Selections from Greek Lit · Classics
How to read and think about Xenophon's Anabasis (and ask questions critical to understanding the text). Greater grasp on reading Greek.
Two papers, one midterm, one final exam. Liz, although she denies it, has an almost pedantic appreciation of philology: as with all Classics courses, Smyth is your best friend.
Weekly readings of 1.5-2 Stephanus pgs., 2 papers (1st was 4-5, 2nd was 6-8) 3 quizzes, midterm, final.
Hold on to your hat. Professor Irwin's madcap combination of rigorous analysis, friendly neurosis, Herodotophilia, disorganization, and sheer intelligence makes a term with her an unforgettable scholarly experience. She can sometimes leave one behind in the intellectual dust as she rushes ahead on a brilliant tangent; at other times, the class can halt entirely as she spends time parsing the philological ambiguities of a particular phrase. But you will never come away without having discovered that there was so much more in the text at hand than you would ever have thought. She will assign oodles of secondary scholarship as recommended reading, and follow up practically each class with a most involved e-mail, and often run five or ten minutes over time; yet I swear that a course with Professor Irwin is far and beyond worth every assignment and every minute.
Professor Worman is such an asset to the Classics department. Not only is she so knowledgeable about Greek rhetoric but she also brings such enthusiastic energy that you can't help but being inspired to love seemingly difficult Socratic dialogue as well! In class we translated the Greek and she led us in discussion about the imagery and the bigger picture stuff but also encouraged us to ask questions and to tie in secondary literature to the text. I thought the reading (about 1.5-2 Stephanus pages/class) was fairly reasonable and most of the time people would volunteer to translate in class, so if you're prepared, speak up. Prof Worman is a really fair grader. This class was a stretch for me in terms of the Greek, but I did all the reading and I went to her office hours and I spoke up in class and I ended up doing very well in the class. Greek is hard enough as it is but there were never really any surprises on the quizzes or tests in terms of what she picked to test. She is obsessed with grammar, like reviews have said before, so know your Hansen and Quinn. Overall, Prof Worman is amazing and I intend to take everything she teaches before I graduate.
Close reading of Greek text, both from a linguistic and literary perspective. A better understanding of Imperial Greek history and culture.