GREEK 508 A: Lysias and Demosthenes

Prof. Deborah Kamen (she/her)

dkamen@uw.edu

Seminar meeting times: MW 2.30-4.20pm, DEN 257

Office hours: Thursdays 1.30-2.30 and by appointment, DEN 262F

Description:

In this course, we will read (in Greek) Lysias 1 and 12; pseudo-Demosthenes 59 (Against Neaira); and Demosthenes’ Olynthiacs 1 and 2. The aim is to introduce students to Attic oratory by reading all of the oratory on the newly revised Greek PhD reading list!

Required texts:

• Available in the UW bookstore and on reserve in the seminar room:
  • Edwards, M. J. (1999) Lysias: Five Speeches: 1, 12, 19, 22, 30. Bristol.
  • McQueen, E. I. (1986) Demosthenes: Olynthiacs. Bristol.
• Available online:
  • Kamen, D. (2018) Pseudo-Demosthenes: Against Neaira. Dickinson College Commentaries. Carlisle, PA. http://dcc.dickinson.edu/against-neaira/intro/preface
  • The 1931 OCT text of Against Neaira, if you'd like to download/print it.
• All assigned articles can be found under "Files."

Grading:

Grading for this course is based on four quizzes, in-class translation of Lysias and Demosthenes, and discussion of assigned scholarship. Quizzes will be in the style of the Greek PhD exam passages (i.e., 15-20 line passages to be translated in half an hour) and will not be cumulative. Because we will probably not have time to translate all of the assigned reading in class, students should come to class with specific questions or passages they would like to examine.

Week 1

Mon Mar 31: Introduction to Attic oratory

Wed Apr 2: Lys. 1.1-16

Week 2

Mon Apr 7: Lys. 1.17-31; Wolpert, Andrew. “Lysias 1 and the Politics of the Oikos.” CJ 96 (2001) 415-424

Wed Apr 9: Lys. 1.32-50; OPTIONAL: Porter, Jason. “Who Owned the Slaves in Lysias 1.42? The Role of Slavery in Agriculture and Criminal Violence in Classical Athens.” Klio 106 (2024) 546-568

Week 3

Mon Apr 14: Quiz 1 (on Lys. 1); Lys. 12.1-19

Wed Apr 16: Lys. 12.20-39; O’Connell, Peter A. “Enargeia, Persuasion, and the Vividness Effect in Athenian Forensic Oratory.” Advances in the History of Rhetoric 20 (2017) 225-251

Week 4

Mon Apr 21: Lys. 12.40-59; Patterson, Cynthia. “The Hospitality of Athenian Justice: The Metic in Court,” in Virginia Hunter and Jonathan Edmondson, eds., Law and Social Status in Classical Athens (Oxford 2000) 93-112 [NB: there are two Patterson articles under Files; this one is Patterson 2000] Cynthia Patterson will be coming to the final half hour of our class session; please bring questions/comments about her article to discuss with her!

Wed Apr 23: Lys. 12.60-79. OPTIONAL: Bakewell, Geoff. "Lysias 12 and Lysias 31: Metics and Athenian Citizenship in the Aftermath of the Thirty." GRBS 49 (1999): 5-22

Week 5

Mon Apr 28: Lys. 12.80-100; Giannadaki, Ifigeneia. “Rhetorical Portrayals of Metics in Lysias,” in Myrto Aloumpi and Antony Augoustakis, eds., LUX: Studies in Greek and Latin Literature (Berlin 2024) 471-491

Wed April 30: Quiz 2 (on Lys. 12); [Dem.] 59.1-18

Week 6

Mon May 5: [Dem.] 59.19-40; Breitenfeld, Sarah Brucia. “One of the Olynthians: Violence against Enslaved Female War Captives in Dem. 19.196–98,” in Lennart Gilhaus, ed., Brill’s Companion to War Violence in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Leiden forthcoming). CW: both the Greek text and the article discuss violence, including sexual violence.

Wed May 7: [Dem.] 59.41-61. OPTIONAL: Noy, David. "Neaera's Daughter: A Case of Athenian Identity Theft?" Classical Quarterly 59 (2009) 398-410

Week 7

Mon May 12: [Dem.] 59.62-84 [we’ll end class about 30 minutes early so that folks can go to Sarah Bond’s talk at 4pm if they’d like]

Wed May 14: [Dem.] 59.85-104; Glazebrook, Allison. “The Making of a Prostitute: Apollodoros’s Portrait of Neaira.” Arethusa 38 (2005) 161-187

Week 8

Mon May 19: [Dem.] 59.105-126; Campa, Naomi. “In Defense of Female Citizenship: Apollodorus, Against Neaira 113.” Classical Quarterly 72 (2022) 487-492.   OPTIONAL: Patterson, Cynthia. "The Case Against Neaira and the Public Ideology of the Athenian Family," in Alan L. Boegehold and Adele Scafuro, eds., Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology (Baltimore 1994) 199-216

Wed May 21: Quiz 3 (on [Dem.] 59); Dem. 1.1-19

Week 9

Mon May 26: NO CLASS (Memorial Day)

Wed May 28: Dem. 1.20-28 and Dem. 2.1-11; OPTIONAL: Bremmer, Sarah. “The Rhetoric of Athenian Identity in Demosthenes’ Early Assembly Speeches.” GRBS 60 (2020) 544-573

Week 10

Mon June 2: Dem. 2.12-31

Wed June 4: Das, Allison E. “Health, Harm, and the Civic Body: Medical Language in the Speeches of Demosthenes.” GRBS 59 (2019) 340-367; Quiz 4 (on Dem. 1 and Dem. 2)

NO FINAL EXAM