Majors: Students who are considering a Classics major are advised to take the course CLAS 100: Opening Classics and/or any introductory language course offered by the department. CLAS 100: Opening Classics is offered every semester, while our introductory language sequences contain two courses which should be taken in sequence, with the first course (typically numbered 101) offered in the fall semester and the second course (typically numbered 102) offered in the spring semester. The department offers language classes every semester in Greek and Latin and, on a rotating basis, in Akkadian, Egyptian, and Hebrew. Incoming students who would like to continue an ancient language begun in high school will be placed at the appropriate level of that language during Summer Gateways Orientation.
Courses
CLAS 100
Opening Classics
Common Area: Historical Studies
In this course, we will critically examine the field called “Classics” and engage in collaborative research projects that open up new questions and ideas about its future. As we explore using the field’s major methods of investigating Greco-Roman antiquity and consider the history of the field and its current and future state, we will analyze what areas of study Classics has included and what it has not, what work the name “Classics” is doing in making claims about the ancient world, and how the field has been shaped and used in particular times and places. After learning about how we know what we think we know about Greco-Roman antiquity and how we learn more about these areas, students will have the means and opportunity to formulate and pursue research topics of their own.
CLAS 120
Mythology
Common Area: Literature
An exploration of the significance of myths, their meanings and functions in the cultures of Greece and Rome. Special attention is given to more recent developments in the study of myths and their relation to rituals and folk tales. Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindu and American Indian mythology may be used for comparative purposes.
CLAS 160
Intro Classical Archaeology
Common Area: Arts
An introduction to the methodologies employed by archaeologists. Most examples will be drawn from the artifacts, sites and monuments of the ancient Mediterranean world.
CLAS 199-F01
Greek and Roman Sculpture
Common Area: Arts
This course introduces students to the sculpture of ancient Greece, Etruria, and Rome. It will cover examples from the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity. Topics addressed will include materials and techniques of ancient sculpture (including carving stone, casting metal, and molding and shaping terracotta as well as the evidence that the sculptures were painted); the social meanings and functions of sculpture in these cultures; shared visual vocabularies across Mediterranean cultures; and Early Christian responses to non-Christian sculptures, especially the statues depicting the traditional gods of polytheistic cultures like Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
CLAS 199-F02
Introduction to Ancient Egypt
Common Area: Historical Studies
This course explores state formation and collapse throughout the history of Pharaonic Egypt – from the formation of the first Egyptian state in the 4th millennium BCE to the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Throughout this course, we will examine archaeological and textual sources in combination in order to study the way in which the pharaonic state emerged and developed over time. Our focus is not only on reconstructing historical events (narrative history), but also on understanding how complex societies come about and how they function. In addition to the basic historical outline, we will discuss the development of agriculture, the emergence of writing, formation of the Egyptian state and identity, Egyptian kingship, construction and development of the pyramids, ancient bureaucracy and social structure, Egyptian funerary practices, and the effects of climate on societies. Ancient Egypt was one of the first complex civilizations to arise, and its study can help us to understand why humans form complex societies, how they sustain one through both tradition and ingenuity, and how they react when the system collapses.
CLAS 199-F08
Women and Power in the Ancient Mediterranean
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
This course examines gender ideologies, systems of social power, and the ways in which women were either systematically excluded from or worked their way into positions of power in the ancient Mediterranean. Discussions of gender theory and the origins of the gender binary within early states will foreground regional case studies focusing on gender roles and women’s rights in Egypt, Greece, Persia, Rome, the Levant and Mesopotamia. The course then explores themes such as the interplay between Orientalism and the ancient and modern receptions of specific women of power, like Cleopatra and Semiramus, how the introduction of monotheistic religions altered these gendered systems, and how women resisted or assisted in the construction of empires. We will analyze primary source texts written both by and about women, as well as artifacts and art historical sources to compare how certain power systems, institutions, and historical circumstances facilitated women’s rise to power over others, and what effects these systems are still having today.
CLAS 199-F11
Photographing Antiquity
Common Area: Arts or Cross-Cultural Studies
This course provides an introduction to the practices of cultural heritage photography and interrogates the ways in which photography renders small-scale antiquities in particular. How have the fields of archaeology, art history, and philology sought to document ancient objects from the Middle East? What do these practices of photography tell us about our own values and interests? Through a combination of critical analysis and creative practice we will explore the extent to which seemingly “neutral” photography is, in fact, a form of interpretation. Students will learn how to read photographs as expressions of meaning and explore the relationship between form and content. While we will analyze a range of photographs, our practice will focus in particular on the documentation of small finds. Students will learn the basics of macro photography, from initial capture through final editing using software such as Adobe Photoshop. Materials documented in the course could include: replicas of ancient Middle Eastern antiquities; objects in the collection of the College of the Holy Cross or other nearby museums/institutions; and even small personal items. Throughout the semester, students will be asked to photograph the world around them, thinking about the choices that lay behind the production of an image. A project at the end of the semester will allow students to create their own “curated” display of object photographs.