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

Learning outcomes

The students are expected to acquire specific skills in the analysis and interpretation of texts selected from the whole history of the Greek language (from the archaic age to the formation of the so-called 'common language' that then developed into Modern Greek).
Through a direct analysis of textual specimens the pupils are expected to improve: a) their ability to recognise the proper historical setting of a Greek text or document and to reconstruct both synchronically and diachronically its textual tradition; 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.
The students will prove their meeting of these goals by producing an essay on one text and giving a presentation of their work to the class.
The students will come in contact with the main tools of the ‘philological practice' (reading of papyruses and manuscripts on microfilm, consulting textual and bibliographical databases, paper and IT tools of documentation and analysis indexes), refining thus their skills in the textual analysis of ancient texts.

Course contents

Special focus course ('corso monografico')

a) ἄτη, δαίμων and μανία: genius and folly 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 16-18, Mansarda Room (2.10.2017-8.11.2017).

Start date: 2.10.2017 (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/20172018/Neri/

Readings/Bibliography

a) Notes from the lectures. Two books (or one book and three essays in review) in the following list: Valeria Andò-N. Cusumano (edd.), Come bestie? Forme e paradossi della violenza tra mondo antico e disagio contemporaneo, Caltanissetta 2010; P.R. Bosman (ed.), Mania. Madness in the Greco-Roman World, Pretoria 2009; P. Brown, The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity, Cambridge, Mass. 2015; G. Burzacchini, Osservazioni su alcuni luoghi dell'Eracle di Euripide, in P. Arduini (ed.), Studi offerti ad Alessandro Perutelli, Roma 2008, 143-158; Gillian Clark, Body and Gender, Soul and Reason in Late Antiquity, Burlington, VT 2011; D.B. Claus, Toward the Soul: An Inquiry into the Meaning of ψυχή before Plato, New Haven 1981; M. Davis, The Soul of the Greeks: an Inquiry, Chicago-London 2011; M. Detienne, De la pensée religieuse à la pensée philosophique. La notion de Daïmôn dans le pythagorisme ancien, Paris 1963; E.R. Dodds, I Greci e l’irrazionale, trad. it. Milano 2003³; B. Effe-R. Glei, (edd.), Genie und Wahnsinn. Konzepte psychischer "Normalität" und "Abnormalität" im Altertum, Trier 2000; M. Foucault, La cura di sé, trad. it. Milano 2001⁶; H. Fränkel, Poesia e filosofia nella Grecia arcaica, trad. it. Bologna 1997; Dorian G. Greenbaum, The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology. Origins and Influence, Leiden-Boston 2016; G. Guidorizzi, Ai confini dell'anima: i Greci e la follia, Milano 2010; Debra Hershkowitz, The Madness of Epic. Reading Insanity from Homer to Statius, Oxford 1998; A.A. Long, Greek Models of Mind and Self, Cambridge, Mass.-London 2015; A. Marneros, Irrsal! Wirrsal! Wahnsinn! Persönlichkeit, Psychose und psychische Konflikte in Tragödien und Mythen, Stuttgart 2013; J. Mattes, Der Wahnsinn im griechischen Mythos und in der Dichtung bis zum Drama des fünften Jahrhunderts, Diss. Mainz 1970; H. Nowak, Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Begriffes Daimon. Eine Untersuchung epigraphischer Zeugnisse vom 5. Jh. v. Chr. bis zum 5. Jh. n. Chr., Diss. Bonn 1959; R.B. Onians, Le origini del pensiero europeo, trad. it. Milano 2002²; Ruth Padel, Whom Gods destroy. Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness, Princeton 1995; E. Pellizer, La nozione di dàimon nella Grecia arcaica (fine a Platone escluso), in E. Calderón Dorda (ed.), Eusébeia. Estudios de religión griega, Madrid 2011, 255-272; Hélène Perdicoyianni-Paléologou (ed.), The Concept of Madness from Homer to Byzantium. Manifestations and Aspects of Mental Illness and Disorder, Amsterdam 2016; J. Pigeaud, La maladie de l’âme, Paris 1981; J. Pigeaud, Folie et cures de la folie chez les médecins de l'antiquité gréco-romaine: la manie, Paris 1987; G. Reale, Corpo, anima e salute. Il concetto di uomo da Omero a Platone, Milano 1999; E. Rohde, Psiche. Culto delle anime e fede nell’immortalità, trad. it. Bari 1970²; F. Ruggiero, La follia dei cristiani. La reazione pagana al cristianesimo nei secoli 1.-5., Roma 2002²; B. Simon, Mind and Madness in Ancient Greece. The Classical Roots of Modern Psychiatry, Ithaca 1980; B. Snell, La cultura greca e le origini del pensiero europeo, trad. it. Torino 1963; A. Timotin, La démonologie platonicienne. Histoire de la notion de "daimon" de Platon aux derniers néoplatoniciens, Leiden (et all.) 2012; M. Vegetti, Anima e corpo, in M. V. (ed.), Il sapere degli antichi, Torino 1985, 201ss.; J.-P. Vernant, Mito e pensiero presso i Greci, trad. it. Torino 1978². 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.

Students who do not attend the lessons are invited to contact the teacher to define an additional customized program.

Teaching methods

After some introductory lectures by the teacher and the specimen analysis of selected texts, the lectures will 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/20172018/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.
The 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.

For deeply-rooted didactic conviction, I do not propose links to syllabi 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://www.unibo.it/docenti/camillo.neri

Office hours

See the website of Camillo Neri