Courses

Classical Studies 105 offers students a broad overview of Greek and Roman mythology and an introduction to some of the ways in which these myths have been studied over the past century.  The goals of the course are to familiarize students with the myths, with the primary texts in which they are told, with the place of myth-telling in ancient culture, and to introduce students to the chief interpretive theories of myth that have been developed over the past century.  Emphasis will be placed on reading primary sources in English translation, and as a result students will gain a familiarity with a variety of ancient literary genres.

Text: Classical Mythology, M. Morford and R. Lenardon, 9th edition

Classical Studies 105 offers students a broad overview of Greek and Roman mythology and an introduction to some of the ways in which these myths have been studied over the past century.  The goals of the course are to familiarize students with the myths, with the primary texts in which they are told, with the place of myth-telling in ancient culture, and to introduce students to the chief interpretive theories of myth that have been developed over the past century.  Emphasis will be placed on reading primary sources in English translation, and as a result students will gain a familiarity with a variety of ancient literary genres.

Text: Classical Mythology, M. Morford and R. Lenardon, 9th edition

This course will provide an introduction to Greek and Roman archaeology, from roughly 1000 BCE to CE 600. The course will place particular emphasis on the different types of evidence for our knowledge about the material culture of Greek and Roman antiquity. Two-thirds of the course will deal with such topics as the history of classical archaeology, how sites get buried and how they are discovered, and we will also consider how both sites and artefacts are dated. Topics covered in this section will include aerial photography, field survey, geophysical prospection, environmental archaeology, the role of science in archaeology, and underwater archaeology, and we will also consider the importance of pottery, coins and inscriptions for the study of classical archaeology. The last third of the course will deal first with an introduction first to Greek archaeology, and then to Roman. The approach within each will be topical rather than chronological: introductions will be offered on subjects such as urbanization, rural and economic life, the army, religion and death and burial. There will be a mid-term test, one course paper and an exam at the end.

Textbooks. There is no one adequate introduction to classical archaeology as such. K. Greene and T. Moore, Archaeology: an introduction, 5th. ed. 2010, will be used for the first two-thirds of the course, but it covers more than just classical archaeology. C. Gates, Ancient Cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome, 2nd edition 2011, 205–426 will cover some of topics in the last third of the course. S. E. Alcock and R. Osborne (eds), Classical archaeology, 2nd edition 2012, available on line, is also useful in the absence of anything else, but this is a more detailed textbook and is not aimed at beginners.

Texts:

1.  K. Greene and T. Moore, Archaeology: an introduction, 5th. ed. 2010

2.  C. Gates, Ancient Cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome, 2nd edition 2011, 205–426

3.  S. E. Alcock and R. Osborne (eds), Classical archaeology, 2nd edition 2012 (available on line)

How fragile are we? Is it possible to be sure that we are living a good human life – come what may? What would it be like to “succeed at” being a human being, at being ourselves? In the period under consideration in this course (c. 399 BCE–c. 529 CE), the nascent traditions of Greek logic, science, and ethics were turned to the exploration of such fundamental questions as these and spread across the Mediterranean world in the wake of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire, laying the groundwork for the subsequent development of Western intellectual history. Over this term, we will study the great Hellenistic schools of ancient Athens (Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics) and the later ancient synthesis of Greek philosophy under the banner of Plato (Neoplatonism), and their influence on subsequent thought.

Why are Greeks still today known for their shipping companies and business interests?  Why were ancient Greeks apparently always warring among themselves and with others?  Was democracy the most common form of government in ancient Greek communities?  If not, why not, and what was the most common form of government?  Is the “Greek Miracle” the best lens today through which to understand the development of the ancient Mediterranean?  The answers to these and other topical questions of our times can be found in studying ancient Greek history.  Come and explore them with me.

Text:

Demand, N. 2012. A History of Ancient Greece in Its Mediterranean Context. 3^rd edition. Sloan Educational Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1597380454

A survey of the ancient Roman world. The course consists of a series of lectures on the world of Rome from the foundation of the city to the death of Constantine.  Lectures treat the Roman monarchy, the foundation of the Roman republic and its expansion, the social, economic and political problems that led to its fall, the reorganization of government under Augustus, the brilliant period of the first and second centuries CE.  Brief consideration of the reforms of Diocletian and the unsolved problem of the decline of the Roman empire rounds out the course.

Classical Studies 301 provides an introduction to the Greek and Latin elements which are employed in medical and biological terminology. Students learn how to deconstruct medical and biological terminology into ordinary English; they also learn the principles behind the construction of that terminology. The course provides relevant material from ancient literary, mythological, historical, and medical sources, in order to furnish a cultural context for the linguistic elements under discussion.

Course material is provided in part through the course website and in part through twelve classroom lectures. Students are also required to attend seven tutorials. There is a mid-term and a final exam.

The course is designed primarily for science students, particularly those in the biological or pre-medical fields.  Students from other areas of study, however, are also welcome to enrol (see note below, however). No knowledge of the Greek or Latin languages is required; no knowledge of anatomy or physiology is required. 

All course materials will be provided on-line. 

For more information, please see the Distance Education website: http://olt.ubc.ca/distance-learning/courses/clst/clst301/

Classical Studies 311 examines the cultural representations and "real lives" of women in ancient Greece in the archaic (c. 800-500 BCE) and classical (c. 500-330 BCE) ages. The images projected in myth, literature and the visual arts are compared with the "realities" of women's lives insofar as these can be reconstructed from historical, legal and archaeological records.

Two important purposes of the study of women in antiquity are to recover Greek women's history which, until recently, has been missing from general histories of ancient Greece, and to gain insight into the cultural dynamics of a society that subordinated women.

This course will guide students through the earliest plays of the European tradition, reading a range of Greek and Roman tragedies in translation. Selected plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca will be studied in their intellectual, historical, and performance contexts. We will consider how classical tragedy has shaped the whole tradition of Western drama, while paying particular attention to what makes classical tragedy unique, including the chorus, the integration of speech and song, and the innovative use of mythological tradition. We will also study borderline cases between tragedy and comedy, including examples of satyr drama, prosatyric tragedy, and “tragicomedy”, to explore how we define tragedy and the tragic.

This course traces the development of Greek and Roman art and architecture from about 1000 BCE to the end of the fourth century CE. It is designed as a general introduction to the astonishing and path-breaking achievements by Greek and Roman artists and architects, but these will be set against the social and political context of the societies that produced them. Greeks and Romans were bombarded by images, just as much as we are today, and the course will examine the key role that visual culture played in Graeco-Roman society. The course will focus on the most significant works of art and some of the outstanding buildings produced by the ancients. The emphasis throughout will be on sculpture, painting, and architecture, but the minor arts, such as terracotta, glass, jewellery, coinage and gems will not be ignored altogether. The focus of term 1 will be on Greek art and architecture; Roman will be studied in term 2. This is a 6-credit year-long course with a mid-term test, one course paper and an exam in each term. The course has no prerequisites and should be of interest to students of classical studies, art history, architecture, medieval studies, religion, mythology and cultural anthropology.

Textbooks: there are two excellent textbooks on Greek art and architecture, and two on Roman. Both have different strengths and weaknesses, but there is little to choose between them. In setting course readings during the year I shall give relevant page numbers for both. Greek: J. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology, 5th ed. (Pearson/Prentice Hall 2012); and R. T. Neer, Art and Archaeology of the Greek World. A New History, c. 2500– c. 150 BCE (Thames & Hudson 2012). Roman: N. H and A. Ramage, Roman Art, 5th edition (Pearson/Prentice Hall 2009); F. S. Kleiner, A History of Roman Art. Enhanced edition (Wadsworth 2007)

Texts:

1.  J. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology, 4th edition

2. T. Neer, Art and Archaeology of the Greek World. A New History, c. 2500– c. 150 BCE (Thames & Hudson 2012)

3.  N. Ramage and A. Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine, 5th edition

4.  F. S. Kleiner, A History of Roman Art. Enhanced edition (Wadsworth 2007)

“As in other departments of science, so in politics, the compound should always be resolved into the simple elements or least parts of the whole. We must therefore look at the elements of which the state is composed, in order that we may see in what the different kinds of rule differ from one another, and whether any scientific result can be attained about each one of them.” – Aristotle, Politics, 1.

A study of the evolution of classical Athens both as a state and as a society, integrating political, social, religious, and economic aspects, and relating internal developments to external history.  This course will focus on the primary sources (literary, epigraphical, archaeological, etc.) to examine the establishment and evolution of Athenian democracy, the growth of Athens’ empire, and the varied social and economic developments that accompanied the rise of democracy and empire.

Texts:

1.  Strassler, R.B. (ed). 1998. The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. Free Press. ISBN-13: 978-0684827902

2.  Moore, J.M 2010. Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy. University of California Press. ISBN-13: 978-0520266056

In 133 BCE Tiberius Gracchus, a sacrosanct Tribune of the Plebs, was lynched by a mob organized by a senatorial faction: the Roman elite had discovered open murder as a political tool and they were never to forget it. Beginning with the death of Tiberius Gracchus and ending in 41 BCE, when the last army commanded by the Roman Senate defeated Mark Antony at the Battle of Mutina, we will explore the chaos, violence, and mayhem of the last years of the Roman Republic, as Rome’s shaky political machinery ground to a halt amid largescale urban violence. Although we will pay close attention to the famous personages of the era – Marius, Sulla, Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Cicero, and so forth – we will also examine those lower on the social ladder and the underlying social and political causes for the fall of the Republic.

Each Honours student in CLST, CLAH, ARGR and GRNE must write a graduating essay.  To register for Classical Studies 449, please contact the Undergraduate Advisor (Lyn Rae).

A survey course on the sanctuaries of the ancient Greek world from the Iron Age to the Hellenistic period.  After reviewing types of sanctuaries, structures in them, and sources for their study (archaeological, literary, epigraphic, etc.) the course will go on to examine various sanctuaries, especially in the Greek heartland (the great athletic panhellenic sites of Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea; healing sanctuaries like Epidauros; mystery sanctuaries like Samothrace and Eleusis; oracular sanctuaries like Delphi, etc.)  The course will also look at great state sanctuaries like Hera at Samos or Corinth (Perachora) and will present in detail two sanctuaries excavated by UBC teams:  Demeter and Kore at Mytilene and a kourotrophic divinity (Eilythuia?) at Stymphalos.  Assignments will include short and long oral reports, a 5000 word research paper, and a final examination.

This course will examine the origins, nature and transmission of myth in the Western Tradition. It will devote particular attention to the interpretation of myth from ancient times up to the present day. Modern theorists discussed may, among others, include Freud; Jung; the so-called “Cambridge Ritualists;” N.Frye; J. Campbell; C. Levi-Strauss; R. Girard; W. Burkett; E. Cassirer. 

Note: CNRS 502A is cross-listed with GREK 525B

Until 60 years ago, the history of Greek comedy was defined by Aristophanes, whose eleven surviving plays are the clearest insight into what the Athenians found funny. Only in the 1950s was a single complete play of Menander discovered. The other playwrights survive only in fragments: Cratinus, Crates, Eupolis, Pherecrates, Plato (the funny one), Alexis, Diphilus, Apollodorus – these names are practically unknown today, but they define the development of comedy from the fifth to the third centuries BCE. The scholarly resources to study early comedy are better now than ever before. We will use fragments (surviving on papyrus and in quotations in other authors), inscriptions, vase painting, mosaics, and all other resources available in order to reconstruct the history of Greek comedy beyond the names of Aristophanes and Menander. In doing so we’ll develop a methodology for reconstructing lost plays, we’ll see how unfunny criticism on comedy can actually be, and we’ll discover jokes about fish and the sexual implications of inappropriate lyre tuning.

This course is open to all graduate students interested in ancient theatre, literature, and history. Those who have completed Greek 301 (or its equivalent) may register in GREK 525; all others register in the (almost) Greekless option of CNRS 503, which is also open to students in other departments. 

This course introduces the student to the fundamentals of reading and writing Ancient Greek.

An understanding of the Greek language—the language of Homer, Plato, Herodotus, amongst others, and the language of the Christian New Testament—is essential for those who wish to study the written sources for the ancient Greek world in the original language.  It is also useful as background for those interested in the philosophy, history, literature, art and archaeology in the fields of either Classical Studies or New Testament Studies. In addition, it provides an excellent foundation for the study of works written in Greek in later eras, such as the Byzantine period.

Note: Greek 100 is the first course in the Department's Greek program, and is required for students wishing to pursue further work in either Classical or Hellenistic Greek.  Greek 100 meets four times per week; students must enroll in both the lecture and tutorial sections.

Texts:

1.  Maurice Balme and Gilbert Lawall, Athenaze I (2nd ed.)

2.  Gilbert Lawall, Workbook I: Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek, 2nd ed. 

In this course, students at last come face to face with major Greek authors. This course is designed to equip students with the necessary tools for independent reading of unadapted Greek texts, by means of a guided introduction to a selection of works. Students will read a range of authors in prose (term one) and will read one complete verse play (term two). By the end of the year, students should have the experience and confidence to read most classical Greek with the assistance of a lexicon and commentary.   

Note:  Greek 301 satisfies the literature requirement of the Faculty of Arts.

Aeschylus’ Agamemnon is the first play in the Oresteia, the most complete set of plays surviving to us from antiquity. The day it was performed at the City Dionysia in 458 BCE was arguably the single most important event in the cultural life of Classical Athens, providing a point of reference for all subsequent poets and philosophers. The Greek is not easy, but studying it can be rewarding. This is an advanced class in Ancient Greek, but attention will be paid to issues of stagecraft, performance, imagery, politics, and characterization in order to better understand the play in its original context.

Note: Students may take Greek 402 more than once, since the content varies each year. 

Note: Students may take Greek 502 more than once, since the content varies each year. 

Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Libation Bearers are the first and second plays in the Oresteia, the most complete set of plays surviving to us from antiquity. The day they were performed at the City Dionysia in 458 BCE was arguably the single most important event in the cultural life of Classical Athens, providing a point of reference for all subsequent poets and philosophers. The Greek is not easy, but studying it can be rewarding. This is an advanced class in Ancient Greek, but attention will be paid to issues of stagecraft, performance, imagery, politics, and characterization in order to better understand the play in its original context.

The emphasis in this course is on grammar and translation of Biblical Hebrew. Selections from the book of Genesis and/or Jonah will be read in class.

Note: This is not a course in Modern Israeli Hebrew. Relatively little attention is given to developing oral/aural skills. 

Is the Biblical Garden of Eden synonymous with Paradise? Does Genesis 2-3 represent Eve as a temptress? When does the plural noun Elohim refer to the singular God and to plural gods?  How to translate the Hebrew term Adam?  What does Exodus 3 recount about the secret name of God YHVH? What can the etymology of Hebrew names contribute to our understanding of specific Biblical narratives? Can the Nephilim be seen as fallen angels?  Who are the Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly of the Biblical book of Proverbs?  Join us as we read together select biblical narratives, discuss conceivable meaning/s of fascinating Biblical accounts, explore possible ideological-cultural aspects embedded in the texts, and examine their reception, impact and multiple interpretations over the ages. 

The course will treat both linguistic and literary aspects. Students interested in examining these issues with a focus on their literary aspects can take this course as RELG 475D [no language prerequisite]. Students interested in examining these issues with a predominant focus on Biblical Hebrew should take it as HEBR 479 or HEBR 509 [prerequisite:  1^st and 2^nd Y Biblical Hebrew]. The course will have different sets of evaluations according to students' focus. 

Latin was the language of the Romans and, at the height of the Roman Empire during the first three centuries of our era, was spoken throughout the whole of Western Europe and a large part of North Africa.  After the fall of the Roman Empire in the west in the fifth century CE, Latin continued to be spoken in a variety of local dialects that developed through time into the modern Romance languages, e.g., French, Italian and Spanish.  Latin itself survived as the common language of educated people in Europe through the church and universities until the eighteenth century.  A knowledge of Latin is essential to the study of the history, literature and archaeology of the Romans and for a serious understanding of the Middle Ages in Europe and the Renaissance.  It is also extremely useful in the study of the Romance languages as well as the English language, which derives much of its vocabulary from Latin.  A knowledge of Latin is also rewarding in its own right; it is a language of great strength and dignity, with a literature that includes the writings of Cicero, Vergil, Ovid and other authors of enormous influence in the shaping of later European literature and thought.

Latin 100 introduces the basics of Latin grammar, which it illustrates by a series of readings adapted from the major authors of classical Latin literature.  Students will be reading passages from such famous authors and works as Julius Caesar's description of the druids, Vergil's story of the Trojan Horse, Ovid's tale of Cupid and Psyche, and the first-hand account by Pliny the Younger of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Text: Terence O. Tunberg, Milena Minkova, Latin For The New Millennium, Level 1 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2009) ISBN: 978-0-86516-560-1)

Latin was the language of the Romans and, at the height of the Roman Empire during the first three centuries of our era, was spoken throughout the whole of Western Europe and a large part of North Africa.  After the fall of the Roman Empire in the west in the fifth century CE, Latin continued to be spoken in a variety of local dialects that developed through time into the modern Romance languages, e.g., French, Italian and Spanish.  Latin itself survived as the common language of educated people in Europe through the church and universities until the eighteenth century.  A knowledge of Latin is essential to the study of the history, literature and archaeology of the Romans and for a serious understanding of the Middle Ages in Europe and the Renaissance.  It is also extremely useful in the study of the Romance languages as well as the English language, which derives much of its vocabulary from Latin.  A knowledge of Latin is also rewarding in its own right; it is a language of great strength and dignity, with a literature that includes the writings of Cicero, Vergil, Ovid and other authors of enormous influence in the shaping of later European literature and thought.

Latin 100 introduces the basics of Latin grammar, which it illustrates by a series of readings adapted from the major authors of classical Latin literature.  Students will be reading passages from such famous authors and works as Julius Caesar's description of the druids, Vergil's story of the Trojan Horse, Ovid's tale of Cupid and Psyche, and the first-hand account by Pliny the Younger of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Text: Terence O. Tunberg, Milena Minkova, Latin For The New Millennium, Level 1 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2009) ISBN: 978-0-86516-560-1)

Latin was the language of the Romans and, at the height of the Roman Empire during the first three centuries of our era, was spoken throughout the whole of Western Europe and a large part of North Africa.  After the fall of the Roman Empire in the west in the fifth century CE, Latin continued to be spoken in a variety of local dialects that developed through time into the modern Romance languages, e.g., French, Italian and Spanish.  Latin itself survived as the common language of educated people in Europe through the church and universities until the eighteenth century.  A knowledge of Latin is essential to the study of the history, literature and archaeology of the Romans and for a serious understanding of the Middle Ages in Europe and the Renaissance.  It is also extremely useful in the study of the Romance languages as well as the English language, which derives much of its vocabulary from Latin.  A knowledge of Latin is also rewarding in its own right; it is a language of great strength and dignity, with a literature that includes the writings of Cicero, Vergil, Ovid and other authors of enormous influence in the shaping of later European literature and thought.

Latin 100 introduces the basics of Latin grammar, which it illustrates by a series of readings adapted from the major authors of classical Latin literature.  Students will be reading passages from such famous authors and works as Julius Caesar's description of the druids, Vergil's story of the Trojan Horse, Ovid's tale of Cupid and Psyche, and the first-hand account by Pliny the Younger of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Text: Terence O. Tunberg, Milena Minkova, Latin For The New Millennium, Level 1 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2009) ISBN: 978-0-86516-560-1)

In Latin 200 we first review and complete the introduction to the fundamentals of Latin grammar and syntax that was begun in Latin 100 and then we proceed to a selection of readings from a variety of major Latin authors.     

New grammar and syntax are illustrated through adapted readings not only from the classical period but also from the medieval and later periods.  Our first-term excerpts from post-classical literature offer a sampling from a wide variety of interesting and important authors and genres, including, for example, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Heloise’s letters to Abelard, William of Tyre’s history of the crusades, Erasmus’ letters, Thomas More’s Utopia, Sepulveda’s account of Columbus in the ‘new world’. 

Our second-term unadapted readings come from classical works of prose and poetry: Eutropius’ history of the Romans’ war with Hannibal (Breviarium ab urbe condita); Julius Caesar’s account of his campaigns in Gaul (De bello gallico), Vergil’s epic tale of Aeneas, the Trojan hero and proto-founder of Rome (the Aeneid).

Note: Latin 200 satisfies the language requirement of the Faculty of Arts

Texts: 

1.  Terence O. Tunberg, Milena Minkova, Latin For The New Millennium, Level 2 (Bolchazy- Carducci, 2009) ISBN: 978-0-86516-563-2)

2.  Brian Beyer, War With Hannibal  (Yale University Press, 2008), ISBN: 9780300139181

In Latin 301, which serves as a bridge between our junior Latin courses (100 and 200) and our senior fourth-year courses, students strengthen their understanding of Latin grammar and syntax and their facility in translation and composition while reading selections from major authors of prose and poetry.

In term one, we’ll read excerpts from Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars (Vita Caesarum) that include, for example, his accounts of the assassination of Julius Caesar, the cruelty and licentiousness of Tiberius, the madness of Caligula, the erudition of Claudius and the artistic pretensions of Nero.  We complete our sampling of Suetonius’ works with his biography of the Augustan poet Horace (Vita Horati), and conclude term one with a reading of select odes (Carmina) of Horace.     

In term two, we’ll read from the works of two other Augustan poets: a book of Vergil’s epic Aeneid and selections from Ovid’s Amores (love poetry), his Metamorphoses (myths of transformation ) and his Tristia (poems written from exile).

Note: Latin 301 satisfies the literature requirement of the Faculty of Arts

Texts:

1.  Term 1: Josiah Osgood, A Suetonius Reader: Selections from the Lives of the Caesars and the Life of Horace (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2011), ISBN 978-0-86516-716-2

2.  Term 2: TBA

Afraid to speak out in class because you’ve never read Pliny’s letters on the Christians? Or Livy’s stirring depiction of the death of Lucretia? Ashamed because you have never spent time lovingly pouring over Cicero’s accounts of Mark Antony’s teenage whoring? Or his puking? Or because you’ve never once looked at any of the accounts of Nero’s collapsible, matricidal boat? This course will solve those problems by reading a selection of the most famous prose passages in Latin from Cato the Elder through Tacitus with emphasis not just on translation but on noticing differences in style and language.

Note: Students may take Latin 401 more than once, since the content varies each year.

Intrigue, scandal, treachery, adultery, murder – and that’s just the first page of Book IV of Tacitus’ Annales. In this course we will be reading about the exciting events of 23-28 CE as described by Tacitus in this book, including the deterioration of Tiberius’ principate and the increasing influence of the ‘evil genius’ Sejanus. We will consider Tacitus’ place in Latin historiography in general and through a close reading of the Latin text discuss the historical context of this book as well as examine it as a literary work in its own right through the observation of the dramatic qualities and structure of Tacitus’ narrative. Graduate students will be expected to do extra reading in Tacitus as well as presentations and a research paper on some aspects of Tacitean studies.

Text: Tacitus: Annals Book IV, edited by R. H. Martin and  A. J. Woodman, University of Cambridge (1990), ISBN:9780521315432 

Note: Students may take Latin 501 more than once, since the content varies each year.

Seneca's Thyestes is an archetypal revenge tragedy: Atreus hates his brother Thyestes so much that he kills Thyestes' children and serves them up to him at a feast. The play is replete with gruesome descriptions and is not for the faint-hearted. During the course we'll study the Latin play closely, seeing the downfall of Thyestes and analysing Atreus, possibly Seneca's most horrifying character. We'll set Seneca's play in its cultural context and we'll ask what difference it makes that Seneca was a Stoic philosopher and adviser to the emperor Nero. Among the issues we shall consider will be the political and philosophical dimensions of Seneca's tragedy, such as the representation of power and powerlessness, and the philosophical aspects of his portrayal of anger. Then we'll consider the play's reception and influence on Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists such as Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy), Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus), Jonson (Catiline, Sejanus) and Webster (The White Devil, The Duchess of Malfi). We may view Julie Taymor's 1999 movie Titus as we grapple with the moral implications of the spectacle of barbarous violence.

Note: Students may take Latin 502 more than once, since the content varies each year.

Texts: Seneca’s Thyestes; ed. R.J. Tarrant (Georgia, 1985); and additional lines from other tragedies of Seneca

The course will provide an overview of some of the most important archaeological research of the civilizations of the ancient Near East and Egypt over the past two centuries of exploration. Such discoveries include the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform, archaeological excavations at ancient sites such as Saqqara, Thebes and Amarna in Egypt, and Babylon, Nineveh and Ashur in Mesopotamia. The course will also present the colourful travelers, antiquarians, and archaeologists who were responsible for these investigations (e.g. Sir Flinders Petrie, Champollion, Leonard Woolley, Kathleen Kenyon), and the impact that their research had on one's understanding of the ancient history and archaeology of some of the most important civilizations, cultures and peoples of the ancient world.

This course is designed to provide a general introduction to the archaeology of the ancient Near East, including Prehistory, Syria-Palestine (Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan), Anatolia and the civilizations of Mesopotamia. The course will emphasize the major technological, artistic and architectural achievements of each of these areas as well as focus on the material manifestations of religion, the origins of agriculture, the emergence of the world’s cities, and the rise of empires.  The course will also focus on the tools and techniques of archaeological recovery that are employed in the Near East, and how these have developed over the past two centuries. 

Note: Equivalent to Art History 327

This course is designed to provide a general introduction to the art and archaeology of Ancient Egypt. After presenting and discussing the topographical setting of Ancient Egypt the lectures will present the material remains of Prehistoric Egypt from the Lower Paleolithic to the Neolithic. It follows an in depth discussion of the crucial phase in the development of Ancient Egypt from the state of rivaling chiefdoms to the emergence of a unified kingdom. The second part of the lectures will describe major cemetery and settlement sites along the Nile valley and in the delta during the Pharaonic period. Aspects such as tomb architecture and equipment, day-to-day artifacts and luxury objects will show the great variety of Egyptian technology and skill. Where helpful, textual evidence will supplement the interpretation of the archaeological finds. 

An Introduction to Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt

Egypt played a pivotal role in the history of early Christianity and monasticism, and other religious beliefs of Late Antiquity (such as Gnosticism, Manichaeism). Coptic – the language of Christian Egypt – is one of the most important Near Eastern languages into which the Bible was translated, the spoken and written language of Egypt from Antiquity to the Middle Age, and the liturgical language of the Coptic Church in Egypt and Ethiopia. There is also a significant Coptic community in the Greater Vancouver area.

Although CNERS has had a significant focus on early Christianity and the Near East, Coptic will be the first language of the Christian Near East taught within our department, an attractive option for students of Religious Studies and early Christianity, but equally students with a focus on the ancient Near East (Coptic is the latest stage of ancient Egyptian) and students of Greek (Coptic uses the Greek alphabet and has up to 25% Greek vocabulary).

The course aims to provide the students with the basic elements of Coptic grammar (orthography, phonology, morphology and syntax), using one of the existing learners' textbooks for the first literary dialect of Coptic, Sahidic, and time permitting, to continue with reading a selection of easy Sahidic texts.

Textbook:

Bentley Layton, Coptic in 20 Lessons. Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies, Leuven–Paris–Dudley, Ma.: Peeters, 2007.

Political and Economic Interactions in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean:  This course will provide a detailed look at archaeological and textual evidence for interactions among the various polities and cultures of the Late Bronze Eastern Mediterranean world, c. 1700-1100 BCE.  Through diplomatic letters, treaties, and material evidence for warfare and imperial control, we’ll examine political relations and military conflicts among the great powers of the period (Egypt, the Hittites, Assyria, Mitanni, and Babylonia), how the Egyptians and others forged and maintained their empires, and the effects of these interactions on both conqueror and conquered.  We’ll also investigate the nature and implications of “international” economic exchanges by looking at the production, trade, and consumption of various goods, including methods for determining their provenience, the technological aspects of transportation, and the social life of foreign goods.

Course material is presented through illustrated lectures by the instructor, class discussions of various assigned readings, and student presentations based on their research projects.  The course is open to any graduate students from CNERS, Anthropology, and Art History.

This course introduces students to the intriguing worlds of Mesopotamian and Biblical mythology. This will be achieved through introductions to, and literary reading of, mythological narratives from ancient Mesopotamian sources (what is now Iraq) and the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament, in order to glimpse into ancient discourses, beliefs, and narratives. In the process, students will be introduced to key concepts and methods in the study of religion and ancient civilizations, explore a variety of myths in their original context, and examine links between Mesopotamian and Biblical foundational narratives. Among other themes, we will read and discuss myths of creation and the first humans, concepts of Eden, Flood stories, imagery and stories of the towers of Babel, as well as legends about Demons, Gods, Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines.

This course begins at the very beginning, with the historical figures at the heart of the Christian movement and the philosophers and theologians who have been shaping the religion for the last two thousand years. This is not, however, merely a “great men, great moments” course. We move quickly into Late Antique and Medieval Christianity, paying particular attention to the popular movements and ideas which have arisen from time to time to change the course of the religion, from social experiments to strange saints. In the second term, we explore the Reformation, including expressions of religion from high art to contemporary Christian merchandising. Along the way we will cover the wars and schisms in the various forms of Christianity, tracing the development of the religion down to the modern day and into the future.

For centuries, the classic image of the prophet—as one handpicked by God to deliver bleak oracles to a hostile public—was plucked directly from the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. While scholars imagined that these books had undergone revision over time, it was generally assumed that they were rooted in the words of actual prophets. Recent evidence from Mesopotamia, however, calls for a reassessment of all conclusions drawn solely from the Bible. In texts from Mari (18^th C BCE) and Assyria (7^th C BCE), prophets deliver brief oracles that pertain largely to the king, not the public. Unlike the Bible, there is no focus on the prophetic “personality”; no trace of a call to prophesy; and no prevalent tone of critique. This comparison raises all sorts of fascinating questions: why does the biblical portrayal of prophecy look so different from that of Mesopotamia? Did prophets simply occupy a different role in ancient Israel, or do the prophetic books reflect the work of scribes, not prophets? In this course, we will address such questions by probing biblical material (e.g., the Elijah/Elisha narratives; Jeremiah, Amos, Jonah, etc.) in light of the ancient Near Eastern evidence. In the process, we will aim to develop a sophisticated sense both of the role of the prophet in ancient Israel and of the strange phenomenon of the biblical prophetic book. All texts will be read in translation.

Classical rabbinic literature (3^rd–7^th centuries C.E.) consists of a massive corpus of legal and exegetical texts (e.g. Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrashim) that comprise the foundations of medieval and modern-day Judaism. A rich area of study in its own right, rabbinic literature also contributes to the study of the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation, early Christianity and other religions of late antiquity, and the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean and near east. This seminar introduces the major works of rabbinic literature and issues relevant to modern scholarship. It focuses on the non-legal material, namely midrash (biblical interpretation) and narratives. Topics include authorship, ethics, historiography, identity, and rabbinic literature’s relationships with the New Testament, early Christians, Greeks, and Romans. 

In this course we will explore the adaptation of select key Biblical narratives, themes, and characters in modern Jewish and Israeli literature, art, and film. On the one hand, we will pursue close readings of Biblical texts, from a literary perspective, with the aim of opening a window onto the conceptual worlds of biblical authors in their original ancient context. On the other hand, we will focus on the reception and adaptation of Biblical traditions in later contemporary Jewish/Israeli writings that developed after the Holocaust and the establishment of the secular state of Israel. In the course of our meetings we will explore how Biblical narratives, themes, and characters have been reintroduced, interpreted, and reconstructed, by modern writers and artists, to convey contemporary notions related to both personal and collective concerns.

Among other topics, we will examine the story of Adam, Eve and Lilith, the binding of Isaac, the story of the Exodus, the concept of the Sabbath, the city of Jerusalem the Tower of Babel as well as an array of Biblical characters as represented in the work and art of S. Y. Agnon, Yehudah Amichai, Isaac Basheviz-Singer, Marc Chagall, Shulamit Hareven, Franz Kafka, Aamos Oz, Yonah Wallach, and Zelda. We will also explore Cinematic dialogues with Biblical and Jewish traditions (e.g. Amos Gitai's film Kadosh [Hebrew for “sacred”], Avi Nesher’s film The Secrets, Sagi Bornstein’s film Kafka's Last Story).

Christian prophetic figures are those people who have been able to articulate central features of Christian experience for their time.  An attempt will be made to re-create the original historical context of each author. The authors selected have in some senses transcended the perspectives of their own period and continue to challenge our religious imagination.  Authors to be considered might include Athanasius, Walter Hilton, Francis of Assisi, Erasmus, Teresa of Avila, Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene and Leonardo Boff.

A survey of the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the Jews from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the present, with special emphasis on changing attitudes to Jews and Judaism and social and cultural transformations.

The Qur’ān is and always has been many things to many people.  For some believers it is the “living Word of God” that has the answer to all problems in all times and places.  To others, it is a beguiling mystery whose secrets are not known, but felt.  Yet others revere the physical text itself, satisfied with having only a basic understanding of its contents.  To outsiders, the text is often seen as a jumbled cacophony of legal dictates, disjointed stories and threats of an ultimate judgment.  In this class we will traverse the various ways in which the Qur’ān has been received in history and continues to be received today.  Further, we will examine the theological, legal, literary, historical, mystical and modern approaches to the Qur’ān in an attempt to holistically understand various methods of exegesis and their ramifications.

Islamic law has become something of a proxy in modern debates for larger theories and ideologies.  Muslims across the world call for a “return to Islamic law” as a panacea for the ills of modernity.  Several states in the United States have introduced bills that would ban Islamic law from being practiced and enforced within their borders.  Muslims and non-Muslims contest the definition and applicability of Islamic law, in what has become a heated global argument.

Beginning with the origins of Islamic law and tracing its trajectory alongside the political fortunes and misfortunes of the Muslim empire, this class will explore the development and application of Islamic law. We will read primary sources in translation that will help us understand how Muslims conceived of Islamic law, and we will read secondary texts that will situate those conceptions in a socio-historical context. Class lecture and discussion will center around complicating our ideas about what is “Islamic” as well as what constitutes “law.”

In this seminar the figure of Eve will be treated as an emblem for women and the notion of femininity. We will examine the notion of femininity and its varied constructions in biblical context/s through analyzing varied representations of women in intriguing accounts from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. We will further focus our attention on on-going dialogues between ancient Biblical traditions and later generations through select contemporary interpretations of these accounts in art, literature, and film.

In our discussions we will explore issues such as the diverse roles that women cast to play within biblical narrative (mothers, daughters, queens, slaves, judges, prostitutes, worriers, psychics, and lovers, to name just a few…); the variety of  femininities (both idealized and scorned) in Biblical traditions; legal and cultural aspects related to women in ancient Israel; the Near Eastern social and cultural context of Biblical narratives of women; relations between literary representations of women and experiences of "real" women and men in their historical/cultural contexts, feminist/gender critical perspectives, and the ways in which biblical traditions have been interpreted and reshaped in later generations, and may have affected the understanding of gender/ femininity in Western culture, past and present.   

Tentative topics include representations of the paradigmatic Eve, the Matriarchs, Tamar, and Dinah (the book of Genesis); Debborah, Jael, Sisera’s Mother, and Delilah (the book of Judges), Egyptian and Israelite Women (the book of Exudus); Rahab (the book of Joshuah),  Jezebel (1/2 Kings); Hannah, the Witch/Necromancer from Ein Dor, and Abigail (1Samuel);  Bath Sheba (2 Samuel); Ruth and Naomi (The Book of Ruth); Esther and  Vasti (the book of Esther); The Personified Wisdom, the Foreign Woman, and the Woman of Valor (the book of Proverbs); and finally the female lover of the Song of Songs (Song of Songs). 

Each Honours student in Religious Studies must write a graduating essay.  To register for Religious Studies 499, please contact the Undergraduate Advisor.

Topic for 2013-14: Ancient Jerusalem in Archaeology and Texts

This seminar will explore ancient Jerusalem from its beginnings as a Canaanite town through the Israelite (i.e. Iron Ages), Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras, up to the dawn of Islam (roughly 1000 B.C.E. to 640 C.E.). This seminar will incorporate close readings of archaeological finds and literary sources, covering the Hebrew Bible and the formation of Judaism and Christianity in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean. All texts will be read in English translation. Graduate standing is required; otherwise, no prerequisites.

This course sits at the intersection of two highly contested topics, “Shari’a” and the role of “women” in Islam.  Both these issues have become increasingly politicized in contemporary global discourse.  For this reason, it is important to study the historical roots of their development, as well as their various manifestations in the contemporary world.  As such, we will begin with a basic introduction to Islamic law, paying close attention to the way that categories of gender were conceived and developed from early Islam to medieval Islamic jurisprudence.  We will then examine the impact of colonialism on the development, practice and legislation of Islamic law in various Muslim-majority nation states.  Finally, we will conclude with an investigation of how Islamic law, especially as related to issues of gender, is practiced and implemented in nation states where Muslims form either majorities or minorities.  We will pay close attention to the formal and informal role of “fatwas”, and by the end of the course, students will be expected to participate in a “fatwa-creation” exercise.