29942 - History of the Ancient Greek Language (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Docente: Camillo Neri
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: L-FIL-LET/02
  • Language: Italian

Learning outcomes

Upon a successful completion of the course, the students acquire specific skills in the analysis and interpretation of texts selected from the archaic age to the formation of the so-called 'common language' that then developed into Modern Greek. They improve: a) their ability to recognise the proper historical setting of a Greek text or document; b) their methodological skills to analyse a text from a historical and linguistic point of view and to establish its relations with other texts and cultural products.

Course contents

Special focus course ('corso monografico')

a) γυνή, παρθένος, νύμφη: female people and characters in Greek literature from Homer to Christianity.

Core course ('parte istituzionale')

b) General rudiments of History of the Greek Language

Lectures Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 15-17, Room II (19.9.2022-27.10.2022).

Start date: 19.9.2022 (1st semester).

Office Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 9-13 (at Dept.).

Links: http://www.unibo.it/docenti/camillo.neri
http://www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/Programs/20222023/Neri/

Readings/Bibliography

a) Notes from the lectures. One book (or three articles) in the following list: G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Some observations on the property rights of Athen­ian women, «CR» n.s. LXXXIV (1970) 273-278; Elise Boulding, The Underside of History. A View of Women Through Time, Boulder 1976; Sarah B. Pomeroy, Technikai kai mousikai. The education of women in the fourth century and in the Hellenistic period, «AJAH» II (1977) 51-68; Sylvia Barnard, Hellenistic women poets, «CJ» LXXIII (1978) 204-213; Sarah B. Pomeroy, Donne in Atene e Roma, trad. it. Torino 1978 (ed. or. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves. Women in Classical Antiquity, New York 1975); D.M. Schaps, Economic Rights of Women in Ancient Greece, Edinburgh 1979; Eva Cantarella, L’ambiguo malanno, Roma 1981 (trad. ingl. Pandora’s Daughter. The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity, trad. ingl. Baltimore 1987); Helene P. Foley (ed.), Reflections of Women in Antiquity, Philadelphia et al. 1981; Christine Havelock, Mourners on Greek vases: remarks on the social history of women, in S.L. Hyatt (ed.), The Greek Vase, Latham, N.Y. 1981, 103-118; Eleonora Cavallini, Donne e amore da Saffo ai tragici, Venezia-Roma 1982; Sally C. Humphreys, Women, the Family and Death, London 1983; Renée Hirschon (ed.), Women and Property: Women as Property, London-Can­berra 1984; J. Peradotto-J.P. Sullivan (edd.), Women in the Ancient World, Buffalo 1984; Giampiera Arrigoni (ed.), Le donne in Grecia, Bari 1985; Mary R. Lefkowitz, Women in Greek Myth, London 1986 (trad. ted. München 1992); C. Bérard, La condizione delle donne, in AA.VV., La città delle immagini. Religione e società nella Grecia antica, trad. it. Modena 1988 (ed. or. L’ordre des femmes, in AA.VV., La cité des images. Religion et société en Grèce antique, Lausanne-Paris 1984), 79-96; Jane McIntosh Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre. Women Writers in Clas­sical Greece and Rome, Carbondale-Edwardsville, Ill. 1989; Sarah B. Pomeroy (ed.), Women’s History and Ancient History, Chapel Hill, N.C. 1991; Claire Buck, The Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature, London 1992; Mary R. Lefkowitz-Maureen B. Fant, Women’s Life in Greece & Rome, London 19922 (19821); Gail Holst-Warhaft, Dangerous Voices: Women’s Laments and Greek Litera­tu­re, London 1992; Pauline Schmitt-Pantel (ed.), A History of Women in the West, Cambridge, Mass. 1992; H. von Staden, Women and dirt, «Helios» XIX (1992) 7-30; Nancy S. Rabinowitz-Amy Richlin, Femi­nist The­ory and the Classics, New York 1993; R. Brock, The labour of women in classical Athens, «CQ» n.s. XLIV (1994) 336-346; Elaine Fantham-Helene P.Foley-Natalie B. Kampen-Sarah B. Pomeroy-H.A. Shapiro, Women in the Classical World, New York-Oxford 1994; R. Hawley-Barbara Levick (edd.), Women in Antiquity. New Assessments, Lon­don-New York 1995; R. Raffaelli (ed.), Vi­cen­de e figure femminili in Grecia e a Roma, Ancona 1995; J. Whitehorne, Women’s Work in Theocritus, Idyll 15, «Hermes» CXXIII (1995) 63-75; Josephine Balmer, Classical Women Poets, Newcastle u.T. 1996; Yopie Prins-Maeera Shreiber, Dwelling in Possibility. Women Poets and Critics on Poetry, Ithaca, N.Y. 1997; Katherine R. Goodman, Amazons and Apprentices. Women and the German Parnassus in the Early Enlightenment, Columbia 1999; Marylin Arthur Katz, Sappho and her sisters: women in ancient Greece, «Signs» XXV (2000) 505-531; Eva Parisinou, ‘Lighting’ the world of women: lamps and torches in the hands of women in late archaic and classical periods, «G&R» n.s. XLVII (2000) 19-43; A. Lardinois-Laura McClure (edd.), Making Silence Speak. Womens’ Voices in Greek Literature and Society, Princeton 2001; Anne L. Klinck, Sappho and her daughters: some parallels between ancient and medieval women’s song, in Anne L. K.-A.M. Rasmussen (edd.), Medieval Woman’s Song, Philadelphia 2002, 15-28; Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz-Lisa Auanger (edd.), Among Women. From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World, Austin 2002; Laurie O’Higgins, Women and Humor in Classical Greece, Cambridge 2003; Ellen Greene (ed.), Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome, Norman 2005; Anne L. Klinck, Woman’s Songs in Ancient Greece, Montreal 2008; Leila J. Rupp, Sapphistries: A Global History of Love between Women, New York-London 2009; Tomoko Takiguchi, Writing about women poets: recasting the legend of Sappho, in Recasting Women Stories in the Poetry of Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, and Christina Rossetti, Leiden 2011, 37-71; D. Loscalzo, Le hetairai, donne intellettuali nella Grecia antica, in Jelena Reinhardt-Uta Treder (edd.), Sorelle di Saffo, sorelle di Shakespeare, Perugia 2012, 29-46; Andromache Karanika, Voices at Work: Women, Performance, and Labor in Ancient Greece, Baltimore 2014; J.J. Bachofer, Il matriarcato. Ricerca sulla ginecocrazia del mondo antico nei suoi aspetti religiosi e giuridici, I-II, trad. it. (di G. Schiavoni-F. Jesi) Torino 2016 (ed. or. Stuttgart 1861); P. Freeman, Searching for Sappho. The Lost Songs and World of the First Woman Poet, New York-London 2016; Rosie Wyles-Edith Hall (edd.), Women Classical Scholars. Unsealing the Fountain from the Renaissance to Jacqueline de Romilly, Oxford-New York 2016; F. Santoro, A primeira filósofa: o amor à sabedoria da lira. The first woman philosopher: love to the lyric wisdom, «Archai» XXVIII (2020) 1-26. Further bibliography on the discussed texts will be provided during the lectures.

b) Notes from the lectures. One essay in the following list: O. Hoffmann-A. Debrunner-A. Scherer, Storia della lingua greca, trad. it. Napoli, Macchiaroli, 1969; A. Meillet, Lineamenti di storia della lingua greca, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1981 (2a ed.); L.R. Palmer, Greek Language, London, Faber, 1980; V. Pisani, Storia della lingua greca, Torino, Sei, 1960; L. Heilmann, Grammatica storica della lingua greca, Torino, Sei, 1963; O. Szemerényi, Introduzione alla linguistica indoeuropea, a c. di G. Boccali-V. Brugnatelli-M. Negri, Milano, Unicopli, 1985, F. Villar, Gli indoeuropei e le origini dell'Europa, trad. it. Bologna, il Mulino, 1997; W.P. Lehmann, La linguistica indoeuropea. Storia, problemi e metodi, trad. it. Bologna, il Mulino, 1999; A.C. Cassio (ed.), Storia delle lingue letterarie greche, Firenze, Le Monnier-Mondadori, 2016 (2a ed.).

Students who do not attend the lessons are required to bring the same program as regards the institutional part and to define a personalized program, also in the light of their own interests, for the monographic part.

Teaching methods

After some introductory lectures by the teacher and the specimen analysis of selected texts, the lectures could be carried out by the students themselves as presentations (which will test thus the abilities they have developed through the course); the sessions will have a seminar-like form and meant to be moments of real common research, with the familiarisation and the use of the main philological tools (traditional and data processing).

All the material handed out in the lectures will be available afterwards on line at http://www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/Programs/20212022/Neri/

Assessment methods

A first assessment will be carried out to begin with in the individual presentations and in the seminars, where the students will be able auto-assess their learning.

The viva voce examination consists of a conversation in which the teacher, through a series of questions, will test the theoretical knowledge and the theoretical-practical methodologies as explained in the lectures.

Students who have attended all the lectures and held a personal presentation can prepare for the exam, in addition to the institutional part, only one text to be translated and commented on, among those covered in class.

Students who will not have given a presentation to the class will be required to carry out a linguistic analysis of some texts in the viva voce.

The maximum grade (30L) requires accurate and complete answers to all questions posed during the oral examination. The exam will be deemed to have been passed (with variable evaluation depending on the quality of the answers) if the candidate has answered in a precise and complete manner to most questions. As for the theoretical knowledge and the translation and exegesis of the texts, the metric is the following: outstanding: 30L; excellent: 28-30; good: 25-27; discrete: 22-24; sufficient: 18-21.

For deeply-rooted didactic conviction, I do not propose links to syllabi of questions, which would inevitably end up impoverishing the general preparation of the students. Since exams take place every fifteen days, students who want to experience the actual performance of an exam can attend - as spectators - the exam sessions, which are public.

Teaching tools


PC, video projector, overhead projector, photocopied handouts.

Links to further information

http://www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/Programs/20212022/Neri

Office hours

See the website of Camillo Neri

SDGs

Quality education Gender equality Reduced inequalities Peace, justice and strong institutions

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.