HONORS SECTION: CLASSICAL
STUDIES 1003 H
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ILLUSTRATION: The lusty goddess of the Dawn, Eos, is in love with the handsome Trojan prince Tithonus. She wants him a lot. Do you think she’ll catch him? (Red-Figure Attic oenochoe, attributed to the Achilles Painter, c. 460-450 BCE. Louvre, Paris.)
The Honors Section of CLST 1003 will be an enriching and fun complement to the regular class. It will allow students to interact with their professor more closely than a three-hour lecture course normally allows, and to pursue something meaningful. We will work on projects that will take us into closer touch with ancient Greek literature, language and history.
In the summer of 2012, I was a program scholar for “Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives,” a national program in 100 libraries and cultural centers in the United States. Our theme was “The Returning Warrior,” something that is very meaningful to our country as we cope with a growing number of veterans of our wars abroad. I gave an introductory lecture on this subject in May, 2012 (https://wordpressua.uark.edu/dlevine/combat-veterans-ancient-greece-modern-usa-daniel-levine/), and then led discussions of the Odyssey and several Greek tragedies, focusing on the relevance of ancient experiences to modern vets, with the object of seeing what we can learn from the Classics and how we can use ancient Greek texts as a basis for discussion of our own returning warriors.
Ancient Greek literature is a useful tool to help understand the struggles of modern war veterans because ancient war veterans, who knew from firsthand personal experiences what it was like to fight and be away from home for long periods of time, composed most of it. Their anxieties and struggles, expressed in ancient epics and tragedies, resonated with their audiences, which were mostly made up of combat veterans. The actors on the Greek tragic stage were mostly combat veterans, too. When we read these classics, many of us relate to these universal experiences, and none more so than our own veterans.
Meetings and Readings
We will meet with the regular class, and on certain days will meet as an Honors Section — without the other students. Our first meeting will be at the end of our first day of class, January 11, 2021. We will discuss our term project: Combat Veterans in ancient Greece and modern America.
Honors students will read a fascinating essay my sister-in-law showed me: “Things to Pack When You’re Bound for Baghdad” by Jason Armagost [Journal of War, Literature & the Arts vol. 18 (2006) pp. 121-141]. It is a memorable, gripping short essay on war and literature. You can access it on line here.
We’ll meet as an Honors Section to discuss this essay — on Monday, January 25, during the last 30 minutes of class.
Our next readings will be from a book that only honors students will buy for this class:
Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, also by Jonathan Shay (2002), on the problems that Vietnam vets have had in re-integrating into society, with parallels with the Odyssey.
Schedule.
We will meet as a group four times this semester, as follows:
Monday, January 11, 2021: for the last 20 minutes of class [week 1]: Introduction to the Honors Section.
Monday, January 25, 2021 for the last 30 minutes of class [beginning of week 3]: Discussion of Jason Armagost: “Things to Pack When You’re Bound for Bagdhad.”
Wednesday, February 17, 2021, during regular class time [week 6], to discuss Odysseus in America, fist half.
Wednesday, April 07, 2021 during regular class time [week 12, to discuss Odysseus in America, second half.
HONORS PAPERS
Each student will write a short paper based on their readings for the semester. The professor will help students with these projects. Length: 2-3 double-spaced pages. These papers will summarize some of the themes you encountered in your readings on combat veterans.
What have you learned about the relation of ancient war experiences that relate to present-day issues? What can ancient literature teach us about being human? How can we learn from it? What did these readings make you think about that you had not considered before?
Papers are due the day of the final Special Learning Opportunity, or earlier.