of the most prosperous and cultured areas of the Roman Empire, and Carthage (near modern Tunis) was one of the busiest ports in the Mediterranean. This course will trace the relations between Rome and Carthage, looking at the history of their mutual enmity, the extraordinary rise to prosperity of Roman North Africa, and the continued importance of the region even after the Vandal invasions of the fifth century.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B156 Roman Law in Action

Not offered 2023-24

This course provides an introduction to the study of Roman law and legal history by focusing on the law of the family. The family is a basic building block for society, and the aim of this course is to learn more about Roman society by examining how it developed legal rules for family organization. We will also explore the historical context behind the development of Roman legal institutions, in order to gain an appreciation for Roman law's influence on the modern civil law and common law systems.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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CSTS B175 Feminism in Classics

Not offered 2023-24

This course will illustrate the ways in which feminism has had an impact on classics, as well as the ways in which feminists think with classical texts. It will have four thematic divisions: feminism and the classical canon; feminism, women, and rethinking classical history; feminist readings of classical texts; and feminists and the classics - e.g. Cixous' Medusa and Butler's Antigone.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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CSTS B203 Technology and Humanity in the Ancient World

Not offered 2023-24

In this course, we will study the development, impact, and ethical implications of technology in the ancient world. While investigating the attitudes toward technology expressed by scientific and non-scientific authors of the Graeco-Roman world, students will be exposed to perspectives and methods from a variety of disciplines including literary studies, anthropology, social psychology, and 4E cognition, engaging with questions related to areas of social justice, human ecology, artificial intelligence, urban planning, environmental management, and medicine. Through readings by authors such as Aristophanes, Euripides, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Apuleius and Galen, we will discuss the technologies used to aid memory, carry out calculative activities, perform labor, influence human behavior, and improve quality of life. In addition to gaining a broad understanding of ancient technologies (real and imagined), students will a) become familiar with the major periods and events of Graeco-Roman history and be able to contextualize attitudes towards technology within those periods; b) become familiar with the styles of literature and material arts during major periods of Graeco-Roman history, and c) develop skills necessary for reading primary texts (literary, philosophical, and historical) as documents representing the intellectual history of classical antiquity. No previous knowledge of the ancient world is required.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B205 Greek History

Not offered 2023-24

This course traces the rise of the city-state (polis) in the Greek-speaking world beginning in the seventh-century BC down to its full blossoming in classical Athens and Sparta. Students should gain an understanding of the formation and development of Greek identity, from the Panhellenic trends in archaic epic and religion through its crystallization during the heroic defense against two Persian invasions and its subsequent disintegration during the Peloponnesian war. The class will also explore the ways in which the evolution of political, philosophical, religious, and artistic institutions reflect the changing socio-political circumstances of Greece. The latter part of the course will focus on Athens in particular: its rise to imperial power under Pericles, its tragic decline from the Peloponnesian War and its important role as a center for the teaching of rhetoric and philosophy. Since the study of history involves the analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of the sources available for the culture studied, students will concentrate upon the primary sources available for Greek history, exploring the strengths and weakness of these sources and the ways in which their evidence can be used to create an understanding of ancient Greece. Students should learn how to analyze and evaluate the evidence from primary texts and to synthesize the information from multiple sources in a critical way.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CSTS B206 Cosmos: Myth, Medicine, & Law in Ancient Greece

Fall 2023

The ancient Greek word 'cosmos' means 'order' or 'system'; it also means 'beauty' or 'adornment'. The Greeks thought of the world around them as an orderly system, adorned with beauty, but their imaginings of that order took many different forms, from the most fantastic of myths to elaborate mathematical and physiological models. This course explores the systems of order that the Greeks imagined for the universe - the macrocosm, for the human body - the microcosm, and for society - the the system of laws that brings order to humans in the world. Throughout the course, we examine the ways ideas of generation, justice, and gender inflect the cosmic systems, beginning with early Greek epic and moving through the philosophical texts (especially Plato's Timaeus), Hippocratic medical treatises, and lawcourt speeches. We will explore the discourses of myth, science, and law in the ancient Greek context and their relation to contemporary discourses. Students will gain familiarity with the conceptual schemas of ancient Greek thought that have been fundamental for cosmology, medicine, and law in the Western tradition and will learn to analyze the ways in which these models have shaped ideas of generation, justice, and gender throughout the ages. Students will also improve their skills of critical reading and analytic writing through their work with the readings and writing assignments in the course, and they will hone their skills of reasoned discussion in the class.

Writing Attentive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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CSTS B207 Early Rome and the Roman Republic

Not offered 2023-24

This course surveys the history of Rome from its origins to the end of the Republic, with special emphasis on the rise of Rome in Italy and the evolution of the Roman state. The course also examines the Hellenistic world in which the rise of Rome takes place. The methods of historical investigation using the ancient sources, both literary and archaeological, are emphasized.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CSTS B208 The Roman Empire

Not offered 2023-24

Imperial history from the principate of Augustus to the House of Constantine with focus on the evolution of Roman culture and society as presented in the surviving ancient evidence, both literary and archaeological.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B210 The Arts of Persuasion

Not offered 2023-24

In this course, we will read ancient Greek and Latin material not as passive vehicles but as agents. Indeed, we will assume that the authors of what we now call "literature" and the characters embedded within it aimed to convince, persuade, and cajole their ancient audience members and that they retain the power to convince us, too. Although this course focuses on primary sources in translation, secondary readings will support our understanding of their cultural context. We will engage with a broad constellation of ancient material, from explicitly argumentative forensic speeches and philosophy to subtly discursive scenes of seduction. Throughout the semester, we will keep in mind not only the goal of an author or character's persuasive speech, but analyze how he or she modulates her rhetoric to convince a peer, a superior, a group, or even a god!

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B211 Masks, Madness, and Mysteries: Introduction to Greek Tragedy

Not offered 2023-24

This course will introduce the student to the world of Greek Tragedy as it flourished in Athens in 5th century BC. We will read the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, & Euripides and discuss the playwrights' treatment of myth, the role of the chorus, the relation between text and performance, and the relevance of Greek tragedy for subsequent centuries, down to the present day. Special attention will be given to modern performances of these ancient plays in theater and in film as well as to the themes of choral voice, disability, euthanasia, slavery; the impact of war on women & children; and the relation between mortals and immortals. Please Note: NO KNOWLEDGE OF ANCIENT GREEK IS REQUIRED. ALL TEXTS WILL BE READ IN ENGLISH!

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B218 Reading Changes: Reflecting on Ovid's Metamorphoses

Not offered 2023-24

This course will look at scenes of (mis)communication in Ovid's Metamorphoses and consider modern (re)interpretations of the Metamorphoses and explore why these things matter, in classics and beyond! We will look at myths such as Narcissus and Echo, Procne and Philomela, and Proserpina (aka Persephone) to think about the ways we interact with other people, whether we're reading about them or communicating with them in person. We'll define "reception;" use modern feminist, queer, and political lenses to read this ancient text (and think about how these lenses- which include Judith Butler, Bonnie Honig, and bell hooks- might apply to any text, ancient or modern); listen to some "Hadestown;" and think about ethics in ways that are just as relevant in our lives today as they are in this work written 2000 years ago. No prior classics experience required, and all readings will be in English translation.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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CSTS B219 Poetic Desires, Queer Longings

Not offered 2023-24

This course places poetry that considers love and desire from Greco-Roman antiquity in conversation with modern poetry and critical theory (queer, feminist, and literary). How are the roles of lover and beloved constructed through gender? How does queer desire and sexuality manifest in different cultural contexts? How have poets sought to express desire through language, and in what ways does language fail to capture that desire? Students in this course will face the difficulties of articulating desire head-on through both traditional literary analysis papers and a creative writing project. Texts will include love poetry by Sappho and Ovid, Trista Mateer's Aphrodite Made Me Do It, Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet, and Audre Lorde's "The Uses of the Erotic."

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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CSTS B221 Women of Roman Egypt

Not offered 2023-24

This course aims to be an introduction to the history of female persons in the ancient world. It focuses particularly on Roman Egypt, but covers a broad range of material spanning the period of 300 BCE - 476 CE. Students engage with a number of historical issues, such as legal personhood, access to education, political protest, economic freedom, religious practice, etc.. Students will acquire familiarity with a) Egypt as a part of the Greco-Roman world; b) the role of women in both Egyptian society and Rome more generally; and c) the written sources available for the study of female experience in the ancient world. Because the course focuses on the social, cultural, and institutional environments in which women operated, the topic offers itself as a useful study of the ancient world as a whole, as well as to particular issues of representation and authority. By the end of the course, students will have general understanding of Egypt as a part of the Graeco-Roman world, a keen understanding of how women operated in the society of Ancient Egypt (ca. 300 BCE - 450 CE), and the ability to form arguments about the historical relevance of our sources.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B226 Ecology of the Roman World

Not offered 2023-24

In this course, we will study Roman attitudes toward the natural world, reconstructing the environment in which Roman urban centers flourished. While investigating the attitudes towards the environment that the Romans expressed through their myths, poetry, philosophy, and material culture, students will gain exposure to perspectives and methods from a variety of disciplines including literary studies, archaeology and art history, anthropology, social psychology, and 4E cognition. Through readings by authors such as Cato, Varro, Columella, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Cicero, Pliny and Seneca, we will discuss agriculture and pre-industrial economies, social (re)evolution, disease and famine, resource exploitation, and human interaction with the landscape through engineering. In addition to gaining a broad understanding of how the Romans interacted with and explained the world around them (and how they used that world to explain themselves), students will a) become familiar with the major periods and events of Roman history and be able to contextualize attitudes towards nature and the environment within those periods; b) become familiar with the styles of literature and material arts during major periods of Roman history, and c) develop skills necessary for reading primary texts (literary, philosophical, and historical) as documents representing the intellectual history of the Roman world. No previous knowledge of the ancient world is required.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B232 Relating (to) the gods

Not offered 2023-24

How did ancient Greeks and Romans imagine their gods? How did they communicate with them? And what, exactly, happened when the gods talked back? In this course, we will grapple with questions of why and how ancient people interacted with what anthropologists call "Invisible Others": those not always perceptible beings with whom human beings nonetheless engage. To do so, we will be guided by a broad range of Greek and Latin material in translation, including but not limited to magical texts, prayers, hymns, philosophical discourse, and mythic narratives that depict and/or invite the often disastrous, sometimes miraculous, and always fascinating interaction between mortal and deity.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B233 Mysteries of the Ancient Greco-Roman World

This course explores the Mysteries of the ancient Greco-Roman world, examining the evidence for the rituals and religious ideas associated with these often secretive and hidden practices. From the Mysteries for Demeter and Persephone in Eleusis, carried out by thousands of Athenians in a multi-day festival, to the Bacchic revels for Dionysos celebrated by mountain-roaming maenads or sedate civic associations, to the secret rites for the Persian god Mithras, performed by Roman soldiers in cave shrines throughout the empire, these mysterious rituals have exercised their fascination over the centuries, playing an outsized role in the depictions of polytheistic religion in the ancient Mediterranean world.

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CSTS B240 (Re)Productions from Antiquity to Modernity

Not offered 2023-24

How might Ancient Greek and Roman values regarding leisure time, labor, poetic production, and reproduction intersect with those of modern capitalism? Why are texts considered the children of ancient (male) authors, and where do women fit into this textual reproductive activity? What does a queer (i.e. non-essentialist, non-binary) reproduction look like? What makes art art, and does the reproduction of art, such as Roman copies of Greek statues, entail the loss of some special uncapturable quality? This course considers the above questions, investigating ancient and modern cultural attitudes towards (re)production through intersectional feminist and queer theory. Students will explore modern textual and filmic representations of pregnancy, abortion, creation, domestic labor, and artistic labor to enrich their readings of ancient texts. Texts will include Ancient Greek tragedies such as Euripides' Medea and Sophocles' Antigone, Latin poetry such as Horace's Ars Poetica and Ovid's Metamorphoses, novels such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, films such as My Fair Lady, and modern poetry by Johanna Hedva and Dionne Brand.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B242 Magic in the Greco-Roman World

Not offered 2023-24

Bindings and curses, love charms and healing potions, amulets and talismans - from the simple spells designed to meet the needs of the poor and desperate to the complex theurgies of the philosophers, the people of the Greco-Roman World made use of magic to try to influence the world around them. In this course students will gain an understanding of the magicians of the ancient world and the techniques and devices they used to serve their clientele, as well as the cultural contexts in which these ideas of magic arose. We shall consider ancient tablets and spell books as well as literary descriptions of magic in the light of theories relating to the religious, political, and social contexts in which magic was used.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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CSTS B247 The Beast Within: Animality and Humanity in Antiquity

Not offered 2023-24

How are humans conceptualized as different from animals, and vice versa? How have characterizations of humans as bestial been mobilized to uphold gender, class, ability, and racial hierarchies? Why were there so many depictions in antiquity of humans transforming into animals? This course will consider the above questions by interpreting ancient literary depictions of the human and the animal through the lenses of queer, gender, and critical race theory. Readings will include Ovid's Metamorphoses, Euripides' Hippolytus, and Vergil's Eclogues and Georgics, as well as theoretical selections such as Mel Chen's Animacies, Bénédicte Boisseron's Afro-Dog, and Claire Jean Kim's Dangerous Crossings.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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CSTS B267 Interpretation of Dreams: Classical Antiquity and Beyond

Not offered 2023-24

Dreams appear to be a human universal; everyone dreams, and everyone has wondered what the meaning or import of dreams might be. Dreaming is nevertheless a culturally embedded process; every society has ways of explaining what dreams might mean and how they might produce meaning. Ancient Greco-Roman culture provides a wide range of evidence for the understanding and interpretation of dreams, from the divine epiphanies in Homer to the systematic treatise by Aristotle to the theological explanations of Plutarch and Synesius. The two most influential systems for the interpretation of dreams in the twentieth century, moreover, owe their inspiration to ancient Greek texts. Freud founds his famous Interpretation of Dreams upon the manual of dream interpretation by Artemidorus of Daldis, while the violent dream visions of the alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis provide Jung with his own theories about the nature and interpretation of dreams. This course explores the range of materials for the interpretation of dreams in Classical Antiquity and beyond, analyzing the ideas of human nature, the soul, and the divine that underlie the systems of dream interpretation. The course also examines the ways in which dreaming fits within the lived religious experience of the cultural context, from incubation practices at healing sanctuaries to consultations of dream oracles by a state representative to magical spells to bring or send dreams. The interrelation of the universal phenomenon of dreaming and the specific cultural contexts provides the focus for the analysis of the ancient materials and their reception in modern and contemporary thought. Prerequisite: One course in theory OR consent of instructor.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B310 Forming the Classics: From Papyrus to Print

Not offered 2023-24

17This course will trace the constitution of Classics as a discipline in both its intellectual and its material aspects, and will examine how the works of classical antiquity were read, interpreted, and preserved from the late Roman empire to the early modern period. Topics will include the material production and dissemination of texts, the conceptual organization of codices (e.g. punctuation, rubrication, indexing), and audiences and readers (including annotation, marginalia, and commentary). Students will also learn practical techniques for approaching these texts, such as palaeography and the expansion of abbreviations. The course will culminate in student research projects using manuscripts and early printed books from Bryn Mawr's exceptional collections. Prerequisite: a 200 level course in Greek, Latin, or Classical Studies.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B320 Martyrs, Mothers, Memoirs: Medieval Autobiographies

Not offered 2023-24

The writing of autobiography flourished in the middle ages, but there have been very few studies of the genre for the period. This course presents a range of autobiographies from the Latin West and encourages students to think about them theoretically and historically: what does it mean to write the self? what is at stake in the presentation of these stories? what notions are privileged? and how do we situate autobiographies in the wider literary landscape?

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CSTS B375 Interpreting Mythology

Fall 2023

The myths of the Greeks have provoked outrage and fascination, interpretation and retelling, censorship and elaboration, beginning with the Greeks themselves. We will see how some of these stories have been read and understood, recounted and revised, in various cultures and eras, from ancient tellings to modern movies. We will also explore some of the interpretive theories by which these tales have been understood, from ancient allegory to modern structural and semiotic theories. The student should gain a more profound understanding of the meaning of these myths to the Greeks themselves, of the cultural context in which they were formulated. At the same time, this course should provide the student with some familiarity with the range of interpretations and strategies of understanding that people of various cultures and times have applied to the Greek myths during the more than two millennia in which they have been preserved. Preference to upperclassmen, previous coursework in myth required.

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CSTS B398 Senior Seminar

This is a bi-college seminar devoted to readings in and discussion of selected topics in the various sub-fields of Classics (e.g. literature, religion, philosophy, law, social history) and of how to apply contemporary critical approaches to the primary sources. Students will also begin developing a topic for their senior thesis, composing a prospectus and giving a preliminary presentation of their findings.

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CSTS B399 Senior Seminar

This is the continuation of CSTS B398. Working with individual advisors from the bi-college classics departments, students will continue to develop the topic sketched out in the fall semester. By the end of the course, they will have completed at least one draft and a full, polished version of the senior thesis, of which they will give a final oral presentation.

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CSTS B403 Supervised Work

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B645 Ancient Magic

Not offered 2023-24

Magic - the word evokes the mysterious and the marvelous, the forbidden and the hidden, the ancient and the arcane. But what did magic mean to the people who coined the term, the people of ancient Greece and Rome? Drawing on the expanding body of evidence for ancient magical practices, as well as recent theoretical approaches to the history of religions, this seminar explores the varieties of phenomena labeled magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Bindings and curses, love charms and healing potions, amulets and talismans - from the simple spells designed to meet the needs of the poor and desperate to the complex theurgies of the philosophers, the people of the Greco-Roman world did not only imagine what magic could do, they also made use of magic to try to influence the world around them. The seminar examines the primary texts in Greek, the tablets and spell books, as well as literary descriptions of magic, in the light of theories relating to the religious, political, and social contexts in which magic was used.

Writing Intensive

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CSTS B665 Byzantium and the Classics: The Byzantine Literary Tradition

Not offered 2023-24

This seminar approaches Byzantine literature both as a continuation of the Classical tradition and as a rich corpus that should be studied for its own sake. Each week we will survey one genre of Byzantine literature and focus on two or three texts that will be tailored to the participants' research interests as much as possible. Greek literature will provide the core of our readings, but we will occasionally turn our attention to texts composed in other languages, especially Latin and Syriac. The Byzantine Empire was a multilingual society. For 600-level students, three workshops will be offered on the following three topics: the grammar of Byzantine Greek, paleography, and textual criticism.

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CSTS B675 Interpreting Mythology

Fall 2023

The myths of the Greeks have provoked outrage and fascination, interpretation and retelling, censorship and elaboration, beginning with the Greeks themselves. We will see how some of these stories have been read and understood, recounted and revised, in various cultures and eras, from ancient tellings to modern movies. We will also explore some of the interpretive theories by which these tales have been understood, from ancient allegory to modern structural and semiotic theories. The student should gain a more profound understanding of the meaning of these myths to the Greeks themselves, of the cultural context in which they were formulated. At the same time, this course should provide the student with some familiarity with the range of interpretations and strategies of understanding that people of various cultures and times have applied to the Greek myths during the more than two millennia in which they have been preserved.

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CSTS B701 Supervised Work

Fall 2023, Spring 2024

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