75828 - Classical Literature and Traditions

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide a knowledge of the main literary models that Greek culture, in many cases through Roman mediation, has furnished to its modern and contemporary imitators; the students will achieve a basic knowledge of the main authors, genres and characters of the classical literature and will be able to adopt historically grounded methods in describing the most relevant phenomena of classical reception in modern and contemporary literatures.

Course contents

The aims of course are: to give a general overview of Greek and Roman literature and of its modern and contemporary reception to the students who approach its study for the first time; to offer a more problematic approach to Greek and Roman literature and to its modern and contemporary reception to more advanced students. The course will thus not focus on a monographic theme, but on a variety of subjects; in particular, it will be centered around exemplary figures of the classical Greek literature and of its Roman, Byzantine, and contemporary reception. Knowledge of ancient Greek is not required. The texts will be read in translation, but the original text will be introduced to students when necessary.

The course will focus on female characters with recognized intellectual qualities, between myth and history, in a path that will traverse different genres of Greek and Latin literature without neglecting the most significant moments of reception up to the modern age. Will be considered epic women like Helen and Penelope, women in classical dramatic productions like Medea, Lysistrata, and Praxagora, wise women in Plato's dialogues like Aspasia and Diotima, and women in the Hellenistic-Imperial philosophical schools.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students are required to study:

1) The teacher lectures notes and the didactic materials available online. All the ancient texts will be provided during the course.

2) Selected chapters from the following handbooks: A. Lesky, Storia della letteratura greca, trad. it. Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2016; L. Canfora, Storia della letteratura greca, nuova ed. ampliata, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013; M. von Albrecht, Storia della letteratura latina da Livio Andronico a Boezio, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1995; G.B. Conte, Profilo storico della letteratura latina dalle origini alla tarda età imperiale, II ed., Firenze, Le Monnier, 2019.

For Greek Literature, the compulsory subjects are the following:

Homer, Iliad and Odyssey (pp. 36-105); The Homeric Cycle (pp. 106-111)

Tragedy and comedy (pp. 274-292); Aischylos and Sophocles (pp. 295-362); Euripides (pp. 432-485); Comedy: Aristophanes (pp. 495-534)

Plato and the Academy (pp. 593-634)

Aristoteles and the Peripathetic School (pp. 635-668)

Hellinistic poetry: Callimachus, Theocritus, Apollonius (pp. 798-842)

Imperial Literature, poetry: Quintus of Smyrne and Nonnus of Panopolis (pp. 915-928); prose: Plutarchus, The Second Sophistic and Lucian, Philostratus the Elder and Philostratus the Younger, Pausanias, Apollodorus of Athens (pp. 929-965)

(The number of pages refers to A. Lesky, Storia della letteratura greca, trad. it. Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2016; readings from different handbooks are possible, but they have to be approved by the teachers).

For Latin Literature, the compulsory subjects are the following:

Catullus and neoteric poetry

Lucretius

Vergil

Horace

Augustan Love Elegy: Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid

Seneca

3) At least 10 chapters from the following books: G. Cambiano, L. Canfora, D. Lanza (a c. di), Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 1992-1996 e da G. Cavallo, P. Fedeli, A. Giardina (a c. di), Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 1989-1993.

4) One of the following books: M. Bettini, G. Pucci, Il mito di Medea Immagini e racconti dalla Grecia a oggi, Torino, Einaudi 2017; G. Ieranò, Elena e Penelope, II ed., Roma, Carocci, 2010; C. Nobili, Voci di donne nell’epica. Personaggi e modelli poetici femminili nell’Iliade e nell’Odissea, Roma, Carocci, 2023; L.K. Taaffe, Aristophanes and Women, Routledge, London-New York 1993.

or alternatively 5 of the following articles and contributions:

M. Capasso, Un albero per Leonzio in Rose di Pieria, a cura di Francesco De Martino, Le Rane, Bari 1991, pp. 279-311;

D. De Sanctis, Aspasia ad Atene, in Grecia al Femminile, a.c. E. Lelli – C. Luciani, EtP Book, Roma 2023, pp. 126-133;

T. Di Fabio, Donne epicuree: cortigiane, filosofe o entrambe?, «Bollettino della Società Filosofica Italiana», CCXXI, (2017), pp. 19-36;

T. Dorandi, Figure femminili della filosofia antica, in Rose di Pieria, a cura di Francesco De Martino, Le Rane, Bari 1991, pp. 261-278;

H. P. Foley, The "Female Intruder" Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae, «Classical Philology», Vol. 77, No. 1, pp. 1-21;

E. Belfiore, Socrates' Daimonic Art: Love for Wisdom in Four Platonic Dialogues, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012, pp. 137-160.

N. Loraux, Aspasia, Foreigner, Intellectual, «Journal of Continental Philosophy» 2, 2021, pp. 9-32;

J. McIntosh Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome, Southern Illinois University Press, 2017, Chap. 5 (Women Philosophers of the Hellenistic and Roman WorldsI, pp. 99-121;

M. Nühlen, Frauen in Philosophie und Wissenschaft. Women Philosophers and Scientists. Eine Spurensuche, Springer VS, Merserburg 2021, Kap. 6 (Das Zeitalter der klassischen griechischen Philosophie), pp. 251-291, Kap. 7 (Philosophinnen in der Epoche der hellenistischen Philosophie), pp. 293-314;

C. Pisano, Aspasia “maestro di retorica”, «Mètis» 13, 2015, pp.189-200;

A.H. Sommerstein, The Language of Athenian Women, in Lo spettacolo delle voci, a.c. di F. De Martino-A.H. Sommerstein, parte II, Le Rane, Bari 1995, 61-85;

M. Tulli, Filosofia e commedia nella biografia di Aspasia, in M. Erler, S. Schorn (eds), Die griechische Biographie in hellenistischer Zeit, De Gruyter, Berlin-New York 2007, pp. 303-317;

M. Vickers, Aspasia on Stage: Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae, «Athenaeum » 1992, 2, 2004, pp. 431-450;

R. Wedgwood, Diotima's Eudaemonism: Intrinsic Value and Rational Motivation in Plato's Symposium, Phronesis, Vol. 54, No. 4/5 (2009), pp. 297-325.

Further bibliographic information (for optional in-depth studies) will be provided in class.

Students in the classical curriculum are required to prepare at least three passages in the original language, chosen from the list of passages covered in class, which will be provided at the end of the course.

For non-attending students:

• at least 15 chapters from the books indicated at 3)
• 2 of the books indicated (or 10 articles and contributions) at 4).

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class; seminars and discussion of the texts analysed in class.

Assessment methods

The oral examination will be an interview in which the teacher, through a series of questions, will test the theoretical knowledge as explained during the lectures. The evaluation ranges from 18 to 30 cum laude depending on how sure, well-founded, precise, and rigorous the answers of the candidate will be.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

PC, projector, slides.

Office hours

See the website of Margherita Erbì