GREEK 112B: History of Greek Literature II

This course offers a survey of Greek literature from around 400 BC to AD 200 through the lens of rhetorical discourse. In the largely oral societies of the ancient Mediterranean world, speech occupied an important place in public discourse. The delivery of orations and more informal discourses could serve various purposes: to establish communication between individuals or groups; to influence decision-making in assemblies and courts; to support and spread political propaganda; to forge and represent collective identities; and to promote personal agendas. Especially in the later period, rhetorical displays were public spectacles comparable to (and replacing) dramatic performances.

In this class, we will read extracts from a broad range of texts from the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods. The selection will include exemplary orations (e.g., Demosthenes’ First Philippic), inserted speeches in narrative texts (e.g., Pericles’ famous funeral oration, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount) and texts about rhetoric and rhetoricians (Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Lucian’s satire Teacher of Rhetoric; see the class schedule below). The close reading and translation of the excerpts will be accompanied by discussions of genre in relation to historical contexts, performance, and discursive and linguistic (dis)continuities.