75828 - Classical Literature and Traditions

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide a knowledge of the main literary models that Greek culture, in many cases through Roman mediation, has furnished to its modern and contemporary imitators; the students will achieve a basic knowledge of the main authors, genres and characters of the classical literature and will be able to adopt historically grounded methods in describing the most relevant phenomena of classical reception in modern and contemporary literatures.

Course contents

The aims of course are: to give a general overview of Greek and Roman literature and of its modern and contemporary reception to the students who approach its study for the first time; to offer a more problematic approach to Greek and Roman literature and to its modern and contemporary reception to more advanced students. . Knowledge of ancient Greek is not required. The texts will be read in translation, but the original text will be introduced to students when necessary.

The course examines the principal myths found in Plato's dialogues, treating them as essential components of his philosophical discourse rather than as merely ornamental or secondary elements. Particular attention will be devoted to the fact that the so-called "Platonic myths" are, to a large extent, original literary creations, attributed by Plato to different interlocutors and shaped according to the theoretical aims of the individual dialogues: in some cases they rework traditional mythical material, while in others they constitute entirely original inventions. Each myth will be examined within its literary and philosophical context, as well as in relation to the mythological, poetic, and religious traditions of ancient Greece and to its reception in later periods, highlighting the profound influence these narratives have exerted on philosophy, literature, the visual arts, and, more broadly, on the cultural imagination of the Western tradition. Rather than focusing on a single monographic topic, the course offers a thematic journey through exemplary themes, motifs, figures, and texts of the Classical tradition, tracing their development and reinterpretation from antiquity to the modern age.

Readings/Bibliography

1) Attending students are required to study the teacher lectures notes and the didactic materials available online. All the ancient texts will be provided during the course.

2) For attending students, the primary basis for examination preparation will consist of lecture notes and the teaching materials made available online. The primary texts discussed during the course will be provided by the instructor.

3) Students are required to read: F. Ferrari, Miti di Platone, with an introduction by M. Vegetti, Milan, BUR, 2006. The Introduction (pp. 7–71) forms an integral part of the syllabus. For the myths discussed during the course, students are also encouraged to read the introductions and commentaries accompanying the Italian translation.

3) Students are required to read four of the following essays:

• Arrighetti, G., "Platone fra mito, poesia e storia," Studi Classici e Orientali 41 (1992), 13–34.

• Bonazzi, M., "Il mito di Prometeo nel Protagora: una variazione sul tema delle origini," in F. Calabi and S. Gastaldi (eds.), Immagini delle origini. La nascita della civiltà e della cultura nel pensiero greco e romano, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, 2012, pp. 41–57.

• Calabi, F., "Il mito di Er," in M. Vegetti (ed.), Platone. La Repubblica, vol. VII, Naples, Bibliopolis, pp. 277–310.

• Corradi, M., "La préhistoire de l'humanité dans le mythe d'Aristophane du Banquet de Platon, entre poésie, sophistique et philosophie," in R. Ruggiero and O. Vox (eds.), Miti e mitologie tra creazione e interpretazione – Mythes et mythologies entre création et interprétation, Lecce, 2021, pp. 97–136.

• Erler, M., Platone. Un'introduzione, Turin, Einaudi, 2008, pp. 33–46.

• Gaiser, K., "I miti di Platone sull'esempio di Leggi X 903b–905d," in Platone come scrittore filosofico. Saggi sull'ermeneutica dei dialoghi platonici, Naples, Bibliopolis, 1984, pp. 125–152.

• Gastaldi, S., "La 'semplicità' dei primi uomini: l'immagine delle origini nel libro III delle Leggi di Platone," in F. Calabi and S. Gastaldi (eds.), Immagini delle origini. La nascita della civiltà e della cultura nel pensiero greco e romano, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, 2012, pp. 105–120.

• Gastaldi, S., "Paideia/Mythologia," in M. Vegetti (ed.), Platone. La Repubblica. Traduzione e commento, vol. II (Books II–III), Naples, Bibliopolis, 1998, pp. 333–392.

• Most, G. W., "Plato's Exoteric Myths," in C. Collobert, P. Destrée and F. J. Gonzalez (eds.), Plato and Myth: Studies on the Use and Status of Platonic Myths, Leiden–Boston, Brill, 2012, pp. 13–24.

• Murray, P., "What Is a Muthos for Plato?," in R. G. A. Buxton (ed.), From Myth to Reason? Studies in the Development of Greek Thought, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.

• Vegetti, M., Quindici lezioni su Platone, Turin, Einaudi, 2003, pp. 53–65.

5) Students enrolled in the Classics curriculum are additionally required to: a) prepare three passages in the original Greek, selected from a list of texts discussed during the course, which will be distributed at the end of the semester; b) study five chapters selected from: G. Cambiano, L. Canfora and D. Lanza (eds.), Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 1992–1996 and G. Cavallo, P. Fedeli and A. Giardina (eds.), Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 1989–1993.

6) Students who do not have a Classics background are required to acquire a basic knowledge of the history of Greek and Latin literature by studying the following topics:

a) Greek Literature: Homeric epic (Iliad and Odyssey); the Epic Cycle; Tragedy and Comedy; Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; Political Comedy: Aristophanes; Attic oratory; Plato and the Academy; Aristotle and the Peripatetic School; Hellenistic poetry: Callimachus, Theocritus, and Apollonius; Imperial literature: Quintus of Smyrna and Nonnus of Panopolis; Plutarch, the Second Sophistic, Lucian, the Philostrati, Pausanias, and Apollodorus of Athens.

b) Latin Literature: The neōteroi and Catullus; Lucretius; Virgil; Horace; Augustan love elegy: Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid; Seneca.Recommended textbook:
A. Lesky, Storia della letteratura greca, trad. it. Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2016; L. Canfora, Storia della letteratura greca, nuova ed. ampliata, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013; M. von Albrecht*, Storia della letteratura latina da Livio Andronico a Boezio*, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1995; G.B. Conte, Profilo storico della letteratura latina dalle origini alla tarda età imperiale, II ed., Firenze, Le Monnier, 2019. (Other textbooks may be used subject to the instructor's approval).

Further bibliographical suggestions for optional reading will be provided during the course.

Programme for Non-attending Students

Non-attending students are required to prepare the same programme as attending students. In addition, they are required to read the following volume in its entirety:

F. Ferrari, Miti di Platone, with an introduction by M. Vegetti, Milan, BUR, 2006.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class; seminars and discussion of the texts analysed in class.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral and consists of an interview in which the instructor, through a series of questions, will assess the student’s knowledge of the topics covered in class and of the assigned critical readings.

Grades range from 18 to 30 with honors (cum laude), based on the level of confidence, accuracy, depth, and rigor demonstrated in the student's understanding of ancient Greek and Latin literary production in general, and in particular of the tradition of the Golden Age myth and the myth of Prometheus.

The grading scale is as follows:

30 with honors – excellent knowledge in all areas; 28–30 – very good knowledge and skills; 25–27 – overall good performance, with minor uncertainties; 22–24 – fair level, with some gaps; 18–21 – sufficient, but with significant deficiencies.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

PC, projector, slides.

Office hours

See the website of Margherita Erbì