Marc Witkin
Eve Adler Professor of Classics
- Office
- Twilight Hall 213
- Tel
- (802) 443-5664
- witkin@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- Spring 2023: Monday/Wednesday 10-12 or, by appointment
- Additional Programs
- Classics and Classical Studies
Courses Taught
CLAS 0150
Upcoming
Greek and Roman Epic Poetry
Course Description
Greek and Roman Epic Poetry
Would Achilles and Hector have risked their lives and sacred honor had they understood human life and the Olympian gods as Homer portrays them in the Iliad? Why do those gods decide to withdraw from men altogether following the Trojan War, and why is Odysseus the man Athena chooses to help her carry out that project? And why, according to the Roman poet Vergil, do these gods command Aeneas, a defeated Trojan, to found an Italian town that will ultimately conquer the Greek cities that conquered Troy, replacing the Greek polis with a universal empire that will end all wars of human freedom? Through close study of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and Vergil's Aeneid, we explore how the epic tradition helped shape Greece and Rome, and define their contributions to European civilization. 3 hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
CLAS 0152
Current
Greek Tragedy
Course Description
Greek Tragedy
A survey of selected tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, exploring the relation between tragedy and political freedom and empire in fifth century B.C. Athens. The course examines the tragic poets' use of traditional Greek myths to question not only the wisdom of contemporary Athenian imperialism but also traditional Greek views on relations between the sexes; between the family and the city; between man's presumed dignity and his belief in gods. Mythical and historical background is supplied through additional readings from Homer and Thucydides. The course asks how the tragedians managed to raise publicly, in the most solemn religious settings, the kind of questions for which Socrates was later put to death. The course culminates in a reading of Aristotle's Poetics. 3 hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
CLAS 0275
Greek Philosophy
Course Description
Greek Philosophy: The Problem of Socrates
Why did Socrates “call philosophy down from the heavens, set her in the cities of men and also their homes, and compel her to ask questions about life and morals and things good and evil”? Why was philosophy indifferent to man, then considered dangerous to men when it did pay attention? How was philosophy ultimately transformed by Plato and Aristotle as a consequence of the examination of human knowledge that Socrates made intrinsic to philosophy? In this course we will consider the central questions of ancient Greek philosophy from the pre-Socratics through Plato and Aristotle by focusing on what Nietzsche called "the Problem of Socrates": why Socrates abandoned "pre-Socratic" natural science in order to examine the opinions of his fellow Athenians, and why they put him to death for corruption and impiety. Texts will include selected fragments of the pre-Socratics and sophists, works of Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle , and Nietzsche. 3 hrs. lect disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
CLAS 0420
Seminar in Classical Lit
Course Description
Seminar in Classical Lit: Medea: 2,500 Years of a Tragic Heroine
From Euripides’s play to the contemporary films of Pier Paolo Pasolini and Lars von Trier, Medea’s story has been retold for two and a half millennia. In this course we will investigate some of the avatars of Medea, from drama (Euripides and Seneca), to epic (Apollonius and Ovid), to philosophical discussions of her plight (Epictetus). We will also consider her role in early modern drama (Macbeth) and modern film. What does Medea represent? The overwhelming power of love and madness? The triumph of barbarism over civilization? A critique of cultural superiority and enlightenment? How can we explain her continued presence through the centuries? 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
CLAS 0450
Upcoming
History of Class Lit
Course Description
History of Classical Literature
A comprehensive overview of the major literary, historical, and philosophical works of Greece and Rome. Greek authors studied include Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. Roman authors include Lucretius, Cicero, Livy, Vergil, Petronius, and Tacitus. Required of senior majors in Classics/Classical Studies (see CLAS 0701 below) and open to all interested students with some background in Greek and Roman literature, history, or philosophy. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
CLAS 0500
Current
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
(Approval required)
Terms Taught
CLAS 0505
Current
Upcoming
Ind Senior Project
Course Description
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
CLAS 0700
Current
Upcoming
Sr Essay Classics/Cy
Course Description
Senior Essay for Classics/Classical Studies Majors
(Approval required)
Terms Taught
CLAS 0701
Upcoming
Hist of Class Lit: Gen Exam
Course Description
History of Classical Literature
A comprehensive overview of the major literary, historical, and philosophical works of Greece and Rome. Greek authors studied include Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. Roman authors include Lucretius, Cicero, Livy, Vergil, Petronius, and Tacitus. Required of senior majors in Classics/Classical Studies and open to all interested students with some background in Greek and Roman literature, history, or philosophy. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
FYSE 1154
Euripides and Athens
Course Description
Euripides and Athens
Was the tragic genius of Euripides (480?-406 BC) corrupted by the atheistic rationalism of the sophists and the philosophy of Socrates (470-399 BC), as their Athenian contemporary, the comic poet Aristophanes, alleged? Nietzsche makes that view the basis of his attack on Socrates in The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Or, was Euripides in fact "the most tragic of the poets," as Aristotle argued in his Poetics, written during the half century after Euripides' death in 406 BC? In this course we discuss twelve of Euripides' extant plays in the context of 5th c. BC Greek political and intellectual history, with the help of Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and some modern critics. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1552
Greek Tragedy & Politics
Course Description
Greek Tragedy and Athenian Democracy
In this survey of selected dramas by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, we explore tragedy’s relation to political freedom and empire in fifth century B.C. Athens. The Athenian tragic poets used traditional Greek myths, especially Homer’s depiction of the Trojan War, paradoxically: to question the morality and wisdom of contemporary Athenian imperialism; to expose the conflict between the individual’s civic and familial obligations; to highlight the tension between men’s presumptive self-government and their belief in the active power of gods. We ask how the tragedians managed to raise publicly, in the solemn religious setting of Athens’ dramatic festivals, the kind of questions for which the people of Athens later put the philosopher Socrates to death on charges of corruption and impiety. The course culminates in a reading of Aristotle's study of tragedy, the Poetics. 3 hrs. sem
Terms Taught
Requirements
GREK 0101
Beginning Greek
Course Description
Beginning Greek I
This course is a rapid and intensive introduction to classical Greek for beginners. The aim of the course is to prepare students to read the major authors of Greek literature. In addition to a systematic study of grammar and syntax, we will also read excerpts from a variety of ancient authors.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GREK 0102
Beginning Greek II
Course Description
Beginning Greek II
This course completes the introductory course offered in Winter Term and will conclude with a reading of Plato's dialogue, Ion. 6 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GREK 0202
Intermediate Greek Poetry
Course Description
Intermediate Greek
Readings in majors authors. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GREK 0302
Readings in Greek Lit II
Course Description
Readings in Greek Literature II
Readings in major authors. Students should have had some formal study of Greek and should consult with the instructor during the first week of classes to determine whether or not the class is at the appropriate level. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GREK 0402
Adv Readings Greek Literature
Course Description
Advanced Readings in Greek Literature II: Greek Cosmology–Hesiod and Plato
Readings in major authors. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
LATN 0302
Current
Readings Latin Literature II
Course Description
Readings in Latin Literature II: Vergil’s Aeneid*
Readings in major authors. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught