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): 415-24

Wed Apr 9: Lys. 1.32-50

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

Wed Apr 23: Lys. 12.60-79

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)

Wed May 7: [Dem.] 59.41-61

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

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; 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; Das, Allison E. “Health, Harm, and the Civic Body: Medical Language in the Speeches of Demosthenes.” GRBS 59 (2019) 340-367

Wed June 4: Quiz 4 (on Dem. 1 and Dem. 2); wrap-up

NO FINAL EXAM