readings

Reading due Dec. 3:

In the first two readings Garnsey discusses how the ways people talk about food and how they organize themselves at meals and parties reflect and reaffirm differences between people in terms of gender, class, and ethnicity. The readings about and by Galen offer a very different treatment and understanding of food and its role. As you are reading I encourage you to reflect how these sources might be employed as evidence for your persuasive essay.

  1. Garnsey, Peter. Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. (“Otherness,” pages 62-81.)
  2. Garnsey, Peter. Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. (“You are with whom you eat”/”Conclusion,” pages 128-43.)
  3. Grant, Mark. Galen on Food and Diet. New York: Routledge, 2000. (“Introduction”—stop reading when come to “The treatises” on page 10—”On the Humors,” pages 1-10, 14-18.)
  4. ********Do not read this entire document. Select one food that interests you. Be prepared to explain what Galen says about the food, and, if possible, how his assessment of the food relates to his discussion of the humors. Grant, Mark. Galen on Food and Diet. New York: Routledge, 2000. (“On the Powers of Foods. Book Two.”)

Reading due Dec. 1:

  1. The first reading is a play by Plautus, a Roman comic playwright (3rd-2nd century BCE). Please Plautus’ play called Pseudolous (The Cheat) on Perseus. Use the blue arrows above the text to turn the page. Be sure to read the entire play, which consists of five acts (these acts are listed in the menu bar on the left side of the screen: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.02.0107
  2. When you have finished the play, please read this: http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/8/30/

Reading due Nov. 24:

  1. Secondary Source: Michael Beer, Taste or Taboo. Trowbridge: Prospect Books, 2010. (“Vegetarianism”/”Beans,” pages 28-53.)
  2. Primary Source: Plutarch, Moralia (On the Eating of Flesh I): http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_esu_carnium*/1.html
  3. Primary Source: Plutarch, Moralia (On the Eating of Flesh II): http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_esu_carnium*/2.html

Reading due Nov. 12:

  1. Donahue, John F. “Toward a Typology of Roman Public Feasting.” American Journal of Philology 124.3 (2003): 423-41.
  2. Primary Source Introduction: Ruden, Sarah. Commentary One: Who was Petronius Anyway? Satyricon. By Petronius. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2000, 129-31.
  3. Primary Source: Do not read the entire document! Only read paragraphs 26-46 (pages 18-34). Petronius. Satyricon. Trans. Sarah Ruden. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2000.

Reading due Nov. 10:

  1. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (“Sacrifices,” pages 148-65.)

Reading due Nov. 5:

*****The images in this version are hard to see. This version will be updated with better images. For now, if you want to start the reading, please read this version.

  1. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (“Gods and Goddesses,” pages 26-59.)

Reading due Nov. 3:

  1. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (“Finding the religion of the early Roman,” pages 1-18.)
  2. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (“Earliest Rome,” pages 1-25.)
  3. Warden, Gregory. “The Blood of Animals: Predation and Transformation in Etruscan Funerary Representation.” New Perspectives on Etruria and Early Rome. Eds. Sinclair Bell and Helen Nagy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. 198-214.

Reading due Oct. 27:

  1. Wilkins, John M. and Shaun Hill, Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006. (“The Social Context of Eating,” pages 51-78.)
  2. Menander, Dyscolus
  3. Here is a link to Menander’s bio: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Menander-Greek-dramatist

Reading due Oct. 22:

  1. Zaidman, Louise Bruit and Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans. Paul Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (“Dionysos: God of Wild Possession,” pages 198-207).
  2. Primary Source: Euripides, Bacchae.

Reading due Oct. 20:

  1. Zaidman, Louise Bruit and Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans. Paul Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (“Rites of Passage,” pages 63-79.)
  2. Morgan, Janett. “Women, Religion, and the Home.” A Companion to Greek Religion. Ed. Daniel Ogden. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. 297-310. (“Festivals and Female Movement”, pages 303-05.)
  3. Zaidman, Louise Bruit and Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans. Paul Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (“Eleusis,” pages 132-40.)
  4. Primary Source: Rice and Stambaugh, “Eleusis,” pages 129-45.

Reading due Oct. 13

  1. Zaidman and Schmitt Pantel, “The Festival System: The Athenian Case,” pages 102-111.
  2. Iddeng, Jon W. “What is a Greco-Roman Festival? A Polythetic Approach.” Greek and Roman Festivals. Content, Meaning, and Practice. Eds J. Rasmus Brandt and Jon W. Iddeng. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 11-31.
  3. Maurizio, Lisa. “The Panathenaic Procession: Athens’ Participatory Democracy on Display?” Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens. Eds Deborah Boedeker and Kurt A. Raaflaub. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. 297-317.

Reading due Oct. 6:

  1. Burkert, Walter. Homo Necans. Trans. Peter Bing. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (“Werewolves Around the Tripod Kettle,” pages 83-103.)
  2. Seneca, Thyestes.
  3. Here is a link to Pindar’s First Olympian Ode, which is referenced by Burkert. It’s short. If you have time, please read it. It is recommended reading; it is not required: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DO.%3Apoem%3D1

Reading due Oct. 1:

  1. Homer, Odyssey, Book 9.Homer’s Odyssey recounts the journey of Odysseus and his men as they travel from Troy home to Ithaca. Odysseus fought with the Greeks in the Trojan War. Book Nine describes Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops, a one-eyed giant, as Odysseus and his men travel home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
  2. Nieto Hernández, Pura. “Back in the Cave of the Cyclops.” The American Journal of Philology 121.3 (2000): 345-66.

Reading due Sept. 29:

  1. Iliad, Book 23.This book describes the funeral games of Patroclus, who was a close friend of Achilles. Both fought on the side of the Greeks during the Trojan War. Homer’s Iliad begins with the conflict between Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces, and Achilles over the distribution of war prizes. Achilles, feeling that he was wronged when his prize has been taken from him, refuses to fight. At the beginning of Book 23 Patroclus has just worn Achilles’ armor in battle. Hector realizes that it is Patroclus, not Achilles, wearing the armor, and he kills Patroclus. In Book 23 Homer describes the funeral of Achilles and the games that follow.
  2. Hughes, Dennis D. Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece. New York: Routledge, 1991. (“Funerary Ritual Killing in Greek History and Literature,” pages 49-56.)The second reading discusses human sacrifice at Patroclus’ funeral. You only need to read page s 49-56. You are welcome to read the rest, but you are not required to do so. You may find the last section of the chapter, “Homer and the Archaeological Evidence” interesting.
  3. Burkert, Walter. Homo Necans. The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. Trans. Peter Bing. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (“Funerary Ritual,” pages 48-58.)The third, a chapter from Burkert’s Homo Necans, discusses more generally funerary ritual from an anthropological perspective.

Reading due Sept. 24:

  1. Zaidman, Louise Bruit and Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans. Paul Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (“Rituals”/”Cult Practices,” pages 27-54.)
  2. Rice, David G. and John E. Stambaugh, Sources for the Study of Greek Religion. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. (“Sacrifices,” pages 81-88.)

Reading due Sept. 22:

  1. Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. (“Creation Myth,” pages 20-24.)
  2. Zeitlin, Froma, Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. (“Signifying Difference: The Case of Hesiod’s Pandora,” pages 53-74.)

Reading due Thursday, September 17:

  1. Hesiod Selections
  2. Vernant, Jean-Pierre. “At Man’s Table: Hesiod’s Foundation Myth of Sacrifice.” The Cuisine of Sacrifice Among the Greeks. Eds. Marcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant. Trans.                       Paula Wissing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. 21-86. (Pages 21-35.)
  3. Vernant, Jean-Pierre. “At Man’s Table: Hesiod’s Foundation Myth of Sacrifice.” The Cuisine of Sacrifice Among the Greeks. Eds. Marcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant. Trans.                       Paula Wissing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. 21-86. (Pages 35-43.)
  4. If you are not familiar with Hesiod, you may find this website useful:  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/264059/Hesiod