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PRE-SYLLABUS MLS 602: the Human Order

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PRE-SYLLABUS MLS 602: the Human Order PRE-SYLLABUS MLS 602: The Human Order Fall 2010 CSS 167 Mondays, 6:45-9:25 p.m. Greetings incoming MLS students! This is a preview of your fall syllabus of THE HUMAN ORDER course. Feel free to purchase your textbooks in advance and get an early start on some of the readings. This should be fun and challenging class (yes, those adjectives do belong together!). It is certainly one of my favorites! If at all possible, try to get through the first 6 books (chapters) of Homer's Iliad and book 12 of Ovid's Metamorphoses before the first day of class. There is some information to get you started on your first assigned reading at the bottome of this page. I look forward to meeting you all in person in the fall and having many good discussions and conversations. Cheers! Scott INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Scott M. Rubarth Office: French House # 203 Cornell Scholar in Classical Studies Office Phone#: 691-2177 Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religion FAX# 646-2517 Coordinator, Classical Studies Program Office Hours: TBA Rollins College E-mail: [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION The social and political philosophies of the ancient world reflect the effort to shape the human community according to a universal order in which human beings have a natural place and a natural purpose. In this course, students explore the social and political thought of ancient Greece and Rome in the context of the culture in which that thought arose. The course also examines the cosmology and science of the ancient world, with an emphasis on the attempt to direct the powers of reason to the discovery of a natural order. REQUIRED TEXTS ◦ Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1990. [ISBN: 0-14-0444592-7] ◦ Hesiod and Theognis. Wender, Dorthea, ed. New York: Penguin, 1973. [ISBN: 0-14-044-283-9] ◦ Grene, David and Richmond Latimore, ed. Greek Tragedies 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. [ISBN: 0-226-30790-5] ◦ Four Plays by Aristophanes: The Birds; The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata (Meridian classics) ISBN-13: 978-0452007178 ◦ Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy. S. Marc Cohen, Patricia Curd, C. D. C. Reeve (eds). Hackett. 2006 [ISBN-13: 978-0872207691] [Paper] ◦ Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters by Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Moses Hadas (Paperback - Sep 17, 1968); W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 1968); ISBN-13: 978-0393004595 ◦ Petronius. The Satyricon (Oxford World's Classics) by and P. G. Walsh (Paperback - Jun 30, 1999), Oxford University Press, USA (June 30, 1999) [ISBN-13: 978-0192839527] ◦ Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (January 29, 2008). [ISBN-13: 978-0143105138]. ◦ Juvenal, Sixteen Satires; Penguin Classics; 3rd edition (February 1, 1999); ISBN-13: 978-0140447040 ◦ The Metamorphoses (Signet Classics) by Ovid and Horace Gregory (Paperback - May 8, 2001); # Signet Classics; Reprint edition (May 8, 2001); # ISBN-13: 978-0451527936 Supplementary Readings: (recommended) • Art and Experience in Classical Greece by Jerome Jordan Pollitt (Author); Cambridge University Press (March 10, 1972). [ISBN-13: 978-0521096621]. • Retrieving the Ancients: An Introduction to Greek Philosophy by David Roochnik (Author). Wiley-Blackwell (June 25, 2004) [ISBN-13: 978-1405108621] *This is a reading intensive course. The texts are numerous however many are quite thin. These are some of the most important texts underlying our Western literary heritage. They are also the backbone of any well-rounded library. Alternative (Optional) Texts: Those who wish to build a serious liberal arts library should consider purchasing the complete works of Plato and Aristotle instead of (or in addition to) the selections from Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy. The works below are the standard scholarly editions of the complete works of Plato and Aristotle. Talk to me if you have any questions. These are books that you will want to keep for life. • Plato: Complete Works. Edited by John Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997. • The Complete Works of Aristotle. 2 vols. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton University Press, 1995. COURSE POLICIES & EVALUATION Attendance Regular attendance is necessary for success in this course. Your contribution to class discussion is an essential part of the cooperative learning process. If you are unable to attend a class meeting please contact me in advance. Life is unpredictable; if you believe that you will not be able to turn in an assignment on time contact me AT LEAST 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE. Mailed work (snail mail or intercampus mail, please) is considered on time if it is postmarked before the due date of the assignment. Mail papers to: Prof. Scott Rubarth, Rollins College, 1000 Holt Avenue - 2659, Winter Park, FL 32789. Late work will be evaluated with higher expectations. Emergencies and other difficulties will be handled case by case. Grade Distribution • 80% - Eight Focus Papers • 10% - Five Summary & Response sheets (required on weeks when you do not write a focus paper) • 10% - Participation and class contributions Grading Scale (for exams and papers) 97 = A+ 93 = A 90 = A- 87 = B+ 83 = B 80 = B- 77 = C+ 73 = C 70 = C- 67 = D+ 63 = D 60 = D- Reading Schedule This is the tentative schedule for Fall 2010 ASSIGNED READING Week 1 [Aug. 23] Welcome Homer, Iliad 1-6 Week 2 [Aug. 30] Homer 1 Homer, Iliad 7-16 Week 3 [Sept. 6] Homer 2 Homer, Iliad 17-24 Labor Day - No Class > First Focus Paper due - Sept 10th (email) Archaic Hesiod, Works and Days Week 4 [Sept. 13] Poetry Theognis, Elegies Sappho, Selected poems [see "Course Materials"] Greek Aeschylus, Agamemnon Week 5 [Sept. 20] Tragedy 1 Sophocles, Oedipus the King Aristotle, Poetics [RAGP] Greek Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound Week 6 [Sept. 27] Tragedy 2 Sophocles, Antigone Euripides, Hippolytus and Medea Greek Week 7 [Oct. 4] Aristophanes, Lysistrata, Clouds, Frogs Comedy Week 8 [Oct. 15] Greek Presocratics - fragments and testamonia [RAGP 1-79] ** GREEK THEME PARTY "Science" Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease [see "Course Materials"] [class meets in the French House Lounge, Friday Oct. * Wear something Greek! 15th. Week 9 [Oct. 18] Plato 1 Plato, Apology, Crito, and Meno [in RAGP] Week 10 [Oct. 25] Plato 2 Plato, Phaedo and Symposium [in RAGP] Week 11 [Nov. 1] Aristotle Aristotle, De Anima and selections from other works [TBA] Aristotle & Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (1-3, 10) [in RAGP] Week 12 [Nov. 8] Epicurus Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus, Principal Maxims and Vatican Sayings; Stoicism Epictetus, Handbook [see "Course Materials" Week 13 [Nov. 15] Seneca, (selected letters and Essays) Week 14 [Nov. 22] Roman Epic Virgil, The Aeneid (Focus on 1-4, 6, 8-9, 12) Roman Satire Petronius, Satyricon Week 15 [Nov. 29] Juvenal, Satires Week 16 [Dec. 6] Roman Ovid, Metamorphoses (Focus on 1-4, 10-11, 15) ** ROMAN THEME PARTY Poetry [Class meets in the French and Myth * Dress as your favorite Roman! Toga/Stola competition. House Lounge] * RAGP = Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy. S. Marc Cohen, Patricia Curd, C. D. C. Reeve (eds). * Readings due on the date assigned above. Your first reading... I'd like everyone to come in on the first day having already started the Iliad. Also, please read book 12 of Ovid's Metamorphoses since that sets up the war with background stories. Since many of you probably have not read this amazing ancient text before, here is a little info to get you started. Have fun with it and try to get into the minds and hearts of the characters in so far as you can. What is the Iliad? (genre) It's a POEM, not a novel. It was originally sung or chanted. Keep that in mind when you read it. It should be experienced as a poem. It should sing to you. You may want to check out the audio version narrated by Derek Jacobi (on reserve at Olin library) to get a sense of the poetry and music of our translation. Where does all this happen? Surprisingly, the first Greek epic does not happen in Greece. The events of the Iliad take place in and around the city of Troy which is in modern day Turkey. The Iliad is the story of the Trojan war, right? Yes and no. It is about one incident in the Trojan War. The entire Iliad covers a little more than a month of a war that lasted 10 years. The epics that dealt with other events of the war have not survived. For a summary of the whole war check out books ix-xi of Ovid's Metamorphoses (one of your texts). The Iliad begins in the 9th year of the war. When did this happen? The traditional date for the Trojan War is 1184 BC. The Iliad is believed to have been composed in its present form (more or less) by a poet named Homer around 750 BC. The Greeks developed the alphabet around 800 BC. Not bad for a first attempt at writing, eh? Why are the Greeks and Trojans fighting? A Trojan prince named Paris took (seduced?) Helen, the queen of the Greek city of Sparta. Helen's husband Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon recruited a fleet of 1000 ships (approximately 50 men per boat) and set off to get her back. At least that's the basic story. However, there may be other reasons for the war. We will discuss these as well as more of the mythological background. Trust me, it makes more sense if you know some of the background myths. Why is there so much repetition and formalistic language (e.g. epithets, periphrastic expressions, etc.)? Come to class and find out. It's a cool story. There are so many names, how can I keep them straight? First, there is a glossary in the back of your translation.
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