GREEK LITERATURE I

GREEK UTOPIAS. IN SEARCH OF HUMAN HAPPINESS
Equality, justice, peace, happiness.
Golden Ages, Utopias, Lands of Cockaigne, Afterworld, Isles of the Blessed in Greek Literature.
Hesiod, Homer, Aristophanes, Crates, Lucian.
Linguistic analysis and commentary of Ancient Greek texts in verses and prose. Increase of linguistic, grammatical and literary accomplishments. Reading and knowledge of worthwhile works of Greek Literature in the original language. Theory and History of Utopia. Knowledge of the outlines of the history of Greek Literature in the Archaic Age.

The course aims to train specific skills in the Greek literature, with the ability to evaluate the peculiar characteristics of orality, of the aurality and of the cultural functions within the society and of the polis between the archaic age and the beginning of the classical world.
In relation to the themes of ancient utopia, the course aims to create the autonomous skills of applying the theoretical knowledge acquired.

The class is open to all students of the first three years with a training in Greek language.
For a good result it is useful to attend the GREEK METRIC EXERCISES (Vido on Moodle) and the SEMINARS OF GREEK LITERATURE that are held in the first semester to train adequate skills on the metric and on the problems of interpretation and translation of ancient texts.

ANCIENT GREEK UTOPIAS. GOLDEN AGE, LAND OF COCKAIGNE, ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED, AFTERWORLD UTOPIAS
The class offers a broad survey on Utopia images in ancient Greece, on the ideal and happy worlds of Greek literature through the analysis of a series of texts in the original language. We will be examined the myth of the five ages and particularly the golden age in Hesiod, the utopian world of the Phaeacians in Homer's Odyssey, the utopias of Comedy, with the frames of the world turned upside down and of the land of Cockaigne, the utopian and paradoxical island of the cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes, the Island of the Blessed. In particular, for a definition of the utopia, the VII and VIII books of the Odyssey, the Peace of Aristophanes and the Necromancy of Lucian of Samosata (together with the fantastic world of the Island of the Blessed, with the its negative opposite of the island of the damned of «True Story» and the world upside down of the «Saturnalia»).The class concerns linguistic and metrical questions, problems and theory of Literature. It investigates the ancient Utopic ideas and the specific strategies of Ancient Comedy and Iambic and Satirical Tradition.

GREEK TEXTS
Hesiod, Works and Days (vv. 105-251).
Homer, Odyssey VII, VIII
Pindar (an anthology)
Aristophanes, Peace (an anthology)
Crates of Thebes, Pere (SH 351 = Diog. Laert. 6.85)
Lucian of Samosata, Menippus or Necromancy
Lucian of Samosata, True Stories (2.4-32)
Lucian of Samosata, Saturnalia

OMERO, Odissea, vol. II, libri V-VIII, a cura di J.B. Hainsworth, trad. di G.A. Privitera, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Milano 2002.
ARISTOFANE, La Pace, a cura di G. PADUANO, Milano, BUR, 2002.
LUCIANO DI SAMOSATA, Menippo o la Negromanzia, introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di A. CAMEROTTO, Mimesis/Classici Contro, Milano-Udine 2020.

The other Greek texts will be provided by the teacher (Moodle)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. CAMEROTTO, Voci e suoni dall'Aldilà. L'utopia musicale dell'Elisio nelle Storie Vere di Luciano di Samosata, «Musica e Storia» 13, 2005, pp. 101-129. (PDF)
A. CAMEROTTO, Vite da cani. Utopie e distopie ciniche in Luciano di Samosata, «QUCC» 119, 2018, pp. 105-125.
(PDF)

A. CAMEROTTO, Utopici Feaci, ovvero a che cosa servono le utopie (secondo Omero), in A. Camerotto, F. Pontani (edd.), Utopia (Europa). Ovvero del diventare cittadini europei, Milano-Udine 2019, pp. 13-34. (PDF)
A. CAMEROTTO, Come diventare un eroe. Le virtù e le imprese di Trygaios Athmoneus, Incontri triestini di filologia classica 6, 2006-2007, 257-287 (PDF)
LUCIANO DI SAMOSATA, Menippo o la Negromanzia, Introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di A. CAMEROTTO, Mimesis/Classici Contro, Milano-Udine 2020 (Introduzione «L'Aldilà della satira», pp. 7-50, Commento § 1, pp. 81-103, § 21, pp. 261-276)
P. CARTLEDGE, Utopia e critica della politica, in J. Brunschwig, G.E.R. Lloyd, Il sapere greco. Dizionario critico, vol. I, Torino 2005, pp. 192-211. (PDF)
M. FARIOLI, Mundus alter. Utopie e distopie nella commedia greca antica, Milano 2001, 3-26. (PDF)
V. FORTUNATI, Crisi delle ideologie e delle forme nella narrativa utopica del Novecento, «MORUS - Utopia e Renascimento», 6, 2009, pp. 61-70. (PDF)
C. GINZBURG, Il vecchio e il nuovo mondo visti da Utopia, in ID., Nessuna isola è un'isola. Quattro sguardi sulla letteratura inglese, Milano 2002, pp. 17-44. (PDF)
R. LAURIOLA, The Greeks and the Utopia: an overview through ancient Greek Literature, REA 97, 2009, pp. 109-124. (PDF)
G. MASTROMARCO, La commedia, in Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica, Volume I, tomo I, La polis, Roma 1992, pp. 334-377. (PDF)
C. QUARTA, Livelli del pensiero utopico: antropologia, storia, letteratura, «MORUS - Utopia e Renascimento» 6, 2009, pp. 229-243 (PDF)
F. VETTORELLO, L'ostentazione è l'anima della ricchezza. La lezione dei «Saturnalia» lucianei, in A. Camerotto, S. Maso (edd.), La satira del successo. La spettacolarizzazione della cultura nel mondo antico (tra retorica, filosofia, religione e potere), Milano - Udine 2017, pp. 413-438. (PDF)

A working bibliography will be supplied during the class.

Outline of Greek Literature:
L.E. ROSSI, Letteratura greca, Le Monnier, Firenze 1995, pp. 1-226.
For an introduction to Greek metrics see M.C. Martinelli, Gli strumenti del poeta. Elementi di metrica greca, Bologna 1995 (Cappelli).

The exam is an oral test and consists of the reading, translation and commentary of the greek texts. It includes a discussion of a subject from the history of Greek Literature.

Conventional. Metrical reading and interpretation of the text.
It is required a regular attendance at the lectures.

Italian

WORKSHOP OF GREEK LITERATURE
In connection with the course of Greek Literature is held a seminar on the topics. An online laboratory is being prepared on metrics.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development