Core Studies 1 S: Assignments

Back to the home page for this section of Core 1

Back to the Core 1 home page

This assignment page lists each class meeting and the readings which are due at that meeting. Since this section of Core 1 is an experiment, with nearly half of the classwork taking place in cyberspace, there is no way of assigning each reading to an exact class hour. Some material, in fact, will be discussed mostly or entirely on-line.

The topic(s) which we discuss each week in our on-line conference will be an integral part of the assignments for the course. They will be listed here as the semester goes on. A tentative listing appears below.

Part 1: Greek Epic

Sep. 1

Introduction

Cyber-assignment: Join our Caucus discussion group and post a comment about the gods and goddesses in Book 1 of Homer's Iliad.

Sep. 3

Homer, Iliad, book 1

Check out the Core 1 Study Guide on Homer.

Cyber-topic: Gods and Goddesses in Iliad 1 and 3

Hera unveiling herself to Zeus (metope from the Temple of Hera at Selinous in Sicily, 470-460 B.C.E.).

For more images of the Greek gods and goddesses visit the Classical Myth website at the University of Victoria in Canada.

To learn more about Homer's epics visit the Iliad and Odyssey web site.

Another site for general background on the Iliad visit the Classics web site at the University of Saskatchewan.

Further study questions on the Iliad can be found in the Study Guide for Reading Homer's Iliad by Robin Mitchell-Boyask of Temple University.

Sep. 8

Iliad 3, 6

Study Guide

Cyber-topic: Hektor's Words and Achilles' Words

What did the text of the Iliad look like? Here is a papyrus fragment of Book 1, lines 528-540, in the collection at Duke University. Copyright Special Collections Library, Duke University. Reproduced by permission.

Sep. 15: Iliad 9; Study Guide; Cyber-topic: Achilles, Odysseus, Phoinix, Aias: Persuasion in Iliad 9
Sep. 24: Iliad 16; Study Guide; Cyber-topic: An Inquiry into the Death of Patroklos; Here is the topic of the first paper, due October 27.

Warrior saying farewell to his wife (Attic white-ground lekythos by the Achilles Painter [450-440 B.C.E.] in the National Museum, Athens). To see a larger image of this vase click here. To view more images from the National Museum, click here, then click on Prehistoric Items and scroll down to see artifacts from Mycenae (Mykenai), Agamemnon's city, including a gold death mask!

Oct. 1 (NOTE THE CHANGE OF DATE): Iliad 18, 22; Study Guide; Cyber-topic: Priam's Supplication of Achilles in Iliad 24

Oct. 8 (OPTIONAL WORKSHOP): Writing the First Paper

Oct. 15 (NOTE THE CHANGE OF DATE)

Iliad 24

Cyber-Topic: The Theme of Supplication in the Iliad

Part 2: Greek Tragedy and Comedy

Oct. 20

Sophocles, Oedipus the King

Study Guide: Oedipus the King

Cyber-topic: The Performance of Greek Tragedy

View of the Theater of Dionysos in Athens, where tragedies and comedies were performed

Roger Dunkle has prepared an illustrated Introduction to Greek Tragedy. This is part of your assignment for this week.

For more detail on the Greek theater go to Didaskalia and be sure to check out the Introduction to Greek Stagecraft and the 3-D reconstructions of the Theater of Dionysos.

For 3-D reconstructions of buildings on the Acropolis, above the theater of Dionysos, visit the Acropolis Project.

For a large collection of images of the Greek theater visit Skenotheke.

Read more about The Development of Athenian Tragedy in Thomas Martin's overview of Greek history.

For a walking tour of ancient Athens, go to AncientSites and click on Places to Go.

An interesting site which will help you interpret Sophocles' play is the Classics Pages, maintained by Andrew Wilson.

Further background material on Sophocles' Oedipus the King by John Porter and Lewis Stiles is available.

View of the temple of Apollo at Delphi (fourth century B.C.E.) on the slopes of Mount Parnassos

Oct. 27

Euripides, Medea

Study Guide: Medea

First paper due

Nov. 3: Euripides, Bacchae; Study Guide: Bacchae; Cyber-topic: How Does Dionysos in the Bacchae Differ from Homer's Gods?

A satyr and a maenad (archaic Attic red-figure cup in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence, Italy)

Visit the web page for the Bacchae and Dionysos, part of a team-taught humanities course at Reed College. (Note: some images are only available in miniature.)
More study questions are available from John Thorburn at Baylor University.
You can find yet another guide to the Bacchae by Rand Johnson at the University of Western Michigan. (Page down one screen from the top.)
For images of Dionysos there's a mythology site in Haifa.
Another excellent collection of Dionysiac images is maintained by Laurel Bowman at the University of Victoria.

Part 3: Greek Philosophy

Portrait bust of the philosopher Sokrates

Nov. 10

Aristophanes, Clouds

Study Guide: Introduction to Comedy

Study Guide: Clouds

Cyber-Topic: Sokrates in the Clouds: A Threat to Tradition

Nov. 12

Note: The mid-term originally scheduled for this date is a take-home, due on Tuesday, November 17. The topic appears as a Caucus discussion item.

Nov. 17

Plato, Apology

Study Guide: Apology

Cyber-Topic: Two Portraits of Sokrates Compared

Be sure to check the on-line Plato resources assembled by Roger Dunkle.

See Thomas Martin's account of Sokrates in his overview of Greek History.

Nov. 20 Cyber-assignment: Plato, Republic 1-29; Study Guide: Republic; Cyber-topic: Theories of Justice: Conversations with Sokrates
Nov. 24 Class assignment: Plato, Republic 53-80; Study Guide: Republic; Class discussion: Plato's Censorship of Literature; NEW! Take a quiz on Plato's Republic.
November 27 Cyber-assignment: Plato, Republic 103-111, 119-155; Cyber-topic: Plato Versus Democracy
Dec. 1 Class assignment: Plato, Republic 221-235, 342-359; Study Guide: Republic; Class discussion: Plato's Theory of Ideas

Part 4: Roman Epic

Dec. 3 Cyber-assignment

Vergil, Aeneid, Book 1

Study Guide: Aeneid

Cyber-topic: Vergil's Roman Epic: Old and New

Note: The topic for the second paper, due December 15, is posted as Caucus Item #17.

Statue of the Emperor Augustus. For more information and more images of Augustus, visit Mark Morford's website, Augustus: Images of Power.

For a walking tour of ancient Rome, go to AncientSites and click on Places to Go.

Be sure to check the on-line Vergil resources assembled by Roger Dunkle.

Visit the Virtual Vergil Museum for interesting images illustrating the myth of the Trojan War and the Aeneid.

The VRoma Project is developing an online teaching and learning community focusing on ancient Rome. Visit the Image Archive for views of Roman art and architecture.