Description and Objectives

In the first quarter we read Hesiod whole — the Theogony and the Works and Days in English, quickly, for the lay of the land — and then walk slowly through the Greek of the passages that matter most: the Muses of the proem, the birth of the cosmos, the crimes and victories of three divine generations, Prometheus, and the first woman.

In the second quarter we do the same for the Bible’s creation account: Genesis 1–2 in English, then verse by verse in the Greek of the Septuagint — the Bible the early Church read — with two great readers at our side, Basil of Caesarea and Augustine of Hippo. The question the whole semester keeps asking: when two worlds told the story of where everything comes from, what did each of them see?

Textbooks

Hesiod’s Theogony

Genesis 1-11: Vulgate and Septuagint Version by Geoffery Steadman.

Course Requirements

We will have two weekly quizzes: one on vocabulary and important terms, and the second on the material we’ve read so far that week.

Successful Students

Reading quizzes (8): short factual quizzes on each English reading unit — they reward simply having read.

Translation + syntax quizzes (5): translate prepared Greek into clear, literal English (or Latin, preserving the Greek word order), plus parsing.

Essay final (December exam block): you will have heard every possible topic discussed in class — but you will not see the prompts until the exam. The only preparation that works is knowing the Greek.

January capstone colloquium: a short defended thesis, quoting the Greek aloud.

Daily preparedness: this class moves at roughly 23 lines of Greek a day in the slow-walk weeks. Come prepared, every day.