An interdisciplinary seminar focusing on the city of Troy both as an archaeological site and as the setting of the legendary Trojan War. We will consider Homer's Iliad (with selected sections read in Greek) together with the topography and archaeology of the site of Troy in order to address a series of interrelated questions: What are the points of continuity and discontinuity between the stories told by the literary tradition and the material record? How do both types of evidence contribute to our understanding of political relations and cultural interactions between Greece and Anatolia in the Bronze Age? How do Hittite sources bear on our reconstruction of the events behind the Troy legend? How have the site and the poem contributed to each other's interpretation in the context of scholarly discovery and debate? We will give some attention to modern receptions of the Troy legend that deliberately combine material and textual elements, such as Cy Twombly's "Fifty Days at Iliam" and Alice Oswald's "Memorial: An Excavation of Homer's Iliad." The seminar will include a visit to the site of Troy during the Spring Break.

Study of Greek grammar, vocabulary, and stylistic features, combining exercises in analysis, composition, and sight translation. Intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

Study of Greek grammar, vocabulary, and stylistic features, combining exercises in analysis, composition, and sight translation. Intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

The parasitic humorists referred to as “parodists” have existed as long as there have been hosts to supply them their blood. Authors of all genres, from Homer to Aristotle to Herodotus to Euripides, have fallen prey to them. The successful parodist masters their target’s style and, via reasoned application of distortions and manipulations, turns it to their own purpose. A literary parody is therefore a species of embodied criticism, the study of which (pleasurable and rewarding in itself) inevitably also enriches one’s understanding of the target text, the mechanisms of generic transformation and the rhetorical power of the comic.

Advanced Greek for heritage speakers.

It is the continuation of GREK 0388 with completing Grammar (passive voice as well as unusual nouns and adjectives etc.,) and adding more challenging reading and writing material. The completion of this course satisfies the language requirement. ALL students completing the HSI GREK 0388 are eligible to enroll. ALL OTHERS will have to take a placement test.

Further attention to developing oral expression, reading, and writing skills for students with knowledge of Demotic Modern Greek.

We will read a selection of passages from Greek poetic authors, ranging from Homer to tragedy.

Continuation of Elementary Modern Greek I, with increased emphasis on reading and writing.

Students complete their study of the morphology and syntax of Classical Greek. We begin the semester with continuing exercises in grammar and translation, then gradually shift emphasis to reading unadapted Greek texts.