CLAS
133H: Epic and Tragedy
Spring 2008 MWF 11-11:50 AM Murphey 111
Instructor: Jim O'Hara
my office: 319 Murphey, 962-7662
e-mail: jimohara -at- unc.edu (substitute @ for –at- )
my home page: http://www.unc.edu/~oharaj/
(with links to course page, links pages, for which all you need to remember is
~oharaj)
course home page: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2008spring/clas/133h/001/
(look on web for supplements to syllabus)
Office hours: ______ and by appointment or polite drop-in
My other course: Latn 765 Horace, T-TH 9:30-10:45, Murphey 317
Syllabus; Links for Homer; Tragedy-Sophocles and Vergil ; some Writing Tips
Description:
The course will involve a close reading of Homer's ILIAD and ODYSSEY, the
tragedies of Sophocles, and Vergil's AENEID. It was epic and tragedy that
formulated the bases of Graeco-Roman civilization and provided the models of
heroism and human values for the Western Tradition—along with raising
fundamental questions about the individual's relationship to society. We will
analyze, discuss, and write about these works both as individual pieces of
literature in a historical context, and in terms of how they position
themselves in the poetic tradition; after reading the ILIAD and ODYSSEY, we'll
see how heroic myth gets reworked by Sophocles for democratic Athens, and then
how Vergil combines Homer, tragedy and other traditions to make a new poem for
his time. We will look at aspects of structure and technique, questions of
overall interpretation and values, and the interplay of genre and historical
setting. Requirements: discussion, short online readings in addition to the
primary texts, several short papers during the term, and a 6-10-page term
paper.
Books: You are to use these translations:
Homer, The Iliad of Homer,
Trans.Richmond Lattimore, Chicago
Homer, The Odyssey of Homer,
Trans.Richmond Lattimore, Harper & Row
Sophocles, Sophocles I and Sophocles
II; Trans. David Grene and others, Chicago
Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy (a
version of Soph. Philoctetes)
Virgil, The Aeneid; Trans Robert
Fitzgerald, Vintage.
Requirements/Procedures:
Class: read and discuss; some mini-lectures by me; often handouts or online
items, but much of each class will be taken up by discussion of your careful,
attentive reading of that day's assignment (the readings below may be
supplemented by brief online readings)
Writing: we will have one simple 2-page writing exercise (describe the
argument of a speech in Iliad 9), then a
2-page paper on the Iliad, then
2-page papers on the Odyssey,
Sophocles and the Aeneid, but
of the last 3 2-page papers, you may choose to do only 2 (i.e. you are to skip
one). There will also be a 6-10-page term paper, on which you will give a
10-15-minute progress report during one of the last four classes. One key
feature is that some of these 2-page papers will be read aloud and discussed in
class; you may be wary of this but it always works out . We will also have
reports at the end of the class on your term papers, at a stage when you should
have a good deal of the work done, but will not need to have them finished.
Basically it'll be one 2-page writing exercise, three 2-page papers, and the
6-10-page term paper (along with daily class discussion, which will be figured
in your grade).
Syllabus; Links for Homer; Tragedy-Sophocles and Vergil ; some Writing Tips