What is "good government," and how is it to be implemented or instituted? How is the concept of good government related to the idea of "government" itself? Is it the opposite of "bad government" -- or of no government at all? This course will address these questions by studying the systematic theoretical responses of three societies with complex political cultures and established traditions of political theory: ancient China, classical Greece, and what might even be called classical America. These three civilizations may (we don't know this yet; it is a question of the course) have proposed fundamentally different approaches to the problem of good government, and even within each context, thinkers may often seem to have laid out different visions. But they may also have converged in some important respects on the central principles of the concept of good government. The important thinkers in all three of these worlds seemed to have agreed that the nature of human beings and the goal of a civilized community required some mediation in order to achieve good government. In this process, the obligations of human beings to themselves and to each other must be pondered, for they are not self-evident and have not been revealed by deities, spirits, or authorities.

Morphology and syntax of Greek. Intensive exercise in grammar, Greek composition, translation from Greek to English (both prepared and sight). Emphasis is placed upon developing the ability to read Greek with facility.

This Directed Reading will address various specific issues in Neoplatonism. These include, but are not limited to: the use of Platonic texts as both philosophical treatises and religious documents; the constant conjunctions of philosophy with religion which characterize the Neoplatonic movement; varying conceptions of the nature of the divine and human from Plotinus through Proclus; the thaumaturgic aspects of late antique philosophical praxis; and the question of how much one can truly speak of a unified identity shared by the disparate figures called "Neoplatonists." Scholarly approaches to Neoplatonism range from the strictly philosophical through the sociological to the methodologies of History of Religions. This course will attempt to engage the texts holistically and treat them as organic results and components of larger trends in late antique thought and religiosity. The methodologies employed will be multiple.

Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of cultural blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We will investigate these questions through a variety of topics including: the creation of the universe and the structure of the cosmos, relations between gods and mortals, religion and divination, justice, society, family, sex, love, madness, and death. (See also web site developed for the course under a Distributed Learning Venture Fund Technology Grant: http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth)

This course works on close reading of Homer's poetry. We will begin with Book 24 of the Iliad and after that work on selections from Book 1.

Advanced individualized study in Greek for students enrolled in the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies.

This course aims to develop Greek language skills and an understanding of Plato's Phaedo. We will be especially interested in looking at Plato's relationship with non-Socratic influences, including but not limited to Pythagoreans and practitioners of mystery religions.

This course will trace a history of signs, using Greek divination as the primary focus. We will explore ancient and contemporary sign theories and their usefulness in illuminating ancient practices of divination --or the reading of signs thought to be imbedded in the world. Participants in the seminar will be expected to contribute an expertise in one (or more) of three general areas: Greek literature, Greek and Roman religions, and contemporary theory in the humanities. The course is open to graduate students without Greek as well as classicists -- though please register appropriately. The particular areas we cover will to some extent be determined by the interests of the participants, but will surely include: divination by dreams, entrails, and oracles as attested by literary and (to a lesser extent) archaeological evidence; Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic and Neoplatonic theories of signs; and contemporary semiotics as articulated mainly by Saussure, Barthes, and Eco. Ancient authors will include: Homer, Sophocles, Plutarch, Cicero, Artemidorus, and Porphyry.

Introductory graduate proseminar on the study of the ancient Greco-Roman world. Topics include: history of the discipline; textual scholarship; material culture; social, political, and intellectual history; relation between classical studies and other humanities disciplines.

Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of cultural blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We will investigate these questions through a variety of topics including: the creation of the universe and the structure of the cosmos, relations between gods and mortals, religion and divination, justice, society, family, sex, love, madness, and death.

This course will look intensively at the structure and characteristics of Greek prose, mainly through composition, but also through translation and reading of selected texts.

Reading course on Lucan, which made a survey of his works.

Dreams can provide an extraordinary window on a culture, its imagination, its social organization, its cultural expectations, and its irrational beliefs. Dreams in literary works reveal what the author thinks dreams are like, and how he expects his audience to interpret them. Explicit dream theories tell us how people in Anitquity dealt with these "irrational" elements in their culture. Apart from ancient literary works, a whole dreambook, full of examples and interpretations, has come down to us. In this seminar we will look at a wide variety of famous texts from Greek and roman literature, pagan and Christian, and some comparative material from the Near East. we will also read some Freud, and some other secondary literature, and think about how Freud's ideas influence our reading of ancient texts, and to what extent that is permissible. All texts studied will be in translation -- no knowledge of Greek or Latin will be necessary. All that is needed for this course is a waking mind and an interest in the psychology of Antiquity.

What's the use of poetry to an aspiring lawyer? We will find that some of the sharpest minds in classical Rome wondered about this, and that their conflicting opinions concerning the role of imaginative literature in a busy and important empire still haunt current debates over the place and function of the arts in society. Is poetry a fragile vessel for conveying the cultural heritage of the past? a pleasant diversion from the chores of building and maintaining one's interests in business and government? a fine craft that offers a transformative experience? a mysterious well of arcane wisdom? We will find hints of such opinions, and many others, in our survey of the opinions of bookish grammarians, polymath tourists, urbane members of the leisured classes, and yes, famous lawyers. They will help us understand how the Romans imagined their culture, history, and identity, as well as how the process culture-making works more generally. Authors will include Horace, Cicero, Aulus Gellius, and Varro.

Reading course on Greek and Roman cosmologies. Authors treated include: Homer, Hesiod, Parmenides, Plato, Cicero.