Helene Foley

Despite my limited background in the classics, taking professor Foley’s class was a joy. Professor Foley’s passion for the classics is contagious and people who speak to her about literature from ancient Rome or the gods of ancient Greece can’t help but fall in love with works from antiquity. The ability of professor Foley to immerse a large class in the stories she teaches is impressive. Since she clearly understands how challenging it could be for students in such classes to ask questions, she also makes extended office hours available. It could not be stressed enough how important and helpful this is. Mythical stories could be paradoxical and perplexing to modern readers as well but thankfully, professor Foley specializes in captivating her audience through visual imagery and colorful words. As a result, the material she teaches is astonishingly interesting and digestible. Her class is the best class I have taken at Columbia thus far not only because of how well it is taught but also because it has introduced me to philosophies and ideas I wasn’t familiar with prior. I read books from antiquity on a regular basis now. She brings chocolate for students during exams too. How sweet is that?!

Professor Foley is absolutely amazing. I took the class to fulfill a GER and never expected to take it seriously. Instead, I came out of the course with a great appreciation of Greek art and literature. She is extremely understanding when it comes to what each student is capable of doing and their background of the material we were working with. She offered phone conferences over the weekend when we had our first paper due, and is always very attentive at office hours and to the work that you have handed in. This woman is absolutely amazing.

Professor Foley is AWESOME. Take any course you can with her. She is so cute with her smiles and candy giving. She even invited us to her house this semester for FYF Myths of Maternity. She is available to meet basically all the time, and she always tries to accommodate her students. She is passionate about women's issues and ancient Greek studies, but even if you don't care about this stuff I'm sure you'll enjoy it with her class. Her caring makes you care. She facilitates class discussion but does not make it weird. Initially she leads discussion but then she has you bring in passages and questions and in the end you kind of take over the discussion. Seriously she rocks. Woo Foley!!

Professor Foley is just one of the most intelligent professors I have ever had the honor of taking a class with. She's clearly very passionate about the material and did a great job in summarizing key points and tying ideas together. She's so sweet (she brought cookies on the last day of class and on the day of the final). Honestly, you should take one of her classes. Superb professor. Sometimes the reading was too much, but this was often counter-balanced by days when we would have to read just one play or smaller readings. Not all reading was necessary but all of it was interesting. She also included other media in class discussions, such a slides and videos. The class discussion always led to interesting points.

Foley's great. She's up to date on current Homeric scholarship and brings that knowledge to class to make what could be a ho-hum translation class very interesting. She knows ancient Greek so well that she's not afraid to admit it the few times she doesn't, and then she'll go off and find out for you. You'll absorb her love for the text and yes, quite a bit of skill in translating it, too. The vocab is always tough, but she gets you used to the irregularities of the Homeric dialect very quickly. She set up guest lectures with a CU prof. who knew all about oral tradition and epithet systems and with another who explained the ancient pronunciation and oral delivery of the text. She also took requests for translation of students' favorite episodes. She dissected the features of the poetry in a way that finally revealed why people loved hearing and reading Homer so much. The class is small, lots of comradery, she buys cookies and OJ a lot, you get it. She's top-notch.

This review will sound hyperbolic, but all the superlatives are either fact or sound opinion: Professor Foley is the nicest teacher I have ever had. She is a renowned expert in the areas of ancient Greek Culture, Religion, Myth, Drama, and Poetry, and has a lot to say on the subject. And every sentence she utters comes out with a really sweet smile. She is an awesome dresser, and actually manages to pull of her huge glasses with style; she is also pleasantly liberal and wore a no-Bush pin all term. This course had a fair amount of easy reading, but Foley was so insistent that it shouldn't actually require any hard work that she 1) had us write vocabularies for each other 2) ordered translations from Labyrinth 3) went over almost every word of tanslation in class 4) gave us only a short paper which she graded easily 5) let us use dictionaries (!!!!) on the ridiculously short midterm and final, which meant they were not actually tests 6) gave us the final exam essay question (just one) in advance and let us use a page of notes to write the essay (!!!) and 7) smothered us with quiet affection beaming across the table from her tranquil face. Seriously, she asked us several times during the semester to call her house if we had any questions at all. This woman loves being a teacher, and she is wonderful at it. A+

I love mythology in general and entered this class very familiar with the material, and with an very deep respect for Professor Foley as the foremost expert on The Hymn to Demeter. However, although she is a very nice teacher and clearly cares an immense amount about the material, her lecture style can be very dull. She spends every class going through slides of artistic representations of whatever that day's myth is, but I can't remember a single time she actually brought up more than one critically backed interpretation. Also since it's easy to gather the general gist of the myths from the slides without reading them, lots of students just wouldn't do the reading (also in part because there is a ton of it). I was lucky because I happen to love this stuff, so the reading wasn't a problem for me, but this is not a good class if you just want to fulfill your lit requirement. Oh, and the midterm and the final aren't as hard as they seem like they will be. If you're familiar with the common identifying features of all the gods in greek and roman art you will be fine; you don't have to memorize all of the slides she shows you. She also puts together these really interesting packets of poems related to each myth (some modern, some classic). It's hard to find the time to read them during the semester, but I'd strongly recommend downloading them to read later. They really are quite g…

One of the nicest, most intelligent professors I have ever had the privilege of taking a class with. Our class had a pretty diverse mix of academic backgrounds--from people who had never taken a Classics course before to people who can read Ancient Greek cold--but she made the course approachable and interesting no matter how much experience you had. She is obviously passionate about what she teaches, and is extraordinarily helpful in office hours. The reading is a lot, but it's fascinating stuff--it would be my reward to myself after I had done my reading for other classes. Take this class or any other class with Foley, you will absolutely not regret it.

Sort of a lot. She expects a lot of reading, but it comes down to about 100 pgs for the weekend and another 100 for the week. However, almost all the reading is interesting and leads to pretty cool discussion.

Thw woman is super cool! take her class! I had no prior knowledge of the material nor did I ever have a specific interest in the topics covered...I just wanted to fill a requirement....the class was so interesting! I did not nod off at all! And afternoon classes...I mean come on, she can't make it easier than that!