Classics
The Department of Classics offers courses in modern Greek, ancient Greek, and Latin, as well as courses in Greek literature and poetry, Augustan poetry, Latin literature, Medieval language and literature, classical myth, and women in antiquity.
Departmental Chair, Fall: Gareth Williams, 615 Hamilton
212-854-2850
gdw5@columbia.edu
Departmental Chair, Spring: James Zetzel, 611 Hamilton
212-854-5682
zetzel@columbia.edu
Departmental Adviser: Deborah Steiner, 617 Hamilton
212-854-4188
dts8@columbia.edu
Departmental Administrator: Gerry Visco, 617 Hamilton
212-854-7821
gwv1@columbia.edu
Departmental Office: 617 Hamilton
212-854-3902
classics@columbia.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM
Web: www.columbia.edu/cu/classics
Hellenic Studies Program
greek@columbia.edu
Acting Director, Fall: Professor Karen Van Dyck, 515 Hamilton
212-854-2189
krv1@columbia.edu
Acting Director, Spring: Professor Evangelos Calotychos, 606 Hamilton
212-854-6988
ec2268@columbia.edu
NOTE
Course scheduling is subject to change. Days, times, instructors, class locations, and call numbers are available on the Directory of Classes.
Fall course information begins posting to the Directory of Classes in February; Summer course information begins posting in March; Spring course information begins posting in June. For course information missing from the Directory of Classes after these general dates, please contact the department or program.
Click on course title to see course description and schedule.
Fall 2009
Classics
Classical Civilization
Credit Courses
Prerequisites: None.
Corequisites: None.
An examination of ancient political theory in its social and philosophical
context. Topics will include constitutional theory, the origins and
legitimation of government, ethics and politics, the regulation of private
life, the rule of law, and the cosmopolis. Authors will include the
Sophists, Plato (Republic, Laws, Statesman), Aristotle (Politics), Cicero
(Republic and Laws), Polybius, Dio of Prusa (On Kingship, Borysthenic
Oration), and Augustine (City of God).
Classical Literature
Credit Courses
A survey of major myths from the ancient Near East to the advent of
Christianity, with emphasis on the content and treatment of myth in
classical authors: Aeschylus, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Livy, Ovid,
Sophocles, Vergil.
Greek
Credit Courses
For students who have never studied Greek. An intensive study of grammar
with reading and writing of simple Attic prose.
Covers all of Greek grammar and syntax in one term. Prepares the student to
enter second-year Greek (GREK V1201 or V1202).
Prerequisites: GREK V1201-V1202 or the equivalent.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be
repeated for credit. Topic for 2007-2008: Lucian
Prerequisites: Prerequisite: GREK V1201 and V1202 or their equivalent.
Since the content of the course changes from year to year, it may be taken
in consecutive years. Topic for 2007-2008: Plato
Prerequisites: At least two terms of Greek at the 3000 level or higher.
Readings in Greek literature from Homer to the 4th century B.C.
Prerequisites: At least four terms of Greek, or the equivalent.
An intensive review of Greek syntax with translation of English sentences
and paragraphs into Attic Greek.
Noncredit Courses
Latin
Credit Courses
For students who have never studied Latin. An intensive study of grammar
with reading of simple prose and poetry.
Prerequisites: LATN V1101
A continuation of LATN V1101, including a review of grammar and syntax for
students whose study of Latin has been interrupted.
Designed to cover all of Latin grammar and syntax in one semester in order
to prepare the student to enter LATN V1201 or V1202.
Prerequisites: LATN V1101-V1102, or LATN V1121, or the equivalent.
Selections from Catullus and from Cicero or Caesar.
Prerequisites: LATN V1201 or the equivalent.
Selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses and from Sallust, Livy,
Seneca, or Pliny.
Prerequisites: LATN V1202 or the equivalent.
Selections from Vergil and Horace. Combines literary analysis with work in
grammar and metrics.
Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be
repeated for credit. Topic for 2008-2009: Sallust.
Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be
repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: At least two terms of Latin at the 3000 level or higher.
Latin literature from the beginning to early Augustan times.
Noncredit Courses
Modern Greek
Credit Courses
Introduction to modern Greek language and culture. Designed for students
wishing to learn the skills necessary to read modern Greek texts of
moderate difficulty and converse on a wide range of topics. Students
explore modern Greece's cultural landscape from "parea" to poetry to
political graffiti. Special attention is paid to general problems of
foreign language study and translation.
Prerequisites: GRKM V1101-V1102 or the equivalent.
This course is designed for students who are already familiar with the
basic grammar and syntax of modern Greek language and can communicate at an
elementary level. Using films, newspapers, and popular songs, students
engage the finer points of Greek grammar and syntax and enrich their
vocabulary. Emphasis is given to writing, whether in the form of film and
book reviews or essays on particular topics taken from a selection of
second year textbooks.
This course introduces students to key aspects of Modern Greek culture as
well as to faculty at Columbia working on Greece in different departments.
Readings focus on moments when Greece's position at the crossroads between
East and West become comparatively relevant to particular disciplines.
Students study works by poets, novelists, filmmakers, literary critics,
historians, anthropologists and architects; Columbia faculty and invited
guests then discuss their own scholarship in these fields. Texts are
available in both English and Greek. The course can be taken with a
one-credit extra hour tutorial for advanced students reading materials in
Greek.
This course stages an imaginary dialogue between certain Greek poets, whose
work spans the 20th century, and poets of the same era from other parts of
the world, for whom Greek motifs are crucial to their poetic sensibility.
These motifs may pertain to both ancient and modern figures of Hellenism,
but even when the figures are recognizably ancient the assumption is that
they extend themselves to an outmaneuverable modernity. Indeed, by staging
this dialogue, the course will engage in interrogations of modernity and,
moreover, the specific ways in which figures of modernity and figures of
Hellenism are entwined. At the same time, we will pay close attention to
different articulations of poi?sis, especially as they pertain to a certain
politics. The literary historical sphere spans the range of early modernism
to postmodernism and postcolonialism, as well as specific poetic-political
sensibilities, whether aestheticist or Marxist, feminist or queer.
Noncredit Courses
Spring 2010
Classics
Classical Civilization
Credit Courses
Considers cinematic representations of the ancient Mediterranean world,
from early silent films to movies from the present day. Explores films that
purport to represent historical events (such as Gladiator) and
cinematic versions of ancient texts (Pasolini's Medea). Readings
include ancient literature and modern criticism.
Classical Literature
Credit Courses
Overview of Greek and Roman literature. Close analysis of selected texts
from the major genres accompanied by lectures on literary history. Topics
include the context out of which the genres arose, the suitability of
various modern critical approaches to the ancient texts, the problem of
translation, and the transmission of the classical authors and their
influence on modern literature.
Greek
Credit Courses
For students who have never studied Greek. An intensive study of grammar
with reading and writing of simple Attic prose.
Prerequisites: GREK V1101 or the equivalent, or the permission of the instructor or the director of undergraduate studies.
Continuation of grammar study begun in GREK V1101; selections from Attic prose.
Covers all of Greek grammar and syntax in one term. Prepares the student to
enter second-year Greek (GREK V1201 or V1202).
Prerequisites: GREK V1101-V1102 or GREK V1121 or the equivalent.
Detailed grammatical and literary study of several books of the Iliad and
introduction to the techniques or oral poetry, to the Homeric hexameter,
and to the historical background of Homer.
Prerequisites: GREK V1201-V1202 or the equivalent.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be
repeated for credit. Topic for 2006-2007: Aristophanes
Noncredit Courses
Latin
Credit Courses
For students who have never studied Latin. An intensive study of grammar
with reading of simple prose and poetry.
Prerequisites: LATN V1101
A continuation of LATN V1101, including a review of grammar and syntax for
students whose study of Latin has been interrupted.
Designed to cover all of Latin grammar and syntax in one semester in order
to prepare the student to enter LATN V1201 or V1202.
Prerequisites: LATN V1101-V1102, or LATN V1121, or the equivalent.
Selections from Catullus and from Cicero or Caesar.
Prerequisites: LATN V1201 or the equivalent.
Selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses and from Sallust, Livy,
Seneca, or Pliny.
Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be
repeated for credit. Topic for 2007-2008: Livy
Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be
repeated for credit. Topic for 2007-2007: Elegy
Prerequisites: At least two terms of Latin at the 3000 level or higher.
Latin literature from Augustus to 600 C.E.
Noncredit Courses
Modern Greek
Credit Courses
Prerequisites: GRKM V1101 or the equivalent.
Continuation of GRKM V1101. Introduction to modern Greek language
and culture. Emphasis on speaking, writing, basic grammar, syntax and
cross-cultural analysis.
Prerequisites: GRKM V1201 or the equivalent.
Continuation of GRKM V1201. Students complete their knowledge of the
fundamentals of Greek grammar and syntax while continuing to enrich their
vocabulary.
This course introduces students to major literary, cultural, and political
issues in modern Greece through Greek film. Discussion of films are placed
alongside weekly readings in the novel, history, politics, film criticism.
All films have English subtitles. There will be a Greek and English
section. Films by Angelopoulos, Cacoyannis, Voulgaris, Marketaki,
Koundouros, Costa-Gavras, Giannaris, Papatakis, and Dassin.
This course introduces students to the rich tradition of literature about
and by Greeks in America over the past century, exploring questions of
ethnic identity, gender and language. Students examine how contemporary
debates in diaspora studies and translation theory can inform each other
and how both, in turn, can inform a discussion of the writing of the Greek
American experience in histories, novels, poetry, travel literature,
performance art and films. Authors include Kazan, Gage, Broumas, Spanidou,
Galas, Selz, Papandreou, and Petrakis.
![[ More Info ]](./images/moreinfo.gif)