Classics 555 Spring 2008

Vincent FarengaTu 2-5, THH 119

Seminar in Greek History, Culture Society: Personality Polity

Course Description and Goals

Key questions:

  1. How does Greek historiography represent individual figures as historical agents?
  1. How do these historical figures acquire in the Greek cultural tradition a character or personality that transforms them from historical agents into moral agents, persons, a “self”?
  1. Is the personality acquired by a historical agent related to the kind of political regime (politeia) he/she inhabits? In other words, are character and the choices leading to virtue or vice, success or failure, politically conditioned?
  1. How does genre influence the type of character or personality a historical figure displays? Do historical figures assume genre-specific performance roles when they appear as characters in poetic genres like elegy, iambus, epinician and tragedy, and in prose genres like history, philosophy, and biography?

Some major topics:

  1. From ancient and contemporary moral philosophy we will try to determine the fundamental qualities behind different notions of individuality such as “self,” “person,” “persona,” “character,” “personality.”
  1. We’ll apply these notions to historical figures from ca. 600 – 300 BC, and to regimes and personalities in Greece, western Asia and Macedonia that are oligarchic, dynastic, tyrannical, and democratic. Among figures we’ll discuss (some in more detail than others) are Solon, Croesus, Xerxes, Themistocles, Pericles, Aspasia, Alcibiades, Demosthenes, Philip II, Olympias, & Alexander.

Some of our sources:

  1. Each week we’ll read “base texts” (some in Greek, some in English) from historians (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, ps-Aristotle [Ath.Pol.], Diodorus, and Arrian); from Plutarch’s biographies; from literary sources (Solon’s elegies & iambics, Aeschylus’ Persai, Bacchylides 3); and from philosophy (Plato, Rep. 8 & 9, Alcibiades I; selections from Aristotle).
  1. We’ll also use critical readings in classical scholarship, moral philosophy, and cultural theory to enrich our discussions of the base texts.

Course Requirements

  1. Attendance and participation at each seminar meeting.
  2. Brief presentations (20 min.) on critical readings and their relevance to base texts.
  3. One major seminar presentation (45 min).
  4. Several translation quizzes on base texts.
  5. Research paper of about 15 pages.

Vincent Farenga, THH 256-R

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Office hours: Tu & Th 10-11; Th 1:30 – 2:30 and by appointment

Availability of Readings & Texts

  1. Some readings (articles, chapters from books) will be available in photocopy on a shelf in the Classics Dept. Library. Others will be available electronically on Ares Reserve (usc.ares.atlas-sys.com/)or from electronic databases via the Homer catalogue.
  1. Copies of some USC or UCLA library books will be available on a shelf in the department library. (Please don’t remove these from THH.)
  1. The following texts have been ordered at the University Bookstore:

Plutarch Lives. Vol. 1 (= Life of Solon). Loeb Classical Library.

Herodotus Book 1. Ed. J. H. Sleeman. Bristol Classical P/Duckworth.

Aeschylus: Persians. Ed. E. Hall. Aris & Phillips Classical Texts.

Plutarch’s Themistocles. Ed. David J. Ladouceur. Bryn Mawr Commentaries.

Plutarch Lives.Vol. IV (= Life of Alcibiades). Loeb Classical Library.

Plutarch Lives.Vol. VII (= Life of Alexander). Loeb Classical Library.

Diodorus Siculus.Library of History Books 16.66-17. Loeb Classical Library.

Plutarch Greek Lives. Trans. R. Waterfield. Oxford World Classics.

Sorabji, Richard. Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death. U Chicago P. 2006.

Syllabus

[N.B. We will try to follow this schedule of topics and readings, but if our pace dictates changes, you’ll be informed at least one week in advance in person and via email.]

Jan 15Course Intro

The Athenaiôn Politeia as a historical source.

Jan 22Solon: Creating a Narrative, Creating an Agent,Person & Persona

Base texts:

  1. Ath.Pol. 4-12 [photocopy], with commentary of Rhodes 1981
  2. Solon elegies 4, 4c, 5-7, 9, 13, 27 [photocopy], with commentary of Mülke 2002

Critical readings:

For everyone:

  1. Hansen 1999: 27-46 (“The Athenian Constitution Down to 403 BC”) in The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes [photocopy & Ares]
  2. Stehle 2006: 79-113 (“Solon’s Self-Reflexive Political Persona & its Audience” in Blok & Lardinois 2006) [photocopy & Ares]
  3. Sorabji 2006: 1-31 (Self)

For individual presentation:

  1. Lardinois 2006: 15-35 (“Have We Solon’s Verses?” in Blok & Lardinois 2006) [photocopy]
  2. Martin 2006: 157-72 (“Solon in No Man’s Land” in Blok & Lardinois 2006) [photocopy]
  3. Lewis 2006: 1-10 (“Intro” in Solon the Thinker) [photocopy]

For further reading:

  1. Raaflaub 1997 (“Legend or Historical Personality? Solon Reconsidered,” in Acta: First Panhellenic and International Conference on Ancient Greek Literature [23-226 May 1994), J-M. Papademetriou, ed.) [photocopy on request]

Jan 29Solon: Multiple Personae; The Meaning of a Life

Base texts

  1. Solon’s iambic tetrameters 32-34, 36, 37 [photocopy]
  2. Plutarch’s Life of Solon 8-11, 13-18, and 24.4-28 (Greek), with commentary by Manfredini & Piccirilli 1977 (if available)
  3. Plutarch’s Life of Solon (read the entirety in English)

Critical readings

For everyone:

  1. Gill 1996: 1-28 (“Intro: Posing the Questions,” in Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy & Philosophy) [photocopy]
  2. Duff 1999: 72-98 (“The Soul of a Plutarchan Hero,” in Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice) (photocopy & Ares)

For individual presentation:

  1. Irwin 2006: 13-30 (“The Lives of the Poets: The Case of Solon and the Salamis” in Beyond the Limits of Ancient Biography) [photocopy]
  2. deBlois 2006: 429-40 (“Plutarch’s Solon: A Tissue of Commonplaces or a Historical Account?” in Blok & Lardinois 2006) [photocopy]

For further reading:

  1. McGlew 1993: 87-123 (“The Lawgiver’s Struggle with Tyranny: Solon and the Excluded Middle,” in Tyranny and Political Culture in Ancient Greece).
  2. Farenga 2006: 285-304 (“Solon: Making Citizens, Singing Songs, Writing Laws” from “Performing the Law: The Lawgiver, Statute Law and the Jury Trial,” in Citizen and Self in Ancient Greece).
  3. Balot 2001: 58-98 (“Solonian Athens and the Archaic Roots of Greed,” in Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens)

Feb 5Croesus & Peisistratus: Tyrants Asian & Greek

Base texts

  1. Ath.Pol. 13-19 [photocopy]
  2. Herodotus 1.59-64 (Greek)
  3. Herodotus 1.26 – 56.2 (English)
  4. CAH 3 pt. 2: 643-55 (“The Lydian Kingdom”) [photocopy]
  5. CAH 4: 28-46 (“Cyrus the Great: Military Activities & Conquests”) [photocopy]

Critical readings

For everyone:

  1. Nussbaum 1986: 3-39 (The Fragility of Goodness) [photocopy]
  2. Williams 1993: 51-74 (“Recognising Responsibility,” in Shame & Necessity [photocopy]

For individual presentation:

  1. Nagy 1990: 228-49 (“Authoritative Speech of Prose, Poetry & Song,” in Pindar’s Homer [photocopy]
  2. Dewald 2003: 25-58 (“Form & Content: The Question of Tyranny in Herodotus,” in Morgan 2003, Popular Tyranny) [photocopy]

Feb 12Croesus: Prosperity and Oracles

Base texts

  1. Herodotus 1.75-81 and 83-91 (Greek)
  2. Bacchylides 3 (Greek), with commentary by Campbell 1967
  3. CAH 4: 33-4 (Croesus’ death)

Critical texts

For everyone:

  1. Crane 1996: 57-85 (“The Prosperity of Tyrants: Bacchylides, Herodotus & the Contest for Legitimacy,” Arethusa 29 [

For individual presentation:

  1. Kurke 1999: 130-65 (“Kroisos and the Oracular Economy,” in Coins, Bodies, Games and Gold) [photocopy]
  2. Athenian red-figure by Myson, Croesus on the pyre, Beazley ARV 238, no. 1 (Louvre), with Beazley 1955: 305-19 (“Hydria-fragments in Corinth,” Hesperia 24)

Feb 19Xerxes: Imagining Asiatic Tyranny on the Athenian Stage

Base texts

  1. Herodotus 7.1-59 and 100-105 (English)
  2. Aeschylus Persai 64-350 (Greek) in Hall 1996, Aeschylus: Persians, with commentaries by Broadhead 1960 (Greek) and Hall 1996 (English)

Critical texts

For everyone:

  1. Hall 1996: 1-28 (“Intro” in Aeschylus: Persians)
  2. Easterling 1990: 83-90 (“Constructing Character in Greek Tragedy,” in Pelling 1990, Characterization and Individuality in Greek Literature) [photocopy]

For individual presentation:

  1. Goldhill 1990: 100-27 (“Character and Action . . .” in Pelling 1990, Characterization and Individuality in Greek Literature) [photocopy]
  2. Pelling 1997: 1-19 (“Aeschylus’ Persae and History,” in Pelling 1997 (ed.), Greek Tragedy and the Historian) [photocopy]

Feb 26Xerxes: Multiple Personae, Athenian and Persian

Base texts

  1. Aeschylus Persai681-843; 909-1078 (Greek) in Hall 1996, Aeschylus: Persians, with commentaries by Broadhead 1960 (Greek) and Hall 1996 (English)
  2. CAH 4: 71-87 (“The Reign of Xerxes: An End to Expansion”) [photocopy]
  3. Wiesehöfer 1996: 42-55 (“The ‘Good’ King and the ‘Bad’: Cyrus and Xerxes,” in “The King and His Subjects,” in Ancient Persia) [photocopy]
  4. Briant 2002: 515-68 (“Xerxes the Great King (486-465),” in From Cyrus to Alexander) [photocopy]
  5. Xerxes’ death (Ctesias 60-1, Arist. Pol. 1311b38, Diodorus 11.69, 71.1, Justin 3.1) [photocopy]

Critical texts

For everyone:

  1. Harrison 2000: 25-57 (The Emptiness of Asia) [shelf]

For individual presentation:

  1. Sancisi-Weerdenburg 1989: 549-61 (“The Personality of Xerxes, King of Kings,” in de Meyer and Haernick 1989, Archaeolgica iranica et orientalis) [photocopy]
  2. Saïd 1988: 21-41 (“Tragédie et renversement: l’exemple des Perses,” Metis 3) [photocopy]
  3. Harrison 2000: 76-91, 95-115 (The Emptiness of Asia) [shelf]

Mar 4Themistocles: Democratic Intelligence, Imperial Greed

Base texts

  1. Ath.Pol. 23-24 [photocopy]
  2. Her.7.143-4; 8.4-5; 8.19-23; 8.57-63; 8.75-92 (English)
  3. Her.8.108-112 and 123-5 (Greek)
  4. Diodorus 11.12; 11.15-19 (English); and 11.54-59 (Greek)
  5. Thucydides 1.14.3; 1.74. 1.90.3-91, with 1.93.3 (English); and 1.135-38 (Greek)

Critical reading

  1. Balot 2001: 99-135 (“Herodotus and the Greed of Imperialism,” in Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens) [photocopy]

Mar 11Themistocles’ Ambivalent Heroism

Base textPlutarch Life of Themistocles (English and selected passages in Greek)

Critical readingsPodlecki 1975 (The Life of Themistocles: A Critical Survey of the Literary and Archaeological Evidence) [shelf]

Pericles: the Anti-Themistocles?

Mar 25Pericles and Alcibiades

Base textsThucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus (English and selected passages in Greek)

Critical readingsGribble 1999, Ludwig 2002, Wohl 2002

April 1Alcibiades: Eros & Politics

Base textsPlato Alcibiades I (English and selected passages in Greek)

Plato, Republic 8 & 9 (English and selected passages in Greek)

Critical readingsGill 1996; Foucault 1986; others TBA

April 8Philip II and Demosthenes: Dynastic Democratic Personalities

Base textsDiodorus 16.66 – 17 (English and selected passages in Greek)

Plutarch Life of Demosthenes (English)

Critical readingsTBA

April 15Alexander & Narrative Self-Creation

Base textsDiodorus, Arrian (English and selected passages in Greek)

Critical readingsTBA

April 22Alexander

Base textPlutarch Life of Alexander (English and selected passages in Greek)