Topics and reading assignments by class:
Due dates for assignments for all sections are marked in pink;
those for the upper-level sections only (CLS 155, GRK 155) are in brown.
Titles are linked to texts; names and other phrases are linked to background material.
1. Thursday, 20 January. Introduction; policies and procedures.
2. Friday, 21 January. Historical framework; performance practice in the Greek theater. See the chronology, the introduction to the fifth century BC, and the guide to citing ancient sources.
3. Tuesday, 25 January. Aeschylus. Agamemnon.
4. Thursday, 27 January. Agamemnon.
5. Friday, 28 January. Agamemnon.
6. Tuesday, 1 February. Play data sheet due. Aeschylus Libation Bearers (Choephoroe)
7. Thursday, 3 February. Libation Bearers
8. Friday, 4 February. First assignment due. Aeschylus Eumenides (Kindly Ones; also called Erinyes or Furies).
9. Tuesday, 8 February. Eumenides
10. Thursday, 10 February. Eumenides
11. Friday, 11 February. Sophocles. Ajax
12. Tuesday, 15 February. Ajax
13. Thursday, 17 February. Ajax
14. Friday, 18 February. Second assignment due. Antigone
15. Tuesday, 22 February. Antigone
16. Friday, 25 February. Preliminary bibliography due. Antigone
17. Tuesday, 1 March. Oedipus at Colonus
18. Thursday, 3 March. Oedipus at Colonus
19. Friday, 4 March. Third assignment due. Oedipus at Colonus
20. Tuesday, 8 March. Euripides Hippolytus
21. Thursday, 10 March. Hippolytus
22. Friday, 11 March. Hippolytus
23. Tuesday, 15 March. Medea
24. Thursday, 17 March. Medea
25. Friday, 18 March. Fourth assignment due. Medea
26. Tuesday, 29 March. Working bibliography due. Suppliant Women
27. Thursday, 31 March. Suppliant Women
28. Friday, 1 April. Suppliant Women
29. Tuesday, 5 April. Helen
30. Thursday, 7 April. Helen
31. Friday, 8 April. Fifth assignment due. Abstract due. Helen
32. Tuesday, 12 April. Trends in later drama
33. Thursday, 14 April. Aristotle. Poetics
34. Friday, 15 April. Final paper due. Poetics.
35. Tuesday, 19 April. Poetics.
36. Thursday, 21 April. Poetics.
37. Friday, 22 April. Sixth assignment due. Satyr plays; see illustrations.
38. Tuesday, 26 April. Euripides Cyclops.
39. Thursday, 28 April. Sophocles Ichneutae.
40. Friday, 29 April. Review and summary.
41. Friday, 6 May. Final exam.
Selected bibliography:
This bibliography is limited to books in English that are available
in Tisch Library.
Texts and alternate translations
Aeschylus, The Oresteia, translated by Peter Meineck. Indianapolis: 1998. PA3827.A7 M45 1998
------------, translated by Ted Hughes. New York: 1999. PA3827.A7 H84 1999
Sophocles, edited and translated by Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Cambridge: 1994. PA4414.A1 L56 1994
------------, Ajax, translated by Herbert Golder and Richard Pevear. Oxford: 1999. PA4414.A5 G65 1999
Euripides, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: 1955-1959. PA3975 .A2 1955
Aristotle, Poetics, translated by Leon Golden. Tallahassee: 1981. PN1040 .A513 1981
------------, edited and translated by Stephen Halliwell. Cambridge: 1995. PA3621 .A75 1995
Other books
W. S. Allen, Vox Graeca. London: 1968. PA267.A4
John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray, The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford: 1986. DE59 .O94 1986
R. W. B. Burton, The Chorus in Sophocles' Tragedies. Oxford: 1980. PA4417 .B86
Eric Csapo and William Slater, The Context of Ancient Drama. Ann Arbor: 1995. PA3024.C75 1995
G. Dobrov, Figures of Play: Greek Drama and Metafictional Poetics. Oxford: 2001. PA3136 .D63 2001
P. E. Easterling, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy. Cambridge: 1997. PA3131.E28 1997
Michael Grant, Atlas of Ancient History. New York: 1994. G1033.G65 1994 (reference)
James C. Hogan, A Commentary on the Plays of Sophocles. Carbondale: 1991. PA4417 .H64 1991
John Hollander, Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse. New Haven: 1989. PE1505 .H6 1989
Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary. New York: 1966. DE5.O9 1996
John H. Huddliston, Greek Tragedy in the Light of Vase Paintings. New York: 1898. NK4645 .H8
J. Jones, On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy. New York: 1962. PA3131 .J6
H. D. F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study. London: 1939. PA3131.K5
Richmond Lattimore, Story Patterns in Greek Tragedy. Ann Arbor: 1964. PA3133 .L3
Sophie Mills, Theseus, Tragedy, and the Athenian Empire. Oxford: 1997. PA3136.M55 1997
A. D. Nuttall, Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure? Oxford: 1996. PN1892.N88 1996
L. D. Reynolds and Nigel Wilson, Scribes and Scholars. Oxford: 1974. Z40.R4 1974
William C. Scott, Musical Design in Aeschylean Theater. Hanover: 1984. ML169 .S37 1984
------------, Musical Design in Sophoclean Theater. Hanover: 1996. ML169.S38 1996
Charles Segal, Tragedy and Civilization. Norman: 1999. PA4417 .S47 1999
Erich Segal, Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy. Oxford: 1983. PA3133.G68 1983b
Alan Sommerstein, Greek Drama and Dramatists. New York: 2002. PA3131.S6613 2002
Oliver Taplin, Greek Tragedy in Action. Berkeley: 1978. PA3201.T3
Henry J. Walker, Theseus and Athens. Oxford: 1995. PA3015.R5 T48 1995
Cedric Whitman, Sophocles: a Study of Heroic Humanism. Cambridge: 1951. PA4417.W5
Bernhard Zimmermann, Greek Tragedy: an Introduction. Baltimore: 1991. PA3131.Z513 1991
For Greek 155
On reserve:
Euripides, Hippolytus, ed. W. S. Barrett. Oxford: 1964. PA3973.H7 1964
Sophocles, Ajax, ed. W. B. Stanford. Macmillan: 1963. PA4413.A5 1981
A. M. Dale, The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama. Cambridge: 1968. PA3550.D3 1968
Roy Gibson and Christina S. Kraus, The Classical Commentary. Leiden: 2002. PA47.C53 2002
In the circulating collection:
Aristotle, Poetics, ed. D. W. Lucas. Oxford: 1968. PA3893.P5 1968
On-line resources:
Citing ancient sources and on-line sources.
Chronology of Greek tragedy
Introduction to the fifth century BC
Satyrs at play
Plutarch's Life of Theseus
The Oresteia Project, new operas based on the three plays of the Oresteia
Perseus: a digital library with an extensive collection on Ancient Greece
Diotima: Women and Gender in the Ancient World
Suda On Line: a 10th-century Greek encyclopedia of classical antiquity, being translated into English by a team of scholars
Bryn Mawr Classical Review, a journal of book reviews
L'Année Philologique on line, containing only a few years but with the standard abbreviations for journal titles and a standard list of subject categories
TOCS-IN, tables of contents of journals of interest to classicists
Gnomon on line, selections from this bibliographic journal
Ancient Medicine/Medicina Antiqua: an extensive site on medicine in the ancient world
Ancient Greece in Fiction: a bibliography of novels and short stories set in the ancient world
Fragment of a Greek Tragedy: a well-known parody by A. E. Housman (yes, the poet: he was also a classical scholar)
Voice of the Shuttle: the best gateway site for humanities research
American Philological Association (APA): the professional association for classicists in the US
Classical Association of New England (CANE): the professional association for classicists in New England
Tufts University Classics Department: course descriptions and faculty listing
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