B1644 - Greek Literary Culture with Exerciser of Anthropology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student knows the main literary, historical and socio-anthropological aspects of Greek culture and is able to read and interpret texts of Greek literature from a historical and anthropological perspective.

Course contents

1) General introduction to the historical Anthropology of the ancient Greece: methodological assumptions, history of the discipline and epistemological issues.

2) Anthropological reading of Book VIII of the Odyssey: following the development of the plot, we wil analyse various archaic social practices and groups, such as the banquet, the athletic games, the ethic of the gift and the statute of the aristos, of the suppliant and the xenos. We will pay attention to the composition in performance and the oral dimension of archaic ‘literature’.

Readings/Bibliography

For an introduction to the Antropology of the ancient Greece, in addition to the notes and what will be furnished during the course, we ask the reading of the chapter concerning Tylor, Frazer, Bachofen, Morgan, Boas, Durkheim, Lévy-Bruhl, Van Gennep, Mauss, Malinowski e Lévi-Strauss in U. Fabietti, Storia dell’antropologia, Bologna 2001. It is useful for Gernet, Meyerson, Mauss, Vernant, Harrison e Dumézil the chapter that concern these scholar in R. Di Donato, Per una antropologia storica del mondo antico, Firenze 1990. Moreover, see L. Gernet, Antropologia della Grecia antica, Milano 1983 (ed. or. Paris 1968) e R. Di Donato, Hierà. Prolegomena a una antropologia storica del mondo antico, Pisa 2014. Further bibliography will be indicated during the course.

As to the book VIII of the Odyssey, in addition to the notes and what will be furnished during the course, see R. Di Donato, Una lettura di Omero. Commento all’ottavo canto dell’Odissea, SEU 2006 or J.B. Hainsworth-G.A. Privitera, Omero. Odissea, II. (Libri V-VIII), Milano 2015. Moreover, we ask the reading of A. Ercolani, L’ottavo libro dell’«Odissea» ovvero il contrastato rapporto di Odisseo con i Feaci, «Sileno» XXV/1 (1999) 51-78, of M.I. Finley, Il mondo di Odisseo, Bologna 1966 (ed. or. London 1954) and of K.A. Raaflaub, Homeric society, in I. Morris-B. Powell (edd.), A New Companion to Homer, Leiden 1997, 624-648. For an introduction to Omero, see I. Morris, The use and abuse of Homer, «ClAnt» V/1 (1986) 81-138, G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, Baltimore-London 1979, R. Di Donato, Esperienza di Omero, Pisa 1999, A. Ercolani, Omero: introduzione allo studio dell’epica greca arcaica, Roma 2006 and the opening part of L. Sbardella, Cucitori di canti: studi sulla tradizione epico-rapsodica greca e i suoi itinerari nel VI secolo a.C., Roma 2012.

Teaching methods

The lessons will be mainly frontal, in particular as to the introduction to the historical and theoretical assumptions of the Anthropology of the ancient Greece. The commented reading of the Homeric text will be more seminar-like.

Assessment methods

The exam will be oral: the student has to demonstrate the ability to translate and comment the book VIII of the Odyssey in a historical-anthropological way and the knowledge relating to the theoretical assumptions of the Anthropology of ancient Greece and the history of the discipline.
The maximum marks require precise and complete answers: an outstanding evaluation for theoretical knowledge and ability to translate and comment excellent texts will be 30L; excellent 30-29; very good 28-27; good 26-25; discrete 24-22; 21-20 more than sufficient; 19-18 sufficient.

Teaching tools

Texts and photocopis, IOL, Power point

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Caciagli