Classics

Why are many scientific and legal terms so complex, difficult to pronounce, and hard to remember? Blame it on the ancient Greeks and Romans! We will investigate how thousands of years ago ancient scholars developed their own specialized terminologies, and what role these played in the development of the life sciences and law in the early modern period. We will study ancient Greek and Latin word roots, etymology, and word formation to master modern scientific and legal terminologies more easily.

Studies Greek history, literature, and art. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

Studies Roman history, literature, and art. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

Introduces major themes of Greek mythological thought; surveys myths about the olympic pantheon and the legends of the heroes. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

This class will study the representation of Rome on both the big & small screen from the early days until now. Readings from classical sources, from film theory, & from the historical novels that inspired some of the films. We'll be asking how these imagined Romes relate to historical reality, how they engage in dialogue with one another, & how they function as a mirror for the concerns & anxieties of our own society.

New course in the subject of classics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

This course focuses on women's roles and lives in Ancient Greece and Rome. Students are introduced to the primary material (textual and material) on women in antiquity and to current debates about it. Subjects addressed will include sexual stereotypes and ideals, power-relations of gender, familial roles, social and economic status, social and political history, visual art, medical theory, and religion. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

Studies the times, person, accomplishments of Alexander the Great (356-323 b.c.), the literature, art, and architecture of the period, and the influence of Alexander on the development of Greek and Western culture. Readings from Plutarch, Arrian, Demosthenes, and poets and philosophers of the early Hellenistic period. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

This course explores the origins and debates of Athenian democracy in the fifth century BCE through historical study and immersive role-play. Students examine primary sources from Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle and then reenact the conflicts of 403 BCE in the Reacting to the Past game "The Threshold of Democracy," debating questions of citizenship, empire, justice, and political participation in the world's first democracy.

Analyzes readings in the tragic poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca; and the comic poets Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence, together with ancient and modern discussions. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

What does it mean to say that Cleopatra was black, or not? Ancient history comes up often in modern debates about race. We will investigate how people understood racial and ethnic difference in the ancient Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and how interpretations of antiquity historically have shaped modern concepts of race. We will study relevant art and literature from the 8th century BCE through the 3rd century CE, and modern responses to both.

The course explores Ancient Greek religious practices and beliefs with an emphasis on Greek religious rituals understood in the broadest terms, and hence including Greek magical practices and associated beliefs. Starting off with the rituals belonging to the realm of social interaction, and the rites of passage designed for female and male members of society respectively, female dedications etc. v. rituals specific for men.

Languages as superficially different as English, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit in fact all developed from a single "proto-language," called Proto-Indo-European. This course will explore the following questions: What was this proto-language like? How do we know what it was like? By what processes did it develop into the various daughter languages? How can we trace words as diverse as wit, idea, video, and Veda back to a common source?

This introduction to the Celtic inhabitants of Gaul and Britain unites two approaches, one literary, one linguistic. First, we will compare descriptions of the Celts found in Greek and Latin authors with readings of Celtic literature in translation, notably Ireland's great prose epic, the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Second, we will explore how the Celtic languages work, focusing on the basics of Old Irish as well as touching on Middle Welsh and Gaulish.

New course in the subject of classics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

Languages as superficially different as English, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit in fact all developed from a single "proto-language," called Proto-Indo-European. This course will explore the following questions: What was this proto-language like? How do we know what it was like? By what processes did it develop into the various daughter languages? How can we trace words as diverse as wit, idea, video, and Veda back to a common source?

A course for first- or second-year graduate students in ancient disciplines which acquaints them with various facets of the study of Greek and Roman antiquity; introduces them to a range of approaches to the ancient world; and introduces them to each other and to the affiliated faculty in Classics, History, Art, Religious Studies.

A team-taught seminar that works by stages towards a complete first draft of the dissertation prospectus. Students will take the seminar during their sixth semester of study; instructors will be the dissertation directors of those students. Each student will register under the name of the director.