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 studies some of the world's great storytellers-the ancient Greeks. First, we read from translations of Greek poetry to become familiar with the key figures and events in mythology, including the Olympian gods and their origins, the major heroes, and the Trojan War. Then we explore more broadly the adaptable nature of these myths and the variety of forms in which the Greeks told stories, from epic and personal poetry to philosophy, drama, sculpture and vase painting. At the same time, we investigate the ways in which moderns have interpreted these stories. We analyze myths using Freud's psychoanalytical techniques, as folklore and ritual, and through theoretical perspectives including structuralism, new historicism and feminism. Finally, we investigate the later life of Greek myths, focusing on how and why these stories have been retold by the Romans, later European authors and artists, American film makers and playwrights, and science fiction writers.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Arabian Nights, also known as One Thousand and One Nights, or simply the Nights, is a monumental work in world literature that has shaped and been shaped by various cultures over centuries. Taking form in the Islamic Near East, the tales draw from Indian, Persian, and Arabic narrative traditions, encompassing diverse genres such as biographies of prophets, travelogues, love poems, and drinking songs. This course delves into the rich universe of the Nights, examining its origins and evolution, cultural influence, and enduring legacy in global storytelling. Our journey begins in the medieval Arabic context, understanding how these stories served as a cultural melting pot, reflecting, and sometimes playfully commenting on the social norms and literary styles of the time. We will explore the significant role of translation, printing, and illustration in the global dissemination of these tales. Through the lenses of history, culture, and literary studies, we will engage directly with the stories, their translations, and adaptations. Students will critically analyze themes, structure, and adaptations, gaining insight into the collection’s fluid and transcultural nature. Ultimately, this course provides a comprehensive understanding of how the Nights have endured through retellings, illustrating the power of storytelling to connect humanity across time and place. All readings will be in English.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course will explore the filmic legacy of selected texts from ancient Mediterranean traditions.  We read and discuss a number of epic and dramatic sources from Mediterranean antiquity, and trace how those narratives are creatively appropriated and deployed in cinema.  The films explored in this course will include not only direct adaptations of ancient stories, but also points of connection between antiquity and film along thematic and stylistic lines.  This course will feature group film viewings and draw upon a broad array of genres from global film-making.

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

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 reconnects with early approaches to medicine, health and healing. We study and discuss earlier wisdom that informed health practices for centuries. These traditions shaped a role for the caregiver, healer- physician. They inherited traditions and practices from earlier generations and from their own schools and teachers. These early practitioners combined traditional, popular practices, with newer advances and medical discoveries. Health care givers and Physicians were philosophers, botanists, observers and students of nature who built the foundations of modern medicine and continued the ancient traditions that had been handed down to them. This course is not a critique of modern medical practices. It is a retrieval of other and earlier ideas and practices about health and wellness.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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 pleasures and pains of love (divine and human) as imagined by authors writing within the Persianate tradition. We will examine diverse sources, including autobiographies, letters, poems, and novels, produced from the tenth century to the present day. Readings (in English translation) will center on themes such as forbidden love, the celebration of carnal pleasure and lust, homoeroticism, mystical love, and love for God, religious figures, and the nation. Primary texts will be paired with secondary readings that develop key literary and philosophical questions about love.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Classical forms of architecture have had a profound impact on the design of public and private buildings in our cities. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns, triglyphs, metopes, and numerous other elements created in ancient Greece embellish our capitol buildings, opera houses, libraries, train stations and more. All these forms can be traced back to the ancient Greek temple. The association of this structure with sophistication and high culture is so deeply ingrained in the contemporary mind that the logo of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is based not on a mosque, a church, or another building form, but on the façade of a Greek temple, such as the famous Parthenon in Athens. This course will explore the formation of this distinctive building type and its functions in Greek society from the 8th century BCE to the Hellenistic period (ca. 330 - 30 BCE). What social, political, and economic processes led to the creation of the Greek temple forms? What role did interactions with cultures in the eastern Mediterranean—particularly Egypt and Western Asia—play in this process? Was there a standard form applied to all Greek temples, or did they vary? Who were their designers and patrons? And what historical and intellectual processes identified this iconic structure as the source of Western architectural tradition? Focusing on these key questions (and many others), this course will help students understand the importance of the majestic residences of Greek gods in shaping not only ancient urban and rural landscapes across the Mediterranean, but also modern ones, especially in Europe and North America.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This seminar develops tragedy as a rigorous analytic vocabulary for the study of international relations: a way of seeing how fate, hubris, competing goods, and moral luck structure choice under anarchy and make even prudent statecraft liable to ruin. Beginning with Greek drama and Thucydides as the conceptual forge, the course turns to modern tragic realism with Robert D. Kaplan as its anchor, treating geography, scarcity, demography, and cultural fault lines as durable constraints that discipline ambition and produce recurrent patterns of overreach and retrenchment. In conversation with Richard Ned Lebow, we examine tragic choice and the tension between necessity and ethics in decision-making; with Mervyn Frost, we probe how normative claims collide with prudential judgment when rules meet contingency; and with John J. Mearsheimer, we interrogate structural incentives that render great-power rivalry tragic even for status-quo actors. Case work will connect raison d’état, the security dilemma, nuclear deterrence, humanitarian intervention, and contemporary great-power competition from Westphalia to the present, emphasizing secondary scholarship (especially Kaplan) while integrating focused primary texts—selected Greek plays, curated Thucydidean passages, and brief modern documents—to cultivate theoretically informed, historically grounded, policy-relevant analysis.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores the art, architecture, and religious institutions of Central Asia and its environs from the 3rd millennium BCE to end of the 9th century CE. We will explore such topics as the migration of peoples, ideas, and visual culture; the importation and exportation of royal and religious images; the rise and spread of Zoroastrianism from its roots in Central Asia to its apogee as the state religion of the Sasanian Empire; among many other topics. We will cover the migration of the Indo-Iranian peoples from Central Asia into Iran and India, the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex, the empires and kingdoms of the Hindu Kush, the Parthian Confederacy, and the rise of the Sogdian merchant elite. At the end of this course students will have a firm understanding of the peoples, cultures, and artistic styles of this pivotal region. This course requires no prior knowledge of art, archaeology, religion, or of Central Asia and is open to all students eager to learn about the land between the Caspian and China.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

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:

Distribution Requirements:

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

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

This course introduces students to the Arabic language through an integrated approach that reflects how Arabic is used in real-life contexts. Students develop foundational proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while working with both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)—used in formal communication—and Levantine Arabic, a widely spoken dialect used in everyday interaction. Through a communicative, proficiency-based, and flipped-classroom model, students learn new material outside of class and actively practice it through pair and group work during class time. The course emphasizes meaningful communication, cultural engagement, and the development of practical language skills for real-world use. Students also explore aspects of Arab cultures, including social practices, daily life, and contemporary issues. No prior knowledge of Arabic is required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the Arabic language through an integrated approach that reflects how Arabic is used in real-life contexts. Students develop foundational proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while working with both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)—used in formal communication—and Levantine Arabic, a widely spoken dialect used in everyday interaction. Through a communicative, proficiency-based, and flipped-classroom model, students learn new material outside of class and actively practice it through pair and group work during class time. The course emphasizes meaningful communication, cultural engagement, and the development of practical language skills for real-world use. Students also explore aspects of Arab cultures, including social practices, daily life, and contemporary issues. No prior knowledge of Arabic is required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the Arabic language through an integrated approach that reflects how Arabic is used in real-life contexts. Students develop foundational proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while working with both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)—used in formal communication—and Levantine Arabic, a widely spoken dialect used in everyday interaction. Through a communicative, proficiency-based, and flipped-classroom model, students learn new material outside of class and actively practice it through pair and group work during class time. The course emphasizes meaningful communication, cultural engagement, and the development of practical language skills for real-world use. Students also explore aspects of Arab cultures, including social practices, daily life, and contemporary issues. No prior knowledge of Arabic is required.

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

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Writing WA
Writing WP

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 builds on foundational Arabic skills by expanding students’ proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing through an integrated approach to formal and spoken Arabic. Students continue to develop control of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for reading and writing while strengthening their ability to communicate in Levantine Arabic in conversational contexts. Using a communicative, proficiency-based, and flipped-classroom model, the course emphasizes active language use, increased grammatical accuracy, and the ability to express more complex ideas. Students engage with a range of authentic and adapted materials, including short texts, dialogues, and cultural content related to contemporary Arab societies. By the end of the course, students are expected to reach an intermediate level of proficiency and to navigate appropriately between formal and informal registers of Arabic. Prerequisite: CLAS 214 or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course builds on foundational Arabic skills by expanding students’ proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing through an integrated approach to formal and spoken Arabic. Students continue to develop control of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for reading and writing while strengthening their ability to communicate in Levantine Arabic in conversational contexts. Using a communicative, proficiency-based, and flipped-classroom model, the course emphasizes active language use, increased grammatical accuracy, and the ability to express more complex ideas. Students engage with a range of authentic and adapted materials, including short texts, dialogues, and cultural content related to contemporary Arab societies. By the end of the course, students are expected to reach an intermediate level of proficiency and to navigate appropriately between formal and informal registers of Arabic. Prerequisite: 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 will explore the art and architecture of the Islamic world from the time of the Prophet Mohammed to the 18th century. The lectures and class discussions will focus on culturally specific concepts of design and aesthetics in the vast geography from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Subcontinent, and analyze a variety of genres including architecture, glass, wood and metal working, painting, calligraphy and ceramics in their political and socio-economic contexts. Within these chronological, geographical and typological frameworks, this course will focus on special themes such as patronage, art and politics, figural representation, religious vs. secular art, and the impact of pre-Islamic Near Eastern heritage and Christianity on the development of Islamic forms and styles.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course explores how same-sex desire, eroticism, and gender variance were understood in pre-modern Islamicate societies before the emergence of modern sexual identities such as “homosexual” and “heterosexual.” Drawing on literary texts, legal treatises, medical writings, visual culture, and modern scholarship, students examine how desire was conceptualized in relation to gender, age, power, ethics, and social order. Rather than asking whether “gay people existed” in the past, the course asks how desire itself was structured, interpreted, and regulated and how modern categories of sexuality reshape our reading of pre-modern cultures. The course places Islamicate societies in global conversation with Greek, Christian, and modern European thought, emphasizing historical difference, cultural specificity, and the politics of interpretation.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Classical forms of architecture have had a profound impact on the design of public and private buildings in our cities. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns, triglyphs, metopes, and numerous other elements created in ancient Greece embellish our capitol buildings, opera houses, libraries, train stations and more. All these forms can be traced back to the ancient Greek temple. The association of this structure with sophistication and high culture is so deeply ingrained in the contemporary mind that the logo of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is based not on a mosque, a church, or another building form, but on the façade of a Greek temple, such as the famous Parthenon in Athens. This course will explore the formation of this distinctive building type and its functions in Greek society from the 8th century BCE to the Hellenistic period (ca. 330 - 30 BCE). What social, political, and economic processes led to the creation of the Greek temple forms? What role did interactions with cultures in the eastern Mediterranean—particularly Egypt and Western Asia—play in this process? Was there a standard form applied to all Greek temples, or did they vary? Who were their designers and patrons? And what historical and intellectual processes identified this iconic structure as the source of Western architectural tradition? Focusing on these key questions (and many others), this course will help students understand the importance of the majestic residences of Greek gods in shaping not only ancient urban and rural landscapes across the Mediterranean, but also modern ones, especially in Europe and North America.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Students who pursue Latin 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. Authors may include Tacitus, Seneca, Apuleius, Juvenal, Martial or others. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 332or equivalent.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

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