CLAS 2010

If you are prepared to work hard and be diligent, this class will be fun and interesting! Professor Dillery clearly loves what he is teaching which makes lectures very enjoyable; the content is about the archaic era of Greece, but it feels very relevant to modern times. That being said, it is more of a study of Greek civilization through literature and you only actually read two history-type books with the rest being Homer, tragedies, comedies, philosophy, and poetry. The homework is usually around 100 pages of reading, 3 times a week so make sure you stay on top of it. I found it best to space the readings out over a couple of days and to read ahead. While some of the books like Herodotus and Thucydides are very dense, try your best to get a solid understanding of the people, timeline, events, and its importance. Also, copy down the quotes he reads in class and in section, along with quick notes about its significance. The midterm and final include vocabulary ids, quote ids, and essays at the end. Additionally, there are two essays that he assigns during the semester. The best way to do well on these if by going to office hours either with him or your ta to go over your outline and receive feedback. I started this course very intimated as I had limited background knowledge on Ancient Greece, but it was honestly such a great class that I ended up doing well in. If you have the slightest interest in Ancient Greece, take this class!

This class should've been named Greek Literature rather than Greek Civilization. You only study specific books rather than civilization as a whole.

Professor Dillery is always enthusiastic and answers any questions we have. My biggest issue with the class was the readings—after the initial 2-3 books, they become increasingly longer and boring, making it hard to grasp all the necessary information. At a certain point, attending class was the only way to understand the readings. Additionally, the class primarily grades on identifying vocab and passages rather than your knowledge of different topics (felt kind of unfair). Don't take this class unless you have a real interest in Greek literature or you will struggle.

Super super boring class. Very hard to pay attention after the first two books or so, and it only gets more boring as the class goes. My TA was Casey who was great, but the class was pretty difficult and doesn't do any + or -, so I got a solid B which was pretty annoying. Hard class. I wouldn't reccomend if you're just taking to fill the requirement (which I was).