Upcoming Courses

Spring 2025

Courses are divided into three areas of study: Classics in English, Greek, and Latin. All available courses can also be viewed via BannerWeb. All courses are one unit (unless otherwise indicated). 

Classics in English, Archaeology, and Linguistics

Classics 101- Classical  Mythology
TR 1:30-2:45 pm - Damer
Classics 101 will introduce students to myths of the ancient Mediterranean. Students will read some of the major works of Greek, Latin, and Mesopotamian literature and come to understand how peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and beyond used myth in their literature, history, religion, and art. Satisfies the Literary Studies requirement (FSLT). No prerequisite.

LING 252 - Intro to Indo-European Linguistics
TR 12:00-1:15 pm - Wong Medina
This course serves as an introduction to historical-comparative linguistics and the Indo-European family of languages. This large language family includes ancient languages like Hittite, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin, and Gothic, as well as modern spoken languages like English, Swedish, Spanish, Romanian, Lithuanian, Russian, Farsi, and Hindi, among many others. You will learn about the structure and vocabulary of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the parent language from which all other Indo-European languages are descended, and you will cultivate an understanding of how PIE assumed the form of its many daughter languages. You will also acquire an intuitive sense of how different Indo-European languages and language families are related to one another and how languages change and diverge over time. By the end of the course, you will be able to explain how PIE *ĝómb^hos became Ancient Greek γόμφος ‘peg’, Russian зуб ‘tooth’, and English comb, and how the ancestor of Ancient Greek γυνή and Serbo-Croatian žena became English queen. Satisfies the Historical Studies Field of Study (FSHT). No prerequisite.

Classics 306 – The Classical Tradition
Two sections: TR 12:00-1:15 pm; 3:00-4:15 pm – Baker
Why do the buildings of so many powerful institutions all look vaguely similar? Why does a particular visual style dominate so much of the collection of major galleries? Why does the ancient world still sell in twenty-first-century film and television (see: Rome, Gladiator II, KAOS and so many more)? Starting in present-day Richmond, this course will explore contemporary manifestations of the classical style in visual, architectural, and literary forms, as well as tracing the evolution of a tradition that made this style a defining element of what we call western culture back to its invention in the Italian Renaissance and its origins in the ancient societies and cultures of the Mediterranean. Satisfies the Historical Studies requirement. (FSHT). No prerequisite.

Classics 308 – Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in Greece & Rome
MW 3:00-4:15 pm – Damer
Have you ever wondered what women’s lives were like in the Ancient Mediterranean? Or how people thought about gender & sexuality in Greece, Rome, or Hellenistic Egypt? In this class, students will learn how to employ contemporary feminist and queer interpretation in the close analysis of text and art from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquity. We will pay particular attention to issues involving gender, sexuality, status, class, and ethnicity, and to what role literature and other forms of art played in the social & cultural construction of human identities in the ancient world. We will study ongoing efforts to center the lives of marginalized people in antiquity (women, enslaved people, non-citizens) in our readings, and study moments where women, and enslaved and freed people, found agency and power in their communities. Credit can be earned in WGSS, FSSA, Web of Inquiry Social Inquiry & PEIC. No prerequisite.

Archaeology 310 – Archaeology of Death
F 12:00-2:40 pm – Baughan
From pyramids and pyres to simple pine caskets, the different ways people treat the dead and mark graves can reflect how human societies are organized and individual identities defined. Unlike most other archaeological contexts, burials are intentional deposits that reflect conscious decisions as well as embedded cultural traditions and, often, religious beliefs. Students in this course will learn and assess different approaches archaeologists use to discover, analyze, and interpret mortuary evidence. They will also apply basic methods of ‘above-ground’ cemetery archaeology and genealogical research to help recover buried history and contribute to public scholarship, with a collaborative community-engaged project focusing on a historic African American cemetery in the Richmond area. Counts toward the Archaeology minor, and credit can be earned in WGSS.

Classics 499 – Independent Study
TBD
Available only through departmental approval prior to registration.

Greek

Greek 102 - Elementary Greek
MWF 12:00-12:50 pm – Wong Medina
We will continue our study of ancient Greek and the history and culture of classical Greece.  As in Greek 101, emphasis will be placed on mastering essential vocabulary and forms and on practicing reading and other comprehension skills. Prerequisite: Greek 101. Partially satisfies the Communication Skills II Foreign Language requirement (COM II).

Greek 202 - Intermediate Greek
MWF 12:00-12:50 pm – Simpson
We will continue our study of Greek literature with a focus on the Medea of Euripides.  Students will continue to develop reading and comprehension skills, a working vocabulary, and an understanding of the cultural and literary backgrounds to the dramatic literature of classical Athens. Prerequisite: Greek 201 or permission of the department. Satisfies the Communication Skills II Foreign Language requirement (COM II).

Greek 398 – Greek Lyric
TR 9:00-10:15 am – Wong Medina
The Greeks were fascinated with poetry, it played a crucial role in their society and culture, from public festivals to drinking parties. Unlike other forms of monumental art, poetry could travel and be enjoyed across the Greek-speaking world, spreading fame, slander, and new aesthetic visions. In this course, you will read a representative selection of lyric poems from Campbell’s Greek Lyric Poetry. This anthology includes poems of the soldier-poet Archilochus, the statesman Solon, the Lesbian poets Sappho and Alcaeus, as well as Alcman, Ibycus, Semonides, Mimnermus, Anacreon, Theognis, and Tyrtaeus. We will supplement our reading from Campbell with recently discovered poems of Sappho, selections from Pindar, and secondary readings about the social role of lyric poetry in Greek culture. The various literary dialects employed in the composition of Greek lyric will also serve as a window into the epichoric dialects of Archaic Greece. Prerequisite: Greek 202 or permission of the department.

Greek 499 – Independent Study
TBD
Available only through departmental permission arranged prior to registration.

Latin

Latin 102 - Elementary Latin
MWF 10:30-11:20 am – Baughan
We will continue our study of Latin and the history and culture of classical Rome.  As in Latin 101, emphasis will be placed on mastering essential grammar and vocabulary and on practicing reading and other comprehension skills. Prerequisite: Latin 101 or permission of department. Partially satisfies the Communication Skills II Foreign Language requirement (COM II).

Latin 202 – Intermediate Latin
Two sections: MWF 10:30-11:20 am - Damer; 1:30-2:20 pm – Stevenson
This course will introduce students to Latin poetry. It will begin with the poet Catullus whose intensely personal and passionate style has seduced readers for thousands of years and focus in the second half on Ovid’s always witty and often subversive poetry and various later poets in the same tradition. Close attention will be paid to the full artistry of the poetry -- meter, sound play, and word placement -- while we continue to reinforce the vocabulary and grammar learned in the previous three semesters. Prerequisite: Latin 201 or permission of department. Satisfies the Communication Skills II Foreign Language requirement (COM II).

Latin 306 – Roman Philosophical Literature
TR 1:30-2:45 pm – Simpson
We will study Lucretius’ De rerum natura as a philosophical text and an epic poem.  Readings in Cicero and Vergil in English will round out the debate between Stoicism and Epicureanism that was central to Roman thinking at the time, while our readings in Latin will focus on Lucretius’ execution of a plan to represent his philosophy of human nature and the world in the words, verses and books of his epic.

Latin 499 – Independent Study
TBD
Available only through departmental approval arranged prior to registration.

Please visit the major/minor page for full details on our curricula and major/minor requirements.