CLST 330*/0.5  3L/S
Classical Greek Culture and Society

Instructor: Dr. F. Colivicchi

Class Schedule

Students are required to be familiar with Queen's policy on Academic Integrity .
Please also see: http://www.academicintegrity.org/

Also see the Departmental policy on electronic devices in the classrooms:
http://www.queensu.ca/classics/electronicspolicy.html

 

Course Outline

The course will investigate key aspects of Greek culture and society especially – but not exclusively – during the so-called Classical period (5^th and 4^th centuries BC.). Athens will be the main topic, but other areas of the Greek world, especially Sparta and the Western colonies, will be treated as well. The later perception and evaluation of Classical Greece and its role in modern culture will be discussed.

Evaluation

Each student will write a paper (10 pages). The topic can be either chosen from a list or agreed upon with the instructor

• In-Class Test 1 20 % (short questions, essay questions)
• In-Class Test 2 20 % (short questions, essay questions)
• Paper 30 %
• Final Exam 30 % (short answers, longer answers)

As it is not a course that closely follows a textbook, attendance is very important for understanding and performance.

Required Textbooks

There is no single textbook for this course. Students are required to read chapters of the following books:

• A companion to archaic Greece / edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub and Hans van Wees. Chichester, U.K.; Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
• A companion to the classical Greek world / edited by Konrad H. Kinzl. Malden, Mass.; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2006.
• A companion to Greek religion / edited by Daniel Ogden. Malden, Mass.; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2007
• Ken Dowden, The uses of Greek mythology: London ; New York : Routledge, 1992.

All of the above books are available in electronic format through Queen’s free online access.
The relevant chapters will be indicated at the beginning of each week. Additional readings may be added.
All slides shown in class (posted online weekly) are considered as required readings.

Class Schedule

Week 1

Sept 12
Course presentation. Classical and not. The Polis as the core institution of Classical Greece and its development
Sept 15
The Athenian democracy: its development, its myth, and its reality

Week 2

Sept 19
The polis and its rituals: civic festivals and the role of religion in city identity
Religion, city and space: cults and festivals inside and outside the city
Sept 22
Religion and the individual: Dionysos

Week 3

Sept 26
Religion and the individual: Demeter, Eleusis, and the Mysteries
Introducing new gods: foreign gods and heroes at Athens during the Peloponnesian War
Sept 29
Magic; golden leaves with "orphic" texts and defixiones.

Week 4

Oct 3
In-Class Test 1
Oct 6
The ethics of war in Classical Greece: the warrior and the city

Week 5

Oct 10
Thanksgiving no class
Oct 13
The other warriors: non-hoplite warriors, non-citizen warriors, the fleet, the mercenaries

Week 6

Oct 17
Public and private: the oikos in the Greek society. Birth and childhood in Classical Athens
Oct 20
Male transition rites. Hunting and initiation.

Week 7

Oct 24
Athletics.
Oct 27
Greeks and eros.

Week 8

Oct 31
In-Class Test 2
Nov 3
Female initiation and coming of age.
Marriage. An archaic society of the classical period: women and marriage rites at Lokroi.

Week 9

Nov 7
Symbols of female transgression: Amazons, Maenads, Thracian women.
Male and female in the thought of philosophers and physicians.
Nov 10
Public and private meals. Symposion and the Greek way of drinking.

Week 10

Nov 14
Music and politics in Classical Athens.
Nov 17
Greek identity in the Classical Period: what a Greek is.
Greeks and the Others: barbarians and foreigners, women and children. The other side of the citizen: Satyrs.

Week 11

Nov 21
The Doric world: Spartan and Cretan institutions.
Nov 24
Economics: trade, coinage, banks.

Week 12

Nov 28
Artists and craftsmen: social status and role.
The intellectual and his role.
Dec 1
The myth of classical Athens and Greece in ancient and modern culture: The Roman contribution to the construction of the myth of Classical Greece. Classical Greece and the modern Western culture.

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Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is constituted by the five core fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility (see  www.academicintegrity.org). These values are central to the building, nurturing and sustaining of an academic community in which all members of the community will thrive. Adherence to the values expressed through academic integrity forms a foundation for the "freedom of inquiry and exchange of ideas" essential to the intellectual life of the University (see the Senate  Report on Principles and Priorities)

Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the regulations concerning academic integrity and for ensuring that their assignments conform to the principles of academic integrity. Information on academic integrity is available in the Arts and Science Calendar (see  Academic Regulations), on the Arts and Science website and from the instructor of this course.

Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen's. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions which contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university.

Download the  Statement on Academic Integrity for Inclusion in Course Syllabi and Assignments  [PDF]

Copyright

The material on this website is copyrighted and is for the sole use of students registered in CLST 330. The material on this website may be downloaded for a registered student’s personal use, but shall not be distributed or disseminated to anyone other than students registered in CLST 330.  Failure to abide by these conditions is a breach of copyright, and may also constitute a breach of academic integrity under the University Senate’s Academic Integrity Policy Statement.

This page was last updated 31 August, 2011.