Adam Serfass

This course surveys the history of ancient Greece from its occluded origins in the pre-Homeric past to the widespread diffusion of Hellenic culture that accompanied the conquests of Alexander the Great. At the heart of the course is a careful study of the emergence and development of the Greek city-state in its various incarnations. The course provides a solid grounding in political history but also explores aspects of the cultural milieu -- for example, religion, sexual mores and the economy -- that fostered some of the greatest literary and artistic works produced by Western civilization. We read from the celebrated Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, as well as from a variety of other sources, ranging from the familiar to the recondite. This course fulfils a core course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.

Training in rhetoric -- the art of public speaking -- was a cornerstone of education in antiquity. The techniques developed in Greece and Rome for composing and analyzing speeches remain invaluable today, but the formal study of these techniques has all but disappeared from undergraduate curricula. This course seeks to fight this trend. In the opening weeks, we read ancient handbooks on rhetoric, which anatomize the strategies and tropes available to the public speaker, and engage in classroom exercises in speechmaking developed millennia ago. We then examine the crucial role that rhetoric played in three venues: the assembly of democratic Athens, the criminal courts of republican Rome and the cathedrals of Christian bishops in late antiquity. We read and analyze extant speeches delivered in these three venues by figures such as Pericles, Cicero and the Cappadocian Fathers, as well as comparable speeches delivered by more contemporary figures such as Churchill, Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. It is hoped that the academic study of ancient rhetoric aids students in developing their own skills as public speakers. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of the major. No prerequisite. Offered occasionally.

In this capstone course, the content of which changes on a regular basis, students study closely a particular topic in classics that benefits from an investigation based on a wide range of approaches (e.g., literary, historical, archaeological). The course seeks to further students' skills in written and verbal communication. Each student writes a major research paper on a subject related to the topic of the seminar and outlines the results of the inquiry in an oral presentation. This course is required of and restricted to classics majors and minors in their senior year. Offered every year.

This yearlong course prepares students to read Ancient Greek literature in its original form. The first semester and the first half of the second semester consist of readings and exercises from a textbook designed to help students build a working vocabulary and learn the extensive and subtle grammar of this language. Twice a week students translate a short piece of authentic Greek, appreciating its artistry and situating it in its cultural context. After spring break, the hard work of the preceding months is rewarded with the opportunity to read Plato's dialogue "Crito" or another text written in Attic prose. The course is taught in English and does not presuppose any knowledge either of Ancient Greek or of grammatical terminology. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to GREK 112Y for the spring semester. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of the major. No prerequisite. Offered every year.

This yearlong course prepares students to read Ancient Greek literature in its original form. The first semester and the first half of the second semester consist of readings and exercises from a textbook designed to help students build a working vocabulary and learn the extensive and subtle grammar of this language. Twice a week, students translate a short piece of authentic Greek, appreciating its artistry and situating it in its cultural context. After spring break, the hard work of the preceding months is rewarded with the opportunity to read Plato's dialogue "Crito" or another text written in Attic prose. The course is taught in English and does not presuppose any knowledge either of Ancient Greek or of grammatical terminology. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of the major. Prerequisite: GREK 111Y. Offered every year.

It is a great pleasure to read Homer in Greek, and this course seeks to help students do so with accuracy and insight. Students acquire a working knowledge of Homer's vocabulary and syntax, and explore some of the key literary and historical questions that have occupied his readers. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of the major. Offered every spring.

Students improve their skills in reading Greek and discuss scholarship on the author or authors being read that semester. Each semester the readings change, so that GREK 301 and 302 can be taken, to the student's advantage, several times. Students are encouraged to inform the instructor in advance if there is a particular genre, author or theme they would especially like to study. The list of authors taught in this course includes the lyric poets; the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes; and great prose stylists such as Plato and Thucydides, to name just a few. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of the major. Offered every spring.

Individual study in Greek allows students to study texts not covered or minimally covered in existing courses. To be eligible for an individual study, a student must also concurrently enroll in the advanced Greek course offered during the semester in which the individual study is to take place. If this is impossible, the student must petition for an exemption in the proposal to the department. To enroll in an individual study, a student should meet with an appropriate faculty member for a preliminary discussion of the project. If the faculty member is willing to supervise the study, the student must submit a proposal by email to all members of the department on campus. Departmental approval is required for the individual study to proceed. If the proposal is approved, the student should take the initiative in designing the course and, in consultation with the supervisor, develop a syllabus. The student and supervisor should meet at least one hour each week. For an individual study worth 0.5 units, the workload must be equivalent, at minimum, to that encountered in an advanced Greek course. For individual studies worth 0.25 units, the work should be approximately half that encountered in such a course. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study by the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval.\n

In this course, students improve their skills in reading Latin and discuss scholarship on the author or authors being read during the semester. Each semester the readings change, so that LATN 301 and 302 can be taken, to the student's advantage, several times. Students are encouraged to inform the instructor if there is a particular genre, author or theme they would especially like to study. The list of authors regularly taught in this course includes Horace and Ovid; the comic poet Plautus; and great prose stylists such as Livy, Tacitus, Petronius and Augustine, to name just a few. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of the major. Offered every fall.