The course intends to reflect on the representation of love in ancient Greece, with particular attention to Theocritus' poetry and Socratic-Platonic reflection.
The aim is to highlight some relevant methodological questions of philological, historical-literary and thought history, through the concrete study of texts in which "love" plays a central and fundamental role.

The first part of the course will focus on reading and commenting on Plato's Symposium.

The course will open with a general introduction to the theme of love in ancient Greece and to Plato's thought.

By the end of the first semester, we will focus on the reading, translation and critical commentary of the platonic dialogue Symposium.

In the second part of the course, which will begin in the second semester, Theocritus Idylls 2, 3, 11, 13, 14, 23, 29, 30 will be read, all focussed on the concept of love.

The text will be read in the original language and analytically commented both in relation to Theocritus' poetry, to hellenistic poetry and and in relation to the history of mentality.

Exercises on metrical reading  of Theocritus's poems will be included.

From the point of view of the specific information obtained, at the end of the course the student will acquire an in-depth knowledge of a cultural aspect of central value in the history of ancient Greek mentality.

More generally, and well in line with the professional curriculum profile, the process of analytical reading of the chosen texts will have a significant impact on the student's ability to deal with a competent and rigorous reading of the proposed texts (literary, dramatic, philosophical, and other tipologies which may be presented during the lessons), developing analytical skills, close reading, synthesis and critical thinking about data and sources. The set of skills acquired will allow the student to formulate philologically (scientifically) correct hypotheses, based on new texts or new sets of texts (data, sources, literary texts).

From the point of view of general education, the student will deepen his awareness of specific methodological aspects characterizing the philological and historical-literary inquiry, as well as his aesthetic sensibility to the formal and rhetorical aspects of literary poetry and prose.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

The course can be supplemented by relevant seminars and conferences or, in any case, of educational and methodological relevance with regard to the methods and the themes of ancient Greek Literature and in general Greek and Latin classics.

Teaching

Front Lessons

Attendance

The student is required to attend the lectures and the seminars.

It is absolutely necessary to have a solid knowledge of the Greek language.

The student is required to read all the texts in the program, which must be translated and commented according to the lines indicated in the course.

The student is also required to read the study texts as planned and to those indicated by the teacher in the lessons.

The student is also required to show knowledge of Greek literature with special attention to the parts (authors, works, historical-literary periods) that have been the subject of the course.

Course books

I. Editions: 

Theocritus, ed. with a translation and commentary by A.S.F. Gow, I-II, Cambridge 1973 (1952, ii ed.)

Platonis Opera II, J. Burnet (ed.), Oxford 1910 (ii ed.)

II. Handbook of Ancient Greek Literature:

The student is required to read the sections concerning archaic epic and philosophical literature (with particular attention to Platonic production) in one of the following hanbooks:

L.E. Rossi (Firenze, Le Monnier, 1995)

G.A. Privitera - R. Pretagostini (Torino, Einaudi, 1997)

F. Montanari (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1998)

A. Porro - W. Lapini (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017)

III. Supplementary readings (mandatory)

A. On Plato:

F. Trabattoni, Platone, Carocci, Roma 2013 (2009)

B. One essay on Plato's Symposium chosen from the following:

G. Reale, Eros demone mediatore. Una lettura del Simposio di Platone, Milano 1997

M.R. Hunter, Plato's Symposium, Oxford 2004

F.C. Sheffield, Plato's Symposium. The Ethics of desire, Oxford 2006

M.C. Howatson, F.C. Sheffield, Plato. The Symposium, Cambridge 2008

S. Berg, Eros and the Intoxications of Enlightenment: on Plato's Symposium, New York 2010

L.D. Lamascus, The Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium, London-Oxford-New York, New Delhi, Sydney 2016

C. One essay on Theocritus chosen from the following:

R. Hunter, Theocritus. A selection. Idylls 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 13, Cambridge 1999

P. Kyriakou, Theocritus and his native Muse, Berlin, Boston 2018

and three articles chosen from the following:

D.J. Mastronarde, Theocritus' Idyll 13: Love and the Hero, TAPA 99, 1968, 273-290

A. Brooke, Theocritus' Idyll 11: a Study in Pastoral, Arethusa 4, 1971, 73-81

Ch. Segal, Death by water: a Narrative pattern in Theocritus (Idylls 1, 13, 22, 23), in Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral. Essays on Theocritus and Virgil, Princeton 1981, 47-65

Ch. Segal, Simaetha and the Iunx (Theocritus' Idyll 2), in in Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral. Essays on Theocritus and Virgil, Princeton 1981, 73-84

M. Pulbrook, The Hylas' Myth in Apollonius of Rhodes and Theocritus, The Maynooth Review 8, 1983, 25-31

Ch. Segal, Space, Time and Imagination in Theocritus' Second Idyll, 4, 1985, 103-119

J. Farr, Theocritus: Idyll 11, Hermes 119, 1991, 477-484

R. Preetagostini, La ripresa teocritea della poesia erotica arcaica e tardo arcaica (Idd. 29 e 30), MD 38, 1997, 9-24

M. Lambert, Desperate Simaetha: gender and power in Theocritus' Idyll 2, Acta Classica 45, 2002, 71-88

M. Lambert, Cruel Boys and ageing men: the paederastic poems in the Theocritean corpus, Acta Classica 47, 2004, 75-85

D. In general about love in Greece the student will read one chosen from the following essays:

C. Calame, L'amore in Grecia, Roma-Bari 1984

C. Calame, The Poetics of Eros in ancient Greece, Princeton 1999

C.A. Faraone, Ancient Greek Love Magic, Cambridge Mass., London 2001

E. For the Greek metrics (and the hexameter, in particular), the reading of the manual of B. Gentili, L. Lomiento, Metrics and Rhythmics. History of poetic forms in ancient Greece, Pisa-Roma 2008, is recommended.

F. The student is also required to read, in Italian translation (in one of the editions with the text currently in circulation), the following works:

Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonauts, book III

Plato, Phaedrus

A further bibliography will eventually be indicated by the teacher during the lessons.

The texts that should not be available at the University Library will be made available by the teacher.

Assessment

Written and oral exam:

- a two-hour written exam provides for the translation and comment of a short text drawn from all the texts commented on in the lesson; only one written test will be set for each exam session; it will be evaluated and will go on average with the oral test within the same session; it is aimed at verifying the knowledge of the Greek language and the ability to elaborate an exegetical comment.

- The oral exam provides general questions on the subject of the course and a translation test on a portion of text - from the texts planned in the program – which is not included in the lesson comments. It is aimed at verifying the in-depth knowledge of the authors and ancient texts object of the course, read in the original language, and of the complementary bibliography indicated in the syllabus.

Evaluations will be sized as follows:

assessments of excellence: an excellent knowledge of the ancient Greek language; the student's possession of good critical and in-depth skills; knowing how to relate safely the main issues addressed in the course; the use of a language appropriate to the specificity of the discipline.

discrete assessments: a fair knowledge of the ancient Greek language; the student's possession of a mnemonic knowledge of the contents; a modest critical capacity and connection between the topics discussed: the use of an appropriate language.

sufficient assessment: a sufficient knowledge of the ancient Greek language; the achievement of a minimal knowledge base on the topics dealt with by the student, even in the presence of some training gaps; the use of inappropriate language.

negative evaluations: an insufficient knowledge of the ancient Greek language; difficulty of orientation of the student with respect to the topics dealt with in the exam texts; training gaps; the use of inappropriate language.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

There are no teaching methods in e-learning.

Attendance

The student is required to read all the texts in the program, which must be translated and commented according to the lines indicated in the course.

It is absolutely necessary to have a solid knowledge of the Greek language.

The student is required to read carefully the study texts planned.

The student is required to show knowledge of Greek literature with special attention to the parts (authors, works, historical-literary periods) that have been the subject of the course.

Course books

I. Editions: 

Theocritus, ed. with a translation and commentary by A.S.F. Gow, I-II, Cambridge 1973 (1952, ii ed.)

Platonis Opera II, J. Burnet (ed.), Oxford 1910 (ii ed.)

II. Handbook of Ancient Greek Literature:

The student is required to read the sections concerning archaic epic and philosophical literature (with particular attention to Platonic production) in one of the following hanbooks:

L.E. Rossi (Firenze, Le Monnier, 1995)

G.A. Privitera - R. Pretagostini (Torino, Einaudi, 1997)

F. Montanari (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1998)

A. Porro - W. Lapini (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017)

III. Supplementary readings (mandatory)

A. On Plato:

F. Trabattoni, Platone, Carocci, Roma 2013 (2009)

B. One essay on Plato's Symposium chosen from the following:

G. Reale, Eros demone mediatore. Una lettura del Simposio di Platone, Milano 1997

M.R. Hunter, Plato's Symposium, Oxford 2004

F.C. Sheffield, Plato's Symposium. The Ethics of desire, Oxford 2006

M.C. Howatson, F.C. Sheffield, Plato. The Symposium, Cambridge 2008

S. Berg, Eros and the Intoxications of Enlightenment: on Plato's Symposium, New York 2010

L.D. Lamascus, The Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium, London-Oxford-New York, New Delhi, Sydney 2016

C. One essay on Theocritus chosen from the following:

R. Hunter, Theocritus. A selection. Idylls 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 13, Cambridge 1999

P. Kyriakou, Theocritus and his native Muse, Berlin, Boston 2018

and three articles chosen from the following:

D.J. Mastronarde, Theocritus' Idyll 13: Love and the Hero, TAPA 99, 1968, 273-290

A. Brooke, Theocritus' Idyll 11: a Study in Pastoral, Arethusa 4, 1971, 73-81

Ch. Segal, Death by water: a Narrative pattern in Theocritus (Idylls 1, 13, 22, 23), in Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral. Essays on Theocritus and Virgil, Princeton 1981, 47-65

Ch. Segal, Simaetha and the Iunx (Theocritus' Idyll 2), in in Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral. Essays on Theocritus and Virgil, Princeton 1981, 73-84

M. Pulbrook, The Hylas' Myth in Apollonius of Rhodes and Theocritus, The Maynooth Review 8, 1983, 25-31

Ch. Segal, Space, Time and Imagination in Theocritus' Second Idyll, 4, 1985, 103-119

J. Farr, Theocritus: Idyll 11, Hermes 119, 1991, 477-484

R. Preetagostini, La ripresa teocritea della poesia erotica arcaica e tardo arcaica (Idd. 29 e 30), MD 38, 1997, 9-24

M. Lambert, Desperate Simaetha: gender and power in Theocritus' Idyll 2, Acta Classica 45, 2002, 71-88

M. Lambert, Cruel Boys and ageing men: the paederastic poems in the Theocritean corpus, Acta Classica 47, 2004, 75-85

D. In general about love in Greece the student will read one chosen from the following essays:

C. Calame, L'amore in Grecia, Roma-Bari 1984

C. Calame, The Poetics of Eros in ancient Greece, Princeton 1999

C.A. Faraone, Ancient Greek Love Magic, Cambridge Mass., London 2001

E. For the Greek metrics (and the hexameter, in particular), the reading of the manual of B. Gentili, L. Lomiento, Metrics and Rhythmics. History of poetic forms in ancient Greece, Pisa-Roma 2008, is recommended.

F. The student is also required to read, in Italian translation (in one of the editions with the text currently in circulation), the following works:

Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonauts, book III

Plato, Phaedrus

A further bibliography will eventually be indicated by the teacher during the lessons.

The texts that should not be available at the University Library will be made available by the teacher.

Assessment

Written and oral exam:

- a two-hour written exam provides for the translation and comment of a short text drawn from all the texts commented on in the lesson; only one written test will be set for each exam session; it will be evaluated and will go on average with the oral test within the same session; it is aimed at verifying the knowledge of the Greek language and the ability to elaborate an exegetical comment.

- The oral exam provides general questions on the subject of the course and a translation test on a portion of text - from the texts planned in the program – which is not included in the lesson comments. It is aimed at verifying the in-depth knowledge of the authors and ancient texts object of the course, read in the original language, and of the complementary bibliography indicated in the syllabus.

Evaluations will be sized as follows:

assessments of excellence: an excellent knowledge of the ancient Greek language; the student's possession of good critical and in-depth skills; knowing how to relate safely the main issues addressed in the course; the use of a language appropriate to the specificity of the discipline.

discrete assessments: a fair knowledge of the ancient Greek language; the student's possession of a mnemonic knowledge of the contents; a modest critical capacity and connection between the topics discussed: the use of an appropriate language.

sufficient assessment: a sufficient knowledge of the ancient Greek language; the achievement of a minimal knowledge base on the topics dealt with by the student, even in the presence of some training gaps; the use of inappropriate language.

negative evaluations: an insufficient knowledge of the ancient Greek language; difficulty of orientation of the student with respect to the topics dealt with in the exam texts; training gaps; the use of inappropriate language.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.