Encouraged by the response to our online courses this Fall, we are happy to announce the continuation of our Ancient Greek classes into the Spring.
Our tutors are Dr. George Gazis and Dr. Chiara Blanco who will lead the classes live.
The deadline for application for the Theocritus Reading Week is December 31st 2020.
The deadline for application for Reading Greek for Philosphers and Beginners Greek, which continue for another 10 weeks, is January 10th 2021.
Courses will be taught live on Zoom and recordings of the lessons will be available after each class to those who register.
BEGINNERS ANCIENT GREEK COURSE (continues from January 13th 2021)
This course is aimed at Greek learners with a knowledge of the alphabet and some basic notions of the Greek language (article, declensions, pronouns, verbs etc.).
We will be following the texts in “Reading Greek Beginners Course”, supplemented by grammar and syntax handouts where necessary.
We will revise the first part of the textbook, in order to refresh basic concepts and we will begin to read some simple Greek texts.
The course will continue through January to March 2021, with another 10 classes (2 hours each) in total, starting from January 13th and finishing on March 17th. If you have not taken part in our Summer or Autumn Beginners Greek course, it is still posssible to join the Spring ’21 course if you have basic knowledge of the language. Please contact us to check.
The course will be taught live online on Zoom. Classes will be recorded.
GREEK FOR PHILOSOPHERS READING GROUP
We will be meeting once a week online to read from the original text one of the Platonic dialogues, the Phaedrus, (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0174:text=Phaedrus).
The Greek for Philosophers Reading Group is open to all levels of Greek learners, from Beginners to Advanced level, since the focus will be mostly on the content rather than the language. Participants will be asked to prepare a translation of a short passage in advance and then present their translation in class, after which the discussion of the content will be open to all.
Translating will not be compulsory for participants and in the case of lack of translators, the seminar leader will lead the group through the text.
The aim of the reading group is to provide students and scholars interested in Plato with an informal platform in which they can come in contact with the text in the original Greek and discuss the content in a relaxed and friendly environment.
There will be 10 ( x 1 hour) weekly meetings, starting on the 13th of January and finishing on the 17th of March 2021. The course will be taught live online on Zoom. Classes will be recorded.
“Searching for happiness: life and death in Greece and Rome”
Classical Languages Summer School in Sicily
Dates 2-14 August 2021
We are planning to run a Classical Languages Summer School in Siracusa, Sicily from August 2-14 2021, with reading classes in Greek and Latin for intermediate and advanced readers dedicated to texts with the theme “Searching for happiness: life and death in Greece and Rome”. Proposed texts include Homer’s Odyssey, Plato’s Protagoras, and Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things.
There will also be a language course in Ancient Greek for absolute and false beginners.
A series of additional activities, including guided tours of historic sites in and around Siracusa, cooking classes and wine-tasting, will be organised to complement the lessons.
Covid permitting, this course will be held in person in Siracusa, Sicily. Online participation may be possible. Details will be published as soon as possible.
All courses will be taught in English by George Gazis and Chiara Blanco.
Dr Gazis is Assistant Professor in Greek Literature at the Department of Classics and Ancient History, at Durham University. His research interests lie in Archaic Greek Poetry (mainly Homer), as well as Greek Lyric and Tragedy. He is the author of Homer and the poetics of Hades (OUP, 2018) and the editor of Aspects of Death in Greek Literature (LUP, forthcoming).
Dr Blanco is a Research Lecturer in Classics at Trinity College, University of Oxford. Before joining Trinity, she was a Lecturer in Classics at Exeter College, Oxford, and she also taught Classics at Durham University and the University of Cambridge, where she also completed her PhD. Her main research interests lie in the intersections between ancient literature (Greek tragedy in particular) and medicine, and she is also interested in the role of the senses and emotions in Greek and Roman culture.