Syllabus Syllabus 
Class attendance is mandatory: only TWO unexcused absences.
Students are required to produce a single page of summary, comments, questions on the reading for each class. These need not be elaborate but experience shows these will aid in class discussion and help students read with focus and attention.
REQUIREMENTS: Takehome Midterm (due Mar 28). Short paper (8-10 pages, due May 5) Takehome Final (due May 19).
Packets will be distributed in class. $15 to Classics Dept, 103 E Pyne.
X = Packet R = Reserve RP = Reserve/Purchase
PS = Peradotto/Sullivan Blundell = S. Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece
1. Tu Feb 4: INTRODUCTION
Goals and themes of the course. Categories of sex and gender as social and constructs. Sources and Methodologies. The prestige of ancient models for Western thought and practice.
A test case: Amazons
Amazons in some ancient historical sources: Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus (X).
[Chronology of Greek history and culture: for reference] (X)
2. Th Feb 6: THEORIES OF MATRIARCHY AND MOTHER RIGHT. ORIGINS.
J. J. Bachofen's theory of Mother Right (X).
S. Georgoudi. "Creating a Myth of Matriarchy." (X)
J. Bamberger. "The Myth of Matriarchy" (X)
J. Blok. "Conclusions" from The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth (X)
Blundell, 9-12, 14-19; "Amazons," 58-62.
F. I. Zeitlin, "Introduction" to Playing the Other: Gender & Society in Classical Greek Literature
3. Tu Feb 11: THE EPIC MODEL: ARCHAIC GREECE
The Master Plot of Western Literature. Ideals of household and marriage. A spectrum of feminine roles. Odysseus as "Everyman" and "Noman."
Homer, Odyssey, Books 1, 4-12. (RP)
4. Th Feb 13: THE EPIC MODEL II
Homer, Odyssey, 17-23.
Blundell, 47-57, 63-64
H. Foley, "Reverse Sex Similes in the Odyssey," P/S (RP)
Samuel Butler, The Authoress of the Odyssey (excerpt) (X)
[F. I. Zeitlin, "Figuring Fidelity in Homer's Odyssey." optional (R)]
5. Tu Feb 18: COSMOLOGY AND THE MYTHIC 'ORIGINS' OF GENDER
Hesiod, Theogony (X).
Bible, Genesis (excerpt) (X).
Blundell, 20-46, 92-94 (with relevant illustrations)
Sherry Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" (X).
[For reference: Check List of Olympian Divinities] (X)
6. Th Feb 20: THE CREATION OF WOMAN: Prometheus and Pandora
Hesiod: Works and Days (excerpts) (H).
Semonides, On the Tribes of Women (H).
Homeric Hymn to Gaia (Earth) (H).
Blundell, 63-64; "Women in an Age of Transition," 65-77
L. Sussman, "Workers and Drones: Labor, Idleness, and Gender Definition in Hesiod's Beehive," P/S (RP).
[F. I. Zeitlin, "Signifying Difference: The Case of Hesiod's Pandora." optional [R]
7. Tu Feb 25: THE CLASSICAL CITY: FROM 'MOTHER RIGHT' TO PATRIARCHY
Aeschylus, Oresteia (RP). Agamemnon [the first play of the trilogy]
Blundell, 95-97; "The Lives of Women in Classical Athens," 130-49
8. Th Feb 27: ORESTEIA (con)
Aeschylus, Choephoroi (Libation Bearers); Eumenides [last two plays]
F. I. Zeitlin, "The Dynamics of Misogyny: Myth and Mythmaking in the Oresteia," P/S
Blundell, "Women in Drama," 172-80
9. Tu Mar 4: LAW AND ORDER: TWO LEGAL CASES IN THE ORATORS
Demosthenes, Against Neaira (X).
Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes (X).
Blundell, "Women in Athenian Law and Society," 113-29
D. Cohen, "The Social Control of Adultery at Athens" (X)
K. J. Dover, "Sexual Behaviour" (X)
10. Th Mar 6: MAKING SPACE SPEAK
Xenophon, Oeconomicus (X).
M. Foucault, The Use of Pleasure," 143-84: Economics (RP).
F. Lissarrague, "Women, Boxes, Containers: Some Signs and Metaphors (X)
P. Bourdieu, "The Berber House" (X)
11. Tu Mar 11: SEXUAL IMPERATIVES: GROWING UP MALE
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (X)
Euripides, Hippolytus (RP)
M. Foucault. The Uses of Pleasure, 35-93. "The Moral Problematization of Pleasures," A. Carson, "Putting Her in Her Place: Woman, Dirt, and Desire" (X).
12. Th Mar 13: MYTH AND CULT I: DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
GROWING UP FEMALE: MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS
Homeric Hymn to Demeter: (X)
Blundell, "Women and Religion," 160-65
H. Foley: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (103-18) (X)
F. I. Zeitlin, "Configurations of Rape in Greek Myth" (X)
M I D T E R M V A C A T I O N
13. Tu Mar 25: MYTH AND CULT II: DIONYSOS AND MAENADS
Divine Madness. Boundary Crossing between male and female, mortal and immortal
Euripides, Bacchae (Dionysos). (RP)
Blundell, "Women and Religion," 165-69
C. Segal, "The Menace of Dionysus" in P/S, 195-212 (RP).
S. McNally, "The Maenad in Early Greek Art," P/S (RP).
14. Th Mar 27: THE COMIC MODEL: WOMEN ON TOP
Aristophanes, Lysistrata in Three Plays of Aristophanes (RP).
Thucydides, Pericles' "Funeral Oration" (X).
J. Henderson, "Greek Attitudes Toward Sex." (X)
TAKE HOME MIDTERM DUE: March 28
15. Tu Apr 1: The COMIC MODEL: RETURN TO THE MYTH OF MATRIARCHY
Aristophanes, Ecclesiazousae in Three Plays of Aristophanes (RP).
St. Augustine (X)
[Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazousae in Three Plays of Aristophanes. optional]
16. Th Apr 3: THE PHILOSOPHICAL MODEL: PLATO I
The Making of the Ideal Community and Alternate Societies (Sparta)
Plato, Republic, Book 5 (X).
Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus (Spartan Women) (X).
Plutarch, Sayings of Spartan Women (X)
Blundell, "Sparta and Gortyn," 150-59
S. M. Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, 28-70 (X).
17. Tu Apr 8: PEDERASTY OR THE LOVE OF BOYS
K. Dover, Greek Homosexuality (excerpts) (X)
S. Cohen, "Law, Social Control, and Homosexuality" (X)
Female homoeroticism:
Blundell, "Women as Poets: Sappho," 82-91
Sappho (model or illusion?). (excerpts) (X)
18. Th Apr 10: THE PHILOSOPHICAL MODEL: PLATO II
Sexuality and the Making of the Male Self
Plato, Symposium (RP).
Plato, Timaeus (excerpt) (X).
M. Foucault, The Use of Pleasure, "Erotics," 187-246 (RP)
Blundell, "Women and the Philosophers," 180-87
Lin Foxhall, "Pandora Unbound: A Feminist Critique of Foucault's History of Sexuality" (X)
19. Tu Apr 15: THE PHILOSOPHICAL MODEL: ARISTOTLE
Rational discourse and 'scientific' observation of gender roles. Politics, Economics, Biology.
Aristotle, Politics & Nichomachean Ethics: selections (X)
S. M. Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, 73-98 (X)
20. Th Apr 17: MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL MODELS OF THE BODY I
Theories of Embryology and Heredity. Male & Female Seed.
Hippocratic corpus: "The Oath"; "The Canon"; "The Seed and Nature of the Child,"
Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals (selections) (X)
G. E. R. Lloyd, "The Female Sex" (part 2), 86-111 (X).
M. Foucault, The Use of Pleasure, "Dietetics," 97-139 (RP)
21. Tu Apr 22: MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL MODELS OF THE BODY II
Theories of the Female Body
Aristotle, The History of Animals (brief excerpts) (X)
Aristotle, On The Generation of Animals (brief excerpts) (X)
Hippocratic corpus, "Diseases of Young Girls," "Hysteria"
Blundell, "Women's Bodies," 98-112
G. E. R. Lloyd, "The Female Sex" (part 1) 58-86
Lesley Dean-Jones: "The Politics of Pleasure: Female Sexual Appetitite in the Hippocratic Corpus." (X)
Helen King, "Self-help, Self-knowledge: In Search of the Patient in Hippocratic Gynaecology (X)
Lefkowitz & Fant, documents on women in medical texts
22. Th Apr 24: THE HELLENISTIC AND GRAECO-ROMAN PERIODS
From Polis (City State) to Cosmopolis. City and Country
The Romance of True Love: First Awakenings
Longus, Daphnis and Chloe (X)
Plutarch, "Advice to Bride and Groom" (X)
Theocritus, Idyll 15, "Women Celebrating the Festival of Adonis."
S. Pomeroy, "Hellenistic Women" from Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: 120-48 (X)
F. I. Zeitlin, "Gardens of Desire in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe" (X)
23. Tu Apr 29: THE GRAND SYNTHESIS; THE GRECO-ROMAN NOVEL I
Apuleius, The Golden Ass I, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche (93-142) (RP)
Artemidorus, Oneirokritika (Dream Interpretations) [excerpts] (X)
S. MacAlister, "Gender as Sign and Symbolism in Artemidoros: Social Aspirations and Anxieties" (X)
24. Th May 1: THE GRECO-ROMAN NOVEL II
Knowledge, Sexuality, and Redemption
Apuleius, The Golden Ass: II (read rest of work)
Summing up
TAKE HOME FINAL: due Monday, May 19
REQUIRED BOOKS:
The following editions of primary sources have been ordered. Other modern translations are also acceptable, but not advised. Other readings in Course Packet.
Homer, Odyssey tr. Fitzgerald (Vintage)
Aeschylus, Oresteia tr. Lattimore (Chicago)
Aristophanes: Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women.. Henderson (Routledge)
Euripides: Tragedies, vol 1 (Alcestis, Hippolytus, etc). (Chicago)
Euripides: Tragedies, vol 5 (Bacchae, Electra, etc). (Chicago)
Plato, Symposium (Hackett).
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, tr. J. Lindsay (Indiana).
Foucault, Michel. The Uses of Pleasure (Vintage).
Peradotto, J. & Sullivan, J., eds. Women in the Ancient World: the Arethusa Papers
Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece (Harvard)
In addition to books required for the course, the following other books are on reserve for further reading and viewing. I have placed a number of art books or collective volumes with some essays on art (marked with an asterisk *) on this list, to encourage you to browse in the visual material and read some of the excellent extracts:
Cohen, David J. Law, Society and Sexuality: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens. 1991.
Dover, K. J. Greek Homosexuality. 2d ed. 1989. [illustrated]
DuBois, Page. Sowing the Body: Psychoanalysis and Ancient Representations of Women. 1988.
Fantham, Elaine, Helene Foley, Natalie Kampen, et al. Women in the Classical World: Image and Text. 1994.
Foucault, Michel. The Care of the Self. [History of Sexuality III]. 1986.
Halperin, David. One Hundred Years of Homosexuality 1990.
Halperin, David, J. J. Winkler, and Froma Zeitlin. Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World. 1990
Just. Roger. Women in Athenian Law and Life. 1989.
*Kampen, Natalie (and Bettina Bergmann), Sexuality in ancient art : Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 1996.
*Keuls, Eva. The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens. 1985.
Lloyd, G. E. R. Science, Folklore, and Ideology: Studies in the Life Sciences of Ancient Greece. 1983.
*Neils, Jenifer, Goddess and Polis : the Panathenaic Festival in ancient Athens . (exhibition catalogue) 1992.
Pomeroy, Sarah. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. 1975.
Schmitt Pantel, Pauline, ed. A History of Women from Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints. 1992.
*Stewart, Andrew. Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece. 1997 [hot off the press]
*Reeder, Ellen. Pandora : Women in Classical Greece. 1995 [large catalogue, beautifully produced and with many essays]
Zeitlin, Froma I. Playing the Other: Sex and Gender in Classical Greek Literature. 1995.
Copies of the individual essays, listed as optional reading, from the above volume by Zeitlin also on reserve.
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