Learning Goals

Curricular goals for courses, majors, and minors

Classical Languages

Majors in Classical Languages will:

  1. Become familiar with canonical texts of Greek and Latin literature and read them in the original language with fluency.
  2. Learn to translate unknown Greek and/or Latin texts at sight.
  3. Show outstanding familiarity with the historical and literary contexts within which Greek and Latin authors worked, and identify genres of Greek and Latin literature and their characteristics.
  4. Understand technical aspects of Greek and Latin literature such as poetic meters and prosody.
  5. Read and understand significant works of modern scholarship relevant to ancient Greek and Latin literature.

Concentration in Classical Languages: Ancient Greek

Beginning Greek (CLSG 1011 and 1012)

Students will:

  1. Receive a thorough introduction to Attic Greek morphology and syntax, with the first eleven chapters of H. Hansen and G.M. Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course covered in the fall semester, and the remainder of the book by early March; at that point, students should be able actively to produce, as well as passively recognize all verbal and nominal paradigms.
  2. Learn basic vocabulary and techniques for vocabulary building and word recognition.
  3. Read two speeches of Lysias.
  4. Gain experience reading passages of Greek prose at sight.

Intermediate Greek (CLSG 1511)

Students will:

  1. Briefly review and demonstrate control of Greek morphology and syntax.
  2. Acquire the vocabulary necessary to read central poetic and prose texts.
  3. Read substantial, continuous passages(s) of Attic prose such as Plato or Xenophon (about 30 Oxford Classical Text pages) and at least 600 lines of a Greek tragedy.
  4. Develop proficiency in translating at sight Greek poetry and prose.
  5. Learn about Greek prosody and understand Greek verse structures, including the iambic trimeter and the dactylic hexameter.
  6. Acquire an awareness of the differences among Greek dialects, especially Attic, Ionic and Doric.

Advanced Greek (2000- and 3000-level CLSG)

Classes typically focus on an author, a single work of an author, or a genre. A minimum of 50 OCT pages will be read in the case of difficult authors (e.g. Thucydides); substantially more for less difficult authors. In the case of drama, students should read no fewer than two complete plays, including both spoken and lyrics sections.

Students will:

  1. Improve their ability to read and interpret a range of Greek poetic and prose texts.
  2. Understand principles of textual editing and learn to read an apparatus criticus.
  3. Read significant works of modern scholarship relevant to the texts studied, and understand the most important interpretive issues attending them. Critical papers making use of both the ancient text and secondary research sources are expected.
  4. Develop an understanding of the historical and literary context of the author and/or genre of the work studied.
  5. Gain an increased understanding of the generic forms with which an author works, and especially of the relationship between formal features such as dialect and meter and genre.
  6. Learn to scan and identify all stichic meters, and acquire an understanding of the structure of lyrics meters.
  7. For prose texts, learn the features that mark an author’s style.

Concentration in Classical Languages: Latin

Beginning Latin (CLSL 1011 and 1012)

Students will:

  1. Receive a thorough introduction to Latin morphology and syntax through the study of Moreland and Fleischer, An Intensive Course, to be completed by March.
  2. Learn basic vocabulary and techniques for vocabulary building.
  3. Spend the second half of the Spring semester reading unabridged selections from Caesar and from Catullus in order to reinforce and review their study of morphology, syntax, and vocabulary and to develop effective strategies for reading Latin texts.
  4. Acquire familiarity with the principles of Latin meter and learn the major verse forms of Catullan poetry (hendecasyllables, Sapphic stanza, elegiac couplets).

Intermediate Latin (CLSL 1511)

Students will:

  1. Briefly review and demonstrate control of Latin morphology and syntax.
  2. Acquire the vocabulary necessary to read central poetic and prose texts.
  3. Read speeches of Cicero (approx. 30 pgs. of Oxford Classical Text) and a book of Virgil’s Aeneid with a focus on accurate translation.
  4. Develop the ability to translate at sight Latin poetry and prose.
  5. Learn to scan at sight the dactylic hexameter and discuss its fundamental structure.

Advanced Latin (2000- and 3000-level CLSL)

Classes typically focus on an author, a single work of an author, or a genre. A minimum of 50 OCT pages will be read in the case of difficult authors (e.g. Juvenal); substantially more for less difficult authors.

Students will:

  1. Improve their ability to read and interpret a range of Latin poetic and prose texts.
  2. Understand principles of textual editing and learn to read an apparatus criticus.
  3. Read significant works of modern scholarship relevant to the texts studied, and come to understand the most important interpretive issues attending them. Critical papers making use of both the ancient text and secondary research sources are expected.
  4. Develop an understanding of the historical and literary context of the author and/or genre of the work studied.
  5. Gain a fuller understanding of the relationships between meter and content in Latin verse, as well as the idiosyncrasies of poetic language.
  6. For prose texts, learn the features that mark an author’s style.

Classical Studies

The Department of Classics’ course curriculum in Classical Studies consists of three levels of courses with their own goals. The major in Classical Studies expects students to combine courses at each level in order to achieve both a broad understanding of the ancient world and advanced proficiency in one or more of the fields of study encompassed by Classics (Greek and Latin language, literature, ancient history, and Classical art and archaeology).  One seminar is required to help students most fully develop as researchers.

1000-level Courses: Titles and Common Goals

Introduction to Greek Literature
Introduction to Roman Literature
Introduction to Classical Mythology
Introduction to Greek Archaeology
Introduction to Roman Archaeology
History of Ancient Greece
The Rise of Rome
Roman History: Empire

These courses are chronologically broad introductory surveys that aim to introduce students to the present state of their subjects within the larger framework of Classics. Courses in literature and ancient history feature weekly reading from the works of ancient authors in translation. Archaeology courses introduce students to the material culture of antiquity through the study of archaeological sites and artifacts of various types (pottery, sculpture, architecture). All of the courses introduce students to modern scholarly methods and opinions in ways appropriate to their subject matter and enrollments. Students should leave each of these courses with a strong sense of the chronology, major events and cultural trends of Greek and Roman antiquity. Students in these courses will complete writing assignments of short to moderate length that make use of primary sources (ancient authors, inscriptions, objects) as well as secondary reading.
 
2000-level Courses: Titles and Common Goals
(The inventory of these courses is subject to change; the following have been taught regularly.)

Women in Ancient Greece
Greek Drama
Sports in Ancient Greece and Rome
The City of Athens
Greek Religion
The Age of Alexander
Roman Sexuality
Julius Caesar: History and Legend
The Age of Augustus
Roman Architecture

These courses normally have a more restricted chronological and thematic scope than 1000-level surveys. Students engage on a deeper level with the material studied, for example through more extensive reading of primary sources in translation. Students also focus more intensely on the work of modern scholars dealing with specific problems than is required in 1000-level courses. Students will also write more than 1000-level courses, usually in the form of longer assignments that make use of more sources. They also typically expect independent student research into specific problems.

3000-level/4000-level seminar: Common Goals

Extensive student participation and a major research component (normally a research paper of 20-25 pages) distinguish these courses from both 1000- and 2000-level courses. The effectiveness of these courses is enhanced if students come to them after having taken 1000- and/or 2000-level courses in the relevant subject (literature/language, ancient history, archaeology). The topics of colloquia and seminars vary from year to year and follow the research interests and specialties of the faculty who teach them.