Unit information: Greek Language Level B2 in 2015/16

Unit name	Greek Language Level B2
Unit code	CLAS30013
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. D'Costa
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The aim of this unit is to develop and reinforce students’ skills in the reading of Greek, and to introduce them to the practical criticism of classical texts. The text under study in this unit, Euripides’ Alcestis, is in some ways an untypical ‘tragedy’. Although it deals with an extraordinarily powerful emotional situation, it also includes humour and an ending which, if not exactly ‘happy’, is at least less bleak than seemed likely halfway through the play. The plot turns on the idea that a man is allowed by the gods to avoid death if he can find someone else to die for him. The man is Admetus, and the person who agrees to die for him is his wife Alcestis. But then, enter Heracles, who wrestles with Death and...

Aims: To develop students’ knowledge of the Greek language through the reading of classical Greek verse; to introduce students to techniques of independent reading of Greek, such as use of dictionaries and commentaries; to introduce students to issues of translation and interpretation of Greek literature.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students should:

• have improved their ability to read and interpret ancient Greek texts, including Homeric Greek

• have reinforced the capacity to identify, analyse and translate complex Greek syntactical structures which they attained in B1 Greek

• have acquired a knowledge of scansion and metre, and the ability to scan lines of set text

• have developed an acquaintance with some current approaches to reading ancient literature

• have had the opportunity to develop communication skills in both oral and written presentations, discussions and written assignments

• have improved their skill at using secondary literature, in particular dictionaries and academic commentaries, so as to produce independent interpretations of the texts under study.

Teaching Information

Lectures, seminars and reading classes.

Assessment Information

2 x class tests (25% each) and 1 x practical criticism (50%)

Reading and References

Liddell, H. G. and R. Scott. 1963. Intermediate Greek-E nglish Lexicon, Oxford

Morwood, J. 2001. Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek, Oxford

Set Text: Euripides, Alcestis, ed. A.M. Dale (Bristol Classical Press)