What does it mean to say that Cleopatra was black, or not? Ancient history comes up often in modern debates about race. We will investigate how people understood racial and ethnic difference in the ancient Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and how interpretations of antiquity historically have shaped modern concepts of race. We will study relevant art and literature from the 8th century BCE through the 3rd century CE, and modern responses to both.

Independent research under direction of a faculty member leading to writing of a Distinguished Majors thesis or comparable project

Independent research under direction of a faculty member leading to writing of a Distinguished Majors thesis or comparable project

Writing of Distinguished Majors thesis or comparable project.Prerequisite: GREE 4998

Writing of Distinguished Majors thesis or comparable project.Prerequisites: LATI 4998

Studies selections from Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/classics/.

This course examines the major prose authors of Ancient Greek by reading both ancient accounts of their style and recent linguistic scholarship covering the syntactic and pragmatic issues relevant to the understanding of prose style (e.g. word order, particle use). Rather than approaching the topic through composition, the class will read selections from the ancient authors in close conjunction with pertinent linguistic and stylistic literature.

This course will explore the language of Greek epic poetry (chiefly Homer, but also Hesiod, the Hymns, and Apollonius). What is the nature of the epic Kunstsprache? How does its syntax differ from that of Classical Attic? To what extent can linguistic features be used to date the poems? How much flexibility does the poet have in the use of formulas? How do later poets manipulate the traditional linguistic patterns inherited from earlier epic?

Languages as superficially different as English, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit in fact all developed from a single "proto-language," called Proto-Indo-European. This course will explore the following questions: What was this proto-language like? How do we know what it was like? By what processes did it develop into the various daughter languages? How can we trace words as diverse as wit, idea, video, and Veda back to a common source?

Reading of Lucan's epic De bello civili in the light of modern scholarship, with attention to various related topics (textual transmission, scholia, later reception).