Classics (CLAS)
In this course, we will critically examine various fields of study of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and engage in collaborative research projects that open up new questions and ideas about future work in these fields. As we explore using different methods of investigating the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, we will consider the history of the fields that focus on a geographical area that extends from Iran to Spain and from Egypt to Britain. Through thinking more about the current and future states of fields such as Classics and Near Eastern Studies, we will analyze what areas of study these fields have included and what they have not, what work the names of these fields are doing in making claims about the ancient world, and how these different fields have been shaped and used in particular times and places. After learning about how we know what we think we know about the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and how we learn more about these areas, students will have the means and opportunity to formulate and pursue research topics of their own.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
A selection of ancient Greek literature read in translation, from Homeric epic to classical history and drama, with a focus on the relation between literature and social conditions.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
A selection of ancient Roman literature read in translation, including authors such as Vergil, Tacitus, Cicero, and Plautus, with a focus on the relationship between literature and social conditions.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
A study of classical epic, with special emphasis on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Vergil's Aeneid, but including also other examples of the genre, such as Lucan or Statius. Topics to be considered include oral and literary epic, their social and political contexts, and the influence of classical epic on later literature.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Study in depth of a selection of ancient Greek and/or Roman tragedies and comedies, with an emphasis on performance practices and contexts.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
This course primarily examines how certain themes, typological figures and universal truths which are developed in Biblical and Classical literature have been adapted to new circumstances and handed down over the past two millennia. The other main focus of the course will be daily in-class writing assignments based on class discussions which will allow students to develop their creative and critical writing skills.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Comparison of Classical and modern versions of several ancient Greek myths. The relationships between myth and literature are considered, as well as reasons why these myths have endured through the centuries. Emphasis is on dramatic versions of the myths; narrative poetry and other genres such as music and cinema may also be explored.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
This course traces the development of the concept and experiences of the process of discernment from Antiquity to the Renaissance by looking at a wide range of texts originally written in Greek or Latin in a case-study format. The primary focus will be the "discernment of spirits" as developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, with an emphasis on three key areas of discernment: Individual, Corporate, and Individual within Corporate.
Students who have taken MONT 109D (Model Christian Discerners) may not enroll in this course.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature, Studies in Religion
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
An exploration of the significance of myths, their meanings and functions in the cultures of Greece and Rome. Special attention is given to more recent developments in the study of myths and their relation to rituals and folk tales. Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindu and American Indian mythology may be used for comparative purposes.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
A study of the goals, methods and subject matter of Greco-Roman science. Pays special attention to how science relates to the broader social, religious and intellectual context of the ancient world.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
This course will focus on a variety of ancient Greek heroes: Herakles, Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon, MeleagerJason, Aeneas, Thesus, Perseus and more. We will read great epics such as Homer's Iliad & Odyssey, the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, Virgil's Aeneid; we will also read about these heroes in Greek tragedies, lyric poetry of Pindar and Bacchyides and the Metamorphoses of Ovid. In addition to literary sources, we will be looking at artistic representations of these heroes on Greek vases and sarcophagi, and in later art up to and including modern art.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
A study of Greek history from its beginnings to the death of Socrates. Emphasis is placed on a close analysis of the primary sources.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Fall
An analysis of the institutions, literature, and political thought inspired by the democracy of fifth- and fourth-century Athens.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature, Social Science
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
This course will look at uses of ancient Greece and Rome in American civic life and culture, with a focus on the reception of Classical ideas and models during periods of conflict in the US. This will include American engagement with the Classics in the revolutionary and constitutional periods, in the abolitionist movements of the nineteenth century and the civil rights era of the twentieth century, and in discussions about race, gender, and class identity in the twenty-first century.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies, Literature
A survey of Roman civilization from the Regal period to the late Republic, with a special focus on the political and social forces that led to the establishment of the Principate. Concentrates on the primary sources for this period, including the historians, inscriptions, and monuments.
Students who have taken HIST 110 - Rome: Republic Empire may not enroll in this course.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Spring
A survey of Roman imperial civilization from the first to the sixth century. Concentrates on the primary sources for this period, including the historians, inscriptions, monuments, and coins.
Students who have taken HIST 110 - Rome: Republic Empire may not enroll in this course.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Fall
An introduction to the methodologies employed by archaeologists. Most examples will be drawn from the artifacts, sites and monuments of the ancient Mediterranean world.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
An exploration of myths about migration and refugees in ancient drama and epic, considered alongside contemporary narratives of global migration. Special attention will be given to the 2015 migration crisis in Greece. This class will include a community-based learning component.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Annually
GPA units: 0
Introduces students to the art of mural (wall) painting in the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity, and to the art of mosaic from its origins in Classical Greece through Late Antiquity. Topics addressed are the techniques of fresco and mosaic; the relationship of mural painting to lost panel paintings by famous artists; the social meaning of wall and floor decoration in the ancient world; the roles of artist and patron; the Roman response to Greek painting and mosaic; and the Christian response to pagan painting and mosaic.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
Considers the political, religious, and cultural encounters between the ancient Greek world and Asia generated by the expedition of Alexander the Great and the interpretations of the story of Alexander found in different cultural traditions from antiquity to the present day, from religious texts to heavy metal music.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies, Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
This course examines gender ideologies, systems of social power, and the ways in which women were either systematically excluded from or worked their way into positions of power in the ancient Mediterranean. Discussions of gender theory and the origins of the gender binary within early states will foreground regional case studies focusing on gender roles and womens rights in Egypt, Greece, Persia, Rome, the Levant and Mesopotamia. The course then explores themes such as the interplay between Orientalism and the ancient and modern receptions of specific women of power, like Cleopatra and Semiramus, how the introduction of monotheistic religions altered these gendered systems, and how women resisted or assisted in the construction of empires. We will analyze primary source texts written both by and about women, as well as artifacts and art historical sources to compare how certain power systems, institutions, and historical circumstances facilitated womens rise to power over others, and what effects these systems are still having today.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
This course provides an introduction to the practices of cultural heritage photography and interrogates the ways in which photography renders small-scale antiquities in particular. How have the fields of archaeology, art history, and philology sought to document ancient objects from the Middle East? What do these practices of photography tell us about our own values and interests? Through a combination of critical analysis and creative practice we will explore the extent to which seemingly neutral photography is, in fact, a form of interpretation. Students will learn how to read photographs as expressions of meaning and explore the relationship between form and content. While we will analyze a range of photographs, our practice will focus in particular on the documentation of small finds. Students will learn the basics of macro photography, from initial capture through final editing using software such as Adobe Photoshop. Materials documented in the course could include: replicas of ancient Middle Eastern antiquities; objects in the collection of the College of the Holy Cross or other nearby museums/institutions; and even small personal items. Throughout the semester, students will be asked to photograph the world around them, thinking about the choices that lay behind the production of an image. A project at the end of the semester will allow students to create their own curated display of object photographs.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
TBD
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Myths are a kind of traditional tale. Like any traditional story, they are multiform: there is no single, "correct" version. We can think of a mythology as the collection of myths that relates all of the (potentially contradictory) versions of many stories.In this course we'll explore large collections of myths preserved in ancient handbooks of mythology and in scholarly commentaries on the major Greek epic, the Iliad. We will learn how to use digital methods to explore questions about Greek myth we could not answer from close reading alone. The course will emphasize both content and methodology. To the course title "Digital Mythology," you may add either of two subtitles: "Reading Greek mythology using data science" or "A first encounter with data science through Greek mythology.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
This course will explore cases of ancient immigration in regions like ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Nubia, Rome, the Levant, Anatolia, and Persia to critically engage with and analyze the complex processes of identity negotiation that occurred. Beyond the region, each week will grapple with different themes, such as immigration and political propaganda, the blending of religion, the depiction of the other in art and text, etc. This course will explore multiple themes, debates, and questions concerning how archaeologists and historians study ancient identities and immigration, such as 1) how was identity constructed in the ancient world, and how can we study it; 2) were ancient conceptions of race, ethnicity, and identity similar or different to today; 3) did racism and/or xenophobia exist in the ancient world; 4) how did people encounter, deal with, write about, and depict foreignness; and 5) how were identity boundaries manufactured, advertised, and maintained?
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
In todays world, ritualssuch as a wedding or a funeral, an annual religious holiday, weekly worship servicesgive rhythm and meaning to the passing of time. The same was true in the ancient world, and though the direct experience of ancient rituals are lost to us, we know about them through surviving pieces of evidence and textual records in particular. In ancient Mesopotamia, rituals were often written down on clay tablets in cuneiform writing. Translations of these ritual texts provide windows into cultures that are two, three, or even four thousand years old. This class explores ritual texts through multiple methodological lenses (e.g., performance studies, textual criticism, and sacred space). Students in the class will become familiar with select cultures of ancient Mesopotamia. We will learn about temples, shrines, and cities; gods, goddesses, and divine things; and people, rulers, and religious specialists. In each class we will focus on a selection of ritual texts, thinking about how the act of writing is related to the performance of ritual. We might explore, for example, the creation of a cult statue or a musical instrument, the seasonal celebration of the New Years Ritual, or so-called substitution rituals that were used to ensure an individuals well-being. Students may also have the opportunity to engage with modern ritual celebrations, in order to think more critically about the ancient texts and the practices and beliefs that they document.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
The city of Jerusalem has been a focal point within religious and secular imaginations for millennia. Beginning with the biblical Israelite kingdoms and continuing up to the present day, we will explore the tangible and intangible ways in which people across cultures have configured (and reconfigured) Jerusalem as a sacred space. We will draw on archaeology, art, literature, music, architecture, and historically situated personal accounts to understand the deeply emotional attachments that have been layered into the very foundations of the city.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
Archaeology recovers voices previously lost to history. One of its guiding concepts is context: an artifact is significantly diminished in worth if we do not know the circumstances of its production, its subsequent uses, or its original physical contexts. But if archaeology helps us to recover lost voices, it is also frequently subject to abuse. The antiquities trade encourages looting and therefore the destruction of archaeological evidence. People and nations use, distort and destroy the material culture of the past in order to bolster ethnic and national agendas; and war often leads to the destruction of archaeological sites and museums. This course will examine these various different forces as they conspire to destroy our knowledge of the past and ask what we can do to protect and advance that knowledge,
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
This course examines water both across the ancient Mediterranean and through time. In it we will examine the hydrological cycle, consider the different types of water sources, see how water is both beneficial and dangerous, and think about how human exploitation of watery resources impacts the environment. We will see that this necessity was not only vital for survival and integral to daily life, but also that it could be destructive, and even was used as a tool of political power and personal promotion. By the end of this course, students will be able to examine ancient Mediterranean water through multiple lenses and to define what ancient Mediterranean means to them.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
In this course, students explore an expansive theme related to the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and, in a lab associated with the course, analyze that theme through engagement with primary material, interdisciplinary frameworks, or another instructor-created framework.For the Spring 2025 offering the expansive theme is forms of public entertainment in ancient Greece and Rome, using archaeological and literary sources along with reception studies to explore many forms of artistic and athletic entertainment.Students who enroll in CLAS 201 are required to sign up for one of the course's four lab sections
GPA units: 1.5
Common Area: Historical Studies
Examines the representations of mortal and immortal women in a variety of mythological narratives and in art. Consideration is given to the relationships between these representations and contemporary ideas about and images of women. Students should read Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in translation before enrolling in this class.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Examines the ancient city of Pompeii, with particular emphasis on the houses in which families lived. Domestic spaces both reflected and reinforced certain family structures, and so the houses of Pompeii provide us with information about subjects as varied as the power of the father, ancient slavery, the experience of childhood, the role of women, and ancient notions of public and private space, all of which topics will be addressed in this course through an examination of material culture. For purposes of comparison, the course will also briefly investigate the domestic spaces of the nearby site of Herculaneum, as well as other Italian sites like Cosa and Ostia.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
A study of Greek and Roman oratory based on the reading and rhetorical analysis of speeches delivered in the law courts and assemblies of 5th and 4th century Athens, and the late period of the Roman Republic (80-45 BC) where the focus will be on the law court speeches of Cicero. The course involves both an introduction to the legal procedures of the Athenian and Roman courts and assemblies, and careful analysis of the literary style and forms of legal argument in selected speeches.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Study of the power of words to create and to resolve conflict in Ancient Greek and Roman democracy. Close examination of ancient literary and historical sources in translation with comparison to modern parallels. Public speaking exercise on the model of the rhetoric of Georgias.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
In this course, we will explore how the ancient Greeks and Romans engaged with the natural world surrounding them. Our course will consider several themes, including the relationship between city and country; philosophical treatments of the natural world; the role of the environment in literature; and the conceptualization of the universe and its origins. We will base our discussion of these themes on our analysis of evidence from antiquity, which will span both material remains like Greek temples and Roman villas as well as literary and philosophical works central to western civilization. Looking back at ancient philosophy, pastoral poems, and early epics, we will read selections from authors such as the pre-Socratic philosophers, Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, and Seneca. Alongside our study of the ancient world, we will glance ahead to consider the reception of the Greeks and Romans' treatment of nature, with our contemporary readings including selections from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature, Philosophical Studies
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
A detailed study of the archaeological remains from ancient sanctuaries. The buildings and monuments are studied in connection with other evidence for religious behavior in the different ancient cultures. Emphasis is on the cults and shrines of Ancient Greece and Rome but in different years, the ancient Near East and Egypt also are considered. Counts toward fulfillment of the Visual Arts major.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
How do we know that Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 A.D., that the Temple of Zeus at Olympia was completed by 456 B.C. or that the bulk of the construction of the Pantheon in Rome took place in the 120's A.D.? This course surveys the physical techniques and historical method that lie behind dates like these.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
TBD
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Literature
Designed for selected students with approval of a professor and the Department Chair. This work may be done for one or two semesters.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Designed for selected students with approval of a professor and the Department Chair. This work may be done for one or two semesters.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring