HIEU 2031

What everyone else has written about this class is very accurate. To sum it up --- amazing lectures, you'll learn a lot, but you'll be miserable with the amount of reading and difficulty of the exams. The exams are grueling, with term IDs, passage IDs, and essays. The content is super interesting but the brute memorization of terms on top of hundreds of pages of reading each week is tough. I'd still recommend the class because Lendon is a really great, interesting lecturer, but be prepared to need a lot of serious studying time around exams. If you can have Hank Lanphier as a TA (in this class or any other) he is phenomenal --- the best TA I've had at UVA by far #tCFfall22

By far the best class I have taken at UVA to date. Yes, it's not an easy A and requires a good bit of reading and attention during lectures, but overall the effort is worth it. Discussions were great and went over and summarised lectures as well as the weekly readings quite well. The class does require A LOT of reading but not all of it is essential to the class and much of it can be skimmed over or skipped altogether. Lendons lectures are extremely interesting and are much of the reason I am majoring in history. Overall would most definitely recommend this class

This is the best course I’ve taken at UVA so far. While it was certainly a difficult course (the readings were 150 pgs a week on average), Professor Lendon is the most interesting lecturer I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Provided you have any interest in ancient history, you’ll probably feel the same. He somehow had the ability to make a 50-minute lecture on exclusively ancient boats entertaining. The man knows his stuff, and is great at also getting you to know your stuff. The exams were pretty difficult, consisting of a section of IDs, which are different people, places, events, and things that were discussed throughout the course, passage IDs, which task you with identifying the author and context of a passage you previously read in the course, and then longer-form essays. There were also infrequent quizzes on the IDs of the week in section. So while this course is definitely a lot of work, you will come out of it with a great amount of knowledge of archaic and classical Greece and will have had a great time in lecture. I wholeheartedly recommend this class.

Lendon's a pretty damn cool professor, and especially an amazing lecturer. His lectures are 110% super fun and interesting -- he was the one lecturer whose lectures I didn't fall asleep in for the entire semester. But be warned: this man assigns SO. MUCH. READING. I'm talking about 100-200 pages a week, not including the "textbook's" (it's called AG in the syllabus) reading. Those 100-200 pages a week are straight from texts of Ancient Greece primary sources and they are so painful. With those, I'd recommend knowing what will be (and what won't be) on the exams. Skim everything, especially if you're on a time crunch, but I'd recommend reading speeches, certain battles, and the defining characteristics of military/political leaders that Lendon lectured about for your discussions and exams. I went the entire semester without reading the AG textbook -- it's basically a way for people who were absent to know what happened in lecture. Overall, I would recommend sitting in Lendon's lectures, but if you have a heavy semester ahead of you, you probably want to steer clear of this course.

This is a really, really, really good class but certainty not something most people can handle. If you cannot study for this about 8-10 hours on this per day leading up to the exam, you will most likely have a shit grade. Look at the grade distribution. The readings can be incredibly boring (Homer, Hesiod for example), but the generally topic is super interesting. The readings are not necessary to shine in discussion however, as I found out on some of my busier weeks. I would highly recommend to someone who is interested in investing time in a solid understanding of Ancient Greek History. You could probably convince someone you majored in Ancient Greek history by the end. This is why Mr. Lendon is fantastic, even if during exam prep time and term paper writing time your enthusiasm might dip some. I had Thomas Davidson for a TA, he was fantastic. I have similarly heard great things about Joshua Mackay, but there might be different TAs by the time you take it. Many people here saying it's too hard have crazy weak standards for difficulty. I am in the engineering school way out of my comfort zone in my first semester at UVA and I got an A. It is not impossible to do well in, just requires high time investment.

Do NOT take this class to fill a gen ed. The amount of work he requires you to do is ridiculous. I was reading about 100 pages a week for the discussion and another 70 for the class. He did not treat this at all like a 2000 level class. I learned a lot and the lectures were interesting but the amount of work you have to put into this class is completely not worth it. Along with reading the 100 pages for the discussion, you are also required to memorize approximately 40 definitions and map locations per week; you have to come up with your own definitions and you don't know if they are sufficient or not until you fail the pop quiz in the discussion section. The exams are extremely difficult. The only exams are a midterm and a final. You have to know the definitions of all of the words you studied during the semester. Also, you are required to remember every passage you read from any of the books throughout the semester. He provides a random passage and you have to identify the background, which book it was from, who the author was, and even more details. How are you supposed to remember all of this???? DO NOT LISTEN TO THE REVIEWS THAT SAY TAKE THIS COURSE YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO THAT. The people who wrote those reviews must have been crazy or this was their only difficult course they took that semester. I am in the e-school and this was my lowest grade that semester and I was pissed. The grading is crazy. I got a B on both papers I wrote, but for my second paper, the only comments were related to a spelling error in one of the names, even though I showed the TA that the name was spelled that way in the book. He merely chuckled and said "oh yah!" and I never got any points back even though there was nothing else wrong with my paper. Save yourself the time and energy and do not take this class.

Listen. WHOEVER likes this class and wrote all of these absolutely glowing reviews, you MUST be crazy. I read these courseforum reviews looking for a fun class to fill up my fourth year and I thought wow! This seems like a class I should NOT miss! But guess what. I am a fourth year and this is the first and only class I have WITHDRAWN from because it was so insane what Professor Lendon expected of you for a 2000 level history class. There was at least 70 pages of reading for lecture and then another 70 for discussion, not to mention he forces you to buy an out of print textbook, 10 other books, and a specific course packet from NK Print. I spent easily $100+ on the materials for this class, but during lecture he has nearly no powerpoint and refers little to the readings–instead giving a rambling lecture with his awful voice that was impossible to follow. The first day of classes, he pulled some of that classic jerky teacher stuff where he screamed and yelled about his syllabus and how NOT lenient (synonym- INHUMANE) he is regarding grading and assignments. He gave a lengthy speech about how him and SDAC aren't friends, and basically he is not at all accommodating to students with disabilities/need extra test time. Had I been an SDAC student listening to him berate his first day students about this point in particular, I would have been mortified! I would have walked out of the class immediately. How rude and disrespectful for a professor, who's job it is to help students learn and achieve, to make a joke of a very real program helping students with disabilities. He also said during this crazy tangent, and I quote, "I am the kind of person who, when they see a cute fluffy bunny on the side of the road, I just want to – *makes garish choking motion with his hands*". What the heck?? I should have dropped this class when I had the chance. Of course during the second class he quickly told us he was "running a fever" the first class, therefore excusing him from any blame for the crazy things he said. Oh yeah, not to mention pop quizzes during discussion that I failed even after doing the readings and attending lectures. I'm sure Professor Lendon will read this review and scoff, but please trust me. This class is not worth your time, and not worth your dollars. Don't take it unless you absolutely have to, and even then think really hard about it.

I learned SO much in this course! Mr. Lendon is an absolute blast, who knows a ton about ancient greece. He asks a lot of his students -- there's a lot of IDs, a good amount of writing, and a lot of reading -- so you shouldn't take this course as an easy A. If you have time, PLEASE put consistent effort into this course, DO NOT try and learn all the IDs right before the tests and quizzes. You will have two chances to write an essay -- take the first one if you have time. I didn't read all of Herodotus and Thuc but I still got a fairly good grade. Overall, I would definitely take this course again!

Take this course! Coming from a non-history major, Lendon made me look forward to every lecture and I can truly say I enjoyed each one. He's witty, eloquently spoken, and has a knack for storytelling in a way that kept my attention -- he changes his volume, expression, and pace often -- on topics that can be confusing and/or lengthy. It's a privilege to learn from him, and one I think every UVa student should take advantage of. Each lecture ended with a Lendon-signature cliffhanger that ties up in a neat little bow all that we learned that day while foreshadowing the next class. Unlike other classes, nobody packs up until he finishes his lectures. The readings were, admittedly, really tedious and I sometimes dreaded taking the time to do them. But if you allot the time needed (maybe ~2 hours/day if it's a lengthy assignment), they aren't that bad. The textbook is good for understanding the events in modern language, and although the historical texts can be difficult to digest, weekly discussion breaks them down. For discussion, Kevin Woram is a fantastic TA. He made me look forward to every discussion because he was funny, approachable, respectful, and genuinely helpful in organizing huge chunks of history in my mind. The midterm and final were, in my opinion, highly stressful beforehand but with enough studying, not too difficult-- that is to say, the course provides you with the necessary info so it's not blindsiding, but it requires work to memorize and understand. The essay(s) are a good way to improve your grade because you have a reasonably long timeframe to complete one or both ~7 page double spaced papers (depending on which option you choose). Memorizing dates is crucial to doing well in the class, and Lendon states early on that if this isn't your forte, it will be difficult. But, all in all, if you're willing to put in the work, the class is great!

Lendon is an amazing lecturer. I never wanted to miss a single class and truly enjoyed listening. The readings are numerous and lengthy but missing one here or there shouldn’t be a problem if you go to class. 10/10 recommend this class for anyone willing to put in the time.

Taking this class was probably the best decision of my life. To start, let me talk about Professor Lendon. He is a phenomenal lecturer and honestly one of the most fun people I've ever talked to. I started going to office hours every week just for fun because he's just absolutely fantastic. Every lecture is a story, and often times he'll leave off on a cliffhanger that'll leave you hungry for more. (i.e. "From there, Alcibiades vanished from Athens and reappeared in Sparta, where he was found sleeping with the queen. Next time, ladies and gentlemen.") His last lecture on Alexander the Great was truly beautiful and the way it ended was truly worthy of the applause he got. I know every semester ends with professors receiving applause, however Professor Lendon certainly had the loudest applause out of all of my instructors.

That being said, only take this class if you're prepared to do the work, because it has a lot. We'll get to the exams in a second, but let's begin with how much work is assigned for every week. You'll usually have about 30-60 pages of textbook reading assigned for every lecture. These do not need to be done. In fact, I think at some point he stated himself that the textbook is basically only there if a) you miss lecture and need to review and b) to study for the exam. I never missed a single lecture, but I used it a lot to study for the exam. It's actually a pretty horrible textbook, so it's only really good to study. In terms of other work, you can have up to 150-200 pages a week assigned of primary source material. This could range from Herodotus and Thucydides to the plays of Aristophanes to Plato's Apology to the Iliad (week 1) to the poems of Solon. However, you pretty much only have to read these primary sources for your once a week discussion section, so you have plenty of time to get through it. Because you only need to read for your discussion, the reading is actually pretty manageable.

Here's the grade distribution: Mid-Term—25%, Final—30%, One paper—25%, Discussion Participation—10%, Discussion Quizzes—10%.

Let me go through each of these. For both the mid-term and the final, you will have to do Term IDs, Passage IDs, and handwritten essays. The Term IDs are by far the most difficult. For every week's lectures (of which there are 2) you will be assigned between 15 and 30 terms and you will have to memorize not only the significance of each of them, but also the exact date (i.e. Solon's Archon Year was 594/3 BCE; the Battle of Cyzicus was fought in the year 410 BCE; construction on the Parthenon began in 447 BCE; etc.) for ALL of them (the super early stuff is a little easier because there aren't exact dates for a lot of things, but after the mid-term stuff for the final is HELL). The Passage IDs are a little easier as long as you're keeping up with your readings. The handwritten essays are also extremely easy if you attend and pay attention in discussion and if you've memorized all the terms. The best way to prep for the exams is to focus on memorizing the terms, because not only are those the meat of the grade, those are also a great way to review the overarching stuff since you end up going through the important points multiple times when learning various terms. For instance, how best to understand the Peace of Nicias? By understanding every little detailed event during the Peace of Nicias multiple times because there are basically multiple terms for every event (names, places, events, etc.). This is a hard class.

The paper is assigned based on the work of either Herodotus or Thucydides—you can choose which one to write. It is 7 pages long. You can also choose to write both Herodotus AND Thucydides, and the grade that is higher will be the one that is counted (and if the second one is better, you'll get a little bonus for improving). It's not an easy paper to write, and you need to expand your evidence beyond the assigned reading (which is hard, because there is a LOT of assigned reading on both of them), and so it takes a LOT of time to work through all the volumes of their works to be able to collect all your evidence and finally begin writing (took me two all nighters). This is a hard class.

Other than that, the class is mostly fun, just about 4-5 nights of seemingly insurmountable stress in the whole semester, and other than that you're golden. Discussion participation is easy even if you haven't done the reading, and the discussion quizzes are easy (also I think the lowest one is dropped, which is good because there aren't even that many to begin with). Never miss a lecture, because you don't want to read that god-awful textbook, and always attend discussion because it's mandatory. If you absolutely need to miss one (like for an exam, as I had to once), try to attend a different discussion section.

Overall, the professor is amazing, the textbook is garbage but you don't need it, there is a LOT of primary source reading, the paper can make your life hell but can actually also be incredibly fun (like it was for me, I LOVE Herodotus), the exams are incredibly difficult but only stress you out twice in one semester. If you're willing to put in the work and, come exam season, have the contents of your mind be completely overtaken by the world of Ancient Greece, I would highly recommend taking this course. Also, for TA, you want Lily van Diepen if you can get her. She is the best. I wrote a review for her too.

Take it, no questions asked. You learn a lot, and Lendon is easily the best professor I have ever had. Kevin Woram is great in discussion too and is very willing to help if you are finding the course difficult. Do not listen to London on the first day, he just wants to make sure the right students are taking the class.

I made the grave error of not attending about half of the lectures. As you can read from the reviews below it's necessary and extremely rewarding. I slacked on the readings and identifications before the midterm and test but had a pretty decent understanding of each definition. The grading is not terrible, I still managed a B+ with what I consider pretty bad effort. Definitely 1) don't be intimidated by Lendon or the amount of reading 2) GO TO LECTURE 3) Know the ID's frontward and backwards 4) READ and you will be more than fine in what is one of the better classes at UVa

Absolutely phenomenal class, and really not as difficult as it's made out to be. Lendon is probably the best lecturer at UVA - I didn't miss a single class, and only because I really didn't want to. The workload is ~medium. Go to class and pay attention and take notes. As far as the reading goes, he assigns a lot. Most of it is interesting. I did it all before the midterm and started being a LOT less religious about it afterwards - did fine on the first paper so I didn't have to write the 2nd one (he lets you just write 1 of the 2 papers, but write the first one so you can salvage things if you do poorly). Participate in your discussions. The most time intensive thing for me was memorizing the terms before the midterm and the final. I really recommend doing that fully and well. Know your dates, know your names, know how they relate - it really doesn't take that long. Ended up with an A in the class.

TAKE THIS FREAKING CLASS.

Professor Lendon is an outstanding lecturer. His lectures make the hours of reading and writing worth it. His lecturing ability is unmatched by other professors. However, if you don't do the readings, you will probably end up withdrawing from the class. If you stay on top of things and study hard an A is attainable

LENDON IS A GOD!!! He makes you WANT to go to lecture. a LOT of reading but so worth it. DO IT!

Jon Lendon is a phenomenal lecturer. He truly is an amazing professor whose class you will look forward to going to because every lecture is like a performance, and he has mastered his craft. That being said, this class is REALLY hard. The reading is not only really heavy, but dense. The texts can be tough to follow and the assigned portions for each class are just impossible. You can go without ever reading the actual textbook although I imagine it would help a lot if you are unclear on something, but Lendon largely covers all of that reading in the lecture. If you are prepared to really really work hard, this class is for you. The lectures could be worth it for some, but my grades suffered quite a bit more than I wanted them to.

Great class. Great lectures. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, not just History or Classics majors. Lendon knows so much about the material and really has a passion for it, with an understanding of how to make it enjoyable for us. The map quiz really wasn't that bad, and the grades are clearly defined. A midterm and a final, with a (long) list of terms to know. A lot of material, but its easy to pay attention to his lectures!

As everyone has said, this is a great class. This particular offering seemed to have a lot of first years, which I didn't think was typical of the course. The grading by one of the TAs also seemed strange (i.e. some seemed to be graded with more scrutiny than others), but I don't want to go into it because I know how that sounds.

Lendon has been my favorite professor so far at UVA. He is an engaging lecturer who will instill his passion for Ancient Greece in even the most unwilling learner. Not as scary as he appears on the first day, especially if you go to office hours; he is really nice and likes getting to know his students. You need to do a lot of work if you want an A, but it is possible.

DO NOT BE SCARED AWAY BY THIS MAN OR YOU WILL LOSE OUT. Professor Lendon tries to weed-out the class on the first day by reading course evaluations about how sadistic he is. And make no mistake- the class is very challenging, one of the more challenging history courses you can take. Lendon may intimidate you at first, but he really grows on you as he begins each lecture with some crazy anecdote, and demonstrates his passionate knowledge of Greek history every time he opens his mouth to teach. He is a nice and helpful professor who really loves his subject matter. Lectures are like story time and they are absolutely fascinating (and occasionally epic). As for the work-load: Do not bother reading the textbook, it is only there in case you miss lecture (though it is helpful for writing out the ID's). You spend your time every week reading the primary source material for discussion section, as well as memorizing the week's ID's in case of a pop quiz. You must also be aware of Herodotus and Thucydides- both of which you will have to read significant portions of. (Lendon says you are to read the entirety of both, but I found you could get by reading only the assigned portions for your paper(s).) Grades are based on a midterm, a final, and a 7-page paper (or two, if you seek extra credit). The midterm and final have the same format, consisting of 3 sections: ID's (which you write out using the textbook and memorize), passage ID's (which are taken from the primary source materials), and essays (for which you study you notes from lecture). The paper takes a solid effort- though if you finish a few days early, the TA's are more than happy to read them over and make recommendations. I had David for my TA. Very smart and helpful, I would highly recommend him. I've also heard he's a much more generous grader than Nick. Bottom line for the course: Very challenging, but very rewarding. Highly recommended for anyone who likes history, especially European history.

Lendon is a fantastic professor; the guy knows his Stuff, just google him on the internet. He's passionate about his subject and his lectures almost feel like a story. Without a doubt, he's been my favorite history professor here at UVA just because he makes Greek History come to life. Of course, the subject matter is also very interesting; everything that happens in Greek history feels like it could come out of a novel, and this class is a must-take for any true hellenophile. That being said, the class does take some work. The reading each week, while sometimes unnecessary, can amount to several hours worth of work, and students must prepare themselves for discussion each week both by reading primary sources to be able to get participation points and by memorizing ID terms in case of a pop quiz. There is one, 8 page paper for the entire semester (or two if you would like extra credit) which requires studying a large amount of either Thucydides' or Herodotus' history text. Lendon always seems to choose equally good TA's who are quite nice and willing to help, so if one can get most of their paper done about five days before the due date, the TA's are perfectly willing to read through it and mark everything that is wrong/needs improvement, thus making getting an A on the paper quite easy. Overall, Lendon's class requires work; only one or two students per semester will get an A, and about ten or less will get an A-, but if you put in the work, go to lecture and discussion, and love the subject, it's almost difficult to get below an A-. For those who love history, I highly suggest this class.

I really really loved this class. I was very lenient on taking it at first, but I am so glad I took it because it became my favorite class this semester! It definitely is A LOT of reading- but in my opinion it was all worth it. Lendon is absolutely fantastic. His lectures are entertaining and funny. My advice is to do the reading and know the vocab in order to be prepared for discussion and possible pop quizzes in section. The midterm and final require a lot of studying but if you memorize the IDs and know the readings you should be fine. I thought I failed the paper but I got an A-. Definitely write the first paper, it tends to be graded easier.

Excellent professor, very knowledgeable and really makes Greek history entertaining. Lectures are extremely interesting, fun, and informative. Professor Lendon truly makes this class enjoyable for students. But be weary, the reading is often grueling. Many hours are spent reading one topic, and the test are difficult truly testing your knowledge.

Amazing lecturer, he makes the class fun and keeps lecturees attentive. Grades are another thing, the midterm, essay, and final account for about 85% of the class alone, bomb one of these.......goodluck...not particularly hard if you're interested in Greek History and enjoy reading.

This is an excellent class. Lendon makes lectures into storytelling, which is super interesting. Basically, he's like acting out plays on Greek history. Names and terms can get overwhelming if you are not used to them, but he always put them into context to make memorization easier. Overall, I'd highly recommend this class, I look forward to going to class every week (I'm not a history nerd, and I don't usually have high hopes for history classes). I have all the books you might need, contact me if interested: danli_meng@hotmail.com

Lendon was an absolute pleasure. He is a brilliant, charismatic, bombastic, and hilarious educator. He presents the material in such an entertaining way and has an idiosyncratic interpretation of historical events that adds an extra element. That being said, most of the grading is done by the TAs (except for the unlucky few who had their papers graded by Lendon so he could show the TAs how to do it properly,) and so your final evaluation lies mostly on how lax or easy of a grader they are. My TA was definitely very chill. With that came what seemed to be little preparation on his part for discussions. Discussion section topics were pretty much left up to the students, to as questions and voice opinions, etc. However, Mr. Tennant was very nice and helpful with papers, matters outside of class. To do well in this class, you have to do well on the mid-term and final, which are very formidable exams. However, Lendon does require you to buy a study guide that lists all of the terms, essays, and works you need to be acquainted with to do these finals. As long as you do the reading each week (which can be petty demanding,) and go over the study sheets the week you go over the material, you should be good.

Professor Lendon is definitely energetic and his lectures are certainly entertaining. With regards to content, his lectures can be said to complement the readings, and occasionally lend some analytical insight into the "so what?" questions. The material is pretty interesting and the course is definitely concentrate on the political developments rather than the arts and philosophy.

The material can be tough because one is required to have a strong grasp of a lot of little details. I would caution students with extensive backgrounds in history to take a special note of the need to learn all theses details. After a couple of years of taking upper level courses that don't stress learning a bunch of dates, locations, names etc., it is tough to bring oneself to actually commit to learning 25 words a week.

Overall, a worthwhile course that was entertaining. I would just caution people against taking it to lightly, as I did.

This class has a heavy reading load, and much like most history classes, the exams and papers are challenging. However Lendon is an extremely engaging lecturer and the material is interesting. The discussions are a waste of time, but overall I would recommend the class.

The class has a lot of reading involved, but the material is very easy to read if you are at all interested in Ancient Greek history. Prof Lendon is also a great speaker and is always prepared for lecture. He always makes the lectures interesting by building in a joke in the beginning of class and having many examples of humorous Greek legends and stories to relate to the material we are discussing, in fact Lendon's lecture was the first class I did not fall asleep in.

Great class. Tough but worthwhile.

Great class, Lendon is hilarious and really knowledgeable and accessible. There is a ton of reading and if you don't do basically all of it you will not do well on the midterm and final, but the readings themselves are mostly interesting and not too difficult. Definitely go to lecture if for no other reason than to hear Lendon because he is great, although his lectures are very much a repeat of most of the stuff covered in the readings. Definitely a great class, worth the workload. Not hard to get a good grade in if you put in the effort.

Very entertaining lectures! Not as scary as he may initially seem

Definitely do the reading. There is reading for lecture and additional reading for discussion. This class requires attendance and thorough reading to get a B. Lendon is a very enthusiastic lecturer and makes the class worthwhile.

Hard class with lots and lots of reading but really enjoyable!

The class was extremely interesting; Lendon is definitely passionate about Greek history and he knows what he's talking about. Readings were intense and I wouldn't recommending taking this class with other reading intensive courses because of the nature of the reading (a lot of scattered/difficult names, dates, and places) but it will definitely improve your skills as a history major.

Overall it isn't as hard as he makes it out to be. Just do the reading and keep good notes and you will be fine. There is a big emphasis on the two exams, so get a study group together

Great class. The professor is highly entertaining and really knows his stuff. The class is great but there is a ton of reading. If you can push through the reading the class is definitely worth it.

Lendon is a treat. His class is not. If you take this class, be prepared for an extremely large amount of reading. If you are ok with that then you will definitely enjoy the class. He makes you want to go to lecture!