Global Arc

The ancients were fascinated by dreams and debated a variety of views about the nature, origin, and function of dreams. Are dreams divine messages about the future, our souls' indications of impending diseases, or just distorted versions of earlier thoughts? Do dreams have meaning and if so, how can we understand them? We will explore ancient approaches to dreams and their enigmas in literature and philosophy, medical texts, and religious practices. Although our focus will be on Greek and Roman texts, we will also pay attention to earlier Near Eastern sources as well as modern dream theories from Freud to scientific dream research.

This course will introduce concentrators to the study of classical antiquity. Students will become acquainted with different fields of study within the Department, including literature, ancient history, ancient culture, linguistics, and reception studies; gain experience in the methods of their chosen area(s) of study; and acquire an understanding of the history of the discipline and its place in the twenty-first century. Sessions will involve guest visits from members of the faculty. Particular attention will be paid to acquiring the skills necessary to pursue independent research and the selection of a topic for the spring Junior Paper.

Few technologies of domination have been wielded with more sweeping and devastating global consequence than race. The research and teaching taxonomies of predominantly White institutions such as Princeton bear witness both to this history and to the intricacy of those mechanisms that work to conceal it. Taking our cue from Achille Mbembe - "racial thinking... has been the ever-present shadow hovering over Western political thought and practice" - we'll examine the role of race and racialization in the formation of the intellectual disciplines around which universities like ours are organized, with a particular emphasis on the humanities.

This course is for undergraduates from all backgrounds with an interest in ancient Greco-Roman medicine and the historical roots of contemporary biomedicine. We will examine how a medical tradition forms around the body as an object of knowledge and therapy, paying close attention to socio-historical context. We also explore issues that remain relevant to medicine, such as the construction of scientific authority, pain and knowledge, error and chance in medicine, narrative and disease, the "naturalization" of cultural categories, the privileging of anatomy, and body-mind interaction. Reading from primary and secondary sources in translation.

An introduction to the archaeology of the Roman Empire. Key themes include urban systems and lived experience, economies, agricultural production, resource extraction, trade, the army, and the provinces. Emphasis will be placed on methods of interpreting archaeological data by focusing on key sites and types of material, including hands-on experience with pottery and coins in the collections of the Art Museum. No experience in ancient history or archaeology assumed.

This course offers a survey of the book in the Latin West, its cultural history and its functions as both object and text. It discusses production, readership and censorship, from antiquity up until the printing revolution.

Who was Sappho? And what do we make of her today? In this course, students will consider in detail what remains of Sappho's work (including the latest discoveries, published in 2014), and also how her example informs later literatures, arts, identities, and sexualities. Students with no knowledge of ancient Greek and students who already know it well are equally welcome! One session per week will focus on reading and translating original texts with one group, while a parallel session will focus on translations and adaptations through time. One joint session per week will draw perspectives together.

Flourishing contemporaneously between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE, Rome and the Han controlled much of the Eurasian landmass. What does juxtaposing the two reveal about each and the possibilities of historical comparison more broadly? By focusing on common themes (including kingship, administration, society, material culture), we draw upon a range of approaches to introduce both empires and a core problem in historical enquiry. Unlike most comparative histories, we also pay close attention to how ancient participants in empire perceived, portrayed, and theorized their worlds, and the ways ideas shaped their imperial projects.

This course offers an introduction to Akkadian, the language of ancient Babylon. The first half of the course introduces students to the basic concepts of Akkadian (old Babylonian) grammar and the cuneiform script. In the second half students consolidate their knowledge of the language by reading selections from classic Babylonian texts, such as the famous law code of King Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Classical Ethiopic or Ge'ez is a language from the Horn of Africa (modern-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti). It is written in a unique, ancient African script called Fidel and has linguistic connections with Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and even Sanskrit. The history of Classical Ethiopic spans over two millennia and its position in East African society is often compared to Latin in Europe. It is the precursor to several modern African languages, including Tigrinya and Amharic, and lives on as the liturgical language of Christian and Jewish communities in the Horn of Africa and in its global diaspora.