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BRANDEIS HOMEPAGE
Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Greek and Roman Text and Art
CLAS/WGS/FA 145B Course Syllabus: Spring 2006
Professor Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow
Office: Rabb 128, tel. (781)-736-2183 (voicemail)
Department Office: Rabb 140, x6-2180
Email: aoko@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Fridays 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., and by appointment.
Class Meets: Block P, Tuesdays and Fridays, 3:10 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Pollack Auditorium
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.
This course satisfies requirements for Humanities, within the Women and Gender Studies program, and for Creative Arts.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Fantham, Elaine, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, H.A. Shapiro. Women in the Classical World: Image and Text, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-19- 506727-4
2. Lefkowitz, Mary, and Maureen Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome, Third Edition. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8018-4475-4 (pbk)
3. Homer, translated by Stanley Lombardo, Odyssey, Hackett Publishing, Co., Inc. 2000. ISBN 0-87220-484-7 (pbk)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course offers an exploration of women in ancient Greece and Rome and the ideological bases of Western attitudes toward sex/gender categories in the formative periods of the ancient pagan world. Primary emphasis will be on Greek culture (Roman attitudes towards women, gender, and sexuality are given some consideration as well) as these attitudes are articulated in a wide variety of different documents, areas of thought and practices, and material remains. The course includes, in some fashion, ancient myth and ritual, selections from Greek and Roman literature, including some philosophical, scientific, economic and political writings, and focus on selected examples of Greek and Roman art and architecture.
ASSIGNMENTS
Two short papers (2-3 pages), a take-home essay midterm (3-4 pages), and one longer research paper (7-8 pages) are course requirements. Participation in classroom discussion is also essential. Even if you are not comfortable talking yourself, your presence in the class counts as participation. Student attendance forms a part of the grade calculation.
GRADE CALCULATION
Short Papers: 30% (15% each)
Participation/Attendance: 10%
Midterm (take-home essay) 30%
Final Paper: 30%
Total: 100%
ACADEMIC HONESTY (LAST, BUT HARDLY LEAST!)
You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Brandeis University policy on academic honesty is contained in your Student Handbook in section 5 under "Rights and Responsibilities." Instances of cheating, plagiarism, or other alleged dishonesty will be reported to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. The adjudication process is also outlined in your Handbook. Potential consequences of academic dishonesty include (in addition to an "E" on the assignment) failure in the course, disciplinary probation, and suspension from the University. A record of any offense will remain in a student's disciplinary file in the Office of Student Affairs throughout his or her career at Brandeis. Please know that I take this code very seriously. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask me.
SCHEDULE
Lecture topics for the entire semester are listed by date below, along with deadlines for assignments and field trips.
JANUARY
Tuesday, January 17
Who were the Greeks and Romans? What are our sources for them? What can we gain from an exploration of women, gender, and sexuality in antiquity?
Assignment: Buy books. Explore internet resources on CLAS website: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/classics/Classical_linksrevised.html If time, look over CLAS/WGS/FA 145B reserves.
Friday, January 20
The Song Culture of Ancient Greece. Hesiod and the first woman, Pandora. Mythological Constructs: Woman as Other/ Woman as Inferior.
READING: Hesiod, Theogony, selection from Works and Days; Katz, "Ideology and the 'Status of Women' in Ancient Greece," in Hawley and Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 21-43.
RECOMMENDED: Zeitlin, "Signifying Difference: The Myth of Pandora," in Hawley and Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 58-74.
Tuesday, January 24
Bronze Age Culture and Archaic Song Culture. The Greek Hero Achilles, the Trojan Hero Hector, Kleos, and Male Gender Constructions.
READING: Homer, Iliad, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12.
RECOMMENDED: Albert Lord, Singer of Tales, ch. 1, "Introduction to the Theory," 3-12; ch. 2, "Singers: Performance and Training," 13-29.
Friday, January 27
The "Golden" Women in the Iliad and their Role in Gender Constructions: Chryseis, Briseis, Helen, Andromache, and Hecuba.
READING: Homer, Iliad, Books 16, 18, 22, 24.
RECOMMENDED: Albert Lord, Singer of Tales, ch. 9, "The Iliad," 186-197.
Tuesday, January 31
Penelope as Kleos and Nostos. Home, the Homecoming, and the Hero's Return.
READING: Homer, Odyssey, Books 1-8.
RECOMMENDED: Robin Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art, ch. 4, "Myth as Measure," 53-68.
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FEBRUARY
Friday, February 3
Goddesses, Witches, and Female Monsters in the Odyssey. Representations of stories from the Odyssey in the art of Archaic Greece.
READING: Homer, Odyssey, Books 9-12.
RECOMMENDED: Homer, Odyssey, Books 13-19.
**Tuesday, February 7
Odysseus: The Hero who Gets Kleos and Nostos. Women in the Art of Archaic Greece.
Short Paper #1 due
READING: Homer, Odyssey, Books 20-24.
RECOMMENDED: Robin Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art, ch. 4, "Myth as Measure," 53-68.
Friday, February 10
Women as Wives, Mothers, and Keepers of the Faith. Life in the City-State of Athens. Funerary Ritual, Religious Rites, the Dangerous Voices of Women's Lamentation. Funerary Art.
READING: Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Helene P. Foley; Helene P. Foley, interpretive essay by Helene P. Foley in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays, 79-150; Lefkowitz and Fant, 68-127.
RECOMMENDED: Susan Walker, "Women and Housing in Classical Greece," in Cameron and Kuhrt, Images of Women in Antiquity, 81-91.
Tuesday, February 14
Sex-Segregated Festivals and Civic Religion in Athens. Panathenaic Festival -- Women on the Parthenon. Gay Abandon.
READING: Aristophanes' The Poet and the Women; Lefkowitz and Fant 280-281; Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 83-96; Robin Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art, ch. 8, "Gay Abondon," 133-156.
RECOMMENDED: Lin Foxhall, "Women's Ritual and Men's Work in Ancient Athens," in Hawley and Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 97-110.
Friday, February 17
Women in Athenian Tragedy. Very Bad Wives: Clytaemestra and Medea. Evidence of Vase Painting.
READING: Aeschylus, Oresteia; Euripides, Medea; Lefkowitz and Fant, 10-37.
RECOMMENDED:
Saturday, February 18 - Sunday, February 26: No Classes (Mid-Term Recess)
Tuesday, February 28
More on the Festival of Dionysus. An Impossibly Good Wife: Alcestis. Women, Madness, and Maenads in Ancient Greece. Unstable Mothers.
READING: Euripides, Alcestis; Euripides, Bacchae
RECOMMENDED: Ruth Padel, "Women: Model for Possession by Greek Daemons," in Cameron and Kuhrt, Images of Women in Antiquity, 3-19.
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MARCH
Friday, March 3
Teenage Girls in Athenian Tragedy. Every Parent's Nightmare: Antigone and Electra.
READING: Sophocles, Antigone (PERSEUS); Euripides, Electra (PERSEUS); Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 7, "Private Life," on the well-ordered house and Greek Domestic Ideology, 163-164, 196-203; review Chs. I 1, and I, 3, in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro (eds.), 44-49; 76-79; 101-106.
RECOMMENDED: Sarah B. Pomeroy, ch. 13, "Infanticide in Hellenistic Greece," in Cameron and Kuhrt, Images of Women in Antiquity, 207-219. (WebCT)
Tuesday, March 7
Artemis and Female Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece. Painted Evidence from the Bronze Age and Later Vase. Painting: Abduction and Rape.
READING: Lefkowitz and Fant, in ch. 10, "Artemis," 283-285; Peter Bing and Rip Cohen (trs.), Games of Venus, Archilochus, 53-59, Alkman, 61-68. (WebCT); review ch. I, 1, in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 12-15, 19-22.
RECOMMENDED: Helen King, ch. 8, "Bound to Bleed: Artemis and Greek Women," in Cameron and Kuhrt, Images of Women in Antiquity, 109-127. (WebCT); Ada Cohen, ch. 8, "Portrayals of Abduction in Greek Art: Rape of Metaphor?" in Natalie Boymel Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 117-135. (WebCT)
Friday, March 10
Women's Use of Sex as a Weapon. Legal and Social Aspects of Greek Hetaera in the Athenian Polis. The Female Body in the Hippocratic Corpus. Athenian versus Spartan Women. The Only Happy Couple: Hermaphrodites.
READING: Aristophanes, Lysistrata (PERSEUS); Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 4, "Legal Status in the Greek World," on Demosthenes' Against Neaera, the past activities of a courtesan, 73-82 (cf. ibid. ch. 8, "Occupations," on prostitution 209-213), also in ch. 9, "Medicine and Anatomy," philosophers observing nature and practicing physicians on women, 225-243; Ch. I, 2, "Excursus--Spartan Women: Women in a Warrior Society," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 56-68; Ibid. Lesley Dean-Jones, ch. I, 6, "Medicine: the 'Proof' of Anatomy" in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro (eds.) 183-205; Aileen Ajootian, "The Only Happy Couple: Hermaphrodites and Gender," in A.O. Koloski-Ostrow and C. Lyons (eds.) Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, 220-242. (R and WebCT)
RECOMMENDED: Helen King, ch. 9, "Self-Help, Self-Knowledge: in search of the patient in Hippocratic gynaecology," in Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 135-148. (WebCT); Ibid. Danielle Gourevitch, ch. 10, "Women who suffer from a man's disease: the example of satyriasis and the debate on affections specific to the sexes," 149-165. (WebCT); Andrew Stewart, ch. 9, "Reflections," in Natalie Boymel Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 136-154. (WebCT)
Tuesday, March 14
Lesbian Desire. Homosexuality, Male Maturation, and Gay Abandon.
READING: Robin Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art, ch. 8, "Gay Abandon," 133-156. (WebCT); Sappho: Poems and Fragments, Stanley Lombardo (tr.), "Introduction," i-xxvii, Poems 1-73 (WebCT); Jane McIntosh Snyder, Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho, ch. 1, Intro. "A Woman-Centered Perspective on Sappho," 1-25. (WebCT); and ibid. ch. 4, "Sappho's Challenge to the Homeric Inheritance," 63-77. (WebCT)
RECOMMENDED: Peter Bing and Rip Cohen (trs.), Games of Venus, Intro. 1-11, Anacreon 87-91. (WebCT); Dover, "Classical Attitudes towards Sexual Behavior" (if available).
**Friday, March 17
Midterm Take-Home Essays due. Mythical Women Warriors in Art and Text.
FILM: The Amazons
READING: No extra reading for today. Focus on your research and reading for the Take-Home Essays.
RECOMMENDED: Beth Cohen, ch. 4, "Divesting the Female Breast of Clothes in Classical Sculpture," in A.O. Koloski-Ostrow and C. Lyons (eds.) Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, 66-92. (R); Ch. I, 4, "Excursus--Amazons: Women in Control," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 128-135.
Tuesday, March 21
Greek Philosophers on Female Virtue.
READING: Plato, Symposium (PERSEUS); Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 3, "Philosophers on the Role of Women," 38-54.
RECOMMENDED: Voula Lambropoulou, ch. 8, "Some Pythagorean Female Virtues," in Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 122-134. (R)
Friday, March 24
Women in the Hellenistic World: Art and Text.
READING: Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 9, "Medicine and Anatomy," on Galen, Soranus, Aretaeus, and Ideas about the Female Body 243-272; Ch. I, 5, "The Hellenistic Period: Women in a Cosmopolitan World," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 183-215.
RECOMMENDED: Peter Bing and Rip Cohen (trs.), Games of Venus, Theocritus, 141-171, Anon. Song from Marisa and Anon. Epigrams, 185-188. (WebCT); If you have time, review recommended reading of March 3: Sarah B. Pomeroy, ch. 13, "Infanticide in Hellenistic Greece," in Cameron and Kuhrt, Images of Women in Antiquity, 207-219. (WebCT)
Sunday, March 26
Optional fieldtrip to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (especially for those students doing art-focused final papers)
Tuesday, March 28
Etruscan Woman and Women in the Early Roman Republic. Evidence in Etruscan Art. Plautus and the Women of Roman Comedy.
READING: Plautus, Miles Gloriosus (PERSEUS); Larissa Bonfante, ch. II, 8, "Excursus--Estruscan Women," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 243-259; Ibid. ch. II, 9, "Republican Rome II: Women in a Wealthy Society," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 260-277; Lefkowitz and Fant, in ch. 5, "Legal Status in the Roman World," on marriage, power, and sexual mores 111-119; Ibid. in ch. 6, "Public Life," on women's bravery, 129-141, and on political life and organizations, 142-157.
RECOMMENDED: Larissa Bonfante, ch. 10, "Etruscan Sexuality and Funerary Art," in Natalie Boymel Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 155-169. (WebCT); Larissa Bonfante, ch. 8, "Daily Life and Afterlife," in Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies, 232-278. (R); Terrence, Andria (PERSEUS).
Friday, March 31
Women in Latin Love Poetry and the Construction of Male Desire.
READING: Peter Bing and Rip Cohen (trs.), Games of Venus, Intro. 11-50, Catullus 197-215, Ovid 263-275. (WebCT).
RECOMMENDED: Peter Bing and Rip Cohen (trs.), Games of Venus, Vergil, Horace, Tibullus, Sulpicia, and Propertius 217-262. (WebCT)
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APRIL
Tuesday, April 4
Late Republic and Early Empire. Augustus and the Enhanced Status of the Roman Matron. Augustus' Women in Augustan Art.
READING: Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 5, "Legal Status in the Roman World," 94-128, and ch. 7, "Private Life," 163-207; Ch. II, 7, "Republican Rome I: From Marriage by Capture to Partnership in War," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 216-242.
RECOMMENDED: Mireille Corbier, ch. 12, "Male Power and Legitimacy," in Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 178-193. (WebCT); Natalie Boymel Kampen, "Social Status and Gender in Roman Art: The Case of the Saleswoman," in Eve D'Ambra, Roman Art in Context: An Anthology, 115-132. (R); Ibid. Diana E.E. Kleiner, "The Great Friezes of the Ara Pacis Augustae. Greek Sources, Roman Derivatives, and Augustan Social Policy," 27-52. (R).
**Friday, April 7
Short Paper #2 due
Vergil's contribution: Dido versus the Roman Matron. Roman Mothers and Fathers.
READING: Vergil, Aeneid, Books 1, 2, 4 (PERSEUS); Ch. II, 10, "Excursus--The 'New Woman': Representation and Reality," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 280-293; Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, ch. 8, "The Roman Matron of the Late Republic and Early Empire," 149-189. (R and WebCT)
RECOMMENDED: Susan Dixon, Reading Roman Women, ch. 3, "Representations of Female Sexualities," ch. 4, "Rape in Roman Law and Myth," and ch. 5, "Woman as Symbol of Decadence," 32-65. (R and WebCT); Judith P. Hallett, Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society, ch. 3, "Filia Familiae," 62-149. (R); Barbara Kellum, ch. 11, "The Phallus as Signifier: The Forum of Augustus and Rituals of Masculinity," in Natalie Boymel Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 170-183. (R).
Tuesday, April 11 (Brandeis Friday)
The Cult of the Vestal Virgins at Rome. Women in the Art and Life of Rome--Their Image and Their Reality.
READING: Lefkowitz and Fant, in ch. 10, "Religion," on Vestal Virgins, 288-291; Ibid. ch. 8, "Occupations," 208-224; review on Vestals Ch. II, 7, "Republican Rome I: From Marriage by Capture to Partnership in War," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 234-237.
RECOMMENDED: Ch. II, 11, "Women, Family, and Sexuality in the Age of Augustus and the Julio-Claudians," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro (eds.), 294-329; Mary Beard, ch. 11, "Re-reading (Vestal) Virginity," in Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 166-177. (WebCT)
Thursday, April 13 - Sunday, April 23: No classes. (Passover Break)
Tuesday, April 25
Women in Pompeii. Public and Private in the Roman House.
READING: Review Ch. II, 7, "Republican Rome I: From Marriage by Capture to Partnership in War," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro (eds.) 216-242; Ch. II, 12, "Excursus--The Women of Pompeii," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro (eds.) 330-344; Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow, "Violent Stages in Two Pompeian Houses: Imperial taste, aristocratic response, and messages of male control," in A.O. Koloski- Ostrow and C. Lyons (eds.) Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, 243-266. (R and WebCT); Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 6, "Public Life," on honorific inscriptions, 158-161, and on victors, 161-162; Ibid. ch. 7, "Private Life," 163-207.
RECOMMENDED: Antonio d'Ambrosio, Women and Beauty in Pompeii (R); Liisa Savunen, ch. 13, "Women and Elections in Pompeii," in Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, 194-206. (R); Bettina Bergmann, ch. 13, "The Pregnant Moment: Tragic Wives in the Roman Interior," in Natalie Boymel Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 199-218. (R).
Friday, April 28
Women in Roman Myth: Art and Text.
READING: Ovid's Metamorphoses (selections) (PERSEUS); Juvenal, Satire 6 (PERSEUS); Apuleius' Golden Ass and the tales of bad wives (PERSEUS); Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 2, "Men's Opinions," Juvenal on women 31-37.
RECOMMENDED: Eve D'Ambra, ch. 14, "The Calculus of Venus: Nude Portraits of Roman Matrons," in Natalie Boymel Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 219-232. (R); John Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking (R). Some of the books on reserve for CLAS 134b, The Art and Archaeology of Rome, might be helpful, especially Michael Grant, Eros in Pompeii.
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MAY
**Tuesday, May 2
Final Research Papers due between today and Thursday, May 4 at 5:00 p.m. All seniors, however, must hand in their final papers today, May 2, as there is a press for the Registrar to receive grades.
Roman Praise and Blame: Laudatio Turiae. Gender and Desire. Women of the Late Empire.
READING: Lefkowitz and Fant, ch. 6, "Public Life," on a funeral eulogy, 135-139; Ch. II, 13, "Women of the High and Later Empire," in Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro (eds.) 345-394.
RECOMMENDED: Natalie Boymel Kampen, "Epilogue: Gender and Desire," in A.O. Koloski-Ostrow and C. Lyons (eds.) Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, 243-266. (R).
Photograph: Bride Arranging Her Hair, Great Frieze of the Dionysiac Mysteries, Augustan period, 2nd style,
Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, from http://www.utexas.edu/courses/italianarch.
To report broken links, please contact Janet Barry at jbarry@brandeis.edu or x6-2180.
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Department of Classical Studies, 2006.