ANCIENT GREEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Knowledge of Greek literature in its historical developement and of the texts in their original language, which students shall be able to translate and analyze in relation to content and formal structure. Students of Classics will be required to focus chiefly on grammatical, syntactic, stylistic and metrical aspects; students of Cultural Heritage, besides being examined on basic linguistic knowledge, will focus mainly on historical-cultural background of the texts.

A (6 CFU)

1) History of Greek Literature from the beginning to the VI century AD.

2) Ancient Greek grammar and syntax.

3) Basic knowledge of Greek prosody and metre; metrical analysis of poetic texts written in recitative metres, listed below under B. Rhythmic reading is also required for students of Classics.

B (3 CFU)

Reading of texts:

1) Hesiod, Theogony or Homer, Odyssey IX;

2) A selection from Greek lyric poetry to be previously approved by the teacher, including following authors: Archilochus, Hipponax, Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus, Solon, Xenophanes, Sappho, Alcaeus, Anacreon, Alcman, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, Pindarus.

3) A selection of stone and book epigrams: Hansen, CEG I 24, 27, 87, 93, 131-32, 147, 397, 403, 418, 432, 454; Asclepiades, Epigr. 1, 2, 5, 32 G.-P.; Leonidas, Epigr. 3, 33, 68 Gow-Page; Nossis, Epigr. 1, 2, 11 G.-P.;

4) a text to be chosen between:

- Herodotus, The Histories I 1-13, 23-45; VII 223-228;

- Aristotle, Poetics, chapt. 1-6, 11, 12;

5) Sophocles, Oedipus the King, vv. 1-150, 634-862, 1110-1530.

Students of Classics ar requested to read all the texts listed above in the original. Students of Cultural Heritage are allowed to replace part of them (approx. 100 pp. of the recommended texts) with the thorough reading of some chapters from one or more books from this list, for the same amount of pages:

- V. Di Benedetto, Nel laboratorio di Omero, Torino, Einaudi 1998².

- E.A. Havelock, Cultura orale e civiltà della scrittura: da Omero a Platone, intr. di B. Gentili, tr. it. di M. Carpitella, Bari, Laterza 2003⁵.

- B. Gentili, Poesia e pubblico nella Grecia antica: da Omero al V secolo, edizione aggiornata, Milano, Feltrinelli 2006.

- G. Basta Donzelli, Studi sul teatro antico, a c. di P. Cipolla, Amsterdam, Hakkert 2008.

- V. Di Benedetto - E. Medda, La tragedia sulla scena: la tragedia greca in quanto spettacolo teatrale, Torino, Einaudi 1997.

- A.W. Pickard-Cambridge. Le feste drammatiche di Atene, II ediz. riveduta da J. Gould e D.M. Lewis, traduzione di Andrea Blasina, Firenze, La Nuova Italia 1996.

A 1) D. Del Corno, Letteratura Greca, Milano 1995, pp. 29-66, 76-133, 149-218, 230-258, 280-307, 309-312, 319-338, 371-388, 395-414, 416-423, 425-426, 428-33, 438-46, 471-74, 477-480, 484-490, 514-521.

NB.: pages refer to the 1995 edition.

2) G. Scarpa, Νέον χαριστήριον, Roma 2002, pp. VI+210.

3) M.C. Martinelli, Gli strumenti del poeta, Elementi di metrica greca, Bologna, Cappelli, 1995, pp. 15-67, 77-112, 115-129, 133-137.

NB: Pages of Martinelli's book listed above contain both basic notions and highly specialized discussion, which cannot be specified here. The teacher will help students to focus the main topics.

B 1) Esiodo, Teogonia, a cura di G. Arrighetti, Milano 1984, part. pp. 64-127; Omero, Odissea, vol. III (libri IX-XII), introduzione, testo e commento a cura di A. Heubeck. Traduzione di G.A. Privitera, Milano, Fondazione “Lorenzo Valla”, 1988, pp. 6-49.

2) E. Degani - G. Burzacchini (a cura di), Lirici Greci. Antologia. Aggiornamento bibliografico a cura di M. Magnani, Bologna, Pàtron editore, 2005 (anthological selection including the authors listed above, for a total amount of ca. 100 pages including commentary);

3) - P.A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculorum VIII-V a. Chr. n., Berolini et Novi Eboraci, De Gruyter, 1983, pp. 17-20, 51, 54, 71-72, 81, 216-217, 221-222, 228, 239-240, 252-253 (text available on Studium.unict);

- The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, ed. by A. S. F. Gow and A. Page, I Text, II Commentary, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1965, pp. 44-45, 52, 108, 118, 129, 151, 154 (text available on Studium.unict).

4) - Herodotus, any edition with facing Greek text (ca. 50 pp. including translation);

- Aristotele, Dell’arte poetica, a cura di C. Gallavotti, Milano, Fondazione “Lorenzo Valla”, 1974, pp. 2-27, 36-41.

5) Sofocle, Antigone, Edipo re, Edipo a Colono, a cura di Franco Ferrari, Milano, BUR 987, pp.161-172, 206-222, 240-269.

Further texts will be available on Studium.unict.