Skidmore College Department of Classics
| Gateway to the Major | |
| Latin Language | |
| Greek Language | |
| Research and Writing | |
| Ancient Literature | |
| Ancient History | |
| Ancient Art and | |
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| Classical Civilization |
Course Descriptions / Latin
CL
110: Elementary Latin. 4 credits
Latin, the root of the Romance languages of French, Spanish and Italian,
and the language of the sciences and medicine, lies at the heart of Western
civilization. The study of Latin and Roman culture leads to a greater
understanding of our own literature and civilization, improves writing
and reading skills, and helps to develop precise thinking. Students in
this course will acquire the basics of Latin grammar and vocabulary while
reading selected prose passages and poems by Cicero, Catullus, Vergil,
Martial and Caesar. Prerequisite: None. Department.
CL210:
Intermediate Latin. 4 credits
Students will explore The Gallic Wars, the study by Julius Caesar of the
wars he fought in what is now France. Caesar's work examines the lives,
politics, rituals, religion and warfare of these Gauls, or Celts, as well
as aspects of the religious order of the Druids. We shall devote special
attention to the distinctions Caesar draws in this ethnographic study
between the "barbarian" Gauls and his own "civilized" Romans. Prerequisite:
CL110 or permission of the chair. Department.
CL 310: Semester in
Latin Poetry and Drama. 3 credits
Advanced reading and critical examination in Latin of the works of one
of the following Latin poets or dramatists: Catullus, Horace, Juvenal,
Lucretius, Plautus, Ovid, Terence or Vergil. This course may be taken
more than once for credit. Recent courses have focused on "Ovid's Theater
of Epic" and "The Plays of Plautus." Prerequisite: CL210 or permission
of the chair. Curley.
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Ovid's Theater of Epic: In this course we shall survey the adaptation of Greek tragedy in two Latin works by the poet Ovid: his Heroides, which are a series of love letters written by mythical heroines to their absent lovers, and the Metamorphoses, which deals with supernatural transformations of various kinds. Technically, these works belong to the genres of elegy and epic. Our goal, however, is to study how Ovid used the two genres as a platform for reviving Greek drama, which by the poet's time had become largely extinct. In particular, we shall explore how Ovid gave voice to women, providing in his poetry a stage for them to express their loves, hates, fears, and joys. |
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CL 311: Seminar in Latin
Prose Literature. 3 credits
Advanced reading and critical examination in Latin of the works of one
of the following Latin prose authors: Caesar, Cicero, Livy, Petronius,
Pliny, Suetonius or Tacitus. This course may be taken more than once for
credit. Recent courses have focused on "Private Lives, Private Worlds"
and "Petronius' Satyricon." Prerequisite: CL210 or permission of the chair.
Curley, Arnush.
| Private Lives, Private Worlds: We shall survey Latin texts such as Cicero's Letters, Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, and Apuleius's Golden Ass, which depict the elusive and mysterious realm of private life, the domus. We shall focus on the boundaries within the domus-the lines that divide public and private, woman and man, husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant-and the consequences of transgression. |
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