29 courses with the subject CLAS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course member of the faculty. Credits: Variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
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Examines selected plays of the three great Greek tragedians—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—and of the comedian Aristophanes. Focuses on the tragic view of human existence, questions of fate and the gods, and comedy's response. Other topics for discussion include the role of Athenian politics, religion, and sociology within the plays and the importance of the drama in Athenian life. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
The Olympic Games, gladiators, chariot racing: the sports and spectacles of ancient Greece and Rome still loom large in the modern imagination. The summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic games, for example, are staged at cities across the globe every four years, and NFL football players are routinely called "modern- day gladiators" and compete in annual Super Bowls designated by Roman Numerals. This course provides an interdisciplinary examination of the history and nature of sports and spectacles in the Greco-Roman world, from the legendary foundation of the Olympic Games in 776 BCE to the violent spectacles of the Roman Empire, and it compares the role of sports in Classical antiquity to the position they now occupy in contemporary society, with special focus on the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896 and the rise of televised, spectator sports in the 20th century. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
Introduces students to the myths of the ancient world, focusing on those of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, with consideration also of those of the Near East, south Asia, and northern Europe. Students not only acquire a thorough knowledge of the major myths surrounding both gods and heroes but also gain an appreciation of the variety of approaches to understanding and interpreting them, exploring questions of the universality, transferability, and common inheritance of myths across cultures. Readings are drawn from ancient texts and modern critical works. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
Introduces students to the development and diversity of Greek religious experiences from the Bronze Age to the Roman conquest. Through a variety of ancient sources (literary, epigraphical, archaeological, and architectural), students explore the gods, rituals, and beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Topics include the phenomenon of anthropomorphism; the connection between mythology and ritual; the status of the dead; the function of the sanctuary; the role of the priest and the seer; hero-worship; evidence for human sacrifice; ecstasy, madness, and possession; the place of religion within the Greek city-state; prayers, curses, and inherited guilt; festivals and spectacles; pollution-belief; Orphism; the rise of mystery religions; and the relationship between Olympian and chthonian religion. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Considers concepts of sexuality and gender in the Graeco-Roman world. It explores the portrayal of gender in classical mythology and examines the legal, economic, social, and religious positions of women and men as reflected in historical documents and the archaeological record. Special attention is given to comparing mythological images with the realities of people's lives in Greek and Roman society. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Surveys the pre-Hellenic, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic art and architecture of Greece with a special emphasis on the political, social, and religious contexts in which art was produced and how it reflects the ideas and concerns of the ancient Greeks, both individually and collectively. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
An introduction to Minoan, Mycenaean, and Archaic and Classical Greek civilizations, including a survey of major sites and monuments. Attention is given to ways in which historical arguments are developed from the archaeological record. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
An introduction to the archaeology of the Italian peninsula from earliest prehistoric to late imperial times, including the major sites and monuments of native Italic cultures, Greek and Phoenician colonization, Etruscan civilization, Rome, and Pompeii. Attention is given to the ways in which historical arguments are developed from the archaeological record. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
Provides an overview of political, economic, social, religious, and intellectual developments in the Greek world from the Bronze Age to the death of Socrates. The aim is to gain familiarity not only with a general narrative of archaic and Classical Greek history but also with the materials (archaeological, numismatic, epigraphical, artistic, literary, and historiographical) from which we build such a narrative as well as with the
Provides an overview of the history of Rome from its foundation in the eighth century BCE, though its conquest of Italy and rise as a Mediterranean power, to its transition from Republic to Principate under the rule of Augustus. The aim is to gain familiarity not only with a general narrative of the history of the Roman Republic but also with the materials (literary, historiographical, artistic, archaeological, epigraphical, and numismatic) from which we build such a narrative. Two questions are central to the exploration: (1) How did the Romans grow from a small village in central Italy into one of the largest empires the world has ever known, encompassing some 60 million people and stretching from Spain to Syria, from Egypt to England? and (2) How did the Romans themselves understand this growth? Rome is the focus, but students shall also situate the Romans in a wider Mediterranean context, examining their interactions with e.g. Etruscans, Greeks, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Gauls, and Parthians. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Recommended: May be taken for history major credit. Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Surveys political, economic, social, religious, and intellectual developments in the Greek world from the rise of the kingdom of Macedon in the middle of the fourth century BCE to Rome's final conquest of East over 300 years later. Through a variety of ancient sources (literary, historiographical, artistic, epigraphical, and archaeological), students investigate how the Greek city-states fell to the Macedonians, to the kingdoms that emerged in Asia Minor, the Near East, and Central Asia in the wake of Alexander the Great, and finally to the Romans. Special attention is given to the life and career of Alexander the Great; the formation and operation of the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Antigonid kingdoms; the nature of Hellenistic kingship; Greco- Macedonian colonization and the "Hellenization" of the East; post-Classical developments in art, literature, philosophy, and religious expression; and the nature of Roman imperialism. This course chronologically follows but does not require prior completion of CLAS 236 (Greek History I: From the Bronze Age to the Death of Socrates).
Provides an overview of Roman history from Augustus's foundation of the Principate in 27 BCE to the collapse of the monarchy some 500 years later. Through a variety of ancient sources (historiographical, literary, epigraphic, artistic, and archaeological), students explore the changing role of the Roman Emperor, the challenges inherent in ruling so extensive and diverse an empire, and the reasons why this rule deteriorated. Other topics include Roman religious expressions (from the imperial cult to Mithraism and Christianity); tensions between state and society and between personal and institutional power; sport and spectacle; and the development of the Roman military. Students also have the opportunity to survey modern approaches to the problem of Rome's fall, with particular attention to Gibbon's Decline and Fall. This course chronologically follows but does not require prior completion of CLAS 237 (Roman History I: The Roman Republic). Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
Private and public life in the urban centers of Roman Italy forms the focus of this course. It traces the history of the city of Rome, with all of its political, economic, social, and religious institutions, from its origins in the 8th century BC to the end of the Roman Empire in the 4th century CE. Students acquire a foundational knowledge of the political and social history of Rome while discussing many of the ancient written sources that have a bearing on the subject of the private and public lives of Romans. Readings include Virgil, Livy, Tacitus, Juvenal, Petronius, Pliny the Younger, and Suetonius. Through the different approaches of archaeological, epigraphical, art-historical, topographical, environmental, and historical studies, students explore the material culture of the ancient Roman city. Emphasis is placed on Rome, the capital itself, and the prosperous towns on the Bay of Naples, Herculaneum and Pompeii, which were destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
Provides an introduction to the history of ancient Greece and development of the Greek city-state, or polis, with a special focus on Athens. Students learn about the importance of the study of material remains for tracing the rise of Bronze Age and later Iron Age centers. Through a combined study of literary and historical texts, archaeology, and epigraphy, students gain an understanding of the social, political, economic, and religious institutions that shaped the ancient Greek city-state and provided a foundation for many later developments of western civilization. An interdisciplinary approach is applied to exploring the structures that defined the identity of the individual within a single polity as well as within the broader Pan-Hellenic context. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
The extended study introduces students at first hand to the physical settings where Greek urban life developed and made its fundamental contribution to western civilization. During the three weeks that students are based in Athens, they observe and interpret the evidence that material culture provides for understanding the social, political, and religious institutions that shaped the ancient Greek city-state, a subject that they have studied on-campus in the course CLAS 251. The extended study places special emphasis on how material culture illuminates the ways in which these varied institutions defined the identity of an individual within the ancient Greek city and in a broader Pan-Hellenic context. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Offers an introduction to the history, literature, and culture of the Augustan Age (31 bce–14 ce), a period of profound political and societal change that witnessed the emergence of the Roman empire and a nominal
Integrates literary, historical, artistic, and archaeological approaches in order to explore the complex interconnections between the different populations that inhabited the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Students work closely with their professor and classmates to investigate a specific topic within the field of classical studies. Their efforts culminate in the production of a significant piece of work, be it a research paper, website, blog, student conference, or archival exhibition and catalog. The topic of the seminar varies depending on the expertise of the professor and interests of the students. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
the Greeks When the Persian king Darius attacked Greek lands in 490 BCE, the empire over which he ruled was the largest the world had ever seen: it stretched from the Danube River to the Indus, from the Red to Aral Seas. To the Greeks, the Persians were both fearsome and fascinating, the "other" against whom they fought but also defined themselves as Greeks, and the possessors of untold riches, unseen wonders, and unbelievable marvels. Students gain familiarity not only with a general narrative of Greco-Persian history but also with the various materials (archaeological, epigraphical, and literary) from which such a narrative is built. Through close examination of diverse sources (including Persian royal inscriptions, Greek historiography and tragedy, the Hebrew Bible, and medieval Persian epic, students work to understand how contact between these two distinct yet complementary cultures in antiquity has shaped discourse about the opposition between East and West up to the present day. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
(Extended Study) This three-week extended study course aims to acquaint students with the geography, topography, and material culture of ancient Greece, southern Italy, and Rome; with the concepts and vocabularies of ancient political thought (in particular binaries such as freedom and tyranny, democracy and empire, republic and monarchy, citizenship and authority); and with the deep continuity between Greco-Roman political theory and ancient (as well as much contemporary) philosophical thought about ethics and human psychology. Credits: Variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
This senior seminar focuses on proficiency in Greek and/or Latin, on competence in conducting research in classical studies, and on developing an understanding of and appreciation for the reception of classical literature and art. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: Only Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Source: Colgate University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 61
