Elizabeth Irwin

Liz is a remarkably insightful person, and if you are willing to engage with her she will elicit that insight in you. That said, it is very easy to sail through the class half-asleep; Liz is incredibly kind so she'd never call anyone out — but she wants you to get out what you put in. Whether that is sleeping through every lecture (admittedly 9 a.m.) or talking through every paper extensively with her one-on-one is up to you. The reading was definitely the best aspect of the course, but I don't really distinguish between the time I spent reading and the time I spent in class discussing — the class worked together (at least, most of the class) with Liz to understand the texts with both depth and context, making seminar a very rewarding two hours. LitHum is all about what you're willing to bring to the table, especially with Liz. Some people in the class definitely did not get much out of it, but it certainly gave me a new appreciation for literature and close analysis.

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.

Finally got the hang of reading Homer and attainted familiarity with a pretty wide range of Ancient Greek literature

Greek! A lot of Greek. A whole textbook worth of Greek, in fact. But also, how languages work.

I learned how to read Plato and Xenophon.

Though Liz is nice enough, and easy enough, teachers like her are the reason the core can really suck. She doesn't pull out anything from the text, and I walked away from every class feeling like I learned nothing. Furthermore, she fails to do extra research on background information for books that are outside her specialty. We got through ancient studies-esque books fairly quickly, and when we read the bible, she relied on the very religious members of the class for basic bible background information--leading to an uncomfortably religiously charged class and very little nonbiased understanding of the bible as a historical text. All the athletes in the class were happy to stay because basically nothing is required of them--she did not protest when, in a 20 person class, several athletes slept through each session.

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.

I strengthened my understanding of Ancient Greek.

Everything in Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek.

I would only recommend this course if you're looking to major in the Classics department. If just for a language requirement, look elsewhere.