Unit information: Greek Language Level B2 in 2011/12

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Unit name Greek Language Level B2
Unit code CLAS12316
Credit points 20
Level of study C/4
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director Dr. Lampe
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

CLAS12315

Co-requisites

None

School/department Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Plato's Symposium is a literary masterpiece set at a high society dinner in 5th-century Athens. As the wine flows, each member of the party gives a speech on the nature of eros. We're treated to an intimate glimpse of Athenian super-stars at leisure: the comedian Aristophanes, tragedian Agathon, physician Eryximachus, and-of course!-philosopher Socrates each present their vision of eros. Socrates' speech seems to cap a crescendo of interpretations, but just as he finishes, the enfant terrible Alcibiades bursts in and gives his own speech. Dressed like the god of wine himself, he narrates how he could not conform to Socrates' theory...and Socrates could not accept his passions... This conflict is all the more poignant in that Plato sets the dialogue near the time of Alcibiades' violent death. Socrates himself would be executed not long after. Who was right about erotic love?

Aims:

To develop students’ knowledge of the Greek language through the reading of classical Greek poetry; to introduce students to techniques of independent reading of Greek, such as use of dictionaries and commentaries; to introduce students to issues of translation and interpretation of Greek literature.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will have developed and consolidated their knowledge of the Greek language and will have developed their skills of advanced independent reading of Greek texts. They will have acquired knowledge in the use of dictionaries and commentaries, and will be able to relate this knowledge to their understanding and interpretation of a Greek text. In addition, second year students will be expected to have developed more sophisticated analytical skills, as demonstrated in their formal assessments and in their participation in seminar discussions.

Teaching Information

Lectures, seminars and reading classes, grammatical instruction classes

Assessment Information

2 practical criticism exercises on a designated passage of 35-40 lines of set text, with guidance questions; weighted equally to count for 50%.

4 class tests of 45 minutes each:

1 on sight translation and grammatical analysis, undertaken with use of a dictionary;

1 on set text translation and literary comments, undertaken without reference books;

weighted equally to count for 50%.

Reading and References

  • W.B. Stanford, ed., Homer Odyssey I-XII (Bristol Classical Press)
  • R. Seaford, ed., Euripides Cyclops (Bristol Classical Press)
  • M. Silk, ‘The Odyssey and its explorations’ in R. Fowler, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Homer (Cambridge 2004), Chapter 3
  • L. M. Slatkin, ‘Composition by theme and the mētis of the Odyssey’, in S. Schein, ed., Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays (Princeton 1996), 223 – 37
  • P. E. Easterling, ‘A show for Dionysus’, and ‘Form and performance’, in P. Easterling, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (Cambridge 1997)
  • D. Konstan, ‘An anthropology of Euripides’ Kyklōps’, in J. Winkler, F. Zeitlin, eds., Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in its Social Context (Princeton 1990), 207 – 27

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