Syllabus
January
19 Prolegomena:
Gender / Sex.
Read:
www.connerprairie.org/HistoryOnline/womrole.html
Read the above website before class. List the qualities a woman in 19th century America was supposed to have. How well did these qualities adapt her to the role she was expected to play in American society at that time?
Part I. Pharonic Egypt
January 24
Introduction to Egypt.
Egyptian's view
of history and geography.
Role and importance of
education.
For brief readings on the geography of Egypt and the differences between Upper and Lower Egypt in antiquity, images of the Nile and deserts:
http://www.website1.com/odyssey/week1/egygeo.html
http://www.website1.com/odyssey/week1/desert.html
http://www.website1.com/odyssey/week1/nile.html
Read: Robins. Introduction pp. 11-20.. Licht.II. pp. 168-175 A Schoolbook; pp. 175-178 The Immortality of Writers.
January 26 Power.
Read: Robins, chapters 1 and 2.. Licht. I.
p. 90 Tjetyi; p.
18 Weni; p. 28 Royal Decree of Pepi; pp. 15-16
Princess
Ni-Sedjer-kai; p. 16 Hetep-her-Akhet; pp. 17-18 Ni-Hebsed-Pepi.;
pp.
118-120 Sesotris III; pp. 123-125 Ikhernofret. Licht. II.
pp. 12-15
Ahmose, son of Abana; pp. 25-29 Obelisk Inscriptions
of Hatshepsut;
pp. 96-100 Great Hymn to the Aten
On-line
texts:
Ahmose, son of Abana http://www.touregypt.net/autobiographyofahmose.htm
Hatshepsut obelisk (shaft inscriptions only)
January 31 Economic/Legal Position.
Read Robins, chapter 7; Licht. I. pp. 184-192 Satire of the Trades.
Read also this essay
http://www.stoa.org/diotima/essays/wardlect.shtml
and and read all the texts (# 1-10) that are
linked on this
essay page and their notes as well.
February 2 Religion.
Read: Robins, chapters 8 and 9. Licht. II. pp. 119-132 Selections from the Book of the Dead; pp. 107-109 Hymn to Meretseger; pp. 109-110 Hymn to Ptah
On Egyptian priests and priestesses:
http://www.philae.nu/philae/priesthood.html
On the God's Wife of Amun:
http://www.philae.nu/PerAnkh/GodsWife.html
February 7and 9 Women in Art
Read: Robins, chapter 10 pp. 180-190.
For some illustrations of Egyptian art:
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/new_pyramid/PYRAMIDS/HTML/el_pyramid_Intro.htm
February 14 Women in Literature: Wisdom Literature and Stories. Essay Album topic due.
Read: Robins, chapter 10 pp. 176-180. Licht. I. pp. 58-59 Instruction of Prince Hardjedef; Instruction of Ptahhotep: read only stanza 18 p. 68; stanza 21 p. 69; and stanza 37 p. 73. Licht II. pp. 135-143 Instruction of Any; pp. 200-203 The Doomed Prince; pp. 203-211 The Two Brothers.
on-line texts:
partial text of Ani http://www.touregypt.net/negativeconfessions.htm
Instruction of Ptahhotep http://www1.hollins.edu/Docs/academics/divisioni/classical%20studies/saloweyca/clas%20260/Ptahhotep.html
The Doomed Prince http://www.touregypt.net/doomedprince.htm
The Two Brothers http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/RTOT/CH2/CH2_TWO.HTM
If you are still unclear who/what Ma'at is (this understanding is essential to understand wisdom literature):
http://www.philae.nu/PerAnkh/perankhM.html#Ma'at
February 16 Women in Love Poetry.
For some background on the provenance of these poems:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0416_040416_pyramidsongs.html
We will discuss in class the following poems. Prepare by using this study-guide for the bold-faced poems below.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/love-in-the-arts/egyptian.html
We will also discuss in class "Aim him straight" and "Send it back hard."
Read:
Foster is
the first page number; Fowler is the second page number
in each pair
of poems.
5 Aim him straight
68 When you bring
it
6 Send him back hard
69
When you bring it
8 How clever my
love
70 How skillfully
9 Why, just
now
71 While you
13 Once more you pass her house
74-75 I passed her house befogged
18
Your love, dear man
32 Your love
50 I was simply off
60My heart
58 Last night
64 It's been seven
107 What heaven
21 The loveliest
thing
11 I found my love
72 My
brother
45 My love is one and
only
57 My sister
48 My love's a
mischief-maker
59 My brother's voice
56 I just chanced to be happening by
63 I passed close to his house
February
21 Health
Readings:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/med/birthpapyrus.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/health_01.shtml
http://www.indiana.edu/~ancmed/egypt.HTM
http://www.rom.on.ca/egypt/djed/djedmaat.html
February 23 Test on Egyptian Women
Part II: Greece
February 28
Introduction:.
Read WCW 5-9, 10-18.
March 2
Aidos and sophrosyne, gesture and gaze. Read WCW
19-22., and WL 1-6
Sappho
March 14 The Metaphor of Containers:
Read WCW 22-39 and WL 393 Hymn to Demeter
Read WCW 22-39 and WL 393 Hymn to Demeter
For a cross-cultural exhibit on "The Woman as Container," click here.
For information on the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, click here.
March 16 Creation of women and misogyny.
Read WCW 39-53 and WL 54, 55, 56 Hesiod, 57 Semonides.
March 21 the Metaphor of Wild Animals, Images of Apprehension.
Read WCW 68-83, 98-118, and Euripides Bacchae, Medea
For a synopsis of the myth about Medea, click here.
Pentheus was the son of Echion, king of Thebes, and Agave, and a cousin of the god Bacchus. When Bacchus tried to institute his cult at Thebes, Pentheus resisted. Euripides' tragedy tells how Bacchus punished Pentheus. Bacchae are women worshippers of Bacchus; they are also called Maenads, a term that comes from the Greek word "to rave, be frenzied."
on-line Medea
on-line Bacchae
March 23 Civic Religion.
Read WCW 83-98 and WL 12-8, Anyte, 10-11 Erinna, 393-Inscriptions 396, 402-403.
March 28 Women in philosophers' thought.
Read WCW 118-124 and WL 72 Aristotle, 73-74 Plato
March 30 Health issues.
Read WCW 183-203 and WL 341-350 Hippocrates
April 4 Test on Greek
women.
III. Roman
Women
April 6 Legal status.
Read WCW 211-227 and LF 107-129.
April 11 Marriage.
Read WCW 227-241 and LF 130-140
For an article on the different forms of Roman marriage, click here.
For an article on Roman dowries, click here.
April 13 Religion.
Read LF Vestals 408-411; Bona Dea 412-413;
For basic information on Vestals, with linked images, click here.
April 18 Some "real" Roman women
Read LF 168 Turia, 43 Murdia.
Read Cicero's letters to his wife, Terentia, and family, written while abroad during the Civil War with Caesar:
April 20 The "New Woman."
Read WCW 280-292, and Catullus: handout, and LF 34 on Clodia, 173 on women's demonstrations, 260 Cornelia Gracchorum, mothers and children 258, and 259; Sempronia 174.
For a brief biographies of these women, click on the name: Cornelia Gracchorum; Clodia.
April 25 Women in the Augustan Age.
Read WCW 294-327 and LF 265, 266, 334; and Sulpicia 21, 22, and Ovid, Amores and Ars Amatoria handout
April 27 Women in the Imperial Period
Read WCW 331-344 and LF 159 Eumachia, 75 Musonius, and 261 Seneca
For biographies of these women, click on the name: Livia, wife of Augustus, Eumachia (image of Eumachia) (Numbers 2.20 through 2.37 are images Eumachia's building.)
May 2 Women in
Art.
Read "Beauty as a Virtue," and the images and their commentaries in I, Claudia Women in Ancient Rome ed. Diane E.E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson, pp. 165-176 (on reserve).
May 4 Display of Essay Albums. No absence allowed. Penalty for absence: 40 pts.
May 11 Test on Roman Women. 8-10 p.m.