GREEK LITERATURE I

This class is integrated in the disciplines characterizing the course in 'Ancient Civilizations: Literatures, History and Archaeology‘.
‘Epic poetry in fragments: the epic cycle, the Hesiodic corpus, and other poems’. The class, which runs once a week in the second and third modules of the academic year, aims at providing the students with a reading and interpretation of various epic texts other than Homeric and strictly Hesiodic (Theogony, Works and Days) of the archaic age from the eigth to the sixth century BCE, which have come down to us only in fragments and can be attributed to a variety of poetic traditions and poets from various areas of Greece. The class is mainly addressed to students graduating in Greek literature, in classical philology, in Latin literature, ancient history and classical archaeology.

The class is intended for students who are already familiar both with Greek language and with the history and genres of Ancient Greek literature. After attending the class and preparing for the examen students will have acquired a broad perspective and the cultural competence which will enable them to comprehend a historical period and a blend of literary genres of primary importance for Greek as well as for Western civilization. Students will acquire skills that will enable them:
- to know the development of Greek epic poetry in the archaic age, to tell the main features, the innovations, experimentation and the invariants, in a fruitful contrast and integration with the Homeric and Hesiodic poems
- to show familiarity with the main critical editions of the texts dealt with and with the main representatives of Hellenistic literature in particular
- to show familiarity with manuscript tradition and with the transmission of texts on papyrus
- to display familiarity with the problems regarding the edition and commentary especially of fragmentary texts

As regards the knowledge and comprehension skills, students will be able:
- to understand the texts and the textual problems they offer, along with problems related to subject matter
- to translate the text into Italian by displaying full awareness of the literary style and sophisticated level of language of the authors
- to comment on the texts and focus on the dialect, linguistic and stylistic features, and also be aware of their debt towards tradition
- to gauge the value and motivation of variants in the apparatus of the edition of the texts

Regarding their skill in evaluating the texts, students are required to prove:
- they can comment on the critical apparatus and textual choices of an editor and on all the problems pertaining to the subject
- to grasp the multilayered complexity of the text and of the intention of the author, such as irony, polemics, or deliberate allusion and intertextuality

Regarding the communication skills, students will prove, by means also of a final paper on a specific text they will present at the end of the year, they can produce a commentary, present it and discuss it in a public performance.
Regarding their learning, they will have to prove they have acquired the technicque in exegesis and interpretation which are of primary importance in approaching and reading the problems and authors of Greek classical and Hellenistic poetry

The class is intended for students with a good knowledge of Greek grammar and language, who are already familiar with Greek hexameter and elegiac poetry. In order to improve their familiarity with these metres and the reading of the texts the students are recommended to attend an introduction to Greek metrics which will be provided in the course of the year.

‘Epic poetry in fragments: the epic cycle, the Hesiodic corpus, and other poems’. The class focuses on the many voices of epic poetry from the eigth to the sixth cent. BCE. A metrical reading with a translation and a literary, mythological, and philological commentary of various texts: the fragmentary nature of thetexts will also require to deal with philological and textual problems, along with a fruitful evaluation of the iconography of the myths (especially the Theban myths and the Trojan myths) they convey on vases and temples in the archaic age, and with a keen eye to the the lore of the main poetic tradition as represented by the Homeric and Hesiodic poems. The seminal role of epic poetry also in shaping (in the archaic and classical age) the identity of single poleis and accounting for territorial and politica claims grounded on mythical narrative shall also be taken into consideration. A study of the poetic diction, of the themes and narrative patterns of the Theban and the Trojan epics will afford a clearer view of the epic genre as a whole, of the influence that the epic cycle exerted on Greek literature and art, and of the political and genealogical use of heroic myths in archaic and classical Greece.

All texts will be provided by the faculty. Students are required to read two articles or chapters of books from the 'Readings' section. The commentaries quoted here below will be used by the faculty; they can also help the students while preparing specific texts for the oral exam.
Editions of the cyclic and Hesiodic fragments
Epic cycle: A. Bernabé, Poetae Epici Graeci I, Leipzig 1996 (2nd. ed.); M. Davies, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, Göttingen 1988; Greek Epic Fragments from the seventh to the fifth centuries B.C., ed. and transl. by M.L. West, Loeb Classical Library 2003 (trad. inglese con testo greco a fronte).
Hesiodic corpus : Fragmenta Hesiodea ed. R. Merkelbach - M.L. West, Oxonii 1967; Hesiodi Theogonia ... Fragmenta selecta edd. F. Solmsen, R. Merkelbach - M.L. West, Oxford University Press 1990 (3a ed.); G.W. Most (ed.), Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library 2018 (2nd ed., trad. inglese con testo greco a fronte).

Italian translations available: translation of the texts will be provided in class by the faculty; for the Hesiodic fragments see Opere di Esiodo, a cura di A. Colonna, Torino 1977, UTET (reprinted by TEA); Esiodo. Opere, introd. transl & comm. by G. Arrighetti, Torino 1998, Einaudi - Gallimard; C. Cassanmagnago (a cura di), Esiodo. Tutte le opere e i frammenti con la prima traduzione degli scolii (testo greco a fronte), Milano 2009, Bompiani.

Bibliography.
Students are requested to read two essays or two chapters, or a detailed commentary of two fragments, from the following bibliography, which is centred on Eumelus and on the cyclic and Hesiodic texts:
J. Schwartz, Pseudo-Hesiodeia. Recherches sur la composition, la diffusion et la disparition ancienne d' oeuvres attribuées à Hésiode, Leiden, Brill, 1960; G.L. Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis, London 1969; M. L. West, The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985; J. S. BURGESS, The Tradition of the Trojan War in. Homer and the Epic Cycle, Baltimore 2001; M. DAVIES, The Greek Epic Cycle, London, Bristol Classical Press, 20012; M. L. WEST, Eumelos: a Corinthian epic cycle?, «Journal of Hellenic Studies» 122 (2002), 109-33; M. HIRSCHBERGER, Gynaikon Katalogos und Megalai Ehoiai. Ein Kommentar zu den Fragmenten zweier hesiodeischer Epen, München-Leipzig 2004; A. DEBIASI, L'epica perduta. Eumelo, il Ciclo, l'occidente, Roma 2005; R. HUNTER (ed.), The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. Constructions and Re-constructions, a cura di, Cambridge 2005; E. Cingano, 'The Hesiodic Corpus', in Brill's Companion to Hesiod, ed. by F. Montanari, A. Rengakos, and Chr. Tsagalis, Boston-Köln-Leiden 2009, 91-130; A. Debiasi. Eumelo. Un poeta per Corinto. Con ulteriori divagazioni epiche, Roma 2015; M. Fantuzzi, Chr. Tsagalis (ed.), The Greek Epic Cycle And Its Ancient Reception, Cambridge 2015; AAVV, Esiodo e il corpus Hesiodeum. Problemi aperti e nuove prospettive, “Seminari Romani di cultura greca” 5 (2016); Chr. Tsagalis, Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic , Berlin 2017; Chr. Tsagalis (ed.), Studies on the Hesiodic Corpus and its Afterlife, Berlin 2017.

The students' competence in the class of Greek Literature 'magistrale' will be tested through an oral examination, consisting in a number of questions, such as a) a metrical reading, translation and literary-philological commentary of a few passages from the texts dealt with, as indicated in the program, b) further questions will concern the history of Greek literature of the archaic age and the two essays to be selected from the readings, and to be agreed upon previously. A photocopy of all texts will be provided by the faculty, who will also care to provide in class a translation and a commentary of most poems. At the end of the year students are requested to present a short paper, consisting in an analysis of a short poem or epigram, to be presented in class; as an alternative, they may choose to present a short paper focusing on a topic agreed upon with the faculty, dealing with a myth or with literary or philological or anthropological themes.

Traditional teacher-led classes, with a seminar oriented approach. At the end of the year students are requested to present a short paper, consisting in an analysis of a short poem or epigram, to be presented in class; as an alternative, they may choose to present a short paper focusing on a topic agreed upon with the faculty, dealing with a myth or with literary or philological or anthropological themes.

Italian

Attendance of the class is strongly recommended. Students graduating in archaeology or intending to take up Modern Greek Literature are also entitled to work out a different programme.

Along with this class students are invited to participate in the Venice seminars of Scienze dell'Antichità, which are articulated in a number of initiatives in the span of the academic year. Participation in 5 seminars together with the writing of a short essay is rated 1CFU (credits), to go in the apprenticeship activities.

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