Classics

Courses

CLSS 601a / MDVL 571a, Introduction to Latin Paleography  N. Raymond Clemens

Latin paleography from the fourth century CE to ca. 1500. Topics include the history and development of national hands; the introduction and evolution of Caroline minuscule, pre-gothic, gothic, and humanist scripts (both cursive and book hands); the production, circulation, and transmission of texts (primarily Latin, with reference to Greek and Middle English); advances in the technical analysis and digital manipulation of manuscripts. Seminars are based on the examination of codices and fragments in the Beinecke Library; students select a manuscript for class presentation and final paper.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 602b / MDVL 563b, Advanced Latin Paleography  Barbara Shailor

The challenges of using hand-produced Latin manuscripts in research, with an emphasis on texts from the late Middle Ages. Gothic cursive scripts and book hands ca. 1200–ca. 1500; fragments of unidentified codices; complex or composite codices with heavy interlinear and marginal annotations. Manuscripts and fragments selected largely from collections in the Beinecke Library. Prerequisite: CLSS 601 or permission of the instructor.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 605a, Greek Papyrology  Ann Hanson

Literary and documentary papyri of Greek and Roman Egypt, concentrating on documents housed in the Beinecke Library from the late Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Topics include using papyri as sources for social and other histories; gaining familiarity with the language of the papyri; and the reading of literary and documentary hands.
T 2:30pm-4:30pm

CLSS 645a, Roman Numismatics  Benjamin Hellings

This course aims to familiarize students with the study of coins as evidence for the ancient world and focuses on Roman numismatic iconography and the Roman economy. The course moves at a rapid pace, with seven weekly essays and two larger research projects. Prerequisite: a good understanding of Roman history.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 811a / ARCG 611a / NELC 611a / RLST 833a, The Ancient Egyptian Temple as Cosmos: Correlation of Architecture and Decoration Program  Christina Geisen

The course focuses on the correlation of archaeology, iconography, and philology by analyzing ancient Egyptian temples under the specific consideration of the interplay of architecture and decoration program. The different types of temples and their developments over time are discussed. The main focus is the function of each temple type, which can only be understood by analyzing the architecture of the monument, its decoration program, related texts (such as rituals, myths, and festival description, but also historical texts), and its place in the cultic landscape of the specific location. The class also provides an overview of rituals performed and festivals celebrated in the temples, as well as of the administrative sphere of the temple. Optional field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to see the Temple of Dendur. No previous knowledge of ancient Egyptian culture or languages is necessary; all texts are read in translation.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 815b / ANTH 531b / ARCG 531b / EALL 773b / HIST 502b / HSAR 564b / JDST 653b / NELC 533b / RLST 803b, Sensory Experiences in Ancient Ritual  Carolyn Laferriere and Andrew Turner

A comparative exploration of the role the senses played in the performance of ancient and premodern ritual, drawing from a range of ancient traditions including those of Greece, Rome, and Egypt, and from cultural traditions of the Near East, India, China, and the New World. Placing particular emphasis on the relationship between art and ritual, we discuss the methods available for reconstructing ancient sensory experience, how the ancient cultures conceived of the senses and perception, and how worshipers’ sensory experiences, whether visual, sonic, olfactory, gustatory, or haptic, were integral aspects in their engagement with the divine within religious ritual. This seminar incorporates material in the Yale Art Gallery.
Th 9:25am-11:15am

CLSS 830a, Beauty  Pauline LeVen

This seminar concentrates on the ancient Greek discourse on beauty, from Homer to the period known as the Second Sophistic. Weekly discussions of ancient Greek texts (Homer, archaic lyric poetry, Plato, Xenophon, Philostratus, Dio Chrysostom, Greek novels) and critical literature on the topic focus on the following themes: beauty and the body; beauty and the senses; beauty and the good; beauty and the arts; beauty and the beasts. Prerequisite: knowledge of ancient Greek. Students with no knowledge of Greek interested in taking the course should contact the instructor.
F 10am-12pm

CLSS 847a / HIST 508a, Climate, Environment, and Ancient History  Joseph Manning

An overview of recent work in paleoclimatology with an emphasis on new climate proxy records and how they are or can be used in historical analysis. We examine in detail several recent case studies at the nexus of climate and history. Attention is paid to critiques of recent work as well as trends in the field.
F 3:30pm-5:20pm

CLSS 861b / HIST 503b, Recent Trends, Current Problems, and New Approaches to Ancient History  Joseph Manning

Current trends in the field and an examination of recent work, new theory, and new material. An overview of theory and method in ancient history. Each week is devoted to a case study or a recent monograph in the field.
F 3:30pm-5:20pm

CLSS 865b / PHIL 748b, Plato’s Theaetetus  Verity Harte and David Charles

The class reads and discusses the Greek text of Plato’s Theaetetus, a central work of Plato’s philosophy and an important work in the history of philosophy. Focused on the nature of knowledge, the dialogue is notable for a series of arguments involving central notions of Plato’s philosophy: knowledge, definition, perception, false judgment. The class is a core course for the combined Ph.D. program in Classics and Philosophy. The course is open to all graduate students in Philosophy or Classics who have suitable preparation in Attic Greek and some prior knowledge of ancient philosophy. Others interested in taking or attending the class must have prior permission of the instructors. Undergraduates are not normally admitted.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

CLSS 877a / CPLT 556a / RLST 613a, Rhetorics of the Ancient World  Michal Beth Dinkler and Irene Peirano

This interdisciplinary course takes as its starting point Greco-Roman rhetoric as a codified system and explores its relevance for contemporary interpretation of ancient texts. Moving back and forth between rhetoric as a set of norms and rhetoric as a condition of discourse, we engage with contemporary rhetorical studies in Classics and Biblical studies. Topics include rhetoric and narrative, exemplarity and imitation across the literary and spiritual realms, “anti-rhetoricism,” embedded rhetorical performances (e.g., speeches, oratory, etc.), and nonverbal forms of persuasion (e.g., visual, emotional, etc.).
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 881a, Proseminar: Classical Studies  Milette Gaifman

An introduction to the bibliography and disciplines of classical scholarship. Faculty address larger questions of method and theory, as well as specialized subdisciplines such as linguistics, papyrology, epigraphy, paleography, and numismatics. Required of all entering graduate students.
W 10:30am-12:20pm

CLSS 886a / PHIL 741a, What Is Aristotelian Hylomorphism?  David Charles

The aim of the seminar is to examine the extent to which Aristotle’s version of hylomorphism as applied to psychological phenomena (such as the emotions, desire, perception, and thought) was modified and criticized by later philosophers. We assess the hypothesis that Aristotle’s discussion of these issues was substantially modified by later philosophers and commentators in such a way as to set up (1) contemporary versions of hylomorphism and (2) the mind/body problem as formulated by Descartes.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

CLSS 887b / PHIL 746b, Cicero and Ancient Ethics: The Dialogue On Moral Ends (De finibus bonorum et malorum)  Brad Inwood

Cicero’s most important and influential work on moral philosophy is the dialogue On Moral Ends (De finibus bonorum et malorum). Written within the general framework of eudaimonism, the dialogue expounds on and criticizes the ethical theory of three contemporary schools: Epicurean, Stoic, and Peripatetic. On Moral Ends presents important debates in ethics, gives us extensive evidence for Hellenistic philosophy in general, and had significant influence on moral theory in the early modern period. We read the entire dialogue, with more emphasis on the Stoic (books 3–4) and Peripatetic (book 5) debates than on the Epicurean (books 1–2). In class we work predominantly from the translation by Raphael Woolf, but Latin readers are expected to read key parts of the dialogue in Latin as well; there will be a separate meeting for discussion of issues that arise from the Latin text. Prerequisite: graduate enrollment in Philosophy or Classics, or permission of the instructor.
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

CLSS 889b, Greek Epigraphy  François Gerardin

This course provides an introduction to Greek epigraphy—the study of inscriptions written in ancient Greek—its methods, scholarship, and aims. Key texts from the corpus are translated, analyzed, and discussed in class. We read some inscriptions in verse (“metric inscriptions”) along with prose texts. Themes for discussion are linguistic (literacy, dialects, multilingualism) and/or historical (education, law, mythography). The course also offers essential preparation for texts included in the Combined Program in Classics and History reading list.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 890a / ARCG 581a / HSAR 581a, Roman Painting: Achievement and Legacy  Diana Kleiner

Roman mural painting in all its aspects and innovations. Individual scenes and complete ensembles in palaces, villas, and houses in Rome and Pompeii are explored, as are their rediscovery and revival in the Renaissance and neoclassical period. Special attention is paid to the four architectural styles; history and mythological painting; the impact of the theater; the part played by landscape, genre, and still life; the accidental survival of painted portraiture; and the discovery and rejection of trompe l’oeil illusionism and linear perspective.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

CLSS 891b, Translation and the Classics  Emily Greenwood

This course examines translations of a wide range of Greek and Latin texts in the context of translation studies. As well as exploring the practice and theory of translation in ancient Greece and Rome, including the intersection of translation, tradition, and reception, we address modern texts that are literary classics in their own right, and which are also in some sense translations/adaptations/versions of Greek and Roman classics. Individual seminars focus on the translation of Homer, Sappho, Catullus, Horace, and Ovid, and topics for discussion include the dialogue between translations of Greco-Roman “classics” and theories of translation and gender; postcolonial translation; and intralingual translation. Against the backdrop of debates about what we lose from studying classics in translation, this course is alert to what traditional philology gains from that study and from theorizing the activity of translation.
T 7pm-8:50pm

CLSS 892b, Narrative and Vision  Kirk Freudenburg

This seminar explores the theory and practice of image production (enargeia, descriptio: the production of a full visual presence through verbal means) in ancient epic, with special focus on the narratological ends to which the poet’s special “visualizing effects” are the means. The main epic poet studied is Vergil, but accounting for his visual practices requires a much fuller accounting of enargeia in the various “visualizing” poetic traditions to which he refers (especially Homer, Lucretius, and Catullus); in rhetoric, both its theory and practice (Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian); in historiography (Livy and Tacitus); and in other “actual” visual media such as wall paintings, sculpture, and architecture. We look at the related topics of ekphrasis, Roman concepts of “nobility” and “spectacle,” and to further developments in the production of visualization in the epics of Ovid, Statius, Lucan, and Valerius Flaccus, as well as to the basic practices, categories, and theorizations of film narratology (Bordwell, Mulvey, Verstraten).
T 2:30pm-4:20pm

CLSS 896a, History of Greek Literature I  Egbert Bakker

A comprehensive treatment of Greek literature from Homer to the imperial period, with an emphasis on archaic and Hellenistic poetry. The course prepares for the comprehensive oral qualifying examinations. The student is expected to read extensively in the original language, working toward familiarity with the range and variety of the literature.
MW 1pm-2:15pm

CLSS 897b, History of Greek Literature II  Emily Greenwood

A continuation of CLSS 896a.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

CLSS 900a or b, Directed Reading  Staff

By arrangement with faculty.
HTBA

GREK 703b, The History and Structure of Ancient Greek: From Word to Text  Egbert Bakker

This course provides a brief introduction to the comparative-historical study of Greek verbs and nouns; sentence-level grammatical training based on “composition” exercises; and awareness of “syntax beyond the sentence”: the linguistic means ancient Greek speakers and writers had at their disposal to create “cohesion” of their discourse as a means for the text to achieve its communicative or rhetorical goals. The course provides a thorough grounding in the structure of ancient Greek words, sentences, and texts. It fulfills the graduate course requirements for Greek prose composition and historical or comparative linguistics.
TTh 9am-10:15am

GREK 750a, Euripides’s Late Tragedies  Egbert Bakker

Close reading of three late plays of Euripides, Helen, Ion, and Iphigenia in Tauris. Class discussion focuses on Euripides’s literary and dramatic technique and on the issues of myth, geography, as well as cultural and personal identity in these tragedies. We also consider how the plays (qualified as “romantic tragedies,” “paratragedies,” and “tragicomedies”) question the identity of the tragic genre and open new dramatic possibilities at the end of the fifth century BCE.
MW 9am-10:15am

GREK 763b, Praxis and Theory of the Greek Symposium  Egbert Bakker

This course is a study (reading in the original, interpretation, and discussion) of a selection of texts pertaining to the ancient Greek symposium (a wine-drinking event by elite males) as a central cultural institution. Readings include poetic texts (“songs”) that were meant to be sung and performed by the participants (“symposiasts”); and prose representations of the symposium as an imagined event in which philosophical ideas were put forward.
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

LATN 714b, Roman Civil Wars  Irene Peirano

An examination of the ways in which Romans constructed and represented their civil wars in literature across a variety of genres (epic, lyric, historiography), authors (Vergil, Lucan, Caesar, Sallust), and time periods (late republic, empire).
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

LATN 721a, Vergil’s Aeneid  Kirk Freudenburg

An in-depth study of Vergil’s Aeneid within its political context.
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LATN 739b, Roman Satire  Kirk Freudenburg

Close reading of a large cross-section of Roman verse satire. Attention to language, style, genre, and cultural context. Students also read from related works of Latin poetry as well as modern scholarship.
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

LATN 762a, The Histories of Tacitus  Christina Kraus

Close reading of Tacitus’s Histories and parallel passages from the other works, with attention to his syntax and style. The influence of Tacitus’s background and experience on his narrative is focal throughout.
TTh 9am-10:15am

LATN 790b, Latin Syntax and Stylistics  Joseph Solodow

A systematic review of syntax and an introduction to Latin style. Selections from Latin prose authors are read and analyzed, and students compose short pieces of Latin prose. For students with some experience reading Latin literature who desire a better foundation in forms, syntax, idiom, and style.
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm