Seminars
Seminar Groups 2017/18: click here
Term 1, Seminar 1 (Week 5)
DEMOCRACY AND LITERATURE
The seminar will take place at the following times:
Group A: Thursday 2 November, 4-5pm (room H0.52)
Group B: Thursday 2 November, 6-7pm (room H2.44)
Group C: Friday 3 November, 5-6pm (room H2.03)
A. Download and Read the following Key Texts for Term 1, Seminar 1
Prepare to respond to these texts in the seminar using the following key questions as a guide:
1. What is each text saying about democracy?
2. What kind of democracy are these texts describing?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages in each description?
4. What kind of reaction do you think Athenians would have had to each of these texts?
5. Why was each text being written and by whom? How does that affect the way she should interpret them?
B. Complete as much of the following Background Reading as possible (available to download or on no-loan status in library for easy access).
R. Osborne 2010 Athens and Athenian Democracy
E. Robinson 2004 Ancient Greek Democracy: Readings and Sources
P. Rhodes 2004 Ancient Democracy: modern readings
D. Boedeker and K. Raaflaub 1998 Democracy, Empire and the Arts in 5th century Athens.
See here for the thought boards from previous seminar groups:
2015/16 group 1: Euripides; Herodotus
2015/16 group 2:Aristophanes; Thucydides; Herodotus; Euripides
2015/16 group 3: Aristophanes; Herodotus
Term 1, Seminar 2 (Week 8)
THE OLD OLIGARCH
The seminar will take place at the following times:
Group A: Thursday 23 November, 4-5pm (room H0.52)
Group B: Thursday 23 November, 6-7pm (room H2.44)
Group C: Friday 24 November, 5-6pm (room H2.03)
A. Download and read the following excerpts from The Old Oligarch - Seminar 2 - Key Text
B. Read the full text Lactor edition The Old Oligarch
Prepare to respond to the Key Text passages in the seminar using the following key questions as a guide:
1. What can we known about when this text was written, by whom, and why?
2. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of democracy in Athens that it demonstrates?
3. What does it tell us about the nature of democracy, and democratic support, in ancient Athens?
4. What does it tell us about the way democracy and imperialism inter-related in anicent Athens?
C. Complete as much of the following Background Reading as possible (on no-loan status in library for easy access).
J. Marr and P.J. Rhodes The Old Oligarch
J.M. Moore Aristotle and Xenophon on democracy and oligarchy
E. Robinson Ancient Greek Democracy: Readings and Sources
J. Roberts 1994 Athens on trial: the anti-democratic tradition in Western Thought
Click here to download the Thought boards from the different seminar groups of 2015/16
Term 2, Seminar 1 (week 5)
THE MELIAN DIALOGUE
The seminar will take place at the following times:
Group A: Thursday 8 Feburary, 4-5pm (room H2.03)
Group B: Thursday 8 February, 6-7pm (room H2.44)
Group C: Friday 9 February, 5-6pm (room H2.03)
A. Download and read the Melian Dialogue (Thucydides 5.84-116)
Prepare to discuss the text in the seminar using the following key questions as a guide:
1. How does Thucydides characterise the Athenian Empire?
2. How does this dialogue fit into the rest of his work, in terms of theme and style?
3. How do the Athenians justify their imperialism?
4. What does this tell us about how democracy and imperialism were interrelated?
B. Complete as much of the following background reading as possible:
P. Low (ed.) 2008 The Athenian Empire
I. Morris and W. Scheidel 2009 The dynamics of ancient empires: state power from Assyria to Byzantium
C. Constantakopoulou 2010 The Dance of the Islands
W. Liebeschuetz, 'The structure and function of the Melian Dialogue', Journal of Hellenic Studies 88 (1968), 73-77
A.B. Bosworth, 'The humanitarian aspect of the Melian Dialogue', Journal of Hellenic Studies 113 (1993), 30-44
M.G. Seaman, 'The Athenian expedition to Melos in 416 B.C.', Historia 46.4 (1997), 385-418
Term 2, Seminar 2 (week 8)
DEMOCRATIC ATHENS: A VIRTUAL TOUR
The seminar will take place at the following times:
Group A: Thursday 4-5pm (room H2.03)
Group B: Thursday 6-7pm (room H2.44)
Group C: Friday 2-3pm (room A0.23)
We will explore the physical space of Ancient Athens using the Faculty's new virtual reality headsets.
Further reading:
J.Camp, The Athenian Agora (1986)
J. Camp, The Archaeology of Athens (2001)
R.F. Rhodes, Architecture and Meaning of the Athenian Acropolis (1995)
J.M. Hurwit, The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present (1999)