The course is aimed at the study of poems of the archaic and late archaic period and longer pieces of Attic oratory of the fourth century B. C. which, in completely different literary ways, realize an identical type of discourse, psogos, or 'invective', which antiquity had already valued as typically antithetical to the discourse of praise (epainos) both in the archaic poetic practice (Pindar) and later, in theory, in the ancient criticism (Gorgias, Euenus, Aristotle, Demetrius). The aim of the course is to study a significant part of Greek literature.  Not only will it amplify the knowledge of texts in the language, which satisfies a basic requirement of the curriculum, but also, through a paradigmatic interpretation of selected works of poetry and prose, the student will acquire valid principles and methods for a scientific approach to classical texts in line with the educational and professional goals of the course of study.   

In the first phase of the course, the students will translate and comment on the texts of the archaic and late archaic poets analyzing them from metric, lyric, and literary points of view.  They will translate and comment, on a linguistic, rhetoric, and historical level, on the parts selected from the fourth century orations, which will be proposed in the second phase of the course.  Of these texts, the students will read, in Italian translation, those parts not read in the lesson. 

First semester:

-  regarding the typology of the psogos, primarily, we will highlight the multiplicity of the realization of the forms, which come from the direct, personal, violent and aggressive attack - often of a political nature - on the jovial, humorous behaviour connected with the symposium atmosphere;  

-  at the level of poetic practice, the most significant examples of this genre of the poetry of ancient authors will be analyzed: Archilochus (fragm. 126, 172, 196a West), Semonides (fr. 7 West), Alcaeus (fragm. 129, 141, 332, 348 Voigt), Hipponax (fragm. 19, 26, 120, 121, 128 West), Anacreon (fragm. 20, 44, 54, 82, 86, 98 Gentili), Xenophanes (fragm. 15, 17-19 Gentili-Prato);

-  on the basis of these readings, the students will acquire knowledge of the specificity and of the aspects that characterize the poetry of the invective:  the vast lexical spectrum that it reflects, the variety of its expressions, its diverse objectives, its connexions with the poetry of praise, its proposed themes, its plurality of the metric forms, of the styles, of the occasions, of the narrative tones, of the rhetoric devices, and, in particular, of the persona loquens.

Second semester:

The historical and literary portrait of the vibrant democratic political context of Athens in the fourth century which created 'the theater of the invective', where the most famous orators confronted each other in the assembly space of the polis, in a rich historical and cultural context full of internal tensions and new turmoil;

- reading of some parts of the famous orations in which the authors Demosthenes and Aeschines confront one another in two famous trials (343 and 330 BC): Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon 148-176, Against Timarchus 170-176, On the Betrayed Embassy 20-24, 34-54, 96, 108-113, 118, 124-127; Demosthenes, For the crown 9-24, ...embassy...182-186, 199, 206-211, 246-255, 337-343;

- the choice of the readings will be completed from a series of testimonies dealing with poetic works and which dealt with ancient literary theory:  Pindar, Olympian 9, 35-39; Pythian 2, 49-56; frg. 181 Maehler; Gorgias, 82 A 15a D.-K.; Plato, Phaedrus 267a, with Hermias’ comment on the platonic passage; Aristotle, Poetics 1448b 23 ss., fragm. 588 Rose; Demetrius, De elocutione 301 Rhys Roberts.

The students must also demonstrate a good critical knowledge of Greek literature, of its diverse phases and of its major representatives, with particular attention to the evolution of the literary genres.

The students will acquire the knowledge of a specific literary category that, in the expressions of the literature, both poetic and verse, will traverse the entire arc of Greek culture, expressing, in a great variety of form and content, the notion that may be summed up as the eulogy-blame antithesis.  Introduced to a general vision of argument, the students will arrive at a deepening of that part of the production based on the invective and to compare the selected texts, connected to the common idea psogos, which will be brought to their attention.  Students will study works of diverse genres and ages of composition which will be analyzed in their metric-rhythmic structure, in the stylistic instruments used, in the content expressed, and that will have to be evaluated with awareness in their relation to different historical and communicational contexts, which from time to time determined their production.  Through this exercise, students will master the techniques of reading and will develop the skill of comprehension, of critical thought, and of communication of facts, required under the professional profile of the course and necessary for the autonomous approach to successive university study.  

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

There is no foreseen teaching support.

Teaching

Traditional classroom lessons and seminars.

 

Attendance

Knowledge of the Greek language is required. 

Course books

Course texts, which deal with translating and commenting:

1) M. L. West (ed.), Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. I-II. Editio altera, Oxford 1989-92 (Clarendon Press);

2) E.-M. Voigt (ed.), Sappho et Alcaeus. Fragmenta, Amsterdam 1971 (Athenaeum-Polak & van Gennep);

3) B. Gentili (ed.), Anacreonte, Roma 1958 (Ed. Ateneo);

4) B. Gentili, C. Prato (edd.), Poetae elegiaci. Testimonia et fragmenta I, Leipzig 1979 (Teubner);

5) Polinnia. Poesia greca arcaica. Terza edizione a cura di B. Gentili e C. Catenacci, Messina-Firenze 2007 (D’Anna);

6) Demostene, Per la corona. Eschine, Contro Ctesifonte. Introduzione, traduzione e note di L. Bartolini Lucchi. Con un saggio di Pierre Carlier, Milano 1994 (BUR);

7) L. Canfora et alii (edd.), Discorsi e lettere di Demostene II, Torino 2000 (UTET);

8) M. Marzi et alii (edd.), Oratori attici minori I, Torino 1977 (UTET).

From the text in number 7, students are required to read the Introduction to the orations For the Crown and On the Betrayed Embassy, pp. 22-33 and 219-243.  From the volume in 8, the Introduction to Aeschines, pp. 331-362. 

At least one of the following in-depth readings is obligatory:

B. Gentili, Poesia e pubblico nella Grecia antica. Da Omero al V secolo. Edizione aggiornata, Milano 2006 (Feltrinelli), capp. VIII (pp. 175-185) e XI (pp. 267-291);

A. Aloni, ‘La performance giambica nella Grecia arcaica’, Annali Online di Ferrara-Lettere, vol. 1, 2006, pp. 83-107;

C. Miralles-J. Pòrtulas, The Poetry of Hipponax, Roma 1988 (Ed. Ateneo), pp. 121-160;

 

A. Rotstein, The Idea of Iambos, Oxford 2010 (University Press), pp. 281-341.

For the study of Greek literature, we advise a good manual, such as:  G. Guidorizzi, La letteratura greca. Testi autori società, Milano 1996; G. A. Privitera-R. Pretagostini, Storia e forme della letteratura greca, Milano 1997. The manual must be integrated in the in-depth reading of at least three of the literary arguments dealt with in the volumes:  Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica I-III, Roma 1996 (Salerno Ed.).

The texts can be consulted at the Department’s Library. 

 

 

Assessment

 

The exam consists in an oral test on the theoretical part of the course, on the metric interpretation, on the translation and on the linguistic comment of the iambic texts of the archaic and hellenistic period read and analyzed during the course. 

The exam is in two phases:

1)  a written test, consisting of a translation and a comment on some of the texts read and analyzed during the course;

2)  an oral test on the arguments dealt with in the lessons and on the history of Greek literature.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Traditional classroom lessons and seminars.

 

Attendance

Knowledge of the Greek language is required. 

Course books

Course texts, which deal with translating and commenting:

1) M. L. West (ed.), Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. I-II. Editio altera, Oxford 1989-92 (Clarendon Press);

2) E.-M. Voigt (ed.), Sappho et Alcaeus. Fragmenta, Amsterdam 1971 (Athenaeum-Polak & van Gennep);

3) B. Gentili (ed.), Anacreonte, Roma 1958 (Ed. Ateneo);

4) B. Gentili, C. Prato (edd.), Poetae elegiaci. Testimonia et fragmenta I, Leipzig 1979 (Teubner);

5) Polinnia. Poesia greca arcaica. Terza edizione a cura di B. Gentili e C. Catenacci, Messina-Firenze 2007 (D’Anna);

6) Demostene, Per la corona. Eschine, Contro Ctesifonte. Introduzione, traduzione e note di L. Bartolini Lucchi. Con un saggio di Pierre Carlier, Milano 1994 (BUR);

7) L. Canfora et alii (edd.), Discorsi e lettere di Demostene II, Torino 2000 (UTET);

8) M. Marzi et alii (edd.), Oratori attici minori I, Torino 1977 (UTET).

From the text in number 7, students are required to read the Introduction to the orations For the Crown and On the Betrayed Embassy, pp. 22-33 and 219-243.  From the volume in 8, the Introduction to Aeschines, pp. 331-362. 

At least two of the following in-depth readings are required:

B. Gentili, Poesia e pubblico nella Grecia antica. Da Omero al V secolo. Edizione aggiornata, Milano 2006 (Feltrinelli), capp. VIII (pp. 175-185) e XI (pp. 267-291);

A. Aloni, ‘La performance giambica nella Grecia arcaica’, Annali Online di Ferrara-Lettere, vol. 1, 2006, pp. 83-107;

C. Miralles-J. Pòrtulas, The Poetry of Hipponax, Roma 1988 (Ed. Ateneo), pp. 121-160;

 

A. Rotstein, The Idea of Iambos, Oxford 2010 (University Press), pp. 281-341.

For the study of Greek literature, we advise a good manual, such as: G. Guidorizzi, La letteratura greca. Testi autori società, Milano 1996; G. A. Privitera-R. Pretagostini, Storia e forme della letteratura greca, Milano 1997. The manual must be integrated in the in-depth reading of at least five of the literary arguments dealt with in the volumes:  Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica I-III, Roma 1996 (Salerno Ed.).

The texts can be consulted at the Department’s Library. 

 

 

 

 

Assessment

The exam is in two phases:

1)  a written test, consisting of a translation and a comment on some of the texts read and analyzed during the course;

2)  an oral test on the arguments dealt with in the lessons and on the history of Greek literature.

The final grade given will be the average of the grades given in the two phases.

 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.