Syllabus
Women in Ancient Greece and Rome

Topics and Readings

Final Exam: 
Thursday April 29, 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM

Textbooks:

• Fantham et al., Women in the Classical World
• Lefkowitz and Fant, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome
  (Some selections are reproduced on the Internet)
• Euripides, Medea (Available online or in an edition of your choice)
• Aristophanes, Lysistrata (Available online or in an edition of your choice)

Note: READING ASSIGNMENTS SHOULD BE COMPLETED BEFORE CLASS.  Since we draw directly from these reading in class discussion, it's a good idea to bring your books to class.

Readings linked in the syllabus are available on the Internet (and sometimes only there). Download readings ahead of time to be sure you have what you need.

Updates:

Any updates or additions to this syllabus will be posted at the top of the syllabus page. For more information on day to day work, go to the Assignments page.

Goals and Requirements

 Goals:

• To explore the lives, perceptions and accomplishments of women in ancient Greece and Rome;
• To investigate, with special reference to the women of Greece and Rome, such issues as the construction of gender, sexuality, and family; the role of myth and religion in maintaining and circumventing social mores; philosophical, medical and political interpretations of disenfranchised groups, etc.;
• To come to an understanding of the various theoretical and personal approaches to studying women's history;
• To learn the uses (and limits of usefulness) of the sources available to us in interpreting the lives of ancient women (mythology, the poetry of women, literature about women, philosophical and medical writings, pictorial and archeological evidence; documentary papyri; comparative ethnology);
• To understand all of this both intellectually and from the heart.

Participation:

This class depends on participation – it is through participation that we explore our own and others’ ideas, unite the different information and theoretical perspectives we have achieved through our individual research paths and life experiences, and gain a more complete understanding of women’s lives in antiquity.

Class discussion and participation are vital not just for your grade, but for developing an understanding of the topics we are investigating.  Class will usually be organized around your responses to the primary source texts we have read, whether they are in the sourcebook (Lefkowitz and Fant) or embedded in the textbook (Fantham et al.).

In emphasizing discussion, we are really using a modern version of antiquity’s ways of learning and deciding. In the ancient world, where literacy was not as pervasive, ideas were explored and conclusions were reached through talking. Debate was central to life, and you were not expected to read and assimilate information in a vacuum.  Since we do live in the modern world, in this class we will get a lot of our information from solitary reading.  But discussion can open different perspectives and mature our own ideas.

Requirements and Grading:

• Attendance is mandatory (it’s the participation thing). If you miss more than 3 classes, 2 points will be deducted from your final grade for each class missed. (If you have a family, personal or medical emergency, please let me know before things get out of hand; also contact the Dean of Students’ office for assistance in notifying your other professors.)
• Two 2-3 page essay responses (or an essay and a book report) (20%) 
• One 5-6 page research paper (20%) 
• Midterm (20%) and Final (20%) (Both contain factual and essay questions; part of the Final is comprehensive.) These may not be rescheduled without prior approval and a really good justification (i.e. family emergency or medical excuse).
• Quizzes (20%)  Short fact-oriented quizzes to make sure everyone is on track with the names, ideas, places, etc. that are the groundwork of this course.  These may not be made up but I will drop one.
• Papers must be on time. Late papers will lose points.

Grade Scale:

• A = 100-93, A- = 92-90
• B+ = 89-87, B = 86-83, B- = 82-80
• C+ = 79-77, C = 76-73, C- = 72-70
• D+ = 69-67, D = 66-63, D- = 62-60
• F = 59 or below

Honor Code:
This course is conducted in accordance with the Honor Code of UNC-Wilmington.

Other Information:

• Your Professor: Andrea Deagon. 
• Office: Leutze 273. 
• Phone: 962-3870. 
• E-mail: deagona@uncw.edu. 
• Office Hours: MW 10:00-1:00, TR 2:00-3:00, or by appointment.