Learning outcomes

The course of Greek Language (p) aims to complete the overview of the poetical languages of ancient Greece provided by the course of Greek Language (i), and will therefore deal with:

1) elegy and epigram;
2) iambic poetry;
3) literary dialects in the Hellenistic Period.

1) diachronical study of archaic and hellenistic elegy and epigram, without forgetting the important contribution of the epigrams on stone;

2) diachronic study of archaic (Archilochus, Hipponax) and hellenistic (Callimachus) iambic poetry;

3) the focus will be on hexametric poetry (epos, epyllion, bucolic poetry) in the most preeminent authors.

We will carefully take into account the manuscript tradition of the aforementioned authors (especially the archaic ones), in order to underscore its impact on the linguistic facies of the texts.

EXPECTED RESULTS

The student will be able to analyse a vast array of texts spanning from the Archaic Age to the Hellenistic Period, both from the literary and the linguistic point of view (lexicon, phonology, morphology, ionic substratum and its variants), and in doing so (s)he will learn to pay due attention on the one hand to the authors' provenance and places of work, and to the Hellenistic experiments on the other; (s)he will be also able to assess the impact of the manuscript tradition on the facies of the texts; finally, (s)he will be able to expose the results achieved in an appropriate linguistic and argumentative form, both orally and in writing.


PREREQUISITES

Prerequisites are a good knowledge of ancient Greek, and of the main characteristics of the Greek dialects (ionic, attic, aeolic, doric) and of the Homeric language.


SCHEDULED LESSONS: Lectures (36 hours).

Every part of the course will start with a historical overview of the literary genres.
Linguistic analysis will be carried out employing a seminar approach, so as to foster interaction with and among students.

Erasmus students are required to get in touch with the teacher before the beginning of the course.

Program

1) elegy and iambography;
2) literary dialects in the Hellenistic Period.

Reference texts:

1) A.C. Cassio (a cura di), Storia delle lingue letterarie greche. Seconda edizione, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2016, chapter 8: «L'elegia e l'epigramma su pietra» (E. Passa), pp. 260-79; chapter 9: «Il giambo» (S. Kaczko), pp. 289-300.

2) A.C. Cassio (a cura di), ..., chapter 15: «Callimaco e la poesia alessandrina» (C. Vessella), pp. 434-37; chapter 17: «Teocrito» (C. Vessella), pp. 451-63.

Further educational material will be provided by the teacher.

Examination Methods

Oral examination including the evaluation of a paper to be delivered to the teacher at least one week before the examination date (see below).

The oral examination aims to evaluate the following points:

--- the student's awareness of the theoretical framework of Greek linguistics as applied to the literary genres;

--- the student's capacity to translate and comment the linguistic and literary characteristics of the texts analysed during the course;

--- the student's capacity to write a linguistic and literary comment on a text provided by the teacher (see below).


EXAMINATION STRUCTURE

The oral examination is composed of three moments, each corresponding to 10/30:

--- evaluation of a written linguistic and literary analysis of a text chosen by the teacher (the paper is scheduled to be delivered at least one week prior to examination date);

--- evaluation of the student's knowledge of the theoretical and historical problems related to the study of the Greek literary dialects;

--- translation and linguistic comment of one text from those studied during the course.