Classical Studies
Ancient Greek Philology and Literature
ΑΕΦΦ 020 Greek Reading and Prose Class: Part II
Instructors: Kostas Apostolakis, Athina Kavoulaki, Eleni Karambela, Nikos Charalabopoulos
Description: This is the continuation of 'Greek Reading and Prose Class: Part I' (ΑΕΦΦ 010) which is also a prerequisite for the attendance of this class. The aims and format are the same as in Part I but this time the syntax of the complex sentence will be the primary object of study. More particularly, the syntactical topics to be covered are: 1. coordination and subordination; 2. subordinate clauses: a. object, b. purpose, c. causal, d. result, e. conditional, f. concessive, g. temporal, h. relative and comparative, i. clauses after verbs of fearing and precaution; 3. interrogative and exclamatory sentences; 4. direct and indirect speech; simple and complex sentences in indirect discourse. Apart from syntax, accentuation, etymology and aspects of historical grammar will also receive particular attention during the course. Practice in Greek prose composition will include larger and more complicated texts. As in Part I, four texts (different from those of Part I) will be prescribed for individual reading. An extract of about ten lines will be dictated during exams for correct spelling and translation. Other 'seen' texts and Exercises will also be included in the exam paper.
Type: Exercise Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 100 Introduction to Classical Philology
Instructor: Odysseus Tsagarakis
Description: The methods, aims and general concepts of philology are first discussed. There follows a review from the beginnings to the 19. century with particular emphasis on developments and on the contribution great scholars made to preserving ancient literature and keeping it alive. Specific topics of discussion include: a) manuscripts (location, study, writing material and instruments), b) philological and literary approach to the texts, prosody, orthoepeia, apparatus criticus etc.), c) literary genres, main characteristics, development etc., d) scholarly research, methods, the "Homeric Question", e) classical metres, scansion, f) Greek and Latin paleography, g) dialects, the most important characteristics, historical development, h) philological and literary translation, i) getting acquainted with the tools of research, periodicals, scholarly series, editions etc.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 101 Homer, Ilias
Instructor: Odysseus Tsagarakis
Description: Short introduction to the heroic epic. Oral poetry, traditional sources, cyclic epics, composition of the Homeric epics, Ionian dialect and epic language, style, myth and history, dactylic hexameter, characteristics of the literary genre, influence of the Homeric epic, the “Homeric Question” etc. Familiarisation with the Homeric text. Reading of Book 6 of the Iliad. A philological, literary, interpretative approach. Questions of composition and authenticity, metrical analyses, translation problems. The position of the Book in the Iliad.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 124 The Poetry and Music of Women in Ancient Greece
Instructor: Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi
Description: While apparently excluded from political participation in the Greek polis women’s role seems to have had a particular importance in Greek culture. In this course we will read the extant poetry attributed to women in Greek antiquity, starting from the archaic period (Sappho). Some of the questions we will raise are the following: what was the social context in which female poetry was performed? Can we trace any particular female ethos in this poetry? Was female discourse understood and appreciated as such in Greek antiquity? What was the male attitude towards female music and poetry?
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 136 Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes
Instructor: Eleni Karambela
Description: In this series of lectures we examine the tragedy of Aeschylus Seven against Thebes. Aiming at the revelation and perception of its dramatic meaning which is effected by a multiplicity of signs, we will be mainly concerned with the following issues: dramatic structure and text criticism; dramatic use of characters, of mythological pretext, of themes and motifs; function of language, of imagery and props; use and function of the Chorus, of space and time. Relative issues of modern perception and production are also within our field of examination.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 186 Herodotus
Instructor: Yannis Tzifopoulos
Description: Readings from Herodotus’ Histories Books 1 and 9 with emphasis on the author’s historiographical method and his literary aim.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 249 Lysias, On the olive stump
Instructor: Kostas Apostolakis
Description: After a brief introduction to Ancient Forensic Practice, Forensic Rhetoric and the work of the top logographer Lysias, this course will focus on the seventh speech of Lysias ; this speech has a special interest, since its case is of a religious character. The whole speech will be analyzed, translated and commented upon. Problems of text criticism, style and interpretation will be discussed, and the rhetorical strategy will be set out in a critical examination of the means of persuasion.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΑΕΦΦ 347 Re(re)ading Plato
Instructor: Nikos Charalabopoulos
Description: At the dawn of the fourth century BC the Platonic dialogue emerges as the new genre in dramatic literature. Using the Athens of the recent past as a setting, Plato tells his audience stories, in which the main hero, namely Sokrates, engages in conversations with prominent figures of his time, sophists, generals, poets among others, as well as promising young men on subjects like courage, beauty, love, justice. The purpose of the present seminar is to help us approach the dialogues in terms of the experiences and the expectations shared by Plato's original readership/audience. The examination of issues relevant to aesthetics, ethics, ontology will be conducted in a manner as far free from the conglomerate 'baggage' of modern European thought as possible. At the same time the recontextualisation of Plato's works and their interpretation in terms of the literary production of classical times will be attempted. As prose dramatic texts they are directly related to the works of Attic theatre. Questions pertinent on characterisation, performability or staging are to be given their proper due, while conventions of theatre writing will be equally commented on. By composing his dialogues Plato evidently proclaims himself the creator of a new kind of poetry, at the same time successor to and competitor of Homer and the playwrights. Something that the Athenian (and Greek) of his time certainly realised.
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
ΑΕΦΦ 349
Instructor: Ioanna Yatromanolaki
Description:
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
ΑΕΦΦ 365 Papyrology
Instructor: Nikos Litinas
Description: Many papyri preserve petitions to the King or other officilas during the Ptolemaic period. They record the problems of everyday's life in this period and how the bureucratic system worked to handle them. Moreover, the students will practice reading ptolemaic handwritings and editing Greek documentary texts.
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
Latin Philology and Literature
ΛΑΦΦ 020 Intermediate Latin
Instructor: Konstantinos Spanoudakis, Stavros Frangoulidis
Description: Dependent clauses and reported speech. Latin prose composition. Extensive reading of prose or poetry with emphasis on syntax, translation and interpretation.
Type: Excersise Assessment: Written examination
ΛΑΦΦ 100 A Survey of Latin Literature
Instructor: Michael Paschalis
Description: The course is an introductory survey of Latin Literature designed to familiarize students with the basic genres, their Greek origins and their reception. The reading and discussion of passages of ancient literary criticism constitutes an integral and vital part of the course. The textbook recommended for basic reading is Ch. IV of Fritz Graf’s Einleitung in die Lateinische Philologie.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΛΑΦΦ 145 Plautus, Rudens
Instructor: Stavros Frangoulidis
Description: Interpretative reading of Plautus' Rudens.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΛΑΦΦ 231 Cicero, Cato Maior de senectute
Instructor: Konstantinos Spanoudakis
Description: Old man or elderly man? It is a paradox that everybody wants to grow old, but noone to be old. Using as a starting point Cicero’s fascinating essay, which combines Greek and Roman into a pleasant totum, the course will present the allegations burdening old age and the strategies alleviating it in antiquity. The passages to be discussed, poetic and philosophical, encompass Homer’s and Mimnermus’ aphorisms and, through Plato and Aristotle, the moralising references of Seneca and Plutarch.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΛΑΦΦ 349 Ancient literary criticism: Horace, Epistulae II & Ars Poetica
Instructor: Athina Kavoulaki
Description: The general aim is to teach third- and fourth-year students major research techniques as well as oral and written argumentation and presentation. Every student will have to prepare a paper which he/she must present orally and in a written form. The topics of the assignments will fall within the larger area of the title of the seminar, i.e. issues of literary criticism and evolution as emerging from Horace’s major works on poetry. Particular attention will be paid to the place of Horace’s poetry in the wider spectrum of literary genres of Rome, as well as to the relation of the Ars Poetica to the traditions of literary theory before and after.
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK PHILOLOGY
SUBDIVISION OF BYZANTINE PHILOLOGY
ΒΥΦΦ 125 The Byzantine Hymnography
Instructor: Theocharis Detorakis
Description: The beginning and the evolution of Byzantine Liturgical Hymnography. The Hymnnography of the Early Christian Church. The flourishing period (6th-8th c.). The two greatest genres of Byzantine Hymnography, the kontakion and the canon. The greatest hymnographers and melodists (Romanos Melodos, John of Damaskos, Kosmas of Jerusalem, Andrew of Crete). The Acathistos Hymn and the relative problems. The post-melodists hymnographers ( Joseph the Hymnographer, Theophanes Graptos, Cassiane, Theodoros Studites, Joseph Studites, Georges of Nikomedia, etc. ). The “minor genres” of Byzantine Hymnography. The relative terminology. Representative texts.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΒΥΦΦ 168 Michael Psellos
Instructor: Marina Loukaki
Description: In the lectures we shall study the personality of Michael Psellos, one of the most prominent Byzantine writers of 11th century. We shall discuss his historiographical, rhetorical, epistolographical and poetical work and we shall read and comment representative extracts.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΒΥΦΦ 225 The Homiletic Work of ecclesiastical preachers of the middle byzantine period
Instructor: Marina Detoraki
Description: The tradition of the great Fathers and the evolution of the genre, the themes and subjects, the sources, symbolism and historicity, rhetorical techniques of preaching (the preacher and the audience, references to contemporary events, the style). The Greek Paideia of St. Sabas milieu.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΒΥΦΦ 247 Constantine Rhodios and Nikolaos Mesarites. A comparative reading
Instructor: Ioannis Vassis
Description: Object of this course will be the comparative study and interpretation of two extensive descriptions of the church of the Holy Apostles, that were written in different times (10th and 12th century) and in different literary forms, in order to localize the particular characteristics of the rhetorical form of descriptions on works of art.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΒΥΦΦ 325 Imperial and patriarcal Laudes
Instructor: Marina Loukaki
Description: The emperor and the patriarch are the two poles of power in Byzantium. Having as starting point the rhetorical texts written in their honour, we are going to sketch and comment the portraits of the ideal sovereign and the ideal archbishop.
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
BYΦΦ 335 The homiletic work of Andreas of Crete
Instructor: Marina Detoraki
Description: A research of the identity of homilies of Andreas: the language and style, the sources, symbolism and historicity in his narration, the phrasal rhythm, the subjects and themes, his theological positions. A research will be attempted to identify the authenticity of two homilies ascribed to Andreas, found in the codex Bodl. Laud. 81, still not edited: the encômion on Athanasius the Great and the homily on the Birth of Christ.
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
ΒΥΦΦ 346 The Byzantine epigram during the middle and late Byzantine period
Instructor: Ioannis Vassis
Description: Description: The epigram, as it was bequeathed by the later antiquity, constituted with his wide ranged topics the more beloved form of expression of the Byzantines. On the ground of the comparative examination of a great number of Byzantine epigrams with a common subject (and destination) from the middle and late period, the seminar aims to investigate the topoi, the stereotypes and the innovations of the genre, that signal more general changes in the perception of the epigram but also of his utilitarian value.
Type: Seminar Assessment: Oral presentation and written term paper
SUBDIVISION OF MODERN GREEK PHILOLOGY
ΝΕΦΦ 100 Introduction to Modern Greek Philology
Instructor: Alexis Politis (Α-Κ), Chrisitna Dounia (Λ-Ω)
Description: The aim of this course is twofold. First, to familiarize the new students with the various branches and the interpretative methods of Modern Greek Philology. Secondly, to help them to become proficient readers, able to assimilate the textual information and to interpret it. The course will include discussion of various texts, in both prose and verse, as well as an introduction to aspects of literary theory.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΝΕΦΦ 133 Katzourbos by Georgios Chortatsis
Instructor: Stephanos Kaklamanis
Description: Introduction to the Cretan comedy. The comedy Katzourbos: manuscripts, authorship, dating, identification of the Italian model, secondary sources. Dramaturgical analysis. Aesthetics of language and metric. The ars poetica of Georg Chortatsis.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΝΕΦΦ 171 The later period of the Modern Greek Romanticism: poetry
Instructor: Maria Mathioudaki
Description: The course will study the evolution of Greek Romantism from its culmination to its decline. The course aims to study which conventions created a new poetic clime and caused the appearance of the 1880 generation’s poets. The course will mainly study representative works of the poets Achilleas Paraschos, Demetrios Paparrigopoulos, Spyridon Vasileiadis, Ioannis Papadiamantopoulos, Nikos Kambas, Georgios Drosinis.
Type: Lecture Assessment: Written examination
ΝΕΦΦ 176 The “lost center” of Greek lyric poetry (1900-1930)
Instructor: Dimitris Polychronakis
Description: The theme of this class is the form and content of Greek lyric poets such as Palamas, Sikelianos, Kavafis, Karyotakis and Seferis. The main issue of this class is the reconciliation of the modern conciousness sith a traditional category like lyric poetry.