Classics and History 21: Greek Civilization

Syllabus

Professor Jacques A. Bailly
Classics Dept.
481 Main St., Room 300
656-0993
jbailly@zoo.uvm.edu Classics Home
Prof. Bailly's UVM Courses

This syllabus is posted on the web at: http://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/clas21/clas21.html

Attendance: Required.

Texts:
You are not absolutely required to buy any of these texts, but they all will be helpful. The ones that are labeles "recommended" are labeled that way because they are either not among the assigned reading, but may be helpful for your second paper, or because I think you might find another edition cheaper. Consult the schedule to see which are which.

• 1. Bruce Thornton, Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization, Encounter Books, Required. ISBN 1-893554-03-1
• 2. M. L. West's translation of Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, Oxford University Press, Required. ISBN 0-190281788-4
• 3. CDC Reeve, editor. The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts, Hackett Publishers, required. ISBN 0-87220-589-4.
• 4. Barrett and Somerstein, translators of Aristophanes The Knights, Peace, Wealth, Birds, The Assemblywomen.Viking Press. Recommended. ISBN 0140443320 .
• 5. Paul Woodruff, translator of Euripides Bacchae. Hackett Publishers, required. ISBN 0-87220-392-1
• 6. Stanley Lombardo, translator of The Essential Homer, Hackett Publishing, required. ISBN 0-87220-540-1.
• 7. Paul Woodruff and Alexander Nehamas, translators of PlatoSymposium. Hackett Publishing, recommended. ISBN 0-87220-076-0.
• 8. Paul Woodruff, translator of Sophocles Antigone. Hackett Publishing, required. ISBN 0-87220-571-1
• 9. Paul Woodruff, On Justice, Power, and Human Nature. Hackett Publishers, required. ISBN 0-87220-168-6
• 10. Samuel Shirley, Herodotus, On the war for Greek Freedom, Hackett Publishing. Required. ISBN 0-87220-667-X
• 11. Lembke and Herington, Aeschylus' The Persians. Oxford University Press, Required. ISBN 0195070089.
• 12. Moore, Nims, Hadas, Morgan, and Bovie, translators of Euripides, 2: Hippolytus, The Suppliant Women, Helen, Electra, Cyclops. University of Pennsylvania Press, Recommended. ISBN 0812216296.

Grades: I am, willingly if they are high, unwillingly if low, required to record them. Do not ask me for a higher grade: earn it.
Artificially established limits for number-graded assignments: 91-100%=A, 81-90%=B, 71-80%=C, 61-70%=D, 60% or lower fails. Plus and minus will be given for the top three and bottom three points of each range respectively.

Graded Elements of this Course
Quizzes and Final (absence = 0%)	20%
Paper #1	20%
Paper #2	30%
Panelist Performance	20%
Questions for Panelists	10%

Papers:

• Paper #1:
  You will write a 2-page maximum obituary of an important figure in 5th Century Athens. You will use Plutarch's life of that figure for your main source. Late assignments will be docked 5% per day.
• Paper #2
  You will write a 7 page essay reacting to one chapter of Thornton's book. As part of this paper, you will be required to read at least one sizeable ancient Greek work (preferably more) that was NOT assigned in class. A sizeable work is one that is more than 10 pages long. That work is to be one that Thornton discusses in the Thornton chapter to which you are reacting, and that work is to figure largely in your essay. If the work does not figure largely in your essay, you will be marked down a full grade.
  This essay is due on the class BEFORE that chapter is assigned to the whole class. Late assignments will be docked 5% per day.

Panels and questions for panelists:
For your second paper, you will choose a chapter of Thornton's book to react to. On the day on which the whole class is assigned to read that chapter, you will form part of a panel of experts to whom the class will direct questions. I will grade your performance on that panel. Absence on that day = 0% for that assignment. You must actively participate in the discussion in order to receive full credit. Mediocre participation will earn you 75%. Being there but saying little or nothing will earn you 60%.
On each day on which there is a Thornton chapter to be read, you will hand in two short (30 words or less) interesting questions about that Thornton chapter at the start of class (unless you are a panelist, in which case you need not hand in questions). Questions must be typed with your name on them and will not be accepted after the start of class. Each question will be worth 1% of your final grade.

Your assignments must be good English and proofread: if I find, on average, >2 typoes or negligent grammatical infelicities on a page (or every 250 words), then you will be docked 1.333 grade points for that assignment.

Contacting me: E-mail is best. You can also try dropping by my office. If it is not during office hours and I am there, I might be busy, so be ready to make an appointment for later. My home phone is 859-9253.

Procedure:
We will spend the first two thirds of the semester reading ancient works. There will be quizzes on those works either at the start or at the end of classes.
The last third of class will be spent on Thornton's book, and will be organized around the topics of his book. You will form panels, and your fellow students will ask questions. I or someone else will moderate these discussions.

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
(John Dewey, UVM 1879)