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 introduces majors to the study of classical antiquity. Students will become acquainted with different fields of study, including literature, ancient history, linguistics, and the reception of antiquity in later periods to acquire an understanding of the discipline and its place in the twenty-first century. Sessions will involve guest visits from faculty members. Students will research and write a paper 12-15 pages on a topic of their choosing under the direction of a faculty adviser. Attention will be paid to acquiring the skills necessary to pursue independent research in the junior and senior years.

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 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.

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.

What was/is Roman religion? Our main focus in this course will be the nature, variety, and geographic range of the source material for religious practice in the Mediterranean world of the Roman Republic and Empire (6th c. BCE-5th c. CE). We'll examine how, and with what repercussions, Roman religion set the terms for and changed in response to Rome's expansion into a Mediterranean empire. Finally, we'll think about the place of "Roman religion" in the global history of religion, and the usefulness of the term "religion" to characterize how the Romans related to their gods.

This course begins the year-long introduction to the language of 5th-4th century BC Athens. Successful completion of both CLG 101 and 102 will prepare students to read Homer, philosophers, playwrights, historians, and more, and to enroll in intermediate and advanced courses dedicated to Ancient Greek authors. In CLG 101 we will cover core vocabulary, and grammar, and begin to focus on Ancient Greek as a literary language and a window onto the dynamic cultural, social, and political world in which our authors lived.

The study of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax is continued from 101 by intensive reading in Attic prose of the classical period. Authors such as Plato are read. Four classes.