ESH/776 Greek Literature Semester Two Course Unit Value: 1.0 Level 2 Lecture : Tuesday 11.00am 12pm Katie Fleming Room Laws G.4 Seminar: Tuesday 12pm 1.00pm Katie Fleming Room Arts 2.17 Seminar: Tuesday 12pm 1.00pm Aimee Shalan Room Laws G.4 Course Description: The impact of ancient Greek literature on the Western intellectual and artistic tradition has been profound. Poets, novelists, painters, politicians all have (re)turned to the ancient world for inspiration and authority. This course will examine ancient literature first-hand through the genres of epic poetry, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy. However, we will first put ancient Greek literature in its historic context: who were the Greeks? Under what circumstances did the authors whom we will study write? The introductory lecture will provide an overview of Greek culture and history, from the archaic to the classical periods. We will then turn to explore the literature itself, focussing on the Iliad; selected fragments of the poet, Sappho; the tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides); the comedy of Aristophanes; Thucydides history; and the Republic of Plato. Each lecture will explore the major themes of the works, their structure, function, and also briefly - their influence on later literature (with suggestions for further reading). Given the pre-eminent place of Athenian literature in the intellectual history of the West, we shall also spend some time examining the specific historical, political, and cultural circumstances of this polis (city-state) during the remarkable fifth-century BCE. Why should so short a period of history have had such a marked influence on modern culture? The main aims of this course are to familiarize students with the influential and important literature of ancient Greece and to overcome any difficulties faced in reading the literature of a culture separated from us both by language and over two thousand years. We shall, however, also consider the role played by this literature in the formation of modern consciousness. Assessment: Reading: One set of short answer questions (20%); one 3,000-word essay (80%). Other than Week One (in which the material is general and introductory), the reading listed below each week s lecture constitutes the primary texts for study, and must be read before the lecture and seminar. Additional bibliography is suggested below (the list is by no means exhaustive feel free to use books not mentioned). I would strongly recommend that you look at as many of these books as possible as we progress through the course. If you have serious difficulties in finding any of the books mentioned (all of which are in the QM main library), let me know as soon as possible. 1
Schedule: Week One: Introduction to Ancient Greece and Ancient Greek literature Reading: K. Dover, The Greeks (London, 1980); K. Dover et al, Ancient Greek Literature (Oxford, 1980) Week Two: Epic Reading: Homer, The Iliad - Bks. 1-12* Week Three: Epic (cont.) Reading: Homer, The Iliad - Bks. 13-24* Week Four: Lyric Reading: Sappho, fragments 1,2,16,16,31,34,47,48,51,94,130 & 168B (I will distribute) Week Five: Ancient Athens: democracy and literature Reading: S. Goldhill, Reading Greek Tragedy, chs. 2 & 3 (I will distribute) Week Six: Tragedy Reading: Aeschylus, The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, Eumenides)* Week Seven: Reading Week Week Eight: Tragedy (cont.) Reading: Sophocles, The Theban Plays (Oedipus the King, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus)* Week Nine: Tragedy (cont.) Reading: Euripides, Medea, The Bacchae* Week Ten: Comedy Reading: Aristophanes, Lysistrata, The Acharnians* Week Eleven: History Reading: Thucydides, The history of the Peloponnesian War* Week Twelve: Philosophy Reading: Plato, The Republic* * As you will soon notice, Greek texts are available in many different translations. Please use whichever you find most agreeable or accessible. 2
Bibliography: Homer: Bowra, C.M., Homer (London, 1972) Griffin, J., Homer on life and death (Oxford, 1980) Griffin, J., Homer (Oxford, 1980) Jackson-Knight, W.F., Many-minded Homer: an introduction (London, 1968) Otto, W.F., The Homeric Gods (New York, 1978) Parry, A.A., Blameless Aegisthus: a study of Homeric amumon and other Homeric epithets (Leiden, 1973) Pucci, P., Odysseus Polutropos: intertextual readings in the Odyssey and the Iliad (Ithaca, 1987) Steiner, G. (ed.), Homer: a collection of critical essays (Englewood Cliffs, 1962) Wace, A.J.B., A Companion to Homer (London, 1962) Homer - Iliad: Bespaloff, R., On the Iliad (Washington, 1947) De Jong, I.J.F., Narrators and Focalizers: the presentation of the story in the Iliad (Amsterdam, 1987) Edwards, M.W., Homer: the poet of the Iliad (Baltimore, 1987) Lynn-George, M., Epos: word, narrative and the Iliad (Basingstoke, 1988) Schein, S., The mortal hero: an introduction to Homer s Iliad (Berkeley, 1984) Silk, M.S., Homer: the Iliad (Cambridge, 1987) Willcock, M.M., A Companion to the Iliad: based on the translation of R. Lattimore (Chicago, 1976) Sappho: Bremmer, J., From Sappho to De Sade: moments in the history of sexuality (London, 1991) DuBois, P., Sappho is Burning (London, 1995) Page, D., Sappho and Alcaeus: an introduction to the study of ancient Lesbian poetry (Oxford, 1955) Reynolds, M, (ed.), The Sappho History (Basingstoke, 2002) Reynolds, M. (ed.), The Sappho Companion (London, 2000) Snyder, J.M., Lesbian desire in the lyrics of Sappho (New York, 1997) Greek tragedy: Easterling, P.E. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1999) Euben, P., Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (Berkeley, 1986) Goldhill, S., Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1986) Kitto, H.D.F., Greek tragedy: a literary study (London, 1961) Lesky, A., Greek Tragedy (London, 1965) Nicoll, A., World Drama from Aeschylus to Anouilh (London, 1949) Segal, C., Interpreting Greek Tragedy: Myth, poetry, text (Ithaca, 1986) Segal, E. (ed.), Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1983) Vernant, J.-P. & P. Vidal-Naquet, Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (Brighton, 1981) Vickers, B., Towards Greek Tragedy (London, 1973) 3
Aeschylus: Brooks, O., Cosmos and Tragedy (Chapel Hill, 1981) Gagarin, M., Aeschylean Drama (Berkeley, 1976) Herington, J.C., Aeschylus (New Haven, 1986) Ireland, S., Aeschylus (Oxford, 1986) Rosenmeyer, T.G., The art of Aeschylus (Berkeley, 1982) Taplin, O., The stagecraft of Aeschylus: the dramatic use of exits and entrances in Greek tragedy (Oxford, 1977) Winnington-Ingram, R.P., Studies in Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1983) Sophocles: Bowra, C.M., Sophoclean Tragedy (London, 1944) Buxton, R.G.A., Sophocles (Oxford, 1984) Knox, B.M.W., Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles Tragic Hero and his time (New Haven, 1957) Knox, B.M.W., The heroic temper: studies in Sophoclean tragedy (Berkeley, 1966) Segal, C., Oedipus Tyrannus: tragic heroism and the limits of knowledge (New York, 2001) Segal, C., Tragedy and Civilization: an interpretation of Sophocles (Cambridge, Mass., 1981) Webster, T.B.L., An introduction to Sophocles (Oxford, 1936) Winnington-Ingram, R.P, Sophocles: an interpretation (Cambridge, 1980) Euripides: Burian, P. (ed.), Directions in Euripidean Criticism: a collection of essays (Durham, N.C., 1985) Collard, C., Euripides (Oxford, 1981) Conacher, D.J., Euripidean Drama: myth, theme, structure (Toronto, 1967) Foley, H.P., Ritual Irony: poetry and sacrifice in Euripides (Ithaca, 1985) Halleran, M.R., Stagecraft in Euripides (London, 1985) Michelini, A.N., Euripides and the tragic condition (Madison, 1987) Norwood, G., Essays on Euripidean Drama (Berkeley, 1954) Segal, C., Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides Bacchae (Princeton, 1982) Winnington-Ingram, R.P., Euripides and Dionysus: an interpretation of the Bacchae (Cambridge, 1948) Aristophanes: Cartledge, P., Aristophanes and his theatre of the absurd (Bristol, 1990) Dearden, C.W., The stage of Aristophanes (London, 1976) Dover, K.J., Aristophanic Comedy (Berkeley, 1972) Harriott, R.M., Aristophanes: poet and dramatist (London, 1986) Heath, M., Political Comedy in Aristophanes (Göttingen, 1987) Henderson, J. (ed.), Aristophanes: essays in interpretation (Cambridge, 1980) Ussher, R.G., Aristophanes (Oxford, 1979) Thucydides: De Romilly, J., Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism (Oxford, 1963) Dover, K.J., Thucydides (Oxford, 1973) Finley, M.I., The Greek Historians (London, 1959) 4
Hornblower, S., Thucydides (London, 1987) Pouncey, P.R., The necessities of war: a study of Thucydides pessimism (New York, 1980) Woodhead, A.G., Thucydides on the nature of power (Cambridge, Mass., 1970) Plato: Annas, J., An introduction to Plato s Republic (Oxford, 1981) Janaway, C., Images of Excellence: Plato s critique of the arts (Oxford, 1958) Kraut, P. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge, 1992) Murdoch, I., The fire and the sun: why Plato banished the artists (Oxford, 1977) Murphy, N.R., The Interpretation of Plato s Republic (Oxford, 1951) Nehamas, A., The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault (Berkeley, 2000) Popper, K.R., The open society and its enemies, vol. 1: the spell of Plato (London, 1966) Vlastos, G., Plato: a collection of critical essays (London, 1972) Greek ethics and morality: Adkins, A.W.H., Moral values and political behaviour in Ancient Greece (London, 1972) Dover, K.J., Greek popular morality in the time of Plato and Aristotle (Oxford, 1974) Havelock, E., The Greek concept of justice (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) Nussbaum, M., The fragility of goodness: luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy (Cambridge, 1986) Democracy: Finley, M.I., Democracy Ancient and Modern (London, 1973) Forrest, W.G., The Emergence of Greek Democracy (London, 1966) Gender and Sexuality Dover, K.J, Greek Homosexuality (London, 1978) Foucault, M., The History of Sexuality Volume Two: The Use of Pleasure (London, 1992) Keuls, E., The reign of the phallus: sexual politics in ancient Athens (New York, 1985) Lefkowitz, M.R., Heroines and Hysterics (London, 1981) Loraux, N., Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1987) Pomeroy, S.B., Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (London, 1974) Greek history and culture - general: Burn, A.R., The Penguin History of Greece (Harmondsworth, 1989) Dover, K.J., The Greeks (London, 1980) Dover, K.J. et al, Ancient Greek Literature (Oxford, 1980) Green, P., A concise history of Ancient Greece to the close of the Classical Era (London, 1973) Poetry and society: Gentili, B., Poetry and its public in ancient Greece (Baltimore, 1988) Snell, B., Poetry and Society: the role of poetry in ancient Greece (Bloomington, 1961) 5
The modern reception of Greek literature and myth: Galinsky, K., The Herakles Theme (Oxford, 1972) Hall, E. et al (eds.), Dionysus since 69 (Oxford, 2004) Horkheimer, M. & T. Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment (London, 1997) Jenkyns, R., The Victorians and Ancient Greece (Oxford, 1980) McDonald, M., Ancient Sun, Modern Light: Greek drama on the modern stage (New York, 1992) Miles, G. (ed.), Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology (London, 1999) Nietzsche, F., The Birth of Tragedy (Oxford, 2000) Prins, Y., Victorian Sappho (Princeton, 1995) Seznec, J., The survival of the pagan gods (New York, 1953) Simonsuuri, K., Homer s Original Genius (Cambridge, 1979) Stanford, W.B, The Ulysses Theme (Dallas, 1992) Steiner, G., Antigones (Oxford, 1984) Turner, F.M., The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (New Haven, 1981) Winkler, M., Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema (Oxford, 2001) There are innumerable modern renditions of ancient myths: e.g., Joyce, Ulysses; Goethe, Iphigenia in Tauris; Anouilh, Antigone, Medée; Pasolini, Edipo Re, Medea; Walcott, Omeros; Heaney, The Cure at Troy: a version of Sophocles Philoctetes, Burial at Thebes: Sophocles Antigone; Sartre, Les Mouches; Disney s Hercules; etc. The list is endless. If you would like suggestions for further reading, please see me. General Reference: Hornblower, S. & A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary 3 rd ed. (Oxford, 1996) The Cambridge History of Classical Literature (several volumes) The Cambridge Ancient History (several volumes) Other Resources: All of the Greek texts which we are studying (except the fragments of Sappho) are also available on-line at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ Follow the link to Classics on the left-hand side, and then scroll down for the text you want they are in both Greek and English. Katie Fleming Room 1.26 Tel: 0207 882 5388 k.m.fleming@qmul.ac.uk 6