This document can be found at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/classes/women.html
Last updated 5/16/96

Betsey Halpern     Jennifer Goodall

`If we can think about why we look at
ancient works of art, what kinds of
desire - desire, that is, as a longing
for what we cannot have - what kinds of
desire are being satisfied by our attention
to these artifacts from the past,
if we can clarify our perspective on the
past, we may see [that our scholarship]
is not simply a recording of the truth
about the past but labor itself, the
product of a dialectic between the material
culture of antiquity and ourselves.'
(duBois,SB,33)

• Course description
• Texts
• Course requirements
• Outline of readings and assignments
  • January
  • February
  • March
  • April
• FINAL PAPERS
• Background information
  • Hesiod
  • Homeric Hymns
  • Homer
  • Lyric Poety
  • Aeschylus
  • Sophocles
  • Euripides
  • Aristophanes
  • Late Lyric
  • Apollonius of Rhodes
  • Tragedy/Theater
• Select Bibliography
• Additional readings in class
• Related Sites

Texts:

Aeschylus, tr Lattimore. I: Oresteia. ChicagoUPr.
Apollonius Rhodius, tr Rieu. Voyage of the Argo. Penguin.
Aristophanes, tr Sommerstein. Lysistrata &. Penguin.
____________, tr Barrett. The Wasps, &. Penguin.
Euripides, tr Arrowsmith. III: Four Tragedies. ChicagoUPr.
_________, tr Roche. Three Plays of Euripides. Norton.
Fantham, E., et aliae. Women in the Classical World. Oxford.
Hesiod, tr Wender. Hesiod & Theognis. Penguin.
Homer, tr Fagles. The Iliad. Penguin.
_____, tr Fitzgerald. The Odyssey. Doubleday.
Lefkowitz, Mary. Women's Life in Greece & Rome. JHopkinsPr.
Perseus 2.0, Yale University Press, 1996.
Rayor, D., tr. Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric etc. UCalPr.
Sophocles. Antigone, OT, Electra. Oxford.
_________, tr Moore. II: Four Tragedies. ChicagoUPr.

Outline of Readings and Assignments:

January:

23: Fantham: I (10-52)
Hesiod: Theogony & Works and Days
New Translation on the Web: Pandora in Works and Days, 53-105 25: *Topic: Gaia
*Topic: Pandora

30: Homeric Hymn to Demeter, (HH.2)

February:

6: Homer: Iliad

8: *Topic: Helen (Sue)
*Topic: Andromache (Lynn)
*Topic: Hecuba (Katie)

13: *Topic: Thetis: Pindar, Isth. 8 (Jennifer)

15: *Topic: Marriage (Jana)
*Topic: Mourning
*Tears and Earth: Niobe

20: Homer: Odyssey
*Topic: Penelope (Laura)
*Topic: Arete
*Topic: Antiklea

27: *Topic: Athena

29: *Topic: Sea vs. Land
*Topic: Similes
*Topic: Circe & Calypso (Alicia)
*Topic: Witchy vs. rational

March:

7: Semonides
*Topic: Semonides and Lucretius
*Topic: Homosexuality
*Topic: Male lyric poet attitudes (Enroy)

12: Sappho
Fr. 105a
*Topic: Sappho's Poetry (Jen)
*Topic: Helen in lyric poetry (Katie)
*Topic: Prostitution

14: *Topic: Individualization (Jill)
*Topic: Warfare (Jill)

26: Fantham, III (68-124)
Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides

28: *Topic: Children (Jana)
*Topic: Iphigenia (Jen)
*Topic: Politicizing the female (inscription)

April:

4: CLASS CANCELED

9: Fantham II (56-66)
Euripides: Alcestis
Andromache
Trojan Women
Bacchae

10: 6:30-8: PowerMac Lab reserved for paper research

11: *Alcestis (Laura)
*Topic: Women & Society's self-destruction (Enroy)
*Topic: Euripides' misogyny?

16: Fantham IV (128-34); V (136-180); 6 (183-203)
Aristophanes: Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae
Apollonius of Rhodes' Voyage of the Argo
Theocritus, handouts
Late Lyric Poetry, (SL, 121-42)

17: 6:30-8: PowerMac Lab reserved for paper research

18: *Topic: Women's Festivals (Lynn)
*Topic: Medea (Sue)

23: *Topic: Amazons & repolitization

25: *Topic: Hellenic dissolution and women's "liberation"
*Topic: Some thoughts on the Roman inheritance
**Final Paper due**

Final Papers:

Lynn Aftuck, The Dionysiac Mysteries and the Thesmophoria

Jill Kleinman, The Representation of Prostitutes Versus Respectable Women on Ancient Greek Vases

Katie Olesker, The Conflicting Views of Helen

Enroy Pinnock, Male Authors and Women

Jana Shopkorn, "Til Death Do Us Part: Marriage and Funeral Rites in Classical Athens

Laura Slapikoff, Penelope and Alcestis: Are They Sophron?

Jen Snook, Sappho's Legacy

Alicia Le Van, The Gorgon Medusa

Background Information:

• Encyclopedia entry for Hesiod
  • Theogony: The Text
    
    • Encyclopedia entry for Theogony
    • Family Tree: In the Beginning....
    • Family Tree: The Principle Gods
  • Works and Days: The Text
    
    • Encyclopedia entry for Works and Days
• Background Information on the women in Hesiod:
  
  • Pandora
    
  • Gaia
    
  • Demeter
• Bibliography

• Demeter: The Text
  
  • Eleusian Mysteries Path
  • Read the Historical Overview, Perseus 2.0, 10.1.7-10.1.8
  • Encyclopedia entry for Demeter
  • Background Information on Demeter
  • Encyclopedia entry for Persephone
  • Background Information on Persephone
  • "The Eleusian Mysteries" by Edward Beech

• Encyclopedia entry for Homer
• Read the Historical Overview, 4.6-4.9, Perseus 2.0
  • Iliad: The Text
    
    • Encyclopedia entry for Iliad
    • Background Information: Before the War, scroll down to "XII. -BEFORE THE ILIAD.Epitome, III. 1-35. "
    • Background Information: During the War, scroll down to "XIII. -THE ILIAD. Epitome, IV. 1-8." "
    • Background Information: After the War, scroll down to " XIV. -AFTER THE ILIAD. Epitome, V. 1-25." and " XV. -THE RETURNS Epitome, VI. 1-30. "
    • Background Information about the Trojan War: General
    • Image of Achilles and Patroklos
    • Background Information on Women in the Iliad
      • Athena
      • Artemis
      • Aphrodite
      • Hera
      • Thetis
      • Hecuba
      • Helen
  • Odyssey: The Text
    
    • Encyclopedia entry for Odyssey
    • Encyclopedia entry for Odysseus
    • Background Information, scroll down to "XVI.-THE WANDERINGS 0F ULYSSES Epitome, VII. 1-40."
    • List of Characters, scroll down to "List of Characters"
    • "INCORPORATING THE OTHER: THE CATALOGUE OF WOMEN IN *ODYSSEY*" 11 by James Houlihan
    • Background Information on Women in the Odyssey:
      • Athena
      • Calypso
      • Circe
      • Penelope
• Bibliography

• Read the Historical Overview in Perseus 2.0, 5.15, 5.27-5.30
• Information about:
  • The Muses
• Semonides 7: The Text
  
  • Bibliography
• Read Historical Overview, Perseus 2.0, 6.32
• Sappho, etc
  
  • Biography
  • Bibliography
  • Sonnets about Sappho
• Pindar
  
  • Bibliography

• Encyclopedia entry for Aeschylus
• Read the Historical Overview, Perseus 2.0, 10.2.4
• Agamemnon
  
  • Information about:
    
    • Clytemnestra
    • Iphigenia
    • Electra
    • Cassandra
• Libation Bearers
  
• Eumenides
  
  • Information about:
    • Athene
    • The Furies/Eumenides
• Bibliography
• More on tragedy

Sophocles:

• Encyclopedia entry for Sophocles
• Antigone
  • Information about:
    • Antigone
    • Ismene
• Oedipus Tyrannus
  • Information about:
    • Jocasta
    • Electra
• Trachiniae
• More on tragedy
• Bibliography

Euripides:

• Encyclopedia entry for Euripides
• Alcestis
  • Information about:
    • Alcestis
• Andromache
  • Information about:
    • Andromache
    • Hermione
• Trojan Women
  • Information about:
    • Hecuba
    • Cassandra
    • Andromache
    • Helen
• Bacchae
  • Information about:
    • Agave
    • Semele
• More on tragedy
• Bibliography

• Encyclopedia entry for Aristophanes
• Lysistrata
  • THE PLOT OF THE *LYSISTRATA* AND THE HOSTAGES OF LINE 244, by Jenny Strauss Clay
• Thesmophoriazusae
• Bibliography

Apollonius of Rhodes:

Tragedy/Theater:

• Didaskalia: Introduction to Ancient Theater
  
• Ancient Greek Music
• Read the Historical Overview, Perseus 2.0, 10.2-10.2.3

Other Web Sites & References of Interest:

• Diotima, Materials for the Study of Women & Gender in the Ancient World
• Women in Classical Mythology
• Greek Mythology
• HNET-Women
• The Voice of the Shuttle
• Victorian Women Writers Project
• The Brown Women's Writers Project
• Creating A Celebration of Women Writers
• Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology Home Page
• Women and their roles
• Babes on the web

If you have any questions or problems about this web page, contact Jennifer Goodall, jgoodall@perseus.tufts.edu