2017/2018

2018/2019

DM270

L-ANT/07 (CLASSIC ARCHAEOLOGY)

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

CLASSICAL AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

PERCORSO COMUNE

2°

2nd semester (25/02/2019 - 05/06/2019)

6

36 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

HARARI MAURIZIO (titolare) - 6 ECTS

No special cultural background is requested, except for some quite general knowledge of plot and characters of the famous Homeric epics (Iliad and Odyssey).

The lectures aim to give a basic knowledge of classical mythology, focusing on its imagery in ancient art. In that sense, learning classical mythology has to be regarded as strictly functional for the exegesis of Greek, Etruscan and Roman images, with special reference to Athenian vase-painting, which displays a lot of interesting examples. Having available such a key, however, will be relevant also for studies of medieval, modern and even contemporary art, every time when art renews some iconographic motif of classical origin.

The lectures will focus some essential theoretic and methodological aspects, within the historic development of classical studies: what is a myth - which are the functions of a myth - the relationship between text and narrative imagery - reading images: iconography and iconology.

Lectures, with commentaries to PowerPoint presentations.
Three or four lectures will be devoted to practical interactive exercises on reading mythological images.

Moreover, the teacher will recommend lectures and seminars by guest scholars dealing with relevant topics; these classes can give up to 2 credits, on condition that they are subject of discussion during the final examination.

All students must read three basic handbooks:
F. Graf, Greek Mythology. An Introduction, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992
K. Kérényi, The Gods of the Greeks, London, Thames & Hudson, 1980
K. Kérényi, The Heroes of the Greeks, London, Thames & Hudson, 1997.

Oral test, based on the ability, too, to analyze and explain mythological pictures at first sight, without the help of captions.

Students coming from other European countries are also allowed to answer in French, English or German language.

The students, who can not regularly attend the lectures, are required to read, moreover, a fourth book, to be chosen among the followings:

Th.H. Carpenter, Art and myth in ancient Greece: a handbook, London, Thames & Hudson, 1991 [a French transl.: Paris 1997]
A.M. Snodgrass, Homer and the artists: text and picture in early Greek art, Cambridge University Press, 1998
A. Steiner, Reading Greek vases, Cambridge University Press, 2007
S. Woodford, Images of myths in classical antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 2003.