One of the most important ways Greece and Rome connect with our world is through the words and word-parts English has taken from Greek and Latin. Classics 201 will examine this linguistic connection and teach the skill of seeing and understanding roots, prefixes and suffixes that make up many English words and that reveal a lot about their history and meaning. The course will include specialized terminologies used in medicine and law. No prerequisite. 

Stories of gods and heroes as told by Homer, Vergil and Ovid. We will attempt to understand how myths arose and functioned in the oral culture of the early Greeks, and how they were used by poets in the literary cultures that followed. Satisfies the Literary Studies (FSLT) requirement. No prerequisite. 

A survey of Roman art and architecture from the early republic through the late empire, and throughout the Roman world, from Spain to Syria. This course explores the meanings of "style" in Roman art and the social and political significance of Roman sculpture, painting, and architecture. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts (FSVP) requirement. No prerequisite. 

Selected Topics: Introduction to Archaeology – An introduction to archaeological method and theory, with special focus on the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean basin. We will consider the history of the discipline and major advances and trends in archaeological science and interpretation while examining select case-studies from the Mediterranean world (e.g., Çatal Höyük, Knossos, and Pompeii). There will be a “hands-on” component introducing students to basic techniques of field survey and recording.  Students taking this course may apply to participate in the Central Lydia Archaeology Survey (near Sardis in western Turkey) in summer 2009. No prerequisite. 

Available only through departmental permission arranged prior to registration.

This course will start from the world and poetry of Catullus, one of the most spontaneous and personal of all ancient poets. Our attempt to reconstruct the Catullus that his friends and admirers knew in the mid-first century BCE will lead us into several basic forms of inquiry: first, what exactly Catullus was expressing in his poems; then what artifice he used to express himself; and finally how he would have performed his poetry when he read to an audience. We will also look at the tradition of Latin Lyric in broader perspective, reading a series of authors in the medieval, renaissance and modern periods. In these we will see the rise of rhymed, stressed poetry, and then the renovation of ancient forms. The goal will be to gain an appreciation of one of the world's most influential and long-lived literary languages.