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2. Course Overview
Comprehensive Description: The course adopts a rigorous immersion approach, where all instruction and interaction occur in Ancient Greek. Sessions prioritize direct engagement with the text, emphasizing the internalized rhythm of oral performance and the agility of immediate linguistic reformulation. Rather than abstract grammatical analysis, the curriculum focuses on the inductive mastery of the text’s underlying structures—recurrent participial chains, narrative formulas, and the nuances of the Homeric dialect. Vocabulary acquisition is organized by semantic fields—including travel, craft, ritual, and poetic production—and reinforced through cumulative exposure across the narrative arc.
Curriculum Phases:
Phases I–V (Weeks 1–10): A sequential investigation of the text, tracing the birth and education of Homer in Smyrna and Cyme (§§ 1–8), his early compositions at Neon Teichos (§§ 9–16), his wanderings through Chios (§§ 17–24), the establishment of his school (§§ 25–28), and his travels through Samos (§§ 29–32).
Phase VI (Weeks 11–12): Dedicated to continuous rereading and synthesis. Students will consolidate the corpus of embedded poems and complete an uninterrupted reading of the entire thirty-eight sections to master the work's historical and philological unity.
3. Proficiency & Requirements
Language Level:
Framework Reference: Designed for students who have successfully completed Athenaze Vol. II or an equivalent introductory sequence.
General Description: Upper-intermediate to advanced. Participants should be prepared to transition from controlled textbook readings to sustained engagement with authentic archaic prose and early hexameter verse within a fully immersive environment.
Estimated Self-Study Time:
Time Commitment: 1.5 hours per week.
Preparation Type: Students are expected to reread assigned sections and consolidate vocabulary by semantic field to facilitate active participation in seminar discussions.
4. Materials & Bibliography
Required Textbooks:
Primary Text: Vitae Homeri, Vita Herodotea. In: Homeri Opera, Vol. 5. Ed. T. W. Allen (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Further Reading:
M. L. West, ed. and trans., Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer (Loeb Classical Library, 2003).
Richard J. Cunliffe, A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect (University of Oklahoma Press, 1963).
M. L. West, Greek Metre (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982).
5. ATTENDANCE, CERTIFICATION AND RECORDINGS
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