Tentative Syllabus for CLCS 336: The Ancient World Onscreen

John T. Kirby * Purdue University * Fall 2004

Please Note the Following

  • This is a tentative syllabus, and subject to revision by the instructor at any time. This version updated 041102.
  • The COURSE POLICY SHEET constitutes an extension of this syllabus. You are responsible for all the information contained in both documents, so please read both of them immediately, carefully, and completely.
  • I am aware that many of you have already read the Odyssey before now. The fact that I am setting substantial reading assignments in it means that I nonetheless want you to read it again, this semester, and carefully. I guarantee that you will see new things in the poem each time you re-read it. (I should know -- I re-read it all the time!) I urge you to take written notes on your reading -- this will focus your attention as well as provide you with a record of the interesting and important things you are encountering in the text. It will also provide you with ideas and questions to bring to our in-class discussions. (This habit of note-taking as you read would, in fact, be an excellent one for you to inculcate in all your college courses. Your notes need not be elaborate, nor even in complete sentences, but they ought to be clear enough for you to understand them several months from now. That will be the deciding factor in enhancing their shelf-life as a record of your intellectual activity in a given semester. I can guarantee you that you'll enjoy reading them ten years from now.)
  • Please note that the screening sessions are not optional; each evening class meeting is as much an officially-scheduled University event as the Tuesday and Thursday class meetings are, and your attendance at each one of them is equally mandatory. The COURSE POLICY SHEET includes important information about screening sessions, so please be sure you are familiar with that.

    Schedule of Assignments

    PART 1: GREEK MYTH: THE TROJAN SAGA

    Week 1.
    For Tues: Introduction to the course.
    Screening session 1: Tonight's screening session (Stanley Coulter Room 239) begins at 8.00 pm, rather than the customary 6.30 pm.
    For Thurs: Begin reading The Iliad in Lombardo's The Essential Homer, pp 1-82.

    Week 2.
    For Tues: Continue reading The Iliad (pp 83-153 in The Essential Homer).
    Screening session 2: Helen of Troy (John Kent Harrison, 2003)
    For Thurs: Finish reading Lombardo's excerpts from The Iliad (pp 153-240 in The Essential Homer).

    Week 3.
    For Tues: Begin reading The Odyssey in Lombardo's The Essential Homer, pp 241-314.
    Screening session 3: Fury of Achilles (L'ira di Achille, 1962)
    For Thurs: Continue reading The Odyssey (pp 314-402 in The Essential Homer).

    Week 4.
    For Tues: Finish reading Lombardo's excerpts from The Odyssey (pp 403-482 in The Essential Homer).
    Screening session 4: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, 2000)
    For Thurs: Read Apollodorus pp 146-170

    PART 2: GREEK MYTH: IMAGES OF THE MONOMYTH HERO

    Week 5.
    For Tues: Read Apollodorus pp 48-92, 135-143 (on Jason, Perseus, Heracles, and Theseus)
    Screening session 5: Hercules (Walt Disney, 1997) **UGRL call no. VC5694**
    For Thurs: Read Euripides' Heracles (in Grene & Lattimore, Euripides II)

    Week 6.
    For Tues: Read Apollodorus pp 29-30 (on Orpheus). In addition to this, read (online) Vergil's version of the Orpheus legend (as included in the Georgics), and Ovid's version of the Orpheus legend (as included in the Metamorphoses). NOTE: Because this week's reading assignments are extremely short, I strongly urge you to use some of your homework time to get ahead on the readings for subsequent weeks as well.
    Screening session 6: Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro, Marcel Camus 1959) **UGRL call no. VC6661**
    For Thurs: Read Sophocles, Antigone, in the translation by Woodruff.

    PART 3: GREEK (AND ROMAN) DRAMA REVISITED

    Week 7.
    For Tues: MIDTERM TEST
    Screening session 7: Antigone (Anouilh version, dir. Gerald Freedman 1972)
    For Thurs: Read Apollodorus pp 100-114 (on the foundation of Thebes and its royal house)

    Week 8.
    For Tues: FALL BREAK. NO CLASS, NO SCREENING SESSION.
    For Thurs: Read Apollodorus pp 163-164.

    Week 9.
    For Tues: Read Sophocles, Electra, and Euripides, Electra (both in Grene & Lattimore, Greek Tragedy II)
    Screening session 8: Electra (Michael Cacoyannis 1962) **UGRL call no. DVD0168**
    For Thurs: Read Robert Graves, I, Claudius, ch 1-4

    Week 10.
    For Tues: Read Euripides, Medea, in the translation by Podlecki.
    Screening session 9: Medea (Mark Cullingham, 1983)
    For Thurs: Read I, Claudius, ch 5-7

    PART 4: THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE

    Week 11.
    For Tues: Plautus, Pseudolus (in the translation by Watling, or else online)
    Screening session 10: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Richard Lester, 1966) **UGRL call no. VC6835**
    For Thurs: Read Plautus, The Swaggering Soldier (Miles Gloriosus) (in the translation by Watling, or else online)

    Week 12. (An excursus from Part 4, due to an important movie premiere.)
    For Tues: Read the first half of Plutarch's Life of Alexander.
    Screening session 11: Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick 1960) **UGRL call no. VC8076**
    For Thurs: Finish reading Plutarch's Life of Alexander.

    Week 13.
    For Tues: Read I, Claudius, ch 8-11
    Screening session 12: Gladiator (Ridley Scott 2000) **UGRL call no. VC8097**
    For Thurs: Read I, Claudius, ch 12-15

    Week 14.
    For Tues: Read I, Claudius, ch 16-19
    Screening session 13: In a cinema near you, attend a showing of the new Oliver Stone movie, Alexander, any time this week.
    For Thurs: THANKSGIVING BREAK. During the break, read I, Claudius, ch 20-23

    PART 5: THE SMALL SCREEN: CLASSICS ON TELEVISION AND COMPUTER

    Week 15.
    For Tues: Read I, Claudius, ch 24-28
    Screening session 14: Special guest demo of various classics-related computer games
    For Thurs: Read I, Claudius, ch 29-31

    Week 16.
    For Tues: Read I, Claudius, ch 32-34
    Screening session 15: Screening of I, Claudius episodes (BBC TV, dir. Herbert Wise 1976) **UGRL call no. VC6885**
    For Thurs: TBA

    Week 17. FINAL EXAMINATION (place, date, and time TBA).

    Texts

    TEXTS REQUIRED) FOR PURCHASE (Available at Von's Books). (but see also below, 'Online Versions')

    Homer. The Essential Homer. Translated by Stanley Lombardo. Hackett 0-87220-540-1
    Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Transl. Robin Hard. Oxford University Press. 0-19-283924-1
    Grene & Lattimore, eds. Euripides II. University of Chicago Press 0-226-30781-6
    Grene & Lattimore, eds. Greek Tragedy II. University of Chicago Press. 0-226-30775-1
    Euripides. Medea. Transl. A. J. Podlecki. Focus 0-941051-10-2
    Sophocles. Antigone. Transl. Paul Woodruff. Hackett 0-87220-571-1
    Plautus. The Pot of Gold and Other Plays. Translated by E.F. Watling. Penguin 0-14-044149-2
    Plutarch. Life of Alexander. Transl. Bernadotte Perrin. Harvard University Press 0-674-99110-9
    Robert Graves. I, Claudius. Vintage 0-679-72477-X (see also the collection of online resources for this remarkable book and television series)

    TEXTS RECOMMENDED (NOT REQUIRED) FOR PURCHASE (Available at Von's Books).

    There is no scheduled assignment in Tacitus or Suetonius, but as these are important sources for Graves's I, Claudius, you may want to have them handy for consultation. They make fascinating and entertaining reading on their own, in any case. As for Secret of the Muses Retold, there is one assignment in this (relevant to Pasolini's Edipo re in Week 6), and the book may have some souvenir value for you, but if you prefer not to purchase it, you can certainly read the assignment in the library copy, which I have placed on reserve at the UGRL reference desk.

    Tacitus. The Annals of Imperial Rome. Transl. Michael Grant. Penguin 0-14-044060-7
    Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Transl. Graves, rev. Grant. Penguin 0-14-044072-0

    ONLINE VERSIONS

    It is strongly recommended that students buy the exact editions listed above, under 'Texts Required for Purchase'; we will be working from these in class, and it is helpful to have matching page-references as well as (more importantly) similar translations. For those who are seriously financially strapped, however, some of the assignments can be read online. The translations -- all in the public domain -- are not as good as those in the editions listed above, and some of them are rather dated (which makes them more difficult, and less fun, to read); but the price is right. (In the case of Homer and Sophocles, particularly, I really do want you to buy the specific editions listed above.)


    Euripides, Cyclops
    Euripides, Electra
    Euripides, Heracles
    Euripides, Medea
    Plautus, Pseudolus
    Plautus, Miles Gloriosus
    Sophocles, Antigone
    Sophocles, Electra

    Of Possible Interest

    Just FYI, the UGRL holds a number of other videos of films and television programs that are relevant to the topic of this course; I am trying, semester by semester, to add to their collection. In some cases, you may want to view these on your own, for comparison and contrast with our current screenings for the course. As I collect the call numbers for these items, I will continue to augment the following list:

    Oedipus Rex (Tyrone Guthrie 1957; the English translation of the Sophocles play is by William Butler Yeats) **UGRL call no. VC1491**
    Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini 1970; stars the legendary Maria Callas in her only non-operatic role) ** UGRL call no. VC6607**
    The Trojan Women (Michael Cacoyannis 1971; some great actors, including Katherine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Irene Papas, and Genevieve Bujold) **UGRL call no. VC1596**
    Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey 1963, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen) **UGRL call no. VC8098**

    Clash of the Titans (Don Chaffey 1981, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen) **UGRL call no. DVD0166**