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BRANDEIS HOMEPAGE
LAT 117A Course Syllabus: Spring 2006
Professor Patricia C. Johnston
Office: Rabb 348, tel. (781)-736-2182 (voicemail)
Department Office: Rabb 140, x6-2180
Email: johnston@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Mondays & Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., and by appointment.
Class Meets: Mondays & Wednesdays, 2:10 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. (Block K), in Olin-Sang 104.
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS, born c. 94, died c. 55 or 51 B.C.
We know nothing about Lucretius place of birth or social status. Jerome tells us he was born 94 B.C., and died aged 44, by his own hand, and that Cicero edited his book. "Donatus", in his Life of Vergil, says that Vergil assumed the toga virilis at age 17, the very day and year that Lucretius died. He was a contemporary of Cicero and Catullus, and wrote a philosophical text, intended to teach the philosophy of Epicurus, his ideal. Santayana calls him "the world's chief poet of naturalism." His goal is "to free man from security and the happy life, and hence from fear of death, superstition and all gods." (Leonard, p. 22).
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. T. Lucreti Cari, de rerum natura, ed. W. E. Leonard and S. B. Smith (Univ. Wisconsin, 1942).
2. A good Latin-English dictionary, the largest you can afford.
PLAN
Read most of Book One, plus the proems of each book, and selected passages from the others. Assignment of lines to translate will be adjusted as the course proceeds.
PAPERS
Papers about ten pages long should, ideally, be presented when the class is reading that particular section of Lucretius, so plan ahead now. I will distribute a suggested list of paper topics, but you may also propose your own topic. I will collect the papers before the second Break, correct them, and return them to you to be reworked and resubmitted at the end of the semester.
GRADES
The final grade will be based on the following:
Daily translations (35% of grade)
one midterm (20% of grade),
one paper or project to be presented in the course of the term (10% of grade) (preferably early in the semester), and
one three-hour final exam (35% of grade).
COURSE SCHEDULE
JANUARY
17 W First day of class: Introduction
23 M Begin reading proem (I.1-145) of book I
25 W
30 M
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FEBRUARY
1 W
6 M
8 W
13 M
15 W
FEBRUARY 20-24 - SPRING BREAK - NO CLASSES
27 M Begin Book II.1-61 Blessings of Philosophy; (61 lines)
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MARCH
1 W
6 M
8 W
13 M
15 W
20 M Midterm: Monday, March 20
22 W Begin Book III. 1-93 The Folly of the Fear of Death; 94ff. The Nature of the Soul
27 M
29 W
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APRIL
3 M
5 W Begin Book IV.1-24: Lucretius' Mission; 1058 ff: the Passion of Love
10 M
12 W All Papers Due
APRIL 13-21 - PASSOVER/EASTER BREAK - NO CLASSES
24 Book V. 1-54 Praise of Epicurus (54 lines)
26 M Book V. 772 ff. the childhood of the world (248 lines)
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MAY
1 M
3 W Last Class
[If time allows: Book VI.1138-1286 The Plague at Athens (148 lines)]
9 Tu Final Exam: Tuesday, May 9, 1:30 - 4:30 pm.
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Photograph: Primavera, by Sandro Botticelli, 1482, Tempera on Panel painted for the villa of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici at Castello, now housed in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, from: http://history.hanover.edu/courses/art/botpri.html
To report broken links, please contact Janet Barry at jbarry@brandeis.edu or x6-2180.
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Department of Classical Studies, 2006.