Unit name | Greek Language Level D |
---|---|
Unit code | CLAS30074 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Michelakis |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
CLAS22405 or equivalent |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Classics & Ancient History |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The primary unifying principle for this unit is to survey some of the great, non-epic poetry of archaic Greece. In addition to reading extensive selections from five of those whom Hellenistic scholars canonized as the nine lyric poets (Alcman, Sappho, Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Pindar, but not Ibycus, Stesichorus, Simonides, or Bacchylides), we will also touch on the poignant elegies of Mimnermus and the martial ones of Tyrtaeus. As we read these poems, we will be continually revisiting three intersecting themes: first, what sort of “ancient wisdom” do these poems, emerging within their own cultural and poetic traditions, attribute to themselves? Second, what sort of wisdom has been attributed to them in their reception? Third, what interpretive principles do we use or have earlier poets, philosophers, and scholars used in looking for this wisdom?
Aims:
Upon conclusion of this unit students will have developed knowledge of the issues raised in relation to the texts studied and their interpretation, and the relevance of these for wider theoretical issues. They will have developed a detailed appreciation of the literary style of the texts studied and improved their fluency in reading and stylistic translating of Greek.
On successful completion of this unit students should have:
Seminars and reading classes.
• 1 essay of 3,000 words. Weighted at 50%.
• 1 examination of one and a half hours consisting of a passage of 10 lines for unseen translation (20% of exam mark) without passage summary, a passage of 15 lines for prepared text translation (20% of exam mark), and 2 passages (choose from 4) of 20-25 lines for comment and analysis (60% of exam mark): no specific questions (students asked merely to “comment”). Weighted at 50%.
Budelmann, F. (ed.) (2009) The Cambridge Companion to Greek Lyric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Calame, C. (1997) Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Function. trans. D. Collins and J. Orion. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Campbell, D. (1991) Greek Lyric Poetry. New Edition. Bristol Classical Press
Race, W. H. (1997) Pindar, 2 vols, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press [Loeb Classical Library]
Ferrari, G. (2008) Alcman and the Cosmos of Sparta. Chicago.
Segal, C. (1998) Aglaia: The Poetry of Alcman, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides and Corinna. Lanham: Littlefield and Row.