What can you learn about ancient Greece from Hollywood?

Read this article in today's Guardian and find out about a new film set in the Ancient World 'The 300'...

Classics Reading Group Strikes Again...

...all friends of literature, wine, charming company and the delights of the imagination are warmly invited to join us for a reading, in English, of the opening of Petronius' Menippean novel The Satyricon. This will include the dinner of that familiar old arriviste Trimalchio.

Wednesday March 14th, 19h00 at the lovely

home of Priscilla & Ron Hall. Please email me if you wish to come at

d.vanschoor@ru.ac.za

Bring a drink & your sense of fun.We look forward to seeing you there...

(The picture above is from a brothel mural at Pompeii, in the spirit...)

Click on this link to find an introduction to this wonderful work...

Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'

Recent provocative reports of 'paleolithic' human behaviour amongst Senegalese chimpanzees...

CCI Introduction-Bibliography

This still incomplete bibliography will be regularly updated:

- Civilization -

An Introduction
to Ancient History & Literature

BIBLIOGRAPHY I

General

Braudel, F. On History [trans. Sarah Matthews] (London, 1980)
Burkert, W. Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis : eastern contexts of Greek culture
(Cambridge, Mass., 2004)

Greek Religion- Archaic & Classical [trans. John Raffan] (Harvard, 1985)
Childe, V. Gordon What happened in history (Harmondsworth, 1954)
Social evolution (London, 1957)
Finley, M. I. The Ancient Economy (London, 1973)
(ed.) Atlas of classical archaeology (London, 1977)
Fornara, C.W. The nature of history in ancient Greece & Rome (Berkeley, Calif., 1983)
Humphrey, John W. [edd.] Greek & Roman Technology: a sourcebook (London, 1988)
Momigliano, A. Alien Wisdom: the Limits of Hellenization (Cambridge, 1975)
The classical foundations of modern historiography (Berkeley, Calif., 1990)
Starr, C. A History of the Ancient World (New York, 1974)

Prehistory

Cauvin, J. The Birth of the Gods & the Origins of Agriculture [trans. Trevor Watkins] (Cambridge, 2000)
Cunliffe, B [ed.] The Oxford illustrated history of prehistoric Europe (Oxford,2001)
Delson, E. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of human evolution & prehistory (New York, 2000)
Megarry, T. Society in prehistory: the origins of human culture (London, 1995)
The Cambridge Ancient History vol. I pts I & 2 (London, 1970)
McKern, S. Living prehistory : an introduction to physical anthropology and archaeology (Menlo Park, Calif., 1974)

Near East
Mesopotamia- Hattusa- Persia

Van de Mieroop, M. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC (Oxford, 2004)
Von Soden, W. The Ancient Orient [trans. Donald Schley] (Darmstadt, 1985)

Egypt

Bower, J. Ancient Egyptians (London, 2002)

David, R. Handbook to life in Ancient Egypt (New York, 2003)

Hart, G. Ancient Egypt (New York, 2004)

Johnson, P. The civilization of Ancient Egypt (London, 2000) [good for pictures]

Nicholson, P.T. & Shaw,I. [edd.] Ancient Egyptian materials & technology (Cambridge, 2000)

Shaw, I. (ed.) The Oxford history of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000)

Bronze Age Greece: Crete & Mycenae

Evans, A. The palace of Minos : a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustrated by the discoveries at Knossos vol. 1-4 (London, 1921-35)
Finley, M.I. Early Greece : the Bronze and Archaic ages (London, 1970)
Fitton, J. Lesley Minoans (London, 2002)
The discovery of the Greek Bronze Age (Cambridge, Mass., 1996)
Cycladic Art (Cambridge, Mass., 1989)
Higgins, R. Minoan & Mycenaean Art (London, 1967)
Renfrew, C. The emergence of civilisation : the Cyclades and the Aegean in the third millennium B.C. (London, 1972)
Palmer, L.R. Mycenaeans and Minoans : Aegean prehistory in the light of the linear B tablets (London, 1961)
Van Effenterre, H. La Seconde Fin du Monde (Toulouse, 1974)

Mediterranean Movers:
Etruscans- Phoenicians- Celts

Haynes, S. Etruscan Civilization (London, 2000)

Markoe, G. E. Phoenicians (London, 2000)

POMPEII: CONTEXT AND SETTING

Where the Dewey number is not given look at 913.377

Amery, C. The lost world of Pompeii (Los Angeles, 2002) 937.7 AMER
Arthur, P. ‘Problems of the urbanisation of Pompeii’, Antiquaries Journal 66 (1986), 29-44. 913.4205 ANT
Coarelli, F. Pompeii (New York, 2002) 937.7 POMP
Connolly, P. Pompeii (London, 1979) 937. 7 CONN
Cooley, A. Pompeii (London, 2003) 937.7 COOL
Etienne, R. Pompeii: the day a city died (London, 1992).
Jongman, W .M. The economy and society of Pompeii (Amsterdam, 1988). 937. 7 Laurence, R Roman Pompeii: space and society (London, 1994), 937. 7
Ling, R. ‘The architecture of Pompeii’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 4 (1991), 248-55. 913.3705 JOU
Richardson, L Pompeii. An architectural History (Baltimore 1988) DA 722.7
Ridgway, D. The First Western Greeks (Cambridge, 1992).
Wallace-Hadrill, A. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Princeton, 1994).
Wallace-Hadrill, A. ‘Public honour and private shame: the urban texture of Pompeii’, in Cornell, T. & Lomas K. (edd), Urban Society in Roman Italy (New York, 1995), 39-62
Ward-Perkins, J.B. Cities of ancient Greece and Italy: planning in classical antiquity
(New York, 1974).
Whittaker, C.R. ‘The consumer city revisited: the vicus and the city’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 3 (1990), 110-18.
Whittaker, CR, Do theories of the ancient city matter?’, in Cornell, T. & Lomas K. (edd), Urban Society in Roman Italy (New York, 1995), 9-26
Zanker, P*. Pompeii: public and private life; translated by D.L. Schneider. (Cambridge Mass., 1998)

Writing

Homerica

Buxton, R. Imaginary Greece- the contexts of mythology (Cambridge, 1994)
Finley, M. I. The World of Odysseus (New York, 2002) [very important: on short loan]
The ancient Greeks : an introduction to their life and thought (New York, 1963)
Latacz, J. Homer: his art & his world (Michigan, 1996) [short loan]

Luce, J.V. Homer and the Heroic Age (London, 1975)

Schein, S.L. (ed.) Reading the Odyssey- selected interpretive essays (New Jersey, 1996) [short loan]

CCI Term I Essay Questions

Classical Civilization I
MMVII
-Term I-
Essay Questions

1. Explain what the most significant differences are between human life under Paleolithic and Mesolithic conditions and life after the Neolithic transitions.
2. Discuss what is meant by the term ‘Civilization’ and exemplify some of the features you consider definitive. Draw for examples from Mesopotamian and/or Egyptian history.
3. Reflect on the importance of the mastery of agriculture for the birth of cities and the historical development of civilization.
4. Discuss the emergence of writing in the ancient past and its consequences for history.
5. Discuss the political, social and economic effects of one or more forms of technologies considered in this course.
6. Discuss the significance of the Mediterranean Sea in shaping the histories of Mediterranean peoples in the 2nd Millenium BC.
7. Survey the history of Crete in its Mediterranean context from Minoan Civilization to the Dark Ages.
8. Survey the history of Greece from the Mycenaean Bronze Age through the collapse of the Dark Age to Homer and the beginning of the Archaic Period.
9. Survey the history of Pompeii in its Mediterranean context.
10. Discuss the question of the composition of the Odyssey.
11. Compare and contrast the epics of Gilgamesh and Odysseus.
12. What are some of the values manifested in the Odyssey?



These essay assignments are due on March 16th and 23rd 2007 no later than 17h00, without exception. You may choose to answer either two questions at 750 to 1000 words each or one at 1500-1800 words long. If you choose to do two smaller assignments the first must be handed in on March 16th the second March 23rd. You may, of course hand in a longer assignment any time up to Friday March 23rd . Consult relevant works and write plain lucid English. Do not use internet encyclopaedias, do not plagiarize. Quote and discuss analytically rather than paraphrase. Reference the works you have used in the same format as you find in your reader, for example:

Braudel, Fernand The Mediterranean in the Ancient World [trans. Siân Reynolds] (London, 2001)

or

Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1965)

You must include a signed declaration of scholarly honesty, a bibliography of works referenced, page numbers and a word count.

Wherever possible substantiate your assertions with reference to specific historical evidence and important works of relevant scholarship. If you wish use photographs, maps, pictures or graphs of any kind that are pertinent to your discussion, just remember to acknowledge all sources.

You will not be judged very harshly for this first assignment, but you must try to excell. I shall look for evidence of a critical historical awareness, signs that you have internalized information and reflected on the meaning of historical processes and can read, interpret and analyse works pertinent to your given question.

Most important: Enjoy yourself...

Economic Liberation for Women

An article in The Economist that I hope will make you think about social freedom and its relation to economic freedom...

A History of Babylonia and Assyria

...and here for A History of Babylonia and Assyria Vol.I by Robert William Rogers, may be dated, but still of interest

Myths of Babylonia & Assyria

Please visit these pages at the Gutenberg Project for a wonderful work, inclucing pictures, on the Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

Map of the Ancient Near East

The Scene...

Map of Mesopotamia

The potential fertile flood plain between two great rivers- Mesopotamia. An Open scene, a locus of exchange, a multicultural crossroads...

Rome Versus Jerusalem: on a clash of Ancient Civilizations

Another essay from the excellent London Review of Books, of general interest and specific revelance for Classical Civilization I.

Pythagoras

An interesting review of two recent works on the Early Greek thinker Pythagoras.

Some more recent information about Climate Change

One may consider the fraught and complex relationship of humans and their environment in any period.

All Senior Students at Rhodes Welcome to the First Reading Group Meeting of 2007

Think you have a soul? Is it immortal? What did Plato think?

75 African Str. Directly opposite the Alec Mullins Sports Centre. Wednesday, February 21st, 19h00ish onwards.

Bring some dark Dionysus but keep your Apollo sparkling clear.
The first meeting of the year.

Hitting back at joyless ignorance, we explore the finest things.

Strictly Platonic abides.
See you there,
David

This link will take you to the Catholic Encyclopaedia's entry on Plato & Platonism:

Antony and Cleopatra: coin find changes the faces of history

This article in the Guardian's 2007 Valentine's addition reveals the discovery of some coins that challenge the stereotypes of a beautiful Cleopatra & Anthony.

Guardian Article on Feral Children

Go to this link for the article in the Guardian mentioned in today's lecture.

School of Languages Film Series

We extend a special invitation to all Classics students to join us every Tuesday from February 20th for great works of cinema. At the first film next week we will serve cheese and wine after the screening. We hope you will come and enjoy yourselves discovering some excellent pieces. This is completely free and all are welcome. See the link below and above that will take you to the Rhodes Film Festival Website.

Our first film this year is Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man starring Johnny Depp. I personally love this film and highly recommend it.

Tuesday, February 20 DEAD MAN

Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1995;

Music by Neil YoungEnglish; 121 min.

Age restriction: 18Starring Johnny Depp, Crispin Glover, Gary Farmer and Lance Henriksen

Classical Civilization I: An Outline of your forthcoming Reader

Classical Civilization I
-MMVII-

Part I

La Longue Durée


-Maps & Timelines-

1.
Pre-History & The Rise of Civilizations

“...one must think big, otherwise what is the point of history.”
Fernand Braudel

Braudel, Fernand The Mediterranean in the Ancient World [trans. Siân Reynolds] (London, 2001) 11-199

Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1965) 75-143

2.
Cities & Colonizations

Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1965) 185-227

Owens, E.J. The City in the Greek & Roman World (London, 1991) 1-29, 100-102

3.

A Case Study: Pompeii

Zanker, Paul Pompeii- public & private life (Cambridge, Mass., 1998) 1-133

Greek I

Learn Greek at Rhodes

Greek I, for beginners in Ancient Greek, commences on Monday 12th January, 2007.

This is a year long intensive course in the Classical language, that is, Attic Greek, the refined form spoken and written in the Fifth Century BC by the Athenians. We will use the very excellent pair of text books called 'Reading Greek' by the Joint Association of Classical Teachers (JACT). A very limited number of these is available at the UPB bookshop on the High Street.

After this first year, students will be introduced to other variants of the language, but will be largely capable to read a great deal of Ancient Literature, from the Homeric Poems of the 8th Century BC to the New Testament and beyond.

We strongly encourage committed and diligent students with any interest in language, literature and ideas to join us. To do well in Greek, students need study no more than 30-50 minutes a day outside of our daily classes. If you are capable of this kind consistent light application, Greek will be an intriguing pleasure that will lend great intellectual self-confidence. First year students of Greek are also invited to join the Rhodes University Ancient Literature Reading Group, a social club, ordinarily reserved for senior students, that meets fortnightly to read ancient literature (in translation).

Please feel welcome to contact me any time or drop by for a chat at Room 11 in the New Arts Block. I look forward to meeting you.

David van Schoor

A Humanist Education at Rhodes

Erasmus of Rotterdam, hero of the Rhodes Classics Department,
was “…the first and greatest intellectual superstar of the modern West…Erasmus had a mission with Greek. He wrote repeatedly about learning Greek and tirelessly performed his role of demanding, cajoling, teaching, stimulating knowledge of Greek in cities across Europe, often in the face not just of apathy but of organized and extended opposition.” Simon Goldhill in Who Needs Greek? (Cambridge, 2002) 14-15

Welcome to Classics at Rhodes 2007

Welcome to the Department of Classics in the School of Languages at Rhodes University...




We offer Greek, Latin and courses in Classical Civilizations. Why should you study Classics? The following paragraphs explain why.

Who needs Classics

Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude

In Classics, Greek and Latin you will read for a degree that will challenge you to be analytically intelligent and imaginatively open minded. While the content of this education will be the history, myth, geography, culture, literature and languages of the Ancient World, the very modern methods and techniques we cultivate in you will enhance your appreciation of and ability in all subjects. If once a classical education was the preserve of the aristocratic classes, today Classics graduates are highly sought in the professions and for the managing classes. It is traditionally recognized as a subject in which the very best flourish and develop the abilities indispensable for demanding environments. These are such as the skill to synthesize all manner of information into the clear picture of a dynamic system; to master language and rhetoric and its effect on oneself and others; discovering patterns and being alert to continuities across broad spectrums of disciplines.

Above all, Classics gives depth to an education, which otherwise would remain superficial. Modern English literature, psychology, sociological and anthropological techniques, all the modern human sciences, were founded in the Enlightenment and revolutionized in the 20th Century by students of the Ancient World. The entire environment of modernity is built in a landscape first elaborated by the Greeks and their younger cousins the Romans. Christianity, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and even chaotic Modernism were all inspired and realized by men and women with a deep sense of their being rooted in history, who knew that they would make nothing new and original without a knowledge of the past and tradition. Erasmus, Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Nietzsche, all the English Romantic poets, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, several British prime ministers are just a few of those whose achievements were quite consciously founded upon or informed by their early Classical education. To remain ignorant of the formative phases of human history is to remain uneducated in the fuller sense of the term, a dazzled outsider.

Greek and Latin are strange and difficult ancient languages. They are demanding and only for the most curious and determined of students. Anyone who studies them with application will have for the rest of her or his life a source of infinite delight and constantly renewed discovery. As long as one lives, one will never be able to read all of Greek literature, but you can never be poor once you can read Greek. Studying Latin too will enable you to read and participate in the great living tradition of literary and scholarly investigation and exploration. One can remain overwhelmed by the greatness of those who lived before ourselves or one can decide not to be excluded but to learn, to know and master so that one can participate fully in the dialogues of learning and governing. Classics is the study for future rulers and leaders. Most of all, for me, the fascination of the Mediterranean crossroads, the pleasures of Greek and Latin literature, the history of ideas and the exuberant, enterprising vitality of Hellenic culture have made me determined to devote my life to these studies.

The study of these languages is an uncommon privilege available here at Rhodes and flourishing. Take advantage to possess the most enabling and empowering kind of knowledge, a mastering literacy in cultural forms. From the ages of 18-24 is the best period in a life to study a language. One is mature enough to grasp the complexities of a difficult new discipline but still young enough to absorb and memorize with great ease. People who do not take this opportunity always regret it. It is the best kind of adventure because it never ends. Many of our senior students are staff members from other departments who have grown to love the discipline so much they wish to never stop studying it. Within two weeks you will be able to read out and pronounce Greek. Greek was the most important global language for a millennium. Compare that with English, an infant which has only been prominent for about 150 years. This is why the original language of the New Testament is Greek and why, written in an easy form of the Mediterranean lingua franca, early Christians succeeded in getting across their message. Roman and later European education was based on its study up until the 20th Century. The History of Western thought and advancement is a history of a continually renewed relationship with its Greek origins. Consider taking up Greek and Latin.

You will read a great deal in Classics and be expected to develop the observant and investigative skills of a lawyer, a journalist, a critic, a geographer, historian, mythographer and logician. Your knowledge of English and your ability to express yourself lucidly will be greatly enhanced when you take advantage of the demanding activities, resources and assessments we offer. In the dedicated study of the Ancient World you will acquire a mastery of cultural forms, which will be commanding and very impressive to others. Our curricula are expanding and our department growing. We are establishing a strong community of scholarship and research. We are very involved in the organization of the School of Languages and International Office film series, which runs throughout the year. We offer access to the private study of several languages in the new Language Labs and we run a very successful and popular reading group for our senior students, which meets fortnightly for wine and sociable reading in translation of the great works of the past.
If you think Classics is an easy option, be warned it is not for the lazy. If, however, you are inquisitive about the world around you and the strong world that came before, if you wish to understand why things are as they are, why we think and speak and write and build and fight and love and argue and analyse and study as we do; if you enjoy the excitement of travel and learning; if you may identify with the Hellenic ideals of intellectual exploration, vitality and life as a striving for excellence; if you wish to be challenged in your assumptions and become truly well educated and to also nurture your imaginative powers, welcome to the Department of Classics.



David van Schoor


Department of Classics, School of Languages


d.vanschoor@ru.ac.za

j.jackson@ru.ac.za

The following link will take you to an interesting discussion of the kinds of jobs that Classics Majors can expect to find: