This course combines two terms of elementary classical Greek into one semester. Rapidly progressing grammatical exercises are supplemented by selections of classical poetry and prose, read with a focus on recognition and comprehension of basic syntactical patterns. Prerequisite: previous study of a foreign language is helpful. (4 credits)
CGRK E-5 Greek Prose: Herodotus, Book I
Fall term (13735)
Christopher Krebs, PhD, Associate Professor of the Classics, Harvard University.
The work of Herodotus of Halicarnassus (ca. 484 - 426) provides a grand vista of the known world in the light (or shadow) of the Greco-Persian confrontation. It was unprecedented. Even though it can be shown to be indebted to Homer, in tune with tragic themes in particular and resonating with contemporary discourses more generally, it has retained a touch of the mysterious: much can be accounted for, but something unaccountable remains. This course focuses on Herodotus Book 1, the rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great; we endeavor to read the rest of his account in translation. Primary attention is on Herodotus' famous syntax and his Ionic morphology but we also look at thematic aspects of his work, a work which earned him the title of "father of history" as much as "father of lies." Prerequisite: at least two semesters of Greek. (4 credits)
CGRK E-6 Sophocles' Antigone
Spring term (23599)
Christopher Krebs, PhD, Associate Professor of the Classics, Harvard University.
Sophocles, alongside Aeschylus and Euripides the greatest tragedian in Greek literature, wrote the Antigone, the first of his three Theban plays in (at the latest) 442. It dramatizes the decision of Antigone, a daughter of Oedipus, to bury her brother Polyneices against the explicit order of the king of the land, Creon. The king, having sentenced her to death and pardoned her too late to prevent her suicide, faces as dire consequences of his act the further deaths of his son Haemon as well as his wife. One of the greatest Greek tragedies, it has been read–most famously by Hegel–as the staging of the conflict between two systems of obligation. We read the Antigone in Greek, with particular attention to Sophocles' idiom and a first, tentative appreciation of tragic meters. Prerequisite: three semesters of Greek. (4 credits)