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Greeks 3
Greeks 3
Greek Literature 3: Beauty and Truth, Body and Soul Cary Honig email: caryh@school-one.org
completely up to date for 2025: if dates disagree, the assignment sheet is correct. It's safest to check with me.
Welcome to the Greeks 3 wiki. Hopefully, having an overview of what we will do and roughly when will make the class easier. This also allows me to make the suggested but not required readings available in a context that might make them more attractive. Once again, two of the essays will be done in class, which most students consider easier. The focus will be on philosophy, but there will be considerable literature and history as well, and we should spend the last week learning a bit about Rome.
Students can take this class for English or history credit. Because the class is so writing intense, there is a different workload for English and history students with history students writing fewer essays (usually those that have more history or sociological content). The reading requirements are the same. The syllabi linked immediately below provide the details.
Every student even considering this class must read and sign the source policy and abide by it. Failure to do so will lead to no credit in the class. I am not interested in what anyone at wikipedia, Sparknotes or Harvard thinks about this literature. I am interested in what YOU think. You must think for yourself in this class. If you don't want to do that and perhaps occasionally struggle, don't take the class. You are always welcome to come discuss your ideas with me before writing if you are worried you are off track. I won't tell you what to write or think, but I am happy to ask you questions that might help you to focus or reorient. This is NOT a research class; it is a thinking class. Please respect that and trust that I respect ideas that may be flawed but original far more than ideas that are on more solid ground but that aren't yours. If you want to improve your reading skills significantly (or want to earn credit), do not cheat, which is what looking for help online or elsewhere is amounts to in this class.
For a guide to proper citation within text and bibliography (works cited), go to
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/
Links under the weekly schedule are to note sheets we will use in class as well as to articles that are usually recommended but not required to add to your knowledge about what we are discussing in class. I am also providing a select bibliography for those of you who want to know more either now or in the future.
Essays are due almost every week and always on Thursdays by class time . Revisions should be done soon after being returned but MUST be completed by the Monday after they are returned unless an earlier date is specified at the end of the trimester. On two occasions this trimester, students will do their essays in class on Thursdays to practice for college testing. They should be sure to have read the materials very carefully and to have given them some thought before taking these exams, but the questions are broad and don't require focus on one particular detail in the text(s). Students who are absent on these days will do the essays at home with the amount of evidence expected in an essay done at home. In-class essays are generally not revised unless the student didn't do the reading. At-home essays need revision until I approve them as complete, which means you must address both mechanical and content issues I indicate on your drafts.
Late work is not tolerated in this class. If a student is late on one essay, s/he will have to do an additional essay as well as the one that is late. If a second assignment is late, the student cannot earn credit. If a student is home sick, the essay must be emailed on time. Very rare exceptions will only be made in a situation that is completely unavoidable by the student and for which there is clear evidence and in which the extension was specifically pre-arranged. Multiple exceptions in a trimester will not be acceptable. If you can't keep up with the pace, there are more appropriate classes for you. If you have had trouble with this in the past, don't sign up this trimester unless you are sure you can correct the situation.
Students should begin reading chapters 1-9 from I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates as soon as they sign up for the class. The first essay is due for all students by March 20 at class time. You will be answering questions leading up to writing the essay, and you will hand in both.
I will be giving you a copy of I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates, which should be your main entertainment for the next month. You will be expected to read the whole book. Note sheets will be filled out and collected. Complete notes will help you with your essays.
Week 1: We will review the Peloponnesian War and its immediate aftermath with attention to the role Socrates's students, particularly Alcibiades and Critias, played, which is crucial background for the situation in which Socrates found himself in 399 B.C. We will also go into detail about what is known about love and sex in ancient Greece to prepare for reading Plato's Symposium. Be prepared for a frank discussion.
Between the wars (mid-5th century) notes
New Painting of Phaedra and Hippolytus found in Pompeii 24
notes on Eros '25
To read School One (and Greek Lit.) alumnus Max Brumberg-Kraus's book The(y)ology: Mythopoetics for Queer/Trans Liberation: https://punctumbooks.com/titles/theyology-mythopoetics-for-queer-trans-liberation/
This week's essay sets the groundwork for third trimester by introducing you to Greek philosophy up until the time of Socrates. It is due on March 20 with the reading questions due by 9 a.m.March 18, and history students are doing it along with English students.
A more positive view of Socrates including his origin story 24
Week 2: This week, you will be reading about love (Plato's Symposium) while we begin discussing Socrates and his relationship with Athens and its traumas during the fifteen years of the 5th Century, which certainly just coincidentally were largely brought on by his close disciples, especially Alcibiades, Critias and Charmides (the latter two Plato's uncles). We will also be starting Hippolytus by Euripides in class if we didn't start last week.
Grammar: commas and initial words
Courtesans and Fishcakes review '98
Davidson: Greeks and Greek love review Guardian '08
James Davidson on the Greeks and naked bodies '98
The History of Thebes and its warriors who were pairs of lovers '20
Daniel Mendelsohn on The Sacred Band '21
for a great hour webinar about Thebes and The Sacred Band with Profs. Helene Foley, Paul Cartledge and James Romm, go to https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/526534543840425739
The Truth about the Amazons including their connection to Hippolytus
Conclusion from Mary Lefkowitz's Euripides and the Gods '19
To read Xenophon's Symposium, which likely inspired Plato's Symposium, go to https://archive.org/details/xenophon-symposium/mode/2up
This will give you a sense of their difference as writers and of their portraits of Socrates. The most relevant part of Xenophon's work to Plato's is the discussion of eros that begins with Part VIII, so Plato's full Symposium is a riposte to just the end of Xenophon's, which ranges more widely and sounds more like a drinking party. Plato's is much more essential philosophy, however.
This week's essay is on the longer side, but it's a topic about which I'm sure you are all experts. You need to have read The Symposium fully before writing this essay, which is due on the morning of Thursday, March 27. Your first revision (ex 1) is due by March 31, but why wait?
Week 3: I'm sure we'll be spending the week discussing love and possibly finishing up Hippolytus while you begin The Republic at home. We will begin Aristophanes's comedy about tragedy, The Frogs, when we complete Hippolytus. This is one of the Aristophanes's funnier and later works, written just at the end of The Peloponnesian War when Sophocles and Euripides had just died.
Grammar: Quotations and punctuation
You have a revision of exercise one with the draft is due by Monday, March 31
Exercise 2 is due Thursday, April 3 along with the reading questions by Tuesday about the concept of Justice in the first two books of The Republic, which is the topic of your next essay, and everyone does it. You will need to fill out the note sheets, which will make the essay easy and save you work in college.
Plato At The Googleplex book review by Robert Gottlieb '14
Week 4: We will continue with The Frogs in class. When we have time, we will discuss the highlights of Plato's views of love in The Symposium and discuss whether Aristophanes ever wrote anything as good as what Plato wrote for him in this dialogue. Grammar: Colons/Semi-colons
Grammar: colons and semi-colons
This week's in-class essay is based on reading books 3 and 4 of The Republic, which address a number of topics as the discussion shifts to the perfect state. Your notes are due on Thursday, April 10 by class time. Your revision of the love essay is due Monday, April 7 with the draft.
Week 5: Hopefully, we're done with The Frogs and can begin discussing The Republic. This week's topic is justice along with Socrates's methodology. Was Stone's analysis of the way Socrates operates accurate?
Grammar: however, though and commas
This week's reading is one book longer and central to western philosophy, so get started sooner. It covers a number of topics but many relate to education, as did some material in the previous two books. I will be collecting your notes on April 15 by class time. Essays are due on Thursday, April 17, and everyone does this one. This should be one of your more enjoyable essays even if it's on the long side. It's your chance to analyze School One from Socrates's point of view. Your justice revisions are due on Monday, April 14. I strongly recommend using vacation to get ahead on the rest of the Stone reading. It would also be smart to begin reading The Clouds to begin to prepare for week 7's in class essay. If you don't, you may be sorry in a couple of weeks.
Simon Critchley on what really happened in the Eleusinian Mysteries 19
Vacation Week: I'd read ahead if I were you.
Week 6: We will continue discussing The Republic in class. Among this week's topics should be the role of art and the media in a state. Grammar: prepositions
To watch Bard professors James Romm and Daniel Mendelsohn discuss Plato and the Tyrant, go to https://vimeo.com/1084573835?&login=true#_=_
If you're all caught up (and you should be), you don't owe a revision this week. If you have re-revisions due, be sure they're in by Monday. You'll be finishing up The Republic, reading books 8-10 by Tuesday, April 29, and after some discussion about the best form of government, you will eventually focusing on Plato's highly influential (for Christianity) ideas about the soul (psyche) and what happens to us after death. For some reason, there are two documents for this week's notes. You will then be writing an essay about that topic, and it's due on Thursday, May 1. Question sheets are due by Tuesday. You have a lot of reading for next week (The Clouds, Apology and the rest of Stone), and you hopefully got ahead on that over vacation, but if you didn't, you should begin getting ahead now.
Ancient Forms of government '15
Week 7: We will continue discussing The Republic. Grammar: Adverbs
Read the rest of the Stone book and hand in the questions by class on May 8.
No essay this week, but you have a lot of reading questions, so start early.
Week 8: We will be discussing Plato's conclusions about the best form of government, which likely have a connection to Soc's trial, how it relates to his views about individuals and his crucial ideas about the soul and their afterlife. Grammar: Parallel Structure
An Ethical Question-Heidigger: the Nazi philosopher '09
Your soul revision is due by Monday, May 10.
Read The Clouds and Plato's The Apology, Plato's version of Socrates's speeches at his trial, and the rest of Stone at home. The Plato notes document includes next week's readings as well as this week's. That's a lot, so you hopefully got ahead as suggested. This week's essay is the second in-class essay, and it's about The Apology and The Clouds, so you should have read them and Stone carefully and thought about how they interrelate. I will be collecting note sheets on The Apology and Stone on May 8 before you do the essay in class.
Week 9: We will discuss Socrates's trial and his critique of democracy. If we have time, we will discuss the contractual nature of law indicated in The Crito. We may even get up to what Plato has Socrates say about death in The Phaedo (and in The Apology). If not, we'll discuss it next week.
To watch a video of professors discussing Why Socrates Matters, go to https://vimeo.com/1032451252?autoplay=1&muted=1&stream_id=Y2xpcHN8MzQ4MTc5MDh8aWQ6ZGVzY3xbXQ%3D%3D
At home, you should be reading Plato's Crito and Phaedo for this week's essay. In many ways, I find these the most admirable of Plato's dialogues, at least in terms of Socrates being wise and admirable. Death becomes him. I actually found The Phaedo very comforting when I first read it at your age. Note sheets (attached with The Apology under last week) are due on Tuesday, May 20 and the essay is due May 22. If you are smart, this is your final essay of the year. You may now take a deep breath and feel proud after 24 essays in 30 weeks of class (if you avoided the extra ones). You are definitely ready for college.
The Scientific Revolt Against Death '11
Only the slackers have an extra essay due, and it's due by Monday, May 19. Let's hope that's not you. Everyone will read Plutarch's Parallel Lives of Alexander and Julius Caesar, in the latter of which you will find that Shakespeare was not above cribbing good lines from his favorite sources. The slackers will write an essay about them. I'm sure you will all be disappointed to know that there aren't note sheets for this week's reading: Jeopardy will separate the readers from the non-readers among the non-slackers. Your Crito/Phaedo revision is due by Thursday, May 20 with the draft!
Plutarch text (Lives of Alexander and Julius Caesar
Week 10: If we finished with The Crito and Phaedo last week, we will move on to Greek philosophy after Plato, with attention to Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, the Cynics and the Skeptics.
Grammar: Split Infinitives and advanced usage
Post Platonic Greek Philosophy notes
Aristotle's Practical Guide to Virtue 25
Lives of the Philosophers 2011
Did Aristotle Invent Science? (We know better.) '14
Should We Cancel Aristotle? 20
Epicurus, Atheism and Death 16
Hipparchia, a female Cynic philosopher '21
Arthur Brooks on Aristippus and avoidance of pain 24
Arthur Brooks re Stoic vs Epicurean routes to happiness and why it's worth combining them 21
Seneca (Roman Stoic) review '14
Your extra essay revision, should you be foolish enough to have one, is due by 9 a.m. on Monday, May 26). Your fairly brief but very interesting reading this week is a chapter and a half from Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve, which explains the (brilliant) but much misunderstood philosophy of Epicurus and his Roman follower Lucretius. I'll collect the reading on May 27. Final revisions of final essay are due on Thursday, May 29.
Week 11: When we are done with later Greek philosophy, we will take a brief trip through Greek and Roman history at least up to Jesus's time when the Roman Republic has become the Roman Empire. I promise to pick up the story next fall in Brit. Lit. to get us from there to 14th Century England. We will end by reading Euripides's great play Alcestis - usually classed as a tragedy but more of its own thing - featuring a heroic wife and about the worst husband ever.
Charles Segal on gender and mourning in Alcestis
Interview with Cambridge Classicist and Feminist Mary Beard '21
Marc Antony's rise and fall 24
Did a Volcanic Eruption Around the world help end the Roman Republic? 20
Discovery of Caligula's Pleasure Garden 21
James Davidson reassesses Nero
Trade between Rome and India 23
Galen and the Antonine Plague 24
Link for your evaluation of the class: Please do it: it's anonymous, and I won't see it until after I do your evaluation.
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