General Syllabus: Greek and Roman Literature in Translation

2008-09 School Year

Instructor: Dave Spotts	IM or Talk: spottsinator@gmail.com
Office Hours: TBA	Skype: MrSpotts

This course is dependent on adequate enrollment. Please encourage your friends to sign up!

Prerequisite: This course is recommended for high school students with a fairly solid

grounding in Scripture.

Descriptor: In this reading intensive course, students will spend time dealing with Greek and Roman literature from Hesiod and Homer to the first century A.D. Students will spend much of their class time discussing the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and life concerns of a variety of literary characters, but from a Christian perspective. Because it considers the affairs of a sinful world, subject matter naturally includes sin which is common to mankind, the responses of unregenerate man to sinful desires, and biblical priorities and responses to a variety of difficult life situations. Each quarter students will prepare a paper developing a Christian view of a particular situation from the reading assignments and its cultural ramifications. Students will also post essays in the TPS forum for peer review and critique.

Text:

Students will read and interact with the following works:

1) Homer, Iliad (tr. Robert Fagles)

2) Homer, Odyssey (tr. E.V. Rieu and D. C. H. Rieu)

3) Aeschylus, The Oresteia (tr. Robert Fagles)

4) Sophocles, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone (tr. Robert Fagles)

5) Vergil, Aeneid (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)

6) Hesiod, Theogony or Works and Days (Instructor handout)

7) --, Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Instructor handout)

8) Aristotle (various selections, Instructor Handouts)

9) Plutarch (several of the Lives, Instructor Handouts)

10) Herodotus (selections, Instructor Handouts)

11) Thucydides (selections, Instructor Handouts)

12) Xenophon (selections, Instructor Handouts)

13) Plato, Republic and Other Works (selections, tr. Jowett, Instructor Handouts)

14) Livy (selections, Instructor Handouts)

15) Sallust, War with Cataline (Instructor Handouts)

16) Cicero (selections, Instructor Handouts)

17) Tacitus (selections, Instructor Handouts)

18) Possibly other works as well – the sky is the limit (actually, our time and energy is the limit).

We will not deal with the readings in the order listed above. Only the first five items need to be purchased.

Between Classes: Students will have reading assignments, over which they should take notes and attempt to make conclusions about the values, struggles, and desires of the characters. If possible, students should consider parallel situations in their modern world. Most of the reading assignments will be lengthy. Students should be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time doing the readings and taking insightful notes. Students will also be furnished with study questions. They will post answers to some study questions and engage in discussion with classmates via the TPS Forum during the week.

During Classes: Students are to arrive punctually with their equipment in good working order. Without a working microphone it will be impossible, for the student to participate adequately in class. Students are not to engage in private chat during class, nor in off-topic chatter in the classroom chat box. The instructor will lead student discussion of the reading they have completed in the year, giving historical and cultural background as needed, and leading Socratic-type discussions as students show they have interacted intelligently with the readings. Most of the class time will be devoted to student discussion. Active participation in discussion is mandatory in order to do well.

Quizzes and Papers: The instructor will post approximately six quizzes and four paper descriptors during the course of the year. The papers will be approximately 4-6 pages long, plus a bibliography. Quizzes will be fairly short, concerned with factual data about the readings. Late quizzes without a parent request prior to the quiz due date will have a 10% grade deduction until they are 24 hours late. Items 24-48 hours late will have a 20% deduction. Items over 48 hours late will receive a zero. Late papers without a parent request prior to the due date will not be accepted. There may be a final quiz or paper due in the week after the last class meeting.

Grading: While the parent is responsible for preparing student transcripts, for purposes of this class the instructor will count in-class participation and evidence of preparation as 40% of the grade, participation in the Forum discussion and quizzes as 30%, and papers as 30% of the grade. Cut-offs are as follows: 90% A, 80% B, 70% C, 65% D, 64% or below F.