Courses
This introductory course examines the history, society, and culture of the Roman state in the Imperial age (ca. 31 BCE-ca. 500 CE), during which it underwent a traumatic transition from an oligarchic to a monarchic form of government, attained its greatest territorial expanse, produced its most famous art, architecture, and literature, experienced vast cultural and religious changes, and finally was transformed into an entirely different ("late antique") form of society. All readings in English.
Area: Humanities
This introductory level course examines the history, society, and culture of the Roman state in the Republican period (509-31 BCE), during which it expanded from a small city-state to a Mediterranean empire. We also consider the Republic's importance for American revolutionaries in the 18th century. All readings in English.
Area: Humanities
This course provides a comprehensive, intensive introduction to the study of ancient Greek. During the first semester, the focus will be on morphology and vocabulary. Cannot be taken Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
Course provides comprehensive, intensive introduction to the study of ancient Greek. The first semester’s focus is morphology and vocabulary; the second semester’s emphasis is syntax and reading. Course may not be taken Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.105
This course provides a comprehensive, intensive introduction to the study of Latin for new students, as well as a systematic review for those students with a background in Latin. Emphasis during the first semester will be on morphology and vocabulary. Course may not be taken Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
Course provides comprehensive, intensive introduction to the study of Latin for new students as well as systematic review for students with background in Latin. The first semester's emphasis is on morphology and vocabulary; the second semester's focus is on syntax and reading. Course may not be taken Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.107
The course will introduce students to major aspects of the ancient Greek civilization, with special emphasis placed upon culture, society, archaeology, literature, and philosophy.
Area: Humanities
Science Fiction has classically been considered a product – and even a hallmark – of the modern world. But this course opens up the world of ancient scientific fictions. From philosophical myth and utopia to the imaginary worlds of fantastical travelogues and novelistic adventures in outer space, these narratives take us deep into the scientific imagination of the ancient Greeks and Romans. We will examine how these invented worlds reflected critically and creatively on aspects of contemporary society, including political and cosmic structures; conflicts between religion and philosophy; death and the after-life; the body, sexuality and technology. We will also examine the influence these fictions had on lunar narratives of the (early) modern period, including Kepler’s Dream and Richard Adams Locke’s great lunar hoax of 1835.
Area: Humanities
This course focuses on major and often intricate myths and mythical patterns of thought as they are reflected in compelling ancient visual and textual narratives. Being one of the greatest treasure troves of the ancient world, these myths will further be considered in light of their rich reception in the medieval and modern world (including their reception in the modern fields of anthropology and philosophy).
Area: Humanities
Emphasis on ancient Greek ritual, music, religion, and society; and on cultural institutions such as symposia (drinking parties) and festivals.
Area: Humanities
This course aims to provide an in-depth exploration of Homer’s Odyssey (in translation). We will study the poem’s roots in a tradition of ancient oral poetry, gain a fuller understanding of how it was interpreted within different historical contexts, and examine the poem’s fascination with topics such as gender, class, tales of exploration and colonization, truth and lies and identity.
Area: Humanities
This seminar investigates the Eastern Mediterranean as a space of intense cultural interaction in the Late Bronze Age, exploring how people, ideas, and things not only came into contact but deeply influenced one another through maritime trade, art, politics, etc. In addition to class discussion, we will work hands-on with artifacts from the JHU Archaeological Museum, focusing on material from Cyprus.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
This course investigates the Greek and Latin roots of modern medical terminology, with additional focus on the history of ancient medicine and its role in the development of that terminology.
Area: Humanities
This course will examine the reception of the Classics in Japanese popular culture anime. We will view how characters, creatures, and beings from Greco-Roman myth are presented in anime, with special attention to concepts such as human beings, humanity, and divinity. Dean's Teaching Fellowship course.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
Reading ability in classical Greek is developed through a study of various authors.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.105 AND AS.040.106 or equivalent
Area: Humanities
Reading ability in classical Greek is developed through a study of various authors.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.205
Area: Humanities
Although emphasis is still placed on development of rapid comprehension, readings and discussions introduce student to study of Latin literature, principally through texts of various authors.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.107 AND AS.040.108 or equivalent
Area: Humanities
Reading ability in Latin is developed through the study of various authors, primarily Cicero (fall) and Vergil (spring).
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.207
Area: Humanities
This course explores the creation and role of early Aegean wall painting. Found primarily in palaces, villas and ritual spaces, these paintings interacted with architecture to create micro-worlds for social activities taking place in their midst. Their subjects range—from mythological to documentary, from ornamental to instructive. They depict dance and battle, fantastical beasts and daily life. We examine their complex relationship to lived reality as well as the activities that surrounded them, from their crafting, to performance of rituals, to their role in “international” relations.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
This course takes us on an exploratory journey through the ancient astronomical imaginary. We will focus on ancient Greek and Roman ideas about the structure of the cosmos, the substance and nature of the stars, the Earth’s place and role in the universe, ancient attempts to map the stars, and ancient beliefs about the significance of cosmic phenomena for events in the human world. The course will culminate in the extraordinary ancient tradition of lunar fictions, which are our earliest imaginative accounts of life on other worlds. Come join us for a voyage to the stars!
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
Judaism and Hellenism have been traditionally opposed to one another: the Jewish calendar celebrates the triumph of the Maccabees against the Hellenizers at Hannukah, and mourns the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans on Tisha Be-Av. However, the relationship between the Jewish people and the Graeco-Roman world can hardly be reduced to a military confrontation. Did these apparently opposite worlds influence one another? How were the Jews viewed among the Greeks and the Romans and the many other ethnic groups living in the ancient Mediterranean, and how did they view Greek and Latin culture? What did they have to offer on the international, multilingual ‘cultural market’ of the Graeco-Roman world? Through a selection of ancient texts and modern scholarship, this course analyzes the vicissitudes of the Jewish people and of Judaism from the Hellenistic Age to the Late Antique, throughout the centuries in which Greeks, Romans and Jews found themselves living “under one roof”. All readings in English. Dean's Teaching Fellowship course.
Area: Humanities
Islands present highly distinctive contexts for social life. We examine three island worlds of the third and second millennia BCE through their archaeological remains, each with its particularities. These are places where water had a unique and powerful meaning, where boat travel was part of daily life, where palaces flourished and where contact with other societies implied voyages of great distance across the sea. Class combines close study of material culture and consideration of island-specific interpretive paradigms; students work with artifacts in the JHU Archaeological Museum.
Area: Humanities
Students will acquire more in-depth knowledge of Ancient Greek literature by reading and discussing its most important and famous texts, from the Iliad and the Odyssey to tragedy to philosophy. Knowledge of Greek is not required.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.111 OR AS.040.121
Area: Humanities
In this course we will follow the fortunes of the ancient Greek and Roman novels.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.103 OR AS.040.104 OR AS.040.111 OR AS.040.112 OR AS.040.121 OR AS.040.133 OR AS.040.245
Area: Humanities
This course introduces students to the significance of Greek theater in its original context and to masterpieces of Greek tragedy such as Medea, Oedipus the King, and The Bacchae. Readings will be in English. No Greek is required. Recommended Course Background: AS.040.111 Ancient Greek Civilization, AS.040.121 Ancient Greek Mythology, or some exposure to ancient Greek culture.
Area: Humanities
This course aims to increase proficiency and improve comprehension of the ancient Greek language. Intensive reading of ancient Greek texts, with attention to grammar, idiom, translation, etc. Reading of prose or verse authors, depending on the needs of students. Specific offerings vary. Co-listed with AS.040.705.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.205 AND AS.040.206 or equivalent
Area: Humanities
This course aims to increase proficiency and improve comprehension of the ancient Greek language. Intensive reading of ancient Greek texts, with attention to grammar, idiom, translation, etc. Reading of prose or verse authors, depending on the needs of students. Specific offerings vary. Co-listed with AS.040.702.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.205 AND AS.040.206 or equivalent
Area: Humanities
This course aims to increase proficiency and improve comprehension of the Latin language. Intensive reading of Latin texts, with attention to grammar, idiom, translation, etc. Specific offerings vary. Co-listed with AS.040.707.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.207 AND AS.040.208 or equivalent
Area: Humanities
The aim of this course is to increase proficiency and improve comprehension of the Latin language. Intensive reading of Latin texts, with close attention to matters of grammar, idiom, and translation. Co-listed with AS.040.710.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.207 AND AS.040.208 or equivalent
Area: Humanities
One of the most fundamental human questions is: Where does life come from? It is no wonder that we find an array of theories and controversies already in our earliest written records. In this course we will follow the various “genetic theories” through the millennia and explore the influence they still exercise today. What did people think about heredity, evolution, the contribution of male and female to life? And what role did technology play in all of this? We will explore the earliest Greek philosophers, Aristotle, the scientific revolution, Darwin, and modern theorists. We will trace how speculation has slowly evolved into scientific method, but always stays embedded in its surrounding societies.All texts in English. Dean’s Teaching Fellowship course.
Area: Humanities
Through texts, art, and archaeological remains, this course examines the various worlds of Homer--those recalled in the Iliad and Odyssey, those within which the epics were composed, and those born of the poet's unique creative work. Class will make museum visits. Ancient texts read in translation..
Area: Humanities
This course explores the visual and material worlds of ancient Cyprus from the earliest human evidence through the Iron Age. Class involves regular analysis of artifacts based in the Archaeological Museum.
Area: Humanities
This experiential learning laboratory is experimental and imaginatively conceived, bringing together two partners that appear, at first glance, to exist very distantly apart: Modern Cosmology and Ancient Greek thought. Notwithstanding appearances, however, there are remarkable resonances between the fundamental cosmological questions that ancient thinkers grappled with and those that preoccupy cosmologists today. Such questions include: How big is the Universe? How old is it? How did the Universe evolve – and how will it end? Why is there something – rather than nothing at all? Is there Life (or Lyfe) elsewhere? The course will be built around a series of laboratory-style projects, which students will tackle in groups, and these will involve cosmological fieldwork, most likely at the Algonquin Radio Observatory in Ontario, Canada (tbc). Through these projects we will explore deep connections as well as differences between the ideas and language of ancient and modern cosmologies and help us understand the complex entanglements between cosmology and culture across time. No knowledge of math and physics or Ancient Greek is required, but some discussions will be quantitative. Come travel with us through time!
This intensive Latin survey is designed for very advanced undergraduate students--normally those who have completed two semesters of Advanced Latin (AS.040.307/308)--and PhD students preparing for their Latin translation exam. In this course, the first half of a year-long sequence, we will read substantial texts of major Republican and some Augustan authors. The weekly pace is designed to inculcate greater speed and accuracy in Latin reading, and provide significant coverage of various kinds of texts.Recommended background: AS.040.307-308 or equivalent
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.307 AND AS.040.308 or permission of instructor.
Area: Humanities
This intensive Latin survey is designed for very advanced undergraduate students (normally those who have completed the regular undergraduate sequence through the advanced level) and PhD students preparing for their Latin translation exam. In this course, the second half of a year-long sequence, we will read substantial texts of major Imperial authors, as well as a selection of works from Late Antiquity and the Post-Classical period. The weekly pace is designed to inculcate greater speed and accuracy in Latin reading and to provide significant coverages of various kinds of texts. Prior completion of AS.040.407 preferred but not required.
Prerequisite(s): AS.040.307 AND AS.040.308 or equivalent.
Area: Humanities
We shall read an extensive selection of major texts of Greek literature from Homer to the classical period.
Area: Humanities
We shall read, in the original Greek, major authors of Greek Literature from the Hellenistic period to the Imperial period.
Area: Humanities
This course gives participants a unique opportunity to engage directly in empirical research and its interpretation and dissemination. Topics vary. There are no prerequisites, but potential students should contact the instructor for permission to enroll.
Area: Humanities
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
This course explores the visual and material worlds of ancient Cyprus from the earliest human evidence through the Iron Age. Class involves regular analysis of artifacts based in the Archaeological Museum.
This seminar proposes an in-depth exploration of Homer’s Odyssey. One of the monumental epics of ancient Greek and a foundational text of world-literature, the Odyssey examines, through one man’s quest to make his way home, profound questions concerning the nature of identity, the meaning of suffering, the importance of sharing stories, and the strange allure of poetry itself. We will study Books 1-12 of the poem in the original Greek in order to gain advanced understanding of its language and style. Emphasis will also be placed on the study of commentaries and scholarship in order to enhance our understanding of the poem’s themes, the transmission of the text, and the historical, literary and social contexts in which-and in response to which-it grew.
This graduate seminar focuses on the oral practices that constitute “literary culture” in Rome in the first and second centuries CE: declamation, recitation, disputation emerging from reading, and the relationship of these practices to both literary “publication” and to arenas of traditional oratory such as the courts and the Senate. Weekly assignments will include substantial readings in Latin.
This graduate seminar examines work and labor in Latin literature, beginning with a close reading of Vergil's Georgics in Latin. We will pay particular attention to the female, enslaved, and non-human labor that elite male authors silence or sublimate, as well as the interpretive and methodological challenges that arise. Students will co-design the reading list; lead discussions around texts, topics and theories relevant to their research; and workshop one abstract, one grant proposal, and one conference paper each. Reading ability in Latin is required.
This seminar explores intersections between science and wonder in ancient Greek and Roman literature.
With a focus on material culture from the ancient Mediterranean, this seminar explores the diversity of ways in which objects may be understood to have lives or to be active elements of humans' lived experience. The seminar meets in the Archaeological Museum, where we can pair direct examination of objects with an exploration of multiple theoretical approaches and interests, such as object biography and agency, affordance theory, object-oriented ontologies, material animacies, embodiment, ecological and enactive perception, and the ongoing post-depositional existences of archaeological material. Students will eventually select an object as the focus of an individual research project.
A study of the Roman poet Ovid’s timeless tale of change, explored in relationship to the philosophical Daoism of Zhuangzi and to recent critical and philosophical concepts such as becoming, transformation, autopoeisis.
This course will survey works in Latin and the vernacular by the fifteenth-century Florentine humanist Angelo Poliziano, with particular attention to his correspondence, and with recourse to a variety of theoretical approaches, from classical reception theory to queer theory. Good reading ability in classical Latin is required; the same in Italian is ideal but not required.
This graduate seminar will explore Plato’s contributions to the “old quarrel” between poetry and philosophy, encompassing such topics as the relationship between poetic inspiration and human reason, the role of literature in pedagogy, and the metaphysical implications of poetic fiction. We will focus on several Greek texts from the Platonic corpus related to these themes, as well as some later sources that engage with Platonic ideas.
A well-documented feature of the middle to late Roman republic is the ferocious competitiveness of the aristocracy, and the governing class in particular. These people competed for prestige and glory on the battlefield, for offices and honors in government and administration, for visibility in public building, in forensic oratory in the courts, in deliberative oratory in various assemblies, and sometimes in literary production. Less well-understood is how the competitiveness of this group manifested itself in the early imperial age, as the emergence of the emperor shut down competition in some of these arenas and fundamentally changed the character of the competition in others. This seminar considers how some old arenas changed under the Imperial regime, and examines new forms that aristocratic competition assumed to make up for the arenas that had altogether disappeared.
This course covers essential Greek and Latin texts (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Plutarch) and the commentary tradition (e.g. scholia to Homer and other important authors). Focus is on poetic texts, with some prose.
In this course, we will follow the fortunes of the Greek novels from the Byzantine period onward, focusing especially on Heliodorus' _Aethiopica_. Knowledge of Greek is highly desirable but not required.
This reading seminar is intended to train graduate students in direct and critical work on primary sources. Co-listed with AS.040.306.
This reading seminar is intended to train graduate students in direct and critical work on primary sources. Co-listed with AS.040.305. Recommended Course Background: AS.040.205-AS.040.206.
Area: Humanities
This reading seminar is intended to train graduate students in direct and critical work on primary sources. Co-listed with AS.040.307.
This reading seminar is intended to train graduate students in direct and critical work on primary sources. Co-listed with AS.040.308. Recommended Course Background: AS.040.207-AS.040.208.
Area: Humanities
Study in preparation for a comprehensive oral exam, required to become a PhD candidate, and consisting of three fields in classics and related areas.
Study in preparation for a comprehensive oral exam, required to become a PhD candidate, and consisting of three fields in classics and related areas
No Audits.
No Audits.
Summer independent research for doctoral students.