HUMA 101: From Ancient Greece to Medieval Islam (and a sample of medieval England and France)
Fall 2004
Section 008
Room Rayzor 310, MWF
Professor Sarah Westphal
Department of Germanic and Slavic Culture
Office: Rayzor Hall 327
Office Hours: Wednesday 2:00-4:00 PM
Tel.: 713-348-4192
e-mail: westphal@rice.edu
Course Description: This course is a study of the fundamental intellectual and artistic texts of the western tradition from ancient Israel, ancient Greece, and their “successor civilizations:” Rome, medieval Islam, and the European Middle Ages. It offers a consideration of texts and images over time and in their historical development as we reflect on who we are and how we got here. Readings include Homer, Plato, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and its apocrypha, Thucydides, Virgil, the Qu’ran, Beowulf, and stories by Marie de France, one of the first known woman authors of fiction in a European language (Old French).
Most Required Books are available for purchase at the Rice University bookstore in the student center. Please do not substitute other translations or editions. For this section you should purchase:
Homer, The Iliad, trans. by Robert Fagles, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1954.
Plato, The Republic, trans. Richard W. Sterling and William C. Scott, New York: Norton, 1985.
Virgil, Aeneid, trans. Robert Fitzgerald, New York: Vintage, 1981.
The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age, ed. Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson, trans. Hans-Gebhard Bethge et al., Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1998.
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, trans. Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, Kuwait: Dar al-Islamiyya, n.d.
Marie de France, Lais, trams. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
For this section alone please purchase
Beowulf: A Verse Translation, trans. Seamus Heaney, ed. Daniel Donoghue, New York: Norton, 2002.
This book had not been ordered through the bookstore so you should use Amazon.com or explore some of the wonderful bookstores in Houston near the Rice campus.
Other readings (Sophocles, Philoctetes; the books of Mark and Exodus) will be distributed in class.
Evaluation: Your grade in the course will be comprised of the following parts. Four short papers worth 15% apiece; three short “reaction essays” worth 5% each; and a final examination for 25%. Regular attendance is expected and fundamental to doing as well as you can on the other assignments. If you have to miss a class for a family or medical emergency please let me know as soon as possible (in advance if you can). All work must be completed in order to pass the course. Thanks!
Syllabus of Assigned
8/23 Getting acquainted, getting started
8/25 Iliad
Books 1, 2 (through line 583, p. 115), 3
8/27 Iliad Books 4, 6
8/30 Iliad Books 8, 9
9/1 Iliad Books 11, 12,
9/3 Iliad Books 14, 15
9/6 LABOR
DAY
9/8 Iliad Books 16, 17
9/10 First paper due today, 3-4 pages.
9/13 Iliad Books 18-19
9/15 Iliad Books 20 (excerpt); 21, 22
9/17 Iliad Books 23, 24
9/20 Sophocles, Philoctetes, 163-188
9/22 Sophocles, Philoctetes, 188-212
9/24 Discussion of Sophocles con’t.
9/27 Thucydides pp. 35-62, 72-86
9/29 Thucydides pp. 118-123, 143-164
9/30 Thucydides pp. 194-223, 236-245
10/4 Thucydides, pp. 400-408; Second paper due, 4-5 pages.
10/6 Plato, Republic Book 1
10/8 Plato, Republic Book 2
10/11 MIDTERM RECESS
10/13 Plato, Republic, Book 3 #412 to end, Book 4
10/15 Plato, Republic Book 5
10/18 Plato, Republic Book 6 to #493, #503-end; Book 7 to #522, #539 to end
10/20 Plato, Republic Book 10
10/22 Exodus
10/25 Virgil, Aeneid Books 1-2
10/27 Virgil, Aeneid Books 3
10/29 Virgil, Aeneid Books 4
11/1 Virgil, Aeneid, 5-6
11/3 Virgil, Aeneid, Book 7, Book 11, line 722 to end; Book 12
11/5 Gospel of Mark; Third paper due, 5-7 pages.
11/8 Gospel of Mark
11/10 The Fifth Gospel, the Gospel of Thomas
11/12 The Fifth Gospel, the Gospel of Thomas
11/15 The Qu’ran: The Cow
11/17 The Qu’ran con’t.
11/19 Beowulf, pp. 3-34
11/22 Beowulf, pp. 34-56
11/24 Beowulf, pp. 56-78
11/26 THANKSGIVING
11/29 Marie de France, Lais, Prologue; Guigemar
12/1 Marie de France, Lais, Lanval
12/3 Marie de France, Lais, Yonec; Final paper due, 6-8 pages.
Finals Week: Final Exam (scheduled by the registrar)
My Favorite Links:
Internet Ancient History Sourcebook