Not offered 2007-2008
CLGR 403 Poetry and Revolution in Archaic Greece
The age of experiment, of lyric, of tyranny, of migration and discovery, of the personal voice: it takes many images to describe the profound changes in Greek society, thought, and
self-expression during the archaic era (roughly 800 to the Persian invasion of 479). We will
first read selections from the lyric poets (e.g. Archilochus and Sappho, Tyrtaeus and Solon),
whose concise and expressive poems reflected contemporary culture in a way the archaic
epics did not. Their poems create for modern readers, as they did for the Greeks, a powerful
sense of the poet's personal presence and engagement with his (or her) audience. A similar
intimacy characterizes the writings of many of the pre-Socratics, from which we will next
read some selections. Confident in the ability of the human mind to understand both the
human and the physical world, the pre-Socratics anticipated what came to be known as
philosophy and natural science. We will then turn to other writers who spoke directly about
the political upheavals of the archaic age, focussing on the "tyrant narratives" of Herodotus.
Throughout the semester we will also consider such significant material changes in the
archaic era as the development of monumental public sculpture, the evolution of the temple,
and the undertaking of vast building programs, all of which transformed the visual scale of
the Greek cities and their citizens' sense of self and community.
Format: recitation/discussion. Evaluation will be based on daily translations and
contributions to class discussion, several translation quizzes, an oral presentation, a final
paper, and a final exam.
Prerequisites: Greek 201 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: 12 (expected: 5-6).
CHRISTENSEN