University of Houston, Spring 2008
Professor: Casey Dué Hackney (e-mail: Casey.Due@mail.uh.edu). Office hours: 11AM - 1PM Tuesdays or by appointment, Agnes Arnold Hall room 454. MCL Dept. phone number: (713) 743-3007, but e-mail is always preferable.
Required Reading:
Trevor Bryce, The Trojans and their Neighbours. London: Routledge, 2006.
Susan Woodford, The Trojan War in Ancient Art. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1993.
The Iliad of Homer, in any translation. I recommended the translation of Stanley Lombardo (1997, ISBN: 0872203522), available at the UH bookstore.
The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, in any translation. I recommended the translation of Christopher Collard (ISBN-10: 0192832816), available at the UH bookstore.
The Iphigeneia at Aulis of Euripides, in any translation. I recommended the translation of James Morwood (ISBN-10: 019283875X), available at the UH bookstore.
Also Recommended:
Reynold Higgins, Minoan and Mycenaean Art. Revised edition. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Leonard Cotrell, The Bull of Minos. Sutton Publishing, 2003.
Michael Wood, In Search of the Trojan War. BBC Books, 2005.
The Odyssey of Homer, in any translation.
The Aeneid of Virgil, in any translation.
The Hecuba and Trojan Women of Euripides, in any translation.
Components of Course Grade: 2 tests, 60%; final exam 40%.
*Attendance Policy: Although attendance is not calculated as part of the course grade, is crucial for your success in this class. I reserve the right to drop you from the course after 3 absences.*
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READINGS
Part I: Greek Art in its Historical Context
1/15 Introduction
1/17 Minoan
Crete
Assignment: Read the text and look at the pictures at: http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/achilles/age/bronze_age.html
Recommended: Minoan and Mycenaean Art, Chapter 1 and first half
of Chapter 4
1/22 The
Cyclades (including Thera)
Recommended: Minoan and Mycenaean Art, Chapter 2 and second half
of Chapter 4
1/24 The Mycenaeans
Assignment: Read the text and look at the pictures at: http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/achilles/age/myceneans.html
Recommended: Minoan and Mycenaean Art, Chapter 3 and begin Chapter
5
1/29 Mycenaeans cont.; Dark ages; Overview of Geometric
Recommended: Minoan
and Mycenaean Art, Chapter 5
1/31 The Archaic period
and into the Classical
Assignment: Odyssey 9
2/5 Classical Athens
2/7 Review
2/12 Test 1
Part II: The Trojan
War in Ancient Art and Literature
2/14 The Trojan Cycle
of myth; The Trojan War in Athenian Art
Assignment: Woodford 12-64 + Proclus’ summary of the Epic Cycle
(handed out in class)
2/19 Introduction
to the Iliad and epic and oral poetry
Assignment: Woodford 65-87 + Iliad 1, 3, 9
2/21 Achilles, Patroklos,
and Hektor
Assignment: Iliad Books 16, 18, 22, 24
2/ 26 End of the Iliad
and the Fall of Troy
Assignment: Woodford 88-119; Aeneid 2; selections from tragedies
of Euripides
2/28 The Agamemnon
of Aeschylus and the Oresteia myth in Classical art
Assignment: Aeschylus, Agamemnon
3/4 Euripides’
Iphigeneia at Aulis and the multiformity of Greek myth
Assignment: Iphigeneia at Aulis
3/6 Review
3/11 Test 2
3/13 CLASS CANCELLED
but you are required to read before 3/25 L. Cotrell, The Bull of Minos,
pp 13-36 AND In Search of the Trojan War chapter 4 (These books
are on reserve at the library), as well as The Trojans and Their Neighbors
pp. 1-28. Use the extra day to get a head start on all this reading!!
3/17-21 SPRING BREAK
Part III: The Archaeology
of Troy and the Homeric Question
3/25 The Homeric Question
Assignment: The Bull of Minos pp 13-36; TATN 1-28; In
Search of the Trojan War chapter 4
3/27 Finding Troy:
The Discovery of the Greek Bronze Age (1)
Assignment: TATN 29-52
Recommended: The
Bull of Minos pp. 37-85; In Search of the Trojan War chapters
1 and 2
4/1 History or Myth?
The Archaeological Evidence for a Trojan War at the End of the Bronze
Age
Assignment: TATN 52-86 (read especially carefully 58-68)
Recommended:The
Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean Lesson
23 and Lesson 27
4/3 Troy’s
Neighbors I and II: The Hittites and The Kingdom of Minos
Assignment: TATN 87-94
Recommended: TATN 69-86; In
Search of the Trojan War chapter 3
4/8 Troy’s
Neighbors III: The tomb of Agamemnon?
Assignment: TATN 94-106
Recommended: In
Search of the Trojan War chapter 5
4/10 Class
discussion: The Homeric Question and the archaeology of Troy
Assignment: TATN 180-194; Sherrat, E.S. 1990. “‘Reading the
Texts’: Archaeology and the Homeric Question.” Antiquity 64: 807–824 (A PDF IS AVAILABLE AT http://homepage.mac.com/caseyduehackney/Sherratt.pdf)
4/15 The Trojan War
in Greek art revisited I: the Theran Frescoes of the Aegean Bronze Age
Assignment: Morris, S. “A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes
from Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry.” AJA 93 (1989):511-535
(A PDF IS AVAILABLE AT http://homepage.mac.com/caseyduehackney/Morris_Thera.pdf)
4/17 CLASS CANCELLED
4/22 Schliemann's
Legacy: Ongoing controversies (Schliemann's biography; the Treasure
of Priam; Korfmann's excavations)
Assignment: The reading handed out in class (From Schliemann of Troy:
Treasure and Deceit), together with these very brief articles, from Archaeology:Is
the Mask a Hoax?; Insistent
Questions; Not
A Forgery. How about a Pastiche? and this 6 page autobiographical
note written by Schliemann himself: page 1, pages
2-3, pages 4-5, page
6.
4/24 Review
5/8 2-5pm Final Exam