Dr. Ben L. Price Office: Fayard 344b: Hrs. MW 1:00-2:00 & by appointment. Fayard Hall 240, 12:00-12:50 MWF Email: benjamin.price@selu.edu Website: http://brfencing.org/honors311/ Downloadable materials on Blackboard Course Requirements Required Texts: Dally, Stephanie, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Oxford University Press, USA (1998), ISBN 0192835890 Alter, Robert, Genesis: Translation and Commentary, W. W. Norton & Company (1997), ISBN 039331670X Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides, Trans. W.B. Stanford,Penguin Classics (1984), ISBN 0140443339 Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays, Trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics (2000), ISBN 0140444254 Finley, M.I., The World of Odysseus, NYRB Classics (2002), ISBN 978-1590170175 Cicero, On the Good Life, Trans. Michael Grant, Penguin Classics (1971), ISBN 0140442448 Lucretius, The Nature of Things, Trans. A. E. Stallings, Penguin Classics (2007), ISBN 0140447962 Augustine of Hippo, Confessions of St. Augustine, Trans. Rex Warner, Signet Classics (2001), ISBN 978-0451527806 Wilken, Robert Louis, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Yale University Press; 2 edition (2003), ISBN 978-0300098396 Other readings will be assigned during the course and will be made available via the website. Course Format: Honors 311 will be conducted primarily in a seminar format. Assignments will consist of readings in preparation for in-class discussion. Short papers may occasionally be assigned assigned for a grade in addition to the examinations and discussion grades. Examinations: Examinations will consist of three take-home essay examinations and an in-class final exam. You may not drop the lowest grade. All of the examinations count toward your final grade. The grading system for the course will be as follows: Exam 1 50 Exam 2 50 Exam 3 50 Final Exam 100 Class Participation 100 Papers 50 Total Points 400 Your final grade will depend on the number of points you accumulate during the course. Your points are averaged for a percentile score (100-90=A, 89-80=B, 79-70=C, 69-60=D, 59-0=F). Please note that an 89% is still a B; a 79% is still a C; a 69% is still a D. I am not at home to rounding up under any circumstances. If you want the higher grade, try to score more points! There will not be any extra credit work given to raise grades. I also reserve the right to give the occasional pop quiz. Quizzes count as bonus points. Page 1 of 5
Incomplete (I) grades: University policy states that the grade of I (incomplete) will be given only for work that is of passing quality at examination time but which, because of circumstances beyond the student s control, is not complete. The instructor and student must complete an I Contract form in the department office and obtain the department head s approval. No I grades can be given after the end of the final exam period. Students who receive I grades must follow the procedure for removing the I described in the current Southeastern General Catalogue, or the grade will become an F. Cheating: The nature of the course requires a slightly different standard of judgement when it comes to the question of cheating. In essence, I expect that any work that you turn in will be the product of your independent intellectual activity rather than someone else s thought stolen for the purpose of rewards in terms of a grade. I have published the statement on plagiarism from the Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct of the American Historical Association in the Course Documents section of Blackboard. Use it as a guideline when deciding what is plagiarism. If you have any questions, please contact me before you turn in any work that you suspect might be questionable! Anyone caught cheating will fail the course and will be reported to appropriate university officials. Midterm exams and papers are primarily meant to be original work that makes a specific argument. Sources may be used as supportive evidence. Whether these sources are used in quotations or paraphrased, they should be appropriately cited as follows: Bibliographic citation: Author s last name, author s first name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year Published. Footnote citation: Author s first name & last name, Title of Book (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year Published), page #. After the first citation has been noted, students may use a short citation as follows: Author s last name, page #. If more than one book by the same author is cited, a short version of the book title should follow author s last name, ie., Drews, Bronze Age, 54 Citation of ancient sources can be a bit more tricky. In general, in the U.S., the standard texts that scholars use for classical works are the publications of the Loeb Classical Library published by the Harvard University Press. These small books contain the original version of the works on the left-land pages and the English translation on the right. When citing a Loeb volume or other work that attempts to maintain the structure of the classical work, you should cite for a footnote as follows: Author, Title, Chapter.Verse[.line]. For instance: Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, 1.19.2. or even: Suet., Caesars, 1.19.2. If you are citing a non-authoritative edition that does not attempt to maintain the original structure of the text, such as a Penguin Classic translation, you may use the standard citation structure. Official communication: Southeastern uses your Southeastern e-mail account to communicate information about your curriculum, classes, assignments, and other important information. You can access your e-mail account from Webmail on Southeastern s home page. The instructor will not respond to student e-mail from any other e-mail addresses. You should check e-mail regularly for messages. An- Page 2 of 5
nouncements applying to the whole class may be posted on the Blackboard website for this class, which can be accessed at www.roomie.selu.edu. Attendance: Attendance will be recorded by having students initial a roll sheet each day. It is the students responsibility to initial the roll. Days for which students fail to initial the roll will count as absences. Students who arrive late or leave early will be counted as absent unless advance permission has been obtained from the instructor. Excused absences will be given only for 1) a serious student illness or injury documented by a letter from the attending physician on official stationery, 2) a death in the student's immediate family documented by a copy of the obituary specifying how the student is related to the deceased and when the funeral is scheduled, 3) an approved school-sponsored activity documented by the official university Off-Campus Group Registration Form, 4) an appearance in court documented by a copy of the summons, subpoena, or other legal paperwork, 5) documented natural disasters. Students must present documentation on the first class day following the absence(s) or the absence(s) will be unexcused. Instructors will verify all excuses. Excused absences will not be given for conflicts between a student s class schedule and work schedule. Drop policy: Instructors may drop students who have never attended class when faculty members receive the official 14-day class roll. Thereafter, however, the instructor will not drop students for excessive absences. All students who are still enrolled in the course after the drop deadline will receive a grade for the course. No one will be given a "retroactive drop" for this class. Use of tape recorders: Students registered in this class may use tape recorders to record the instructor s lectures for their personal use only. Any unauthorized sale or duplication of such recordings or of transcripts of such recordings is prohibited. Students with disabilities: If you are a qualified student with a disability seeking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you are required to self-identify with the Office of Student Life, Room 203, Student Union. Syllabus form. By the end of the drop/add period, all students must sign a form acknowledging that they have received a copy of the syllabus or accessed it on the Blackboard website for this course, have read and completely understood the syllabus, and are bound by all of its terms. You can acknowledge receipt of the Syllabus by checking the Syllabus and Course Policy Validation at Blackboard. CONTINUE ON TO THE NEXT PAGE Page 3 of 5
Tentative Schedule: Numbers below indicate order rather than specific days of class. I have employed a fairly loose schedule of events in order to allow time for more lengthy discussion that may go beyond one class period. 1. Introduction Unit I In the Beginning The unit will explore various creation and foundation myths from Mesopotamia, the Hebrews, and Greeks. We will look at creation myths, at various concepts of the hero in Ancient Near Eastern, Hebrew and Greek myths, and finally at various flood myths. Dally, Stephanie, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Oxford University Press, USA (1998), ISBN 0192835890 Alter, Robert, Genesis: Translation and Commentary, W. W. Norton & Company (1997), ISBN 039331670X 1. Mythology and the Ancient World (Lecture) 2. Myth Definition (Lecture) 3. Creation Myths (Lecture) 4. Discussion of Mesopotamian Creation Myths MM, pp. 1-38; 228-277. 5. Discussion of Genesis Creation Genesis, pp. 3-21. 6. Discussion of Theogony & wrapup Hesiod Theogony (online). 7. Heroes (Lecture) 8. Discussion of Gilgamesh MM, pp. 39-49; 136162. 9. Greek Epic Heroes 10. Discussion of Genesis Patriarchs (Heroes or Otherwise?) Genesis, pp. 50-123 (Abraham); 208-306 (Joseph). 11. Discussion of Flood Stories MM, pp. 18-35; 109-116; Genesis, pp. 26-41; Ovid, Metamorphoses (online). Unit II Ancient Greece: The Individual, the Oikos, and the Polis The unit will explore the evolution of concepts about social institutions in the Greek World from the Dark Age to the Age of Pericles. Athenian tragedy and other sources of Greek literature indicate the existence of tensions between the values of the individual, the household (oikos) and the state (polis) that extend throughout the period of Greek history. The class will use Greek tragedies and other texts to explore and define those tensions. 12. Oikos to Polis (Lecture) 13. Discussion of World of Odysseus Finley, The World of Odysseus. 14. Greek Tragedy (Lecture) 15. Discussion of Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers 16. Discussion of The Eumides and sum up The Oresteia Page 4 of 5
17. Discussion of Oedipus Rex 18. Discussion of Antigone 19. Discussion of Funeral Oration of Pericles & The Melian Dialogue Unit III The Hellenistic World: The Nature of the Good Life The unit will focus on the dominant ethical philosophical systems of the Hellenistic and Roman periods Stoicism and Epicureanism. Both of these schools offered explanations of the world and of the means by which humans could achieve the Good Life within the world. Cicero, On the Good Life, Trans. Michael Grant, Penguin Classics (1971), ISBN 0140442448 Lucretius, The Nature of Things, Trans. A. E. Stallings, Penguin Classics (2007), ISBN 0140447962 Classical Ethics and The Ideal of the Good Life (Lecture) 20. Ethics from Socrates to Aristotle (Lecture) 21. Hellenistic and Roman notions of the Good Life (Lecture) 22. Discussion of Lucretius 23. Discussion of Cicero Unit IV The Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews and Early Christianity in Conflict The unit will explore the earliest period of Christianity during the Roman Empire. First we will look at the conflict of ideas and values between the christian Fathers over the nature of Christianity itself; the question of whether Christianity was an extension of Judaism or a completely new religion open to Gentiles and independent from the Mosaic Covenant and the Laws. Next we will observe Christians through the eyes of the predominant pagan and philosophical status quo of Romans in the first and second centuries A.D. Wilken, Robert Louis, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Yale University Press; 2 edition (2003), ISBN 978-0300098396 Acts, and the Epistles of St. Paul, The New Testament, King James Version 24. Early Christianity (Lecture) 25. Discussion of The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (Ch. 1-3) 26. Discussion of The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (Ch. 4-6) 27. The Church in the 4 th and 5 th Centuries (Lecture) 28. Discussion of Confessions of St. Augustine (Books 1-3) 29. Decline of Western Paganism (Lecture) 30. Discussion of Confessions of St. Augustine (Books 4-7) 31. Discussion of Confessions of St. Augustine (8-10) 32. Course Wrapup FINAL EXAMINATION, December 11, 10:15-12:15 Page 5 of 5