Students will learn to read Classic Attic Greek with facility and will end the academic year by studying a short Platonic dialogue or comparable text. Our emphasis this term will be on grammar and vocabulary.

This course aims to improve students' proficiency in Classical Greek prose, expanding vocabulary and honing grammar and syntax, while simultaneously becoming acquainted with Plato's unique style of philosophic exposition in the account of Socrates' Apology.

This course introduces the literary and cultural life of Athens at the end of the fifth century BCE through Aristophanes' the Frogs, performed in 405 BCE. In this comedy, Aristophanes laments the state of tragedy, the special form of performance and poetry that became a hallmark of his city. Central to the play is a competition in the underworld between Aeschylus and Euripides, and additional context will include the plays mentioned and mocked. Our focus will be on the Greek, comic meter and structure, but we will also discuss how this play comments on stagecraft, performance, the arts, and contemporary life.

In this class we will read Book I of Herodotus' Histories, a work which earned its author the distinction of 'father of history'. In addition to studying the language, grammar, and syntax of the text, will consider how the artistry of the work and framing of the conflict between Greece and Persia contributed to its reputation as a classic of ancient and modern historiography.