Classics 230: Women in Classical Antiquity
Winter 2013
DE 205
Elizabeth Manwell
HH 106
Office tel: 337-7405
e-mail:
Office Hours:Monday & Wednesday, 2:45-4:00 p.m.,
Tuesday 9:30 -11:30 a.m. and by
appointment
Course Description:
In this course we will examine issues of gender, sex and sexuality, focusing on women’s lived experiences in ancient Greece and Rome. By looking at literary and historical source material we gain a fuller understanding of the ways in which the ancients defined femininity and masculinity, how these constructions were employed by the culture and what forms resistance to these models took. Finally, the definition of normative gender categories allows us to consider how similar constructions in our own culture operate and are subverted.
Goals for the course include:
•Familiarity with the ancient gender roles for men and women
•Introduction to the literature of Greece and Rome
•Introduction to various ways of interpreting gender and sexuality
•Exploration of the impact of sex and gender in the study of history
•Improvement of oral and written communication skills
Class will meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. Selections on the Schedule of Readings are to be prepared for that class period.
Evaluation:
Midterm exam25%
Paper20%
Presentation10%
Final exam30%
Participation 5%
Quizzes and other written work10%
There will be weekly quizzes (or an assignment in place of the quiz). Pop quizzes on reading and discussion are fair game. No assignment can be made up without documentation of an emergency. Pop quizzes and assignments pertaining to that day’s discussion cannot be made up at all.
Exams:
The midterm and final exams will cover material from the readings and class discussion. They will consist of essay and short answer, including terms and names. The final will be cumulative.
Paper:
A research paper (about 12-15 pages in length) will be due on Tuesday of week 10. A rubric for its evaluation is appended to this syllabus. We will discuss the topics and my expectations of your writing in greater detail after the midterm
Presentation:
You will be required to give a group presentation on anancient woman that will spur our class discussion for the day. Presentations will begin 3rd week. The presentation rubric is appended to this syllabus.
Class Polices:
Attendance:
I will not formally take attendance, but, believe me, my penetrating gaze and elephant-like memory will register if you are in class. Since pop quizzes and daily questions/study guides cannot be made up, your regular attendance and participation can only improve your grade. Multiple unexcused absences will lower your final grade at my discretion.
Participation:
I expect you to be prepared for class each day. Participation does not just mean being present; participation signifies an active engagement with the readings and the class discussion. Your questions, daily contributions to discussion, and engagement with the material and can significantly raise your grade.
Language:
At times we will be studying sexually explicit material. If reading or viewing graphic material is going to make you excessively uncomfortable, you may wish to rethink whether this is the right class for you. Likewise, although we read dirty poems and look at dirty pictures, no student has license to use language that degrades or makes other students feel uncomfortable.
Punctuality:
Coming to class late is disruptive. Two late appearances=one absence. If you are more than 20 minutes late, you are absent.
Presence:
When you are here, please be here. Take care of bathroom breaks, texting, emailing, etc. before or after class. I mean it.
Cell Phones:
If you insist on bringing your cell phone to class, it must be turned off. Please use common sense and consideration: no texting or phone calls during class.
Deadlines:
The deadlines for this class are fast: assignments are to be prepared each day, written assignments will be handed in at the beginning of class, other tasks will be assigned a due date which is immutable. You may be granted an extension or be excused from an assignment only in the case of illness, family emergency or another unforeseen circumstance. If you find yourself in a difficult situation, you may find that I have sympathy, provided that you contact me at least 48 hours prior to the deadline. Papers that are handed in late will be marked down 1/3 of a letter grade per day (including weekends).
Honor Code:
This course operates under the specifications of the College Honor Code. Unless you are engaged in a group project, I expect that the work you present will be your own. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please feel free to talk to me.
Disabilities:
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that reasonable accommodations be provided for students with physical, sensory, cognitive, systemic, learning and psychiatric disabilities. Please contact me at the beginning of the quarter if you have or believe you may have a disability.
Required Texts (available at the bookstore):
Fantham, E. et al. 1994. Women in the Classical World. Oxford. (abbreviated throughout as
WCW)
Gill, C. 1999. Plato: The Symposium. New York.
Lefkowitz, M. and M. Fant, eds. 2005. Women’s Life in Greece and Rome. 3d ed. Baltimore (abbreviated throughout as L&F, numbers refer to sectionsnotpages)
Course Pack of readings (abbreviated throughout as CP)
Other readings, either required, optional or potentially of use for your papers and presentations, are posted on the Moodle site (see below).
Moodle
The Moodle (course management site) for this course is If you aren’t enrolled in Moodle, please sign up! You should all be enrolled in the class site already. Please check Moodle for course information, readings and updates.
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
Week 1: An Introduction: Gender vs. Sex, Nature vs. Culture, Matriarchy vs.Patriarchy
Jan 07 / M / Introduction to the Study of Women in Antiquity
09 / W / Nature vs. Culture
Read: Ortner, S. “Is Female to male as Nature is to Culture?” in Making, Gender, 21-42 (on Moodle)
Foucault, “The Repressive Hypothesis” in The History of Sexuality I
(on Moodle)
11 / F / The Myth of Matricarchy
Read: L&F 393`
Herodotus 4.110-17 (HANDOUT)
WCW Chapter 4
Week 2: Early Greek Ideals of Masculinity and Femininity14 / M / From Matriarchy to Patriarchy
Read: Eller(on Moodle)
Lerner, G. The Creation of Patriarchy, 36-53(on Moodle)
16 / W / Origins of Men and Women
Read: L&F 54-56
Carson, A. “Putting Her in Her Place: Woman, Dirt, and Desire,”
in Before Sexuality, 135-169. (on Moodle)
18 / F / Greek Ideals of Masculinity-The hero
Read: Iliad books 1 & 6 (CP)
Felson N. and L. Slatkin, “Gender and Homeric Epic” in The Cambridge
Companion to Homer (on Moodle)
Week 3: Archaic Greece
21 / M /
No Class--MLK
23 / W / Homeric WomenRead: Iliad 3 (CP)
Odyssey 4 & 6 (CP)
WCW pp. 10-39
25 / F / Men: The Lyric IdealRead: Tyrtaeus 1 & 2 (CP)
WCW pp. 39-53
Week 4: Classical Greece—Greek “Homosexuality”
28 / M / Women: The Lyric Ideal and Sappho
Read: L&F 1-6, 57
Parker, H. “Sappho’s Public World,” in Women Poets in Ancient
Greece and Rome,3-24.(on Moodle)
30 / W / Greek Male “Homosexuality” Part I
Read: Plato, Symposium 3-36
Feb 01 / W / Greek Male “Homosexuality” Part II
Read: Plato, Symposium 37-64
Week 5: Greek Women’s Lives
04 / M / Classical Greece: Athens vs. Sparta
Read: L&F 60-61, 77-78, 95-99
WCW Ch. 2
06 / W / Prostitutes and CourtesansRead: L&F 90, 286-288
Keuls, E. Reign of the Phallus, 153-203 (on Moodle)
08 / F / No Class—Winter Break
Week 6: Greek Women’s Lives Continued
11 / M / Children and Family
Read: L&F 229, 234-35, 240, 267
WCW Ch. 3
13 / M / The Hellenistic Moment
Read: L&F 7-21, 228, 415
WCW Ch. 5
15 / M /
Midterm
Week 7: Early Rome Republican and Imperial Rome18 / M / Origins of Rome
Read: L&F165, 166, 233
WCW Ch. 7
20 / W / Roman Men: The Ideal Roman
Read: Livy on the Horiatii, Brutus, Cincinnatus and Scaevola (CP)
Walters, J. “Invading the Roman Body: Manliness and Impenetrability
in Roman Thought,” in Roman Sexualities, 29-45(on Moodle)
22 / F / Roman Women
Read: L&F 51-53, 107-111, 120, 142-43, 146
WCW Ch. 9
Week 8: Health and Sexuality
25 / M / Aristocratic Women in the Empire
Read: L&F 22-23, 69, 121-123
Tacitus, Annales on Livia (CP)
WCW Ch. 11
27 / W / Marriage and Children
Read: Catullus c.61 (CP)
L&F 75, 243-46, 249, 252, 258, 270-72
Mar 01 / F / Women’s Health
Read: L&F 339, 342, 350
Ovid, Amores 2.13-14 (CP)
WCW Ch. 6
Week 9: Women and Work04 / M / Male and Female Sexuality
Read: L&F 231-32, 265-66
Catullus, Ovid, Martial, Suetonius and Magical Papyrus (CP)
WCW Ch. 10
06 / W / The Hero as Lover
Read: Catullus cc.5, 7, 8, 58, 76 (CP)
Propertius 1.1, 1.5 (CP)
Ovid Amores 1.3, 1.7, 1.14 (CP)
08 / F / Upper and Lower Class Women
Read: L&F 165, 176-79, 182-90, 289-90
WCW ch.12
Week 10: Late Antiquity
11 / M / Gladiators and Entertainers
Read: L&F 295-316
Procopius on Theodora (CP)
Edwards, C. “Unspeakable Professions” in Roman Sexualities, 66-95
(on Moodle)
13 / W / Priestesses
Read: Vestal Virgins (L&F 408-411)
15 / F / Christian Women
Read: L&F 50, 441-442, 444, 446
WCW Ch. 13
Mar 18 / M /
Final Exam (in our regular classroom) 8:30-11 a.m.
Paper Grading Rubric
The nature of the task of grading papers makes it impossible to explain fully the standards that I use in grading, but here’s a brief attempt. Plusses and minuses represent gradations too hard to explain. Mixed grades (i.e. B-/C+) represent nuances, rather than two different standards—in other words, I’ll record it as a little less than a B-, a little higher than a C+.
AExcellent in every way (this is not the same as perfect). A piece of writing that seriously grapples with increasingly interesting and complex ideas. The discussion gracefully moves among related thoughts and relevant evidence that keep enhancing our understanding of the ideas, rather than underscoring what has already been taught. There is a context for all of the ideas; someone outside this class would be enriched, not confused, by reading this. Its beginning opens up, rather than flatly announces its thesis. Its end is something more than a summary. The language is clean, precise, often elegant. As a reader I feel delighted, surprised, and educated. There’s something new here for me—something only its writer could have written and explored. The writer’s stake in the material is obvious. It doesn’t feel like something the teacher made the writer do.
BA piece of writing that reaches high and achieves many of its aims. The ideas are solid and progressively explored but some thin patches require more, and/or some stray thoughts don’t fit in. The language is generally clear and precise, but occasionally may feel scant—not quite excavated—so, as a reader, I have to make some of the connections that the writer should have made.
OR a piece of writing that reaches less high than an A paper but achieves its aims masterfully. (In this case the limitation is conceptual.)
CA piece of writing that has real problems in one of these areas: conception (there’s at least one idea but its fuzzy and hard to get to); structure (confusing); use of evidence (either non-existent or weak—the connections among the evidence and the ideas are not made and/or are presented without context, or don’t add up to much more than the sum of their parts); language (the sentences often are awkward, dependent upon unexplained abstractions, sometimes contradict each other). The writing doesn’t move forward but keeps repeating its main points, or is all over the place, touching on a million things but none with sufficient depth. Punctuation, spelling, grammar, use of paragraphs may be problematic.
OR a paper that reads like a book report, but is written without major problems.
OR a paper that is chiefly a personal reaction to something. Well-written, but scant intellectual content—mostly opinion.
D and FThese are efforts that are wildly shorter than they ought to be to grapple seriously with ideas OR are extremely problematic in many of the areas mentioned above: aims, structure, use of evidence, language, etc.
Women in Classical Antiquity
Presentation Evaluation Rubric
Winter 2013
Evaluation for:
Mastery of information (including following directions) (6)
Effectiveness of Presentation (2)
Evidence of shared effort (2)
Total Score: