Greek: Reading and Interpreting Sources I

Course goals

The successful student

• will be able to analyse, interpret and translate ancient Greek literary texts of intermediate difficulty from the classical period in their cultural and historical context;
• will understand the development of the ancient Greek language in the classical period and will be able to reflect on this orally and in writing;
• will have experience with the use of the scholarly apparatus (specialised dictionaries, grammar, bibliography, databases) belonging to the field;
• will use their growing proficiency in ancient Greek for subsequent course work in the RMA programme, including research apprenticeships and the RMA-thesis.

Content

The course offers an overview of the language and literature of ancient Athens in the fifth c. BC, and presents the sources, and the collections and databases in which they are contained. Texts will be read in their original language with parallel translations. To further independent access to and understanding of the texts, the principles of ancient Greek grammar (morphology and syntax) and literary language (stylistic features) will be discussed. The student will acquire a broad overview of Greek classical literature, as a foundational literature for later cultures, and as a mirror of Greek society in the era in which literature was fundamental for human life and customs.