Class Schedules

Why are Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin all taught in the same department at Macalester? Today Islam and the Arab world are often presented in contrast with the West in a sort of timeless and unending 'clash of civilizations.' Classics 101 aims to counter this narrative by exploring the multiple deep, long-term connections among the languages, religions and peoples around the Mediterranean Sea. What were the relationships among speakers of these languages in the past? How did Judaism, Christianity and Islam develop among them? Why are Greek and Roman traditions sometimes seen as in tension with Christian or Arab traditions -- and has that always been the case? Readings include selections from Genesis, Exodus, Homer, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato, Vergil, the Gospels, Josephus, Imru Al-Qays, the Qur'an and 1,001 Nights. Legendary and historical figures include Moses, Helen of Troy, Cyrus, Darius, Pericles, Alexander, Cleopatra, Jesus, Augustus, Perpetua, Constantine, Muhammad, Fatima, Aisha and Omar. Suggested subtitles for the course include Before East and West, We Hear Dead People, Great Books Reimagined, and Hey, You Should Know This Stuff. Required for all majors in the Classical Mediterranean and Middle East.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores the dynamic and diverse cultures and people of the Maghreb – North Africa. From Carthage and other indigenous empires of North Africa, through early Christian centuries, to the arrival of Islam and its various expressions, to the “golden period” when North Africa and Spain came together, in Al -Andalusia; one of the greatest chapters of human creativity and cooperation. We conclude c.1492, and the beginning of the early modern period in North Africa and the Mediterranean.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 111.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 111.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 111.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester program, students learn to read, write and converse in Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Classical Arabic used in contemporary news media, documents, literature, education and religious practice in the many countries of the Arab world. The purpose of this course is to develop beginning students' proficiency and communication in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 113.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester program, students learn to read, write and converse in Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Classical Arabic used in contemporary news media, documents, literature, education and religious practice in the many countries of the Arab world. The purpose of this course is to develop beginning students' proficiency and communication in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 113.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester program, students learn to read, write and converse in Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Classical Arabic used in contemporary news media, documents, literature, education and religious practice in the many countries of the Arab world. The purpose of this course is to develop beginning students' proficiency and communication in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 113.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to archaeology, the study of the material remains of human culture. Students will explore the history of the discipline and profession, its basic methods and theories, and the political and ethical dimensions of modern archaeological practice. Students learn to examine and interpret evidence using specific examples, from artifacts to sites to regions.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This two-semester program introduces students to ancient Greek, the language of Greece, Asia Minor, and the Hellenistic world, including several Jewish and early Christian writers. Students will learn the grammar and vocabulary necessary for reading Greek literature and documents of many periods. During the second term, students begin to read extended prose, such as passages from Plato, Xenophon, the New Testament or documentary sources. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 115 .

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This two-semester program introduces students to ancient Greek, the language of Greece, Asia Minor, and the Hellenistic world, including several Jewish and early Christian writers. Students will learn the grammar and vocabulary necessary for reading Greek literature and documents of many periods. During the second term, students begin to read extended prose, such as passages from Plato, Xenophon, the New Testament or documentary sources. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 115 .

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This two-semester program introduces students to ancient Greek, the language of Greece, Asia Minor, and the Hellenistic world, including several Jewish and early Christian writers. Students will learn the grammar and vocabulary necessary for reading Greek literature and documents of many periods. During the second term, students begin to read extended prose, such as passages from Plato, Xenophon, the New Testament or documentary sources. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 115 .

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course explores the art and architecture of the Ancient Near East from the earliest agricultural societies in the 10th millennium BCE to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE. Within this historical framework the lectures and class discussions will focus on culturally specific concepts of design, representation and aesthetics in ancient Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia and Syro-Palestine, and explore their uses in politics, imperialism, burial practices, private rituals and state cults. The lectures will explore topics such as the development of narrative representation, monumental public art, portraiture, small-scale glyptic arts and the design, and production of personal ornaments such as jewelry.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course will explore the art and architecture of the medieval Christian world from the time of Constantine the Great (306-337 CE) to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The lectures and class discussions will focus on the role of images and relics in Christianity as well as the developments in sacred and secular architecture across Europe and the Byzantine empire. Special emphasis will be given to certain trends such as the foundation of monasteries, pilgrimage, icon and relic worship, and the emergence of Romanesque and Gothic styles in architecture, which changed the urban and rural topography of the continent.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A course in the poetic literature of the Republican and/or Augustan Ages with concentrated study on one or two authors. Students work toward grammatical and lexical mastery while learning about the forms, styles and cultural aspects of Latin poetry. Authors to be studied may include Plautus, Catullus, Horace, Vergil, or Ovid. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 231or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to more authentic texts and samples a variety of authors and genres from around the Arab world. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 241 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to more authentic texts and samples a variety of authors and genres from around the Arab world. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 241 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Art reflects, refracts and helps construct a society’s culture. Thousands of pieces of sculpture survive from the ancient Roman period and can provide valuable information to the historian. Material from Rome includes looted Greek, Etruscan and Egyptian sculpture, copies of antique masterpieces, and new creations combining different styles for varied purposes. After we develop a basic history and understanding of Roman sculpture, this course will examine select pieces each week to explore questions that may be productively brought to bear on this unusual historical source. For example, the popularity and adaptations of masterpieces of Venus, Dionysus and Apollo will be used to explore the way artists shaped differences between male and female and the cultural assumptions about sexuality and the body these works communicate (Knidian Aphrodite, Praxitelean youths, Sleeping Hermaphrodite). In turn, we will investigate how these artistic conventions for gender could be employed to communicate the subjugation of enslaved or conquered people and the authority of the emperor (Antinoos Sculptures, Suicide Gauls, Dying Gaul, Marcus Aurelius reliefs, Portonaccio Sarcophagus). We will also look at self-representation, including how former slaves chose to present themselves in hyper-realistic portraits on their tombs; how this may have impacted Roman portraiture as a whole; and what it meant for some members of the elite to put such hyper-realistic portrait heads onto the bodies of gods and goddesses (Tomb of the Haterii, Tomb of Rabiria, Tivoli General, Flavian Matron as Venus). What can these varied representations of the human form tell us about the complex interplay of legal status, citizenship, gender, nudity, ethnicity, power, vulnerability and identity in the Roman Empire? The course will meet once a week during the day to allow for two field trips to see sculpture in the round. Responses to the weekly readings will be due every week. During the last third of the course, students will direct our classwork as they build toward a final project. No formal prerequisites, but some prior experience with ancient art, art history or Roman history is recommended.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Students who pursue ancient Greek at the advanced level will study closely one or more works and explore relevant problems in literary or textual criticism, linguistic, social or cultural history, and/or reception. Offered upon consultation with department. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 362 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester program, students learn to read, write and converse in Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Classical Arabic used in contemporary news media, documents, literature, education and religious practice in the many countries of the Arab world. The purpose of this course is to develop beginning students' proficiency and communication in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester program, students learn to read, write and converse in Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Classical Arabic used in contemporary news media, documents, literature, education and religious practice in the many countries of the Arab world. The purpose of this course is to develop beginning students' proficiency and communication in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course is taught jointly between the department of Religious Studies and the department of Classics, by a specialist in the Roman East and a specialist in classical India. We will start on either side of this world, with Alexander the Great and Ashoka, exploring the relationship between empire and religion from Rome to India in the world's crossroads for the thousand years between Alexander and the rise of Islam.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Designed to prepare students for CLAS 155: January in Rome, offered in 2025. Students will learn the history of the city; draft the material culture report they will present on site; choose a literary passage to read in Rome; and discuss the required course readings. No prerequisites. The course is strongly recommended -- but not required -- for participation in the January course. Students may also take this course without joining us in the Eternal City. For information about the study away course, see the January Programs website of the Department of the Classical Mediterranean and Middle East.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A study of major philosophers of ancient Greece, Rome and the medieval period, including the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A thorough review of Latin grammar followed by a study of a Roman prose author or authors. Students build reading skills while gaining an appreciation for the literary and cultural aspects of Latin prose. Particular texts to be studied may include Petronius' Satyricon , the letters and/or speeches of Cicero, letters of Pliny, or Livy's History of Rome. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 212 or its equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course focuses on expanding vocabulary and grammar through simple texts, dialogs and stories. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 214 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course focuses on expanding vocabulary and grammar through simple texts, dialogs and stories. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 214 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

​This course surveys the visual and material culture of Europe, the Middle East and the broader Mediterranean world from prehistory through the late Medieval period, including early Christian, Jewish and Islamic cultures. We consider the artistic and archaeological remains from the Near East, Egypt, the Aegean, Greece, Etruria, Rome, and western Europe from a contextual perspective in order to understand each culture's ideologies, and the diverse social and artistic purposes for which art and architecture was created and used.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This third course in the ancient Greek language sequence involves review of basic grammar and extensive reading in works of ancient prose. Students will build familiarity with forms and vocabulary while gaining confidence as readers and an appreciation for ancient literature. Authors may include Plato, Herodotus, Attic orators, or Lucian. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 235 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course explores the four significant periods of theater history (Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Restoration) through learning about the historical context, the physical theater elements, the plays that defined the time and the playwrights who wrote them. Students will engage with script analysis of the plays through staged readings.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

The final semester in the two-year survey of the Hebrew language from ancient to modern. Students will read selections from the Biblical books of poetry such as Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Psalms. The second half of the semester is devoted to modern conversational Hebrew. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 237 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A survey course of Renaissance and classic writers from around the Arab world. We explore social issues, with the focus still on language acquisition. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 342.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Senior Seminar caps the experience of being a Classics major. Students in all three tracks (Archaeology, Civilization, and Languages) join together to explore the history of the discipline and its relationship to their own histories and future plans. Students learn about, draft and critique documents useful for their next steps, including resumes, personal statements and cover letters, along with discussing selected readings in a seminar setting. Each student also works with an advisor from the department to develop and execute a major piece of work in their chosen field, Majors who have completed the Senior Seminar have thus executed a substantive independent project and can articulate the place of their Classics major within their personal and professional development. Prerequisite(s): Must be a declared Classics major

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials