US 210: The Great Conversation I

Supplementary Resources

Fall 1999

Alvin Burstein, Ph.D.
Phone: 974-3348
Office: 303E Austin Peay
Hours: TBA or make an appointment
Email: burstein@utk.edu

Bruce MacLennan, Ph.D.
Phone: 974-5067
Office: 110-A Ayres
Hours: TBA or make an appointment
Email: maclennan@cs.utk.edu

This page: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US210/

• Syllabus and Reading List
• The Question of a Canon (Burstein)
• University Studies 210: The Great Conversation (Fall 1999) [out of date] at Unversity Studies site.
• Hints on Pronouncing Ancient Greek Names

• Perseus Project. Contains many online texts, both selections and complete; look under Texts. See also the Perseus Encyclopedia Subject Index
  • Intermediate Liddell-Scott ("Middle Liddell") Greek Lexicon (good for most purposes). [Perseus]
  • Searchable Liddel-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon ("Great Scott"): comprehensive; citations link you directly to primary source texts. [Perseus]
  • Some important Greek words (definitions from Middle Liddell): aretê - atê - dikê - erôs - hubris - nomos vs. phusis - sophia
• The Internet Classics Archive [ICA] (from MIT) also contains classical texts (in translation). The ICA texts are in larger units (books or whole plays) than the Perseus texts (paragraphs).
• Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World
• Ancient History Sourcebook (Greece)
• Didaskalia: Ancient Theater Today
  • Reconstruction of ancient theater of Dionysos
• Practice Forum Questions
• Final Forum Questions

• More Internet Resources
• MacLennan's home page
• UTK Home Page

1. Homer's Iliad
   • Iliad (Murray tr.) [Perseus]
   • Iliad (Butler tr.) [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to the Iliad: "madness" (atê) - "glory" (kleos, kudos) - "honor" (timê) - "to dishonor" (atimazô) - "shame" (aiskhos), "shameful" (aiskhros) - "destiny" (moira) - "counsel" (boulê) - "right" (themis)
   • For additional insight see chs. 1-2 ("Agamemnon's Apology" and "From Shame-culture to Guilt-culture") of E. R. Dodds' The Greeks and the Irrational (Univ. Cal. Press, 1951).
2. Aeschylus' Oresteia (Agamemnon, Choephoroi, Eumenides)
   • Agamemnon (Smyth tr.) [Perseus]
   • Agamemnon (Morshead tr.) [ICA]
   • Choephoroi (Libation Bearers, Smyth tr.) [Perseus]
   • Choephoroi (Morshead tr.) [ICA]
   • Eumenides (Smyth tr.) [Perseus]
   • Eumenides (Morshead tr.) [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to the Oresteia: "justice" (dikê) - "right" (themis) - "hubris/pride" (hubris) - "righteous indignation" (nemesis) - "envy" (phthonos) - "persuasion" (peithô)
   • Background information on the City Dionysia, at which the plays were performed.
   • An overview of typical structure of the Greek play and in particular concerning tragedies.
   • A short description of the theater of Dionysos, where the plays were performed.
3. Herodotus' Histories
   • Histories (Godley tr.) [Perseus]: I.120-139, I.190-199, II.125-141, IV.60-76, VII.219-227, VIII.31-88.
   • Histories (Rawlinson tr.) [ICA]: I.120-139, I.190-199, II.125-141, IV.60-76, VII.219-227, VIII.31-88. (large files, 300K)
   • Some concepts especially relevant to Herodotus: "history" (historia) - "hubris/pride" (hubris) - "righteous indignation" (nemesis) - "barbarian" (barbaros) - "retribution" (tisis)
   • Some more interesting and well-known passages in Herodotus: Gyges, Candaules & his wife: I.8-12 (pp. 5-7), remarkable rescue of Arion: I.23-4 (10-11), the happiest man: I.29-33 (12-15), Atys & Adrastus: I.34-45 (15-18), deliverance of Croesus: I.84-90 (34-8), an oracle about suppliants: I.157-60 (63-4), queen Nitocris & her tomb: I.185-7 (72-4), discovering the oldest race: II.2 (86-7), sacred animals: II.65-76 (109-13), customs of the Egyptians: II.77-91 (113-17), Rhampsinitus & the thief: II.121 (128-31), habits of Amasis: II.172-4 (149-50), cultural relativism and eating the dead: III.38 (169), Polycrates & his destiny: III.40-3 (170-1), how Darius became king: III.84-7 (189-90), tales about India: III.98-105 (193-5), tales about Arabia: III.107-13 (196-8), fall of Babylon: III.150-60 (212-16), legend of Salmoxis: IV.93-6 (245-6), the Amazons: IV.110-17 (249-51), some African tales: IV.180-96 (272-7), Thracian customs: V.3-8 (281-2), the Persians & the Macedonian women: V.17-21 (285-7), the Greeks get the alphabet: V.58-61 (299-300), Athenian freedom: V.78 (307), Periander and his dead wife: V.92 (314-15), Marathon: VI.109-17 (360-3), Alcmeon & the gold: VI.125 (365), Cleisthenes dances his wife away: VI.125-31 (365-8), Xerxes punishes the sea: VII.33-7 (386-8), a Greek answers Xerxes: VII.101-5 (403-5), battle of Plataea: IX.41-2 (514-5) & IX.50-70 (518-25), story of Euenius: IX.93-4 (532-3).
4. Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone)
   • Oedipus the King (Oedipus Tyrannus, Jebb tr.) [Perseus]
   • Oedipus the King (Storr tr.) [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to Oedipus the King: "tyrant" (turannos) - "Creon" (kreiôn) -
   • Oedipus at Colonus (Jebb tr.) [Perseus]
   • Oedipus at Colonus (Storr tr.) [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to Oedipus at Colonus: "hero" (hêrôs)
   • Antigone (Jebb tr., modernized) [Perseus]
   • Antigone (Jebb tr.) [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to Antigone: "beloved" (philos) - "city" (polis) - "law" (nomos)
5. Euripides' Bacchae
   • Bacchae (Buckley tr.) [Perseus]
   • Bacchae [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to the Bacchae: "orgies" (orgia) - "ecstasy" (ekstasis) (see also existêmê) - thyasus (thiasos)
   • The concept of "ecstasy" (standing outside oneself; see the definitions of ekstasis and especially existêmê above) is central to understanding Dionysus. A good discussion is Ecstasy by the well-known Jungian psychologist Robert A. Johnson.
6. Thucydides' History of Peloponnesian War (books 6 & 7)
   • Book 6 (Dent tr.) [Perseus]
   • Book 6 (Crawley tr.) [ICA]
   • Book 7 (Dent tr.) [Perseus]
   • Book 7 (Crawley tr.) [ICA]
7. Aristophanes' Birds and Clouds
   • Birds (O'Neill tr.) [Perseus]
   • Birds [ICA]
   • Clouds (Henderson tr.) [Perseus]
   • Clouds [ICA]
   • Background information on the City Dionysia, at which the plays were performed. See especially on the satyr play and comedy.
   • The typical structure of a Greek comedy.
   • Some concepts especially relevant to the Clouds and Birds: "wise" (sophos) - "sophist" (sophistês) - "wisdom" (sophia) - "excellence" (aretê)
8. Plato's Symposium
   • Symposium (Fowler/Lamb trs.) [Perseus]
   • Symposium (Jowett tr.) [ICA]
   • Some concepts especially relevant to the Symposium: "Love" (Erôs) - "Poverty/Need" (Penia) - "Means/Resource" (Poros), who is son of Ingenuity (Mêtis) - "irony" (eirôneia)
   • Plato's discussion of love is continued in the Phaedrus: (Fowler/Lamb tr.) [Perseus] or (Jowett tr.) [ICA]

• Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Stoic thoughts from the most philosophical Roman emperor. Lamb's translation available from Internet Classics Archive and from Exploring Ancient World Cultures.
• Martha C. Nussbaum's Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education (Harvard Univ. Press, 1997) discusses the role of the classics in educating the global citizens of the future.
• F. E. Peter's Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon (NY Univ. Press, 1967) is a good introduction (in English) to the meaning and evolution of most of the important Greek philosophical terms.
• The Oxford Classical Dictionary (ed. by S. Hornblower & A. Spawforth) has many informative articles.

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Send mail to Bruce MacLennan / MacLennan@cs.utk.edu
Last updated: Mon May 19 15:08:07 EDT 2003