ANCIENT GREEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Thorough knowledge of the authors of Greek literature, based on the reading and analysis of works in the original language, including the most difficult ones, which students shall be able to translate fluently and to analyze in relation to content and formal structure, particularly concerning grammatical, syntactic, stylistic and metrical aspects. Critical approach to the problems inherent to each author and literary genre.

Frontal lessons.

A Main course (4 CFU).

Assuming as granted that students have enough knowledge of the historical development of Greek literature, they will apply thoroughly, besides authors of texts that will be read in original language (to be studied within the frame of their historical and cultural context and of the respective literary genre), to the following arguments:

• Posthomeric epos;
• Attic theatre: minor tragedians and comedians;
• Hellenistic theatre;
• Historiography: logographers, minor historians of 5th and 4th century, of Alexander and the Diadochs; Polybius; historians of Augustan and imperial era;
• The New Dithyramb; postclassical melic poetry;
• Minor Alexandrian poetry;
• Philology, erudition, grammar studies and literary criticism;
• Rhetoric and sophistic in the imperial age;
• Jewish and Christian Greek literature.

Thorough study of noun and verb with reference to historical grammar is also requested, as well as metrical reading of poetical texts.

B Reading of texts (2 CFU).

1) Callimachus, Aetia, frr. 1, 67, 75, 110; Hymni II and V.

2) Theocritus, Idyllia VII, XV, XVIII.

3) Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica III 606-824.

4) Herodas, Mimiamb III.

5) Anonymous, On sublime, parr. 1-10; 13-15; 33-38; 43-44.

C Special lectures (3 CFU)

a) Aeschylus and Sicily.

• Biographical testimonia: T 1-3, 78, 88-92 Radt;
• the Women of Aetna: frr. 6-11 Radt; the ‘Dike fragment’ and other possibly related fragments: frr. 281ab, 451n, 451s 6, 7, 25 Radt;
• the eruption of the volcano and the new Hieronian settlement: Prometheus Bound, vv. 340-376; Pindar, Pythian I.

b) Metrical analysis and reading of selected Greek lyric: Archilochus, Cologne and Strassburg Epodes; Sappho, frr. 31 e 94 Voigt; Alcaeus, frr. 130b, 208a, 346 Voigt; Anacreon, frr. 1 e 33 Gent.-Pr.; Alcman, fr. 56 Page; Pindar, Pythian I.

A F. Montanari, Storia della letteratura greca, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1998, pp. 82-92; 264-265; 336-345; 360-372; 430-442; 510-526; 551-627; 647-745; 757-774; 786-796; 824-840; 843-882.

N.B.: students may also use the two volumes edition published by Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, series "Polus" nr. 3, Roma 2017.

Recommended text for metrical analysis:

- M.C. Martinelli, Gli strumenti del poeta. Elementi di metrica greca, Cappelli, Bologna 1995, pp. 1-176, 220-225, 233-243, 255-264.

Recommended text for historical grammar:

- A.C. Cassio, Storia delle lingue letterarie greche, Milano, Le Monnier Università, 2008, pp. 1-92.

B

1) R. Pfeiffer, Callimachus, Oxford 1949-1953, vol. I, pp. 1-8, 70-73, 77-84, 112-123; vol. II, pp. 5-9, 30-34.

2) A.S.F. Gow, Theocritus, Cambridge 1952, vol. I, pp. 56-67, 108-121, 140-145.

3) Apollonio Rodio, Le Argonautiche, introd. e commento di G. Paduano e M. Fusillo, traduzione di G. Paduano, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 1986, pp. 454-479.

4) Eronda, Mimiambi I-IV, a cura di L. Di Gregorio, Milano, Vita e pensiero, 1997, pp. 18-26.

5) Dionisio Longino, Del sublime, a cura di C.M. Mazzucchi, Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 1992, pp. 2-37, 38-53, 90-105, 112-125.

C a)

• S. Radt, Tragicorum Graecorum fragmenta III. Aeschylus, Göttingen 1985, pp. 31-38, 58-59, 61-62, 126-130, 380-384, 477-478, 484-487;
• Aeschylus, Tragoediae, ed. M.L. West, Stutgardiae et Lipsiae 1998, pp. 420-422; Pindari carmina cum fragmentis, Pars I: Epinicia, post B. Snell ed. H. Maehler, Lipsiae 1980, pp. 59-64;
• C.J. Herington, Aeschylus in Sicily, «The Journal of Hellenic Studies» 87, 1967, pp. 74-85;
• G. Basta-Donzelli, Katane-Aitna tra Pindaro ed Eschilo, in Ead., Studi sul teatro antico, a cura di P. Cipolla, Amsterdam 2008, pp. 1-17;
• P. Cipolla, Il frammento di Dike (Aesch. F 281a R.), «Lexis» 28, 2010, pp. 133-154.

b) E. Degani - G. Burzacchini (a cura di), Lirici Greci. Antologia. Aggiornamento bibliografico a cura di M. Magnani, Bologna 2005, pp. 8-22, 36-42, 140-146, 157-162, 208-212, 219-221, 232-233, 244-246, 256-257, 290-291 (metrical reading and analysis only); for Pindar see above, a).

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library. Some of them will also be available on Studium.unict.