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Orientation > Visiting and Erasmus Students
Classics |
*ECTs credits throughout the directory
|
See also https://www.tcd.ie/classics/, the Handbook at https://www.tcd.ie/classics/undergraduate/visiting.php or contact Dr Martine Cuypers at cuypersm@tcd.ie. Unless a module is explicitly marked as a language module, Greek and Roman texts are studied in English translation.
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11100 Introduction to Greek and Roman History |
10 ECTs (5 + 5) |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
44 lectures (2 hrs pw) |
Dr. Shane Wallace and Dr. Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
This module provides an introductory survey of the history of the Greek and Roman world, from the Greek Archaic age to the death of Augustus. The main trends and issues of this period will be explored such as colonisation, imperialism, war, the Athenian invention of democracy, the rise of Alexander, the emergence of Rome as a major imperial power.
CLU11100 is only available to full-year visitors; one-semester students can enrol in CLU11101 (Semester 1, Introduction to Greek History) or CLU11102 (Semester 2, Introduction to Roman History).
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11108 Sources and Methods for Ancient History and Archaeology |
10 ECTs (5 + 5) |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
None |
combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures and 9 seminars |
Dr Giorgos Papantoniou and Dr Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
This module provides an introduction to the primary sources and methodologies employed by historians and archaeologists. It introduces the practical, analytical and critical skills required to assess both textual sources and material remains. It explores the nature and reliability of the different types of evidence, and challenges students to think about and assess how modern scholars approach the study of the ancient world. Group seminars focus on developing skills with the primary sources: working with artefacts such as coins, inscriptions and pottery, or debating archaeological ethics.
CLU11108 is only available to full-year visitors; one-semester students can enrol in CLU11110 (Semester 1, Sources and Methods for Archaeology) or CLU11109 (Semester 2, Sources and Methods for Ancient History).
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11104 Greek and Roman Art and Architecture |
10 ECTs (5 + 5) |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
None |
combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
44 lectures (2 lectures pw) |
Dr. Giorgos Papantoniou |
Description
This module offers an introductory survey of the development and major artistic and artistic achievements of Greek and Roman architecture, sculpture and painting from the Greek Bronze Age to the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century AD. The module places art and architecture in its social, political and cultural context. It explores themes such as the representation of the human form, the use of narrative and mythology in art, urbanisation, and the development of architectural forms such as temples, theatres and Roman baths.
CLU11104 is only available to full-year visitors; one-semester students can enrol in CLU11105 (Semester 1, Greek Art and Architecture) or CLU11106 (Semester 2, Roman Art and Architecture).
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11200 Greek and Roman Mythology and Religion |
10 ECTs (5 +5) |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
None |
combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures and 9 seminars |
Dr. Suzanne O’Neill |
Description
What is myth? How do myths deal with fundamental human concerns about who we are and the world we live in? What is the relationship between myth and religion? Why did the Greeks and Romans worship many gods, believe in oracles, or perform animal sacrifice? This module is an introduction to the major myths and religions of the classical world using the full range of primary source material: literary, artistic and archaeological.
CLU11200 is only available to full-year visitors; one-semester students can enrol in CLU11201 (Semester 1, Greek and Roman Mythology) or CLU11202 (Semester 2, Greek and Roman Religion).
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44501 + CLU44502 Entertainment and Spectacle |
10 + 10 = 20 ECTs |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
44 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Hazel Dodge |
Description
Entertainment is a fundamental feature of our modern society, but how did it work in the Greek and Roman periods? Was it 'fun' or were there other important factors in play? This module explores the nature, context and social importance of the different forms of public entertainment and spectacle in the Greek and Roman worlds, and examines how and why such displays changed in significance over time. A primarily archaeological approach is taken and there will be close analysis of the physical evidence. Textual and epigraphic sources will be integrated so that a broad perspective can be appreciated. On a more light-hearted note, by the end of this module students should also be able to spot the mistakes in films such as Gladiator, Spartacus and Ben Hur!
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44505 + CLU44506 Goddesses of the Ancient Mediterranean |
10 + 10 = 20 ECTs |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
44 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr. Christine Morris |
Description
This module explores the nature of female divinity in the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East from earliest times through to the Greek and Roman world. Topics will include debates around the idea of the ‘mother goddess’; divine roles and portfolios; and case studies such as Minoan Crete, Çatal Hüyük and the transformations of Isis. The approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on archaeological remains, art, texts, and making extensive use of anthropological models of religion and ritual theory.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44509 + CLU44510 Anthropology and the Greeks |
10 + 10 = 20 ECTs |
Full Year (Semester 1 + 2) |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
44 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr. Ashley Clements |
Description
This module introduces and examines a variety of domains in which anthropological enquiry and Classical Studies have complemented and can complement each other. In the first part we explore how anthropology has been used to elucidate the literary works that survive from the Greek world. In the second part of the module, we consider more recent applications of anthropological theory to the study of ancient culture, and move on to explore the role that anthropological perspectives can play in helping us identify and interpret cultural difference.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44548 Sacred Space |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Giorgos Papantoniou |
Description
Perceiving sacred space as instrumental in forming power relations and worldviews in antiquity, this module explores how meanings and identities were diachronically expressed in, or created by, the topographical setting of religion and its material depositions and dedications. Using Cyprus as a case study, it reviews the main theoretical and methodological issues relating to ancient Mediterranean religions and sacred landscapes, equipping students with the appropriate skills to study them.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44590 Greek Lyric Poetry |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof Ahuvia Kahane |
Description
Lyric is a record of ‘the voice or the mind speaking to itself’ - a voice often performed to various audiences on select public and private occasions. It is ‘poetry at its most poetic’. But what is this many-sided genre of lyric and what forms did it take at its ‘birth’, in Archaic and Classical Greece? Here we find poems that are shorter than epic and dramatic verse, whose rhythms are clear but more varied and complex, poems that are sung, sometimes to the tune of the flute or the lyre, or un-accompanied, and yet are often the product of writing and literate cultures, poems that emerge from many different cities and polities, not least from the islands of Greece, poems that harness the language of longing, sexual desire, friendship, athletic rivalry, excellence, wit and myth, war and violence to the yokes of education, ethics, politics, economics, civic identity and the city. [Texts will be studied in English translation].
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11101 Introduction to Greek History |
05 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures (2 hrs pw) |
Dr. Shane Wallace |
Description
First half of CLU11100.
This module provides an introductory survey of the history of the Greek world, from the Greek Archaic age to the Hellenistic period. The main trends and issues of this period will be explored such as colonisation, imperialism, war, the Athenian invention of democracy, the rise of Alexander.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11110 Sources and Methods for Archaeology |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures and 4 seminars |
Dr. Giorgos Papantoniou |
Description
This module provides an introduction to the primary sources and methodologies employed by archaeologists. It introduces the practical, analytical and critical skills required to assess both textual sources and material remains. It explores the nature and reliability of the different types of evidence, and challenges students to think about and assess how modern scholars approach the study of the ancient world. Group seminars focus on developing skills with the primary sources: working with artefacts or debating archaeological ethics.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11105 Greek Art and Architecture |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures (2 lectures pw) |
Dr. Giorgos Papantoniou |
Description
This module offers an introductory survey of the development and major artistic and artistic achievements of Greek architecture, sculpture and painting from the Bronze Age. The module places art and architecture in its social, political and cultural context. It explores themes such as the representation of the human form, the use of narrative and mythology in art, urbanisation, and the development of architectural forms such as temples and theatres.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11201 Greek and Roman Mythology |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
n/a |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures and 4 seminars |
Dr Suzanne O’Neill |
Description
What is myth? How do myths deal with fundamental human concerns about who we are and the world we live in? What is the relationship between myth and religion? This module is an introduction to the major myths of the classical world using the full range of primary source material: literary, artistic and archaeological.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits throughout the directory |
Duration and semester |
Prerequisite |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU12313 Elementary Greek I |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
This module provides students with the foundations of the ancient Greek language and prepares them for the reading of original, unadapted Greek texts in Elementary Greek II and intermediate Greek modules.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11311 Greek in Context I |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least one year of Ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
In this module you will study a variety of texts that will enable you to acquire a wider Greek vocabulary, consolidate your understanding of grammar and syntax, and develop an appreciation of how Greek was used in different contexts over the centuries. You will encounter some of the different ways in which ancient literary texts may be ‘read’, analysed, interpreted and translated, and explore the features of literary and non-literary texts in different genres, dialects and styles from different periods and places.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11413 Elementary Latin I |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Dr Charlie Kerrigan |
Description
This module provides beginners with the foundations of Latin, an ancient and influential European language. Our focus will be on grammar and translation, and on reading original texts from the Roman world. Latin is famous for its literature (Cicero, Virgil, and others), and this module is a first step towards your being able to read that literature in its original form; but Latin was also for many centuries an everyday language spoken by ordinary people, and we will be trying to uncover some of that Latin too.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11411 Latin in Context I |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least one year of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
This module will give you a critical overview of how Latin was used in different contexts, whether literary (i.e. genre) or non-literary (i.e. inscriptions, real letters), during the course of its existence as a spoken language. You will approach a variety of texts that will enable you to acquire a wider Latin vocabulary, to gain a deeper appreciation of grammar and syntax, and to advance your proficiency in translation and linguistic analysis.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11412 Latin In Context II |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
At least one year of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Prof Anna Chahoud |
Description
This module will guide you through a selection of texts representative of key aspects of the history of Latin language and usage. You will further develop your translation, philological and critical skills, expand your understanding of grammar, idiom and style, and acquire a strong grasp of the development of literary and colloquial Latin in its historical and political contexts.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22111 Greek History: Culture and Society in Archaic Greece |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Shane Wallace |
Description
The module is a detailed study of selected topics from the Archaic period, c.750-490 BC. It will focus on the origin and development of socio-cultural phenomena in the Greek world, from South Italy to Asia Minor. Topics will include the development of new political systems such as tyranny, the origins of law and literacy, the formation of the polis, warfare and empire, as well as social issues such as the symposium and slavery.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22115 Greek Archaeology |
10 ECTs |
Michaelmas /Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Prof. Christine Morris |
Description
This module explores the ancient Greek world through its material culture from the collapse of Mycenaean palatial cultures through to the classical period. We will take a thematic approach and topics may include state formation, colonization and cultural interaction in the Mediterranean, the development of Greek sanctuaries, the archaeology of the Greek countryside, the social and political roles of art and architecture in archaic and classical Athens, sexuality and gender relations, death and society, and archaeology and modern politics.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22201 Heroism, identity and Authority |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Martine Cuypers, Dr Charlie Kerrigan |
Description
The ‘hero’ is one of the central, if particularly diverse and changeable concepts that define and structure of private identities and public patterns of authority in the ancient Greco-Roman world and beyond, right up to the present. In this module we’ll examine and interrogate the idea of the hero through the lens of ancient epic, exploring Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as well as Virgil’s Aeneid in search of what heroism might mean, then and now.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22203 Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Prof. Monica Gale |
Description
This module in 2022/23 examines issues of gender and sexuality in the Roman world. You will study contrastive portrayals of women and men, ideals of masculinity and femininity, sexual norms and codes, theories about the male and female body, views on marriage, rape, adultery and prostitution, and the relation between art and ‘real life’: what we may deduce from texts and visual sources about the gender roles men and women were expected to play within family and state.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22345 Greek Drama |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least one year of Ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (3 classes pw) |
Dr. Martine Cuypers |
Description
This module provides an introduction to Classical Athenian drama. You will study a play by Euripides in Greek and other texts in translation. Discussion topics include the divine, fate and responsibility; the origins of drama; Aristotle’s analysis of tragedy in the Poetics; performance aspects; the function of drama in the context of religious festivals and the democratic city-state; drama as source of historical and cultural information.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22449 Catullus and Cicero |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least one year of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (3 classes pw) |
Prof. Monica Gale |
Description
The love-poet Catullus and the statesman, orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero were close contemporaries, but often display contrasting attitudes – towards love and sex, youth and maturity, public and private life, and morality in general. This Latin module will involve close reading of selections from Catullus’ poetry and of Cicero’s law-court speech Pro Caelio, both as literary works in their own right and as a window on the ideals and values of the Roman elite of the first century BC.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22447 Latin Comedy |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
At least one year of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 classes pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
This module is about creative imitation and comic imagination. We study the works of the Latin dramatists Plautus and Terence, who adapted Greek New Comedy for a Roman audience. These texts are the only examples of early Latin poetry surviving in complete form, and they have greatly influenced the development of European comic theatre. We examine the typical themes and techniques of the genre, explore the contexts of production and reception of the plays, and discuss aspects of Early Latin language.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33131 Roman Archaeology |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Hazel Dodge |
Description
This module explores the Roman world through the material culture of this vast and varied empire. It covers the full geographical extent of the Roman Empire examining subjects such as transport, technology and communication, urban networks and rural settlement, the economy and resources, domestic architecture and settlement, religion and ritual. Particular regional case studies of Ostia, the Eastern Empire, and North Africa will all be included.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33112 Democracy and Monarchy in Classical Greece |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Shane Wallace |
Description
The Classical period saw the rise and fall of a series of great empires: Persia, Athens, Sparta, and Macedon. This module will examine the political development of the Greek world in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, from the end of the Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great. Topics will include political systems such as oligarchy and democracy, Greek historiography under Herodotus and Thucydides, Athenian and Spartan imperialism, Sicily and South Italy, Panhellenism, and the rise of Macedon.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33211 Explaining the World |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Ashley Clements |
Description
At the beginning of all philosophy, Plato and Aristotle claimed, lies amazement at the world. Greek philosophical explanations of the world, in turn, articulate understandings of what kinds of beings we are and what we should do with our lives. This module explores one intriguing set of answers to these questions through a selection of texts drawn from the first complete corpus of Greek philosophical works that survive from antiquity, the dialogues of Plato.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33212 Social Media in the Ancient World |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Prof Anna Chahoud |
Description
To write a letter - whether a formal, public composition, a private letter to a friend, or an anonymous message scribbled on the wall - is to create an image, consciously or unconsciously, of oneself as writer and of one’s relationship with the recipient. In this sense, Roman letter-writing can be seen as a partial equivalent of interaction via social media in our contemporary world. This module explores aspects of self-presentation through published and unpublished letters and other media of communication surviving from the Roman world.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33213 Drama and Performance in the Ancient World |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Charlie Kerrigan |
Description
This module introduces the dramatic performance traditions of the ancient world. Focusing on Roman drama, you will study ancient plays as scripts for performance and explore parameters for the production of drama such as performance venues (theatres, festivals, games) and the conventions and practicalities of staging, as well as drama’s civic and religious contexts, historical development, and value as source of cultural information.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33341 Greek Epic |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least one year of ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (3 classes pw) |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey lie at the roots of the Western literary tradition: they formed the basis of Greek education and were central models for all later authors. In this module, you will study selections from both epics in Greek and master the Homeric ‘dialect.’ You also study both epics in translation, reading them as sophisticated oral-derived narratives, and analyse their (fictional) worlds and values; relationships between men, women and gods; narrative modes, voice and style; and features such as similes and formulas.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33381 Greek Close Reading |
5 ECTs |
Michaelmas /Semester 1 |
At least two years of ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 classes (2 classes pw) |
|
Description
In this module students will be introduced to either a single-author text or a selection of texts from one or more different genres, including but not limited to historiography, philosophy, comedy, poetry, etc. Each class will focus on a different section of text or theme and will consist of a mix of translation, textual analysis, and discussion. Students will apply their experience in Greek grammar to close reading and analysis of ancient Greek texts.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33385 Greek Philosophy |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least two years of ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Ashley Clements |
Description
All European philosophy, the British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead famously alleged, is merely a series of footnotes to Plato. But “Plato’s own writings” themselves, David Gallop has appended, “might be said to have consisted in footnotes to Parmenides of Elea” (1984, 3). In this module we study the fragments of Parmenides and the legacy of his extraordi¬nary poem during the first century of its reception in the work of the so-called Eleatics, Zeno and Melissus, whose differing responses to Parmenides and his critics both bestowed an afterlife for Eleaticism and inspired further critical responses during the fifth century BC. In part one, we read Parmenides’ contentious poem closely; in part two, we then consider ‘Eleatic’ responses to it, reading our evidence for the paradoxes of Zeno and the radical monistic prose treatise of Melissus, before turning to Gorgias’nihilistic parody of Eleaticism and its further serio-comic afterlives at the hands of the (Platonic) sophists and fifth-century dramatists.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33442 Latin Epic |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
At least two years of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (3 classes pw) |
Dr Charlie Kerrigan |
Description
This module will comprise close reading of two books of Virgil’s Aeneid, exploring the philological tradition which allows us to read and interpret the text, as well as the poetry and politics of Virgil’s famous most work. We’ll discuss Virgil’s characters, his use of language, and in particular the idea of the poem's ‘two voices’, its dual identity as colonial epic and an unparalleled chronicle of the dispossessed. What will hopefully emerge is a classic which, to paraphrase Italo Calvino, has not yet stopped saying what it has to say.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44390 Greek Lyric Poetry |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
Final year language module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof. Ahuvia Kahane |
Description
Lyric is a record of ‘the voice or the mind speaking to itself’ - a voice often performed to various audiences on select public and private occasions. It is ‘poetry at its most poetic’. But what is this many-sided genre of lyric and what forms did it take at its ‘birth’, in Archaic and Classical Greece? Here we find poems that are shorter than epic and dramatic verse, whose rhythms are clear but more varied and complex, poems that are sung, sometimes to the tune of the flute or the lyre, or un-accompanied, and yet are often the product of writing and literate cultures, poems that emerge from many different cities and polities, not least from the islands of Greece, poems that harness the language of longing, sexual desire, friendship, athletic rivalry, excellence, wit and myth, war and violence to the yokes of education, ethics, politics, economics, civic identity and the city.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33481 Latin Close Reading |
5 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least two years of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (2 classes pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
This module will involve close and detailed study of Latin prose or verse texts, with the twofold aim of increasing fluency in reading and enhancing appreciation of the author’s style, literary and rhetorical technique. Through translation and discussion of prescribed sections of the texts, we will explore the ways in which Roman writers employ devices such as verbal patterning, metaphor and linguistic register, and how these features affect readers’ response to their work.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33485 Latin Historians |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
At least two years of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
This module is about the writing of history in ancient Rome. The genre enjoyed a special position in the tightly-structured world of ancient classical literature, and Latin authors, each in his own markedly personal way, worked within the tradition to create a narrative style that tells us just as much about the author’s angle on events as about the events themselves. How do we detect and evaluate the historian’s engagement and responsibility? What were the ancient readers’ expectations, and what are our own? What rhetorical techniques are at work in historical texts? How does the context – literary, social and political – affect the author’s choices? These are some of the questions that we explore through a close reading of texts, while looking at the development of the genre in the early Republic and exploring the ways in which Roman politics, public speaking and history writing were inextricably connected.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44553 Roman Satire |
10 ECTs |
Michaelmas /Semester 1 |
Final year module, please discuss prerequisites with study abroad coordinator |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
The Romans claimed that satire was ‘entirely their own’ poetic creation, free from the constraints of a Greek model and representative of characteristically Roman ideas and modes of expression.
We will analyse these claims exploring the ‘invention’ of the genre in the Mid-Republic (Lucilius), Horace’s reformulation in the triumviral period (Satires I and II), and aspects of early imperial satire (Persius and Juvenal).
Discussion topics will concern the status of satire as poetry, written in the same metre as Virgil’s epic and yet so different; the function of satire in social performance; the interaction between literature, ideology and identity; ancient and modern theories of satire and parody.
[All texts are read in translation.]
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU34481 Latin Satire |
10 ECTs |
Michaelmas /Semester 1 |
At least two years of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
The Romans claimed that satire was ‘entirely their own’ poetic creation, free from the constraints of Greek models and representative of characteristically Roman ideas and modes of expression.
We will analyse these claims exploring the ‘invention’ of the genre in the Mid-Republic (Lucilius), Horace’s reformulation in the triumviral period (Satires I and II), and aspects of early imperial satire (Persius and Juvenal).
Discussion topics will concern the status of satire as poetry, written in the same metre as Virgil’s epic and yet so different; the function of satire in social performance; the interaction between literature, ideology and identity; ancient and modern theories of satire and parody.
Our reading classes will focus on the close reading of Horace’s two books of satires, and explore the formation of genre-specific diction, influences and techniques of creative imitation.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44553 Roman Satire |
10 ECTs |
Michaelmas /Semester 1 |
Final year module, please discuss prerequisites with study abroad coordinator. |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof. Anna Chahoud |
Description
The Romans claimed that satire was ‘entirely their own’ poetic creation, free from the constraints of a Greek model and representative of characteristically Roman ideas and modes of expression.
We will analyse these claims exploring the ‘invention’ of the genre in the Mid-Republic (Lucilius), Horace’s reformulation in the triumviral period (Satires I and II), and aspects of early imperial satire (Persius and Juvenal).
Discussion topics will concern the status of satire as poetry, written in the same metre as Virgil’s epic and yet so different; the function of satire in social performance; the interaction between literature, ideology and identity; ancient and modern theories of satire and parody. (All texts are read in translation.)
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44552 Early Christianity |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
How did Christianity develop from a marginalised and persecuted sect to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire? This module examines the first four centuries of Christianity within the pluralistic context of religious and social life in the Roman Empire. A broad range of literary and material sources will be examined, and a range of modern theoretical approaches considered. Teaching will be structured around broad themes, including belief, scripture, gender, criminality, memory, and the rise of monasticism.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44558 After Alexander: Hellenistic Athens from Macedon to Rome |
10 ECTs |
Michaelmas /Semester 1 |
Final year module, please discuss prerequisites with study abroad coordinator. |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Shane Wallace |
Description
This module examines how Athens responded to its decline in power in the early Hellenistic period, from its defeat by Macedon in 338 to its final liberation in 229 BC. Drawing on literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological sources, this module will examine the growth of factionalism and the tension between democracy and oligarchy, international relations, political philosophy, and literary and cultural productivity. Athens was no more a major military or political power, but it remained a leading cultural centre.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44550How to Be Happy |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
Final year module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Ashley Clements |
Description
Thanks to Thomas Jefferson, the pursuit of happiness - along with life and liberty - is a foundational right of the US constitution. And all of us want to be happy. But how many of us can define what happiness is? And since we struggle to define it how can we attain it, and why are we all so obsessed with it? Part of the answer lies in the influence of one strand of thinking about happiness (eudaimonia) that derives from Aristotle. But Aristotle's influential view was merely one among many, so in this module, we will go back to the earliest formulations of happiness in Classical literature and philosophy and compare them with other conceptions of happiness from contemporary western and non-western traditions. By so doing we’ll tell the story of how we began to think of ourselves as people who need to pursue something called happiness - even though we don’t know what it is - and reveal how odd our modern conceptions of doing well and being happy are. [Texts will be studied in English translation.]
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44451 Public Speaking |
10 ECTs |
Hilary Term /Semester 2 |
Final year module, please discuss prerequisites with study abroad coordinator. |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
Rhetoric, the art of speaking, formed the pinnacle of ancient education, as the ability to speak and write convincingly was essential for successful participation in public life from classical Athens to Imperial Rome and beyond.
In this module, we look at the development of rhetoric as an analytical discipline by theorists such as Aristotle, and its intersections with areas such as education, psychology and philosophy, and we explore its primary application, oratory or public speaking, with emphasis on Demosthenes but also more recent politicians – from Abraham Lincoln to Mary McAleese and Micheál Martin.
Throughout the module, we examine the power of words in social performance following the ancient rhetors’ educational model: you will learn about eloquence, not by kissing the Blarney stone, but by analyzing famous ancient and modern speeches and the ‘rules’ for successful speaking, and by writing and delivering speeches yourself.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44485 Informal Latin |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
Final year language module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof Anna Chahoud |
Description
This module is about the relationship between literary and spoken Latin. Classical Latin has been codified through authoritative literary models; but what variations existed between speakers across social levels and over time and space? We will explore the concept of linguistic register, the importance of context in oral and written communication, and the effect of usage substandard features of Latin – ‘errors’, usage, and effects of this type of Latin on modern languages.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44488 Senecan Tragedy |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
Final year language module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof Monica Gale |
Description
The tragedies of Seneca are amongst the most violent and bloody works of ancient literature. Revolving around episodes of dismemberment, cannibalism and infanticide, they bear comparison to modern film and TV dramas such as Game of Thrones or the movies of Quentin Tarantino. In this module, we will approach the plays – and the scholarly controversies they have provoked – by drawing on frameworks including media and film theory, psychoanalysis and performance criticism, metapoetics and Hellenistic philosophy.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44391 How to Be Happy |
10 ECTs |
Semester 1 |
Final year language module, enrolment only with prior approval of the visiting student coordinator (cuypersm@tcd.ie) |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Ashley Clements |
Description
What is the secret to happiness? What indeed is ‘happiness’ (what the Greeks called eudaimonia) and what activities will make us happy? How do we decide what the right thing to do is? What is genuinely for the best for us? This module poses the fundamental questions of ancient ethics and considers the range of answers we find amongst Greek and Roman wisdom figures and philosophers. Reading the early Greek poet Solon, our evidence for the views of Socrates and the Socratics, the Cynics, Cyrenaics, Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, we explore ancient conceptions of happiness in comparison with modern Western and non-Western conceptions of the good life. This module won’t make you happy but it will make you think about what it might mean to be happy.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11102 Introduction to Roman History |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures (2 hrs pw) |
Dr. Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
This module provides an introductory survey of the history of the Roman world to the death of Augustus. The main trends and issues of this period will be explored, with emphasis on the emergence of Rome as a major imperial power.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11109 Sources and Methods for Ancient History |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures and 5 seminars |
Dr Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
This module provides an introduction to the primary sources and methodologies employed by ancient historians. It introduces the practical, analytical and critical skills required to assess both textual sources and material remains. It explores the nature and reliability of the different types of evidence, and challenges students to think about and assess how modern scholars approach the study of the ancient world. Group seminars focus on developing skills with the primary sources, including working with artefacts such as coins and inscriptions.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11106 Introduction to Roman Art |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures (2 lectures pw) |
Dr Giorgos Papantoniou |
Description
This module offers an introductory survey of the development and major artistic and artistic achievements of Roman architecture, sculpture and painting to the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century AD. The module places art and architecture in its social, political and cultural context. It explores themes such as the representation of the human form, the use of narrative and mythology in art, urbanisation, and the development of architectural forms such as temples, theatres and baths.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11202 Greek and Roman Religion |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures and 5 seminars |
Dr. Suzanne O’Neill |
Description
What is the relationship between myth and religion? Why did the Greeks and Romans worship many gods, believe in oracles, or perform animal sacrifice? This module is an introduction to the major religions of the classical world using the full range of primary source material: literary, artistic and archaeological.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU12314 Elementary Greek II |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
CLU12313 or equivalent |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Dr. Martine Cuypers |
Description
This module aims to bring students to an intermediate level of proficiency in the reading of Greek literary texts. In this module students will complete the study of the textbook and study less common morphology, more complex syntax and pragmatics, and expand their vocabulary. Translation skills will be practiced through supervised and independent reading of increasingly less adapted Greek texts.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11312 Greek in Context II |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
At least one year of Ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
This module will guide you through a selection of canonical and non-canonical texts representative of key aspects of the history of Greek language and usage. You will further develop your linguistic, philological and critical skills, expanding your understanding of grammar and style, expanding your Greek vocabular and exercising your translation and analysis skills.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU11414 Elementary Latin II |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
CLU11413 or equivalent |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 classes (3 hrs pw) |
Dr Charlie Kerrigan |
Description
This module aims to bring students to an intermediate level of proficiency in the reading of Latin literary texts. In this module students will complete the study of the textbook and study less common morphology, more complex syntax, and expand their vocabulary. Translation skills will be practiced through supervised and independent reading of original Latin texts.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22122 The Archaeology of Minoan Crete |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars (2 hrs pw) |
Prof Christine Morris |
Description
This module explores the archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age with a focus on Crete and the Cyclades. We will consider the development of Minoan palatial society and the nature of elite power; aesthetic and technological achievements in art and architecture; the nature of Bronze Age religion; interaction with Egypt and the Near East. Small group seminars will include practical sessions with artefacts such as pottery and figurines, building skills in analysing imagery, and discussion of ethics and heritage issues.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22124 Roman History: The Roman Empire |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
This module examines the Mediterranean world from reign of Augustus until the third century AD. It traces the evolution of the office of emperor over Rome’s first four dynasties: the Julio-Claudians, Flavians, Antonines, and Severans. It also analyses how the vast expanse of the empire was structured and governed under Roman rule, and the lived experience of those who fell under its power, with themes such as economic networks, citizenship, and religious pluralism.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22126 Living on the Bay of Naples |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Hazel Dodge |
Description
Cicero described the Bay of Naples as “….that Bay of Luxury”, but to what extent was that true? This module will explore the archaeology of the area, with a particular emphasis on the late Republican and Roman development of such familiar Roman sites as Herculaneum, Pompeii, and the suburban villas and farms in the area, as well as Puteoli, Naples and the Phlegrean Fields (Campi Flegrei). Economic, social and culture issues will be addressed through a close study of the rich evidence from this region, including new archaeological evidence from excavations carried out in the last few years.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22202 Culture and ideology in the Ancient World |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
This module explores the beliefs, values and aspirations which underpin the political, economic, religious and private life in democratic Athens in the 5th century BCE, an ancient city state that ruled an empire, as it emerges from literature and other cultural manifestations. You will learn what it meant to be an Athenian citizen in a time of political and intellectual crisis, learn how identities were constructed, maintained, and manipulated, and assess how cultural claims informed political ambitions.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22200 Writing the Past |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Ashley Clements |
Description
Who we think we are, what sense we make of ourselves and of our present, to a significant extent depends upon what we choose to remember. To remember, in turn, is always to construct. This module explores (in English translation) Herodotus’ Histories, the first written prose account of the past that explores the entire known world in a series of interweaving stories that ultimately aim to explain the Greco-Persian Wars and answer a question at the heart of history: why?
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22342 Herodotus |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
At least one year of Ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (3 classes pw) |
Dr Ashley Clements |
Description
This module explores the work of the fifth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus, the first person to write history in the European tradition. Herodotus' Histories is a multifaceted text that blends together history, ethnography, geography, anthropology and political critique in the course of explaining the cause of the Persian wars (490-479 BC). Weekly lectures explore the context and themes of Herodotus' text; language classes focus on close readings and consider the content and narrative style of Herodotus' Greek.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33217 Visual and Material Culture in the Ancient World |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 (1 class pw) |
Dr Giorgos Papantoniou |
Description
Every object has stories – shaped by human uses – to tell. This module explores how visual and material culture offers a distinctive window for understanding the past by choosing specific artefacts from the ancient Mediterranean, reconstructing their ‘biographies’ and using them as a prism for thinking about wider social issues. Using both iconic and lesser-known objects, the module focuses on themes such as image and text; religion, power and ideology; warfare; funerary rituals; daily life and its fictions; gender and sexuality.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU22440 Virgil Through Time |
10 ECTs |
Hilary Term /Semester 2 |
At least one year of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (3 classes pw) |
Dr Charlie Kerrigan |
Description
In this course we’ll investigate the rich and varied afterlives of Virgil’s poetry, exploring themes of creativity and artistic (re-)imagination, but also the politics which lie behind humanistic claims for the universality of ‘the classics’.
We’ll examine questions of patriarchy, race, and empire, but also the radical and democratic aspects of popular traditions in Irish, European, and world contexts. And we will re-read Virgil’s own poetry, in an effort to critique its continuing ability to inspire, provoke, and challenge.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33135 Late Antiquity |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Rebecca Usherwood |
Description
This module explores the transformation of the Roman world into the early Medieval world. Starting in the third century, it traces the last two and a half centuries of Roman rule in the west and its successors, and the different fate of the eastern empire. It also explores key social and cultural shifts such as the rise and institutionalisation of Christianity, ethnicity and identity, and urban life.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33130 Britain and the Roman Empire |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Hazel Dodge |
Description
This module examines an area of the Roman Empire which has been much studied by both historians and archaeologists. But Roman Britain is also constantly the subject of fresh discoveries and changing perspectives, creating a challenging topic for study. This module will examine the Iron Age background and assess the impact of the invasion of AD 43 as well as the effect of Roman culture on this remote province. It will also explore the effects on life in Britain of the breakdown of imperial administration at the beginning of the 5th century. The location of Britain on the fringes of the Roman world highlights particular issues of imperialism, acculturation and cultural identity.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33134 Classical Art and Architecture: Receptions and Reimaginings |
5 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
11 lectures, 5 seminars |
Dr Suzanne O’Neill |
Description
This module examines the reception of classical architecture in Ireland, Europe and the wider world. We will explore how classical principles and ideas were disseminated and reimagined within the framework of colonialism, nationalism, trade, slavery, political and religious ideology and intellectual artistic exchange. The module will clarify the key differences between the style we call classicism and the ideas and practices that define the classical tradition as it has been received and refigured.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33218 Greek Erotic Poetry |
10 ECTs |
Hilary Term /Semester 2 |
n/a |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Prof Ahuvia Kahane |
Description
Desire (eros, Aphroditê) has always been a favourite theme in poetry, history, philosophy, rhetoric and other genres in the ancient Greek world. It was particularly (although not uniquely) prominent in poetry, which was often forceful and direct, sometimes explicit. It was also extremely sophisticated in its literary, poetic, linguistic and historical sensibilities, keen in its consideration of human behavior and emotion, and, as we shall learn in this course, fundamentally embedded in its social, cultural, and indeed political contexts as a powerful, dangerous, but likewise productive force.
In this course we will read selected poems (in English translation) from various ancient Greek authors. Through these poems we shall have an opportunity to discuss general issues of erotics, poetics, gender, sexuality, society, history, politics, and culture in the ancient Greek world. The course will present and deploy a broad range of contemporary critical methods and approaches.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33210 Humans and Other Animals |
10 ECTs |
Semester 2 |
None |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 lectures, 5 seminars |
Prof Ahuvia Kahane |
Description
This module explores basic questions of the relations between humans and animals in the ancient Greek world and its literature. Through these questions, the module aims to bring to light key social, poetic, moral, political, historical and philosophical aspects of the ‘human’ in antiquity with particular insights from the contemporary general human/animal studies and ‘posthuman’ studies informed by environmental, sustainability, ecological and other main strands of 21st century research. We will study a representative selection of approaches to human/animal relations in Greek literary, visual and material cultures, from Bronze Age Greece to Late Antiquity.
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Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU33384 Greek Historians |
10 ECTs |
Hilary Term /Semester 2 |
At least two years of ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Dr Shane Wallace |
Description
TBC
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU44392 Greek Oratory and Rhetoric |
10 ECTs |
Hilary Term /Semester 2 |
At least two years of ancient Greek |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
33 (1 2-hr seminar and 1 language lab per week) |
Dr Martine Cuypers |
Description
Rhetoric, the art of speaking, formed the pinnacle of ancient education, as the ability to speak and write convincingly was essential for successful participation in public life from classical Athens to Imperial Rome and beyond.
In this module, we look at the development of rhetoric as an analytical discipline by theorists such as Aristotle, and its intersections with areas such as education, psychology and philosophy, and we explore its primary application, oratory or public speaking, with emphasis on Demosthenes but also more recent politicians – from Abraham Lincoln to Mary McAleese and Micheál Martin.
|
Module Code & Name |
ECTs credits |
Semester |
Prerequisite Subjects |
Assessment |
Contact Hours |
Contact Details |
CLU34482 Augustan Poetry |
10 ECTs |
Hilary Term /Semester 2 |
At least two years of Latin |
Combination of written assignments and in-class or end-of-term tests |
22 (1 2-hr seminar pw) |
Prof Monica Gale |
Description
The principate of Augustus saw an extraordinary outpouring of literary works of all kinds, as poets and other writers profited from the return of peace and stable government after decades of civil war, and struggled to come to terms with the new power structures that replaced the old Republican traditions of aristocratic competition and elite display. This module will focus on two of these writers, the love-elegist Propertius and the lyric poet Horace.
While contrasting with each other in obvious ways, the two poets share a number of common themes, and both may be seen as in some respects typical of their era.
We will consider the two poets’ relations with Roman tradition and with the new regime, both individually and in combination, and will also focus on their handling of love and erotic desire, friendship and social relations, and poetic composition itself – a further prominent theme in both texts.
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