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CLASSICS COURSES

Click HERE for a PDF of course offerings for Fall 2024.

Course List for CLCS, GREK, and LATN

CLCS COURSES: all readings in English

CLCS 18100 — Classical World Civilizations
The course introduces students to "Classical" civilizations on three continents (Europe, Africa, and Asia) demonstrably interconnected by an ancient world system. The course focuses on essential themes of past civilizations: religion, philosophy, surviving texts, gender relations, urbanism, technology, and social and political formations. All readings are in English. 

CLCS 23010 - Survey of Greek Literature in Translation
Introduction to Ancient Greek literature from Homer to Plato. 

CLCS 23100 - Survey of Latin Literature
Highlights of literature written in Ancient Rome at times of political, social, and intellectual turbulence. Reading includes Vergil's Aeneid, as well as selections from other influential Latin texts.

CLCS 23200 - Classical Roots of English Words
This is an introduction to English etymology with an emphasis on building vocabulary. Students will learn English derivatives from both classical Greek and Latin. 

CLCS 23300 - Comparative Mythology
Comparative study of the myths of major ancient cultures, with emphasis on shared typological features.


Ninety to ninety-five percent of scientific technical vocabulary and medical terminology come from Latin and Greek roots and affixes. This course will enable students in scientific and medical disciplines to develop a foundational core of Greek and Latin roots and affixes from which they will be able to decipher and easily commit to memory the core terminology in the various sciences and medicine.


A study of the myths of Western antiquity, as represented in Greek and Latin texts and images dating from roughly the 8th through the 1st centuries BCE. along with learning specific mythic narratives and examining their place in ancient society, we will also be concerned with how deeply our own modern habits of thinking - about such things as nature, self, society, power, sexuality, gender, work, death - are influenced by Greco-Roman myths.
This course fulfills the S General Education, GTC-Humanistic-Artistic, and UC-Humanities requirements.

CLCS 23600 - Ancient World Onscreen
How film represents ancient Mediterranean civilizations and retells ancient myths; how cinematic renderings of ancient history shape views of the past and how these are affected by contemporary sensibilities.

CLCS 23700 - Gender and Sexuality in Greek and Roman Antiquity
How identities based on gender, sexual behavior and sexual desire, and socio-economic status are established in ancient Greece and Rome. Exploration of why these ancient views of gender and sexuality remain of continuing importance in the 21st century. 

CLCS 23800 - The Tragic Vision
Greek and Roman tragedy from their beginnings until today. Readings in English from representative authors such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca; later receptions of ancient tragedy in drama and other media. Course may include performance, theories of comedy and tragedy, or recent and current expressions of the tragedy in film and other media. 

CLCS 23900 - The Comic Vision
This course investigates Greek and Roman comedy from its beginnings until today. The course will feature readings in English from representative authors such as Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence, as well as later receptions of ancient comedy in drama and other media. This course may include performance, theories of comedy and tragedy, theories of humor, or recent and current expressions of the comic in film and other media.

CLCS 33700 -The Ancient Epic
Study of the epic in four ancient cultures, with emphasis on its structure, nature, and social functions. Readings may include Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Tain, Mahabharata, and others.

CLCS 38000 - Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
The course examines the career of Alexander the Great and the rise of Macedonia in the Hellenistic Era. Topics include the emergence of Macedonia under Philip II; the achievements of Alexander the Great; and the wars of succession following his demise. 

CLCS 38100 - Julius Caesar: Statesman, Soldier, Citizen
The course examines the career of Julius Caesar by focusing on events from Caesar's birth (100 BCE) through his assassination in 44 BCE. The course places Caesar's complex personality within the context of political, military, economic, social, and cultural upheaval during the Late Roman Republic. 

CLCS 38300 - The Roman Empire
The course examines developments from the Augustan Settlement to the end of the Roman Empire (27BCE - 476CE), along with aspects of religious, social, sexual, and material culture throughout the Mediterranean at that time. 

CLCS 38400 - Ancient Western Medicine
The historical and cultural study of Western medicine, from Mesopotamian origins to the late Roman Empire, is based on written texts and archaeological evidence. Addresses the development of rational medical frameworks against the background traditional beliefs about the illness as a sign of demonic possession, and charts the growth of the medical profession from individual avocation to institutional practice. 

CLCS 38500 - Science, Medicine, and Magic in the Ancient West
Study of the development of the idea of rationality in the West through examination of the evolution of Greek and Roman sciences, with emphasis on medicine and astronomy. 

CLCS 38600 - Ancient Greek Religion
Study of the religious beliefs and practices of ancient Greece, based on written, artistic, and archaeological evidence of their forms and functions.

CLCS 38700 - Roman Religion
Study of the religious beliefs and practices of ancient Rome, based on written, artistic, and archaeological evidence of their forms and functions.

CLCS 48000 - Potters and Society in Antiquity
The course covers the range of eastern Mediterranean ceramics encountered in Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project from the Bronze Age to the Later Roman Empire. The course also explores strategies employed by archaeologists and historians to exploit ceramics as research materials.  

CLCS 48100 - Culture and Society in the Age of Pericles
The course explores interrelationships between the emergence of Greek democracy and the cultural, political, social, and economic rise of Athens in the fifth century BCE. More broadly, the course surveys the history of the Greek world from the Late Bronze Age to 362 BCE. 

CLCS 48300 - Republican Rome
The course examines the military, political, economic, and social developments that enabled the Roman people to expand from an Italian city-state to a trans-Mediterranean empire and the consequences that initiated the decline and transition in their republican form of government. 

CLCS 59000 - Directed Reading in Classics
Directed readings in Classics. Permission of instructor required.

 

GREEK LANGUAGE COURSES

GREK 10100 - Ancient Greek Level I
Introduction to Ancient Greek. Focus on grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and elementary readings in the language of classical Athens. Offered each Fall.

GREK 10200 - Ancient Greek Level II
Continuation of the study of Attic Greek grammar and reading of connected prose of the Classical period.

GREK 20100 - Ancient Greek Level III
An intermediate reading course in Greek, designed to strengthen students’ grasp of grammar and syntax, broaden vocabulary, and develop foundational skills in reading and translation. Typical readings: selections from the Greek New Testament. Offered each Fall.

GREK 20200 - Ancient Greek Level IV
An upper intermediate reading course in ancient Greek, designed to consolidate students' knowledge of grammar and syntax, broaden vocabulary, and develop precision and confidence in reading and translation. 

GREK 49000 - Directed Reading In Classical Greek
This course may be arranged as needed if other upper-level reading courses are unavailable. Permission of instructor required.

 

LATIN LANGUAGE COURSES (not all courses available every semester)

LATN 10100 - Latin Level I
Introduction to the classical Latin language. Focus on grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and elementary readings. Offered each Fall.

LATN 10200 - Latin Level II
Second-semester introduction to Latin. Focus on grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and elementary readings in classical Latin. Offered each Spring.

LATN 105 - Accelerated Basic Latin
Foundational Latin grammar course designed to prepare students to read classical and postclassical Latin in a single intensive semester. Focus on grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and elementary readings. The accelerated Latin course assumes no previous knowledge of Latin and makes it possible for the diligent student to be able to read any Latin prose or poetry (with a dictionary) after a single semester. (Upon completion students will be prepared to enroll in Latin 201.) Typically offered Fall Spring Summer.

LATN 20100 - Latin Level III
An intermediate reading course in Latin, designed to strengthen students’ grasp of grammar and syntax, broaden vocabulary, and develop foundational skills in reading and translation. Typical readings: selections from the Vulgate bible and Ovid's Metamorphoses. Offered each Fall.


 An upper intermediate reading course in Latin poetry (Catullus) and prose (Cicero), designed to consolidate students’ grasp of grammar and syntax, broaden vocabulary, and develop precision and confidence in reading and translation. Offered Spring and Fall.

LATN 31500 - Latin Paleography I
This course gives students the opportunity to work with original medieval Latin manuscripts, involving transcription and translation, as well as study the creation, care, and preservation of rare manuscripts. Typically offered Fall Spring.

Upper-level Latin reading courses:

LATN 34300 - Roman Oratory
LATN 34400 - Roman Epic
LATN 34500 - Roman Elegy
LATN 34600 - Roman Rhetoric
LATN 34700 - Roman Comedy
LATN 44200 - Roman Lyric Poetry
LATN 44300 - Roman Satire
LATN 44400 - Roman Philosophers
LATN 44500 - Roman Encyclopedists
LATN 44600 - Roman Historians

LATN 49000 - Directed Reading In Latin. This course may be arranged as needed if other upper-level reading courses are unavailable. Permission of instructor required.

LATN 60100 - Latin Reading for Graduate Students (1st semester)
Foundational Latin grammar course designed to prepare graduate students in related disciplines (Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Philosophy, etc.) to learn to read classical and post-classical Latin.

LATN 60500 - Latin Reading for Graduate Students (2nd semester)
This course continues the intensive Latin language option offered to graduate students in the fall (Latin 601). We will finish the foundational grammar and continue to develop our skills in reading and translation.