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ABSTRACTS: ANNUAL MEETING, MARCH 3-4, 2000

Editor’s Note: Abstracts are listed in the order in which they were presented at the Annual meeting.

Friday, March 3

SOCRATES’ DREAM: PROPHETIC VISION OR REFLECTION?

Allan Wooley
Phillips Exeter Academy

A overview of dreaming indicated that the experience of dreaming evolves with culture, and that it did so in Greece, starting with Homeric visitation-type dreams which set up a literary model. Symbolic dreams become more prevalent by the fifth century and also in the fifth we first get excursion dreams or shamanistic types of dreams, and again first in the fifth also we first get naturalistic dream interpretation. The interesting point noted in this section was the coincidence of the two main types of dreams and the two main kinds of spiritual religious experience,- namely that the visitation type of dream lines up with enthusiastic religious experience like the Dionysiac, while the excursion type of dream lines up with the ecstatic religious experience like the that of the Apolline shamans.

With this background the talk classified Socrates’ dream in the Crito within Greek experience as well as within wider anthropological and psychological parameters. Within this framework I looked at Plato’s literary and philosophical use of this dream, and made some tentative suggestions about its purpose in the dialogue. These suggestions were based on a close examination of the actual words describing the dream, first as Cicero interpreted them, and then finally in Plato’s own words. I suggested that the allusion to Phthia could be to historical Thessaly, which is prominent in the dialogue, to death based on a word play, or to the place of withering and so of philosophic abstraction, also based on the word play. I suggested that the provenance of the quote was very germane; it came from the embassy book of the Iliad and Crito was an Odyssean type of envoy from Socrates’ friends. Crito fails in his embassy, just as Oddyseus had. In his reply to Odysseus, Achilles reports the choice his mother put to him, come home or stay there and die, which Achilles interprets as loss or maintenance of integrity. I suggested that the woman in white may be Thetis, or Prodicus’ Virtue who lectures Heracles on integrity and is also dressed in white. Finally, I connected the lady in white to the Laws by showing that Socrates’ vision of the Laws starts off with the Homeric formula of the visitation-type of dream. I further argued that both present the case for virtue, and yet both are characterised by Plato at certain points as extra-rational.


Repetition with a Difference: Persephone’s speech in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Ann Suter
University of Rhode Island

The poet of the Hymn to Demeter has one of his protagonists –Persephone—tell the story of her abduction within his story, virtually repeating what he has already told us. It is surprising that no one has ever suggested a reason for this. Using narratological and spcech-act theory, this paper argues that the poet has Persephone repeat this story in order to provide for his own audience a model of the reaction he wants it to have to his version of the myth. He uses Persephone’s speech as metanarrative for his poem, and its audience, Demeter, as a model for his own to emulate.

In a clevcr rhetorical move, the poet has Persephone herself retell his version of her story in a "personal experience narrative", thus, from a first-person perspective, establishing his version more emphatically than simple (3rd-person) repetition would. Persephone’s tale generally follows the facts of the poet’s, but differs in emphasis and point of view. Her speech has definite parameters—a daughter speaks to a powerful mother in a context of intimacy—and these determine the differences. While she has manipulated the facts to accommodate her mother’s potential distress, she asserts the truth of her version, and Demeter accepts it.

Why should the poet be so concerned about his audience’s reaction? Because he, like Persephone, is presenting them a changcd picture of the power relations among Persephone, Demeter, Hades and Zeus.* He is working within a tradition, however, and must consider his audience’s sensibilities and knowledge of other versions of his materials. He urges thcm to accept his innovations, implying that the new rclations, likc Persephone’s new status as Queen of thc Underworld, are established fact and must be accepted.

The poet manipulates the earlier myth in response to "real life" referents: his audience is cxperiencing in their lives a realignment of divine power relationships similar to the Hymn’s, which subordinates powerful goddesses to a thencelorth supreme god. Even as the poet presents Persephone, "by thc will of Zeus", assuming a subordinate identity as Hades’ wife and Zeus’ daughter, he is articulating for his audience emerging realities in their society which he wants to validate by his new version of Persephone and Demeter’s story.

*Argued in The Narcissus and the Pomegranate: an Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, forthcoming from U. of Michigan press.


The Poetry of Absence in Homer and Stevens

Lisa Cox
Brattleboro, Vt.

The Odyssey begins by informing us that we will hear the story of Odysseus’ return, but then delays the appearance of the hero until Book 5 of the narrative. Books 1-4, the so-called Telemachy, then become a kind of poetry of absence, a poetry that is filled with the absent Odysseus. This paper explores the richness of Odysseus’ absence in both Homer’s treatment of the story and also in Wallace Stevens’ poem on Penelope, "The World as Meditation."

In the Odyssey, Odysseus’ absence is at the root of disorder in Ithaca, not only the obvious social disorder that follows upon the absence of the rightful king, but a complementary mental disorder in members of his family as well. Penelope and Telemachus, though conspicuously intelligent, are to a significant extent mentally at sea on Ithaca without the guiding intelligence of Odysseus. Penelope’s trick with the weaving of the shroud was by its nature a temporary expedient, a means of staying but not eliminating the chaotic behavior of the suitors. Now that the trick has been found out, she is reduced to a state of passive weeping and waiting for deliverance. She will begin to use her creative intelligence again only after the arrival of the disguised Odysseus. Telemachus, in the disordered state of a child without a father, requires the intervention of Athene to begin the mental and physical work necessary to prepare himself to play a part in Odysseus’ return and reestablishment of proper order on Ithaca.

Stevens, by contrast, imagines a Penelope who is able to create an orderly world through force of mind alone. In "The World as Meditation," Penelope’s creative imagination is sufficient to affirm a meditated presence built entirely upon Odysseus’ absence. Stevens tells us in another poem that "the greatest poverty is not to live / in a physical world." (Esthétique du Mal XV) And yet here, Stevens suggests an alternative to Homer’s focus on the physical world: an understanding of the power of the mind to create one’s own world. Only in this self-created reality can we envision a Penelope happy and complete with the imagined Odysseus, while the actual Odysseus remains physically absent.

Aeneas the Rhetorician: Aeneid 4.279-295

Ray Starr
Wellesley College

After telling Aeneas he must leave Carthage, Mercury vanishes. Our passage begins with Aeneas silent and stunned yet burning to leave and ends with his men happily following his commands. In the intervening lines Vergil reports Aeneas' thoughts indirectly with technical language heavily indebted to the worlds of rhetoric and politics. For Aeneas, the problem, however agonizing, has become a problem of rhetoric, and he turns desperately to the rhetorical tools any educated Roman would have summoned to his aid. The rhetorical allusions contribute to the characterization of Aeneas and can suggest a different view of the role of rhetoric in the Aeneid.

"Ausonius the Centaur"

Joseph Pucci
Brown University

More than any other Latin poet since Horace, Ausonius understood what it meant to be self-made—rising from what might be best described as modest circumstances to the highest echelons of imperial power. Not surprisingly, he exhibits in his verse the tension between his less than noble past and his glorious present. This tension is not so much a defect as a given of perception, not something that holds the poet back from grand accomplishment as much as it is an inducement to a certain posture or attitude toward the world.

This posture is articulated perhaps most completely in the first of Ausonius’ socalled prefatory pieces, where in telling his life’s story, Ausonius also portrays himself as being in two worlds at once. This posture makes historical and personal sense, given the distances he climbed on the social ladder. But, it also becomes normative in a literary sense, hardening into an attitude under whose principles the poet perceives of, and expresses his views on, the world.

My paper analyzes the ways in which Ausonius conceives of himself as a straddler between two worlds in his so-called first Preface. The poet offers wide room to wander in this piece, conjuring up his own lineage, linking his poem to a specific strain of Latin autobiographical writing, then stressing in turn his professional and political accomplishments. But as he concludes his piece, Ausonius links his own identity to that of Chiron, the mythical centaur who himself is a prototypical straddler caught between the worlds of humanity and the beasts. This linkage, so I hope to suggest, points up Ausonius’ own view of himself in the world—a view, as it turns out, that affirms difference rather than conformity, telling us something essential about this most important of Latin poets.

Mind and Body: Allusion and Imagery in Persius, Satire 3

Heather Vincent Everett
Brown University

The relationship between mental and physical health is a prominent motif in Roman satire which may be traced from the earliest beginnings of the genre. In his third poem, Persius exploits this topic by depicting several patients ridden with moral as well as physical ills. This paper will examine the specific language chosen to describe the sick individuals and will find that the terminology and images employed are highly allusive and laden with twin meanings. Despite its density of expression, however, I submit that the images cohere in the end and permit a unified interpretation of the poem.

"Making Archaeology Real for Students"

Rosalie Baker
New Bedford, MA

As the editor of CALLIOPE, a world history magazine for students in grades five through nine, I try to choose themes and topics for articles that will broaden our readers’ understanding of the past and, at the same time, encourage them to learn more. To do this, I find it best to approach experts in the field and work with them on a current project. For example: for the Hadrian issue, I contacted Earthwatch about programs they sponsored along Hadrian’s Wall. Blue Magruder sent me a list of teens from the U.S. who had been Earthwatch volunteers at Earthwatch’s wall projects. She also put me in touch with Graeme Stobbs, one of three archaeologists from the Tyne and Wear Museums currently excavating the Arbeia fort site. Graeme then put me in touch with members of Quinta, a reenactment group that gives presentations at various Roman sites in northern England. Using the information and photos I gathered from these sources, I was able to include in the issue a more personal, up-to-date, and informative section as a complement to the main articles.

For the issue on the Spanish Armada, I worked with Colin Martin at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Dr. Martin has been excavating Armada shipwrecks for years and his personal insights brought a better understanding of textbook facts. For example, his observation that the nails across the planking were in a straight line led him to the conclusion that the shipwrights were not masters as they did not understand that planking must give as a vessel rides the waves and is battered by wind and high seas. Master shipbuilders stagger the nails. For the Spanish, this "defect’ proved a disaster - the planking split in the storms. For historians, Dr. Martin’s observations clarify questions not answered by contemporary accounts.

Presently I am working with Egyptologists on site at Deir elMedina, the village of the tomb builders of the pharaohs. One Egyptologist, who is presently on-site, will be writing about the artists and how they worked. In fact, she is so well acquainted with their techniques and styles that she can distinguish between the different artisans. To complement her article and those by other Egyptologists, we will be taking the students "behind-the-scenes" to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to learn how curators, registrars, and conservators prepare objects excavated in such sites as Deir el-Medina for public exhibits.

A Fight to the Death? Boxing in the Ancient World

Stephen Brunet
University of New Hampshire

Boxing was one of the most popular spectator sports among the Romans and some scholars have suggested that the boxing matches performed for the enjoyment of the Romans were far more brutal than the contests held in Greek world. ~ The evidence most often cited for this view is the boxing match in Aeneid V 362-484 where, while neither contestant suffers any serious injury, it is implied that a boxing match would normally have ended in mayhem and carnage. In particular, Entellus' boxing gloves, with their reinforcement of lead and iron, are portrayed as weapons specifically designed to injury an opponent. However, archaeological evidence demonstrates that Roman boxing gloves (caestus/cestus) were not reinforced with metal and that the Aeneid does not reflect actual Roman practice.

A mosaic from the Baths of Caracalla depicting an athlete carrying a round object with 3 protrusions has often been thought to show a weapon-like caestus. However, this round object is not a example of 'Roman brass knuckles,' but a wreath made of roses, similar to those in the Piazza Armerina mosaics. Moreover, a representation of what is without a doubt a caestus appears in a 'punning' coin type of L. Cestianus (74 B). Cestianus' coins show an athlete holding a pair of boxing gloves by the straps, gloves which exactly match the leather and wool equipment used by the Greeks in this period.sNothing here suggests that the boxing gloves known to the Romans were reinforced with metal or functioned as a quasi-weapon.

So, in spite of the impression given by Vergil, the caestus used by a Roman boxer was the same glove worn by Greek athletes and the sport of boxing took on a more brutal form to suit a Roman taste for bloodshed. Instead, Book V reflects what Vergil thought boxing matches would have been like in the heroic period. The fight-to-the-death boxing match was entirely his creation and was his way of adding interest to Book V. Funeral games had become a standard element of epic poetry since the time of the Homer and later poets, including Vergil, were forced to find new ways to enliven their descriptions of heroic athletic contests.

Roofing Solutions in Roman Buildings: Innovation vs. Tradition

Roger B. Ulrich
Dartmouth College

The Roman arch has become the hallmark of Roman architecture and a symbol of Roman technical achievement. Vaults of stone and concrete were used in the most prominent of Roman structures: aqueducts, amphitheaters, palaces, and bath complexes. Many of the largest structures surviving from the Roman period were vaulted buildings, and because vaults have survived, modern students and scholarship have focused on this feature of Roman architecture. Some have even attached a greater significance to the vault, suggesting that it served as a kind of simulacrum of the vault of heaven.

Nevertheless, many of the most important --- and most spacious - public buildings in Rome were never vaulted. These include the great basilicas, the Senate House, and the major temples. Such structures were covered with flat wooden ceilings and pitched wooden roofs. This paper will consider some of the reasons why Roman patrons and builders may have preferred to use wooden roofs for some major architectural projects but not others. While the role of tradition is a prominent factor, other considerations such as materials, load, and supply were also of crucial importance.

Plautine Stand-Up Comedy

George Bistransin
Jamaica Plains, MA.

Plautus has been called the greatest influence on Larry Gelbart, the author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and gag writer for Alan Alda, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope and others. Gelbart says, "I'm in good company. [Plautus] also influenced Shakespeare, Jonson, Moliere and anyone else who has written comedy for the last two thousand years." Not only can Plautus' comedies teach us how to write a classic comedy and a modern sit-com, they can also provide the novice stand-up comedian with a guideline for writing potent comedic monologues.

I propose to analyze three Plautine comic monologues (Menaechmi 77-109, Captivi 69-109, Stichus 155-234) in order to establish a Plautine canon for stand-up and compare his template for writing a stand-up piece with those found in the how-to guides of modern comedians. (Belzer, Perret, Snow) All three Plautine monologues are delivered by the ancient equivalent to the modern stand-up comedian, the parasite.

These monologues have multiple jokes that crescendo. They start with a sure laughter producing one-liner opening. To produce the laugh, Plautus states something that makes the audience uncomfortable and builds an expectation, then he delivers the punch line which pulls the rug out from under the expectation. This is usually accomplished by a pun or some other double meaning word play. The second joke has a longer build up before the punch lines is delivered. The penultimate joke is a tour de force combination of the earlier themes. His last gag refers back to the first joke and creates the illusion of a single subject routine.

Stand-up guides caution against using "blue material" but recommend that the comic should begin a joke with something to make the audience uncomfortable. Plautus makes his audience uncomfortable with the expectation of"blue material" or politically sensitive material, such as slavery, and then, agreeing with modem guides, surprises the audience and relieves their tension by using a innocuous meaning of a ribald word.

Metrical analysis of Plautus coincides with modern advise about comic timing such as to pause before the punchline.

Si modo naturae formam concedimus illi: Ovid and Lucretius on the nature of Centaurs.

Jeri DeBrobun
Brown University

This paper examines Ovid's depiction in Metamorphoses 12 of the love story between the centaurs Cyllarus and Hylonome as in part a response to Lucretius' insistence (which itself reflects the Epicurean insistence) in the De Rerum Natura that Centaurs cannot exist. Two aspects of Ovid's depiction of the story take on additional meaning when seen as a reaction to Lucretius: 1) Ovid provides a detailed (and lovely) description of his two centaur lovers as perfectly blended hybrids of man (or woman) and horse. This responds to the Lucretian description, which argues that such combinations are impossible in part on the grounds that the two parts could not be in their prime at the same time. The creature Lucretius' description implies would be a grotesque hybrid, at best. 2) Ovid also depicts his lovers as perfectly matched to each other. This is emphasized especially by the repetition of the words pariter and par in his description of their activities. The same notion of sameness or compatibility is at issue in Lucretius as well, both in his arguments on the impossibility of the existence of centaurs (or hybrid creatures of any sort) and, especially, on the physical impossibility of love between such creatures. At the end of the paper, I will broaden the Ovidian context to show that Ovid is concerned in Book 12 with the notion of hybridity, and especially of the 'true nature' of hybrid creatures. The Cyllarus-Hylonome episode is embedded within the much larger Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, which is itself related by Nestor as part of his description of Cacnis/Cacneus, the woman who was changed to a man. There are a number of moments in the episode in which the 'true nature' of Caeneus (is she 'in truth' male or female?), of the Centaur males who fight the battle (are they more man or beast? if they are 'cloud-born', are they insubstantial creatures as Lucretius claimed?), and so also of the male *and* female centaurs Cyllarus and Hylonome (whose genders seem very much to be fixed), is questioned.

Wheatley’s Niobe: All Beautiful in Woe

Jeremiah Mead
Concond-Carlisle High School

The woman named Phillis Wheatley was stolen as a child from her homeland, Senegal, and brought on board the Phillis to New England, where she was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston. She proved to have a gift for poetry, and a collection of her poems was published in 1773, when the author was about twenty years old. In that collection is a translation of Ovid's story of Niobe, from Metamorphoses VI. While there are references to the Classics in other poems, this is Wheatley's only translation from Latin.

Most of the poem is a faithful, if free translation, but in some telling ways Wheatley departs from the original. She adds her own introductory invocation, and makes it clear from the start that her theme is the wrath of Apollo and the harm brought to mortals, not the pride of Niobe, whom she calls "all beautiful in woe." Later, she invents a short speech for Niobe, in which the queen assails the "privilege" appropriated by Latona's family and wonders why the supreme deity, Jove, is not protecting her own family.

Finally, thanks to a note by the printer of Wheatley's book, it can be seen that the poet herself intended her version of the story to end with the death of the last of Niobe's daughters. Another hand penned the last twelve lines, telling of Niobe's transformation into a statue. How and where the story ends matters--Wheatley, stolen from her own land and family, would have us end with Niobe alive, beautiful, resistant but bereft; some correcting, controlling other would have the queen grow "stupid" at the shock of her loss, and turn grotesquely into speechless stone.

WORKSHOPS

Latin’s Dirty Little Secret: Why Johnny Can’t Read

Kenneth Kitchell
University of Massachusetts

All high school and college Latin programs share the same vexing problem. Enrollments may flourish in Latin I and II, but they drop off dramatically for Latin III. Students who do well in the beginning sequence suddenly find that they can not read "real" Latin at all.

Many critics blame the new elementary Latin texts for the problem, but it is older than that. This workshop will study an overlooked reason for this problem, basing the inquiry on the principles first outlined in J. D. Hirsch’s book Cultural Literacy.

The workshop will explain the concept of "classical illiteracy" and show how unfamiliarity with stock classical references can make progress in "real" Latin a nightmare for most students. The workshop will offer concrete ways to overcome this problem and will end with hands-on experience as participants study standard readings from Latin III and IV texts and evaluate the "classical literacy quotient" of each. Finally, the workshop will offer concrete ways in which to overcome this problem, making the Latin III experience less traumatic for all.

From CANE Classrooms: High Tech That Has Worked

Ray Starr
Wellesley College

This informal discussion will draw on participants' actual experiences with high technology: not what people hope will work or what they think might work, but what has in fact worked. Come ready to talk about your favorite web site or the software you've used to help your students--or come ready to listen and ask questions. We'll avoid horror stories and emphasize success stories.

Bringing the Museum into the Classroom: A Cornucopia of Approaches

Bonnie A. Catto
Assumption College

The teaching of classical material, whether in Latin, Greek, literature in translation, or history courses, is greatly enriched by exposing students to the artifacts of the civilizations they are studying. Although most schools are not located immediately adjacent to museums, there are still multiple ways in which both students and teachers can benefit from museum collections. This workshop explores a number of approaches. First is the extensive use of slides in the classroom. Initially slides of artworks and sites can be used to give students a visual sense of the culture, including both similarities to and differences from their own culture. Slides can also familiarize students with concepts with which they are unfamiliar. For instance, students read about the well-greaved Akhaians" in Homer without much understanding, but the briefest exposure to a picture of a greave is all it takes for complete comprehension. The study of mythology can he particularly enlivened by slides showing mythological variants which do not appear in extant literature (e.g., Polyphemus). Students can be actively involved by trying to determine the story line of such variants. One can also follow the chronological development of myth during antiquity (e.g., Medea, the murder of Agamemnon) and beyond. Mythology comes alive when one can visually trace a myth from Homer to Picasso.

Visits to museums are always valuable, and again there are various approaches. One can send students on their own to a museum with an assignment tailored to their particular class: to find certain objects and answer certain questions, as a sort of scavenger hunt. One can also visit museums as a class or group; here it is desirable to have a focused approach which concentrates on mythological and/or historical material familiar to the students. Then one can broaden their horizons by exposing them to less familiar material. Of course, as internet resources continue to develop, students can be exposed to a great deal of material without ever leaving the classroom. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for viewing an artifact in person - seeing its scale and imagining how an ancient person used or viewed it.

Latin Readings (A Workshop)

Francis R. Bliss, Lector

Readers: The Rev. William Holmes, Richard Thomas, Robert Rodgers, William Altman (who deserves special mention for singing three Catullus pieces of his own composition to large applause) Marilee Osier, Richard Spaulding, and Francis R. Bliss.

Saturday, March 4

Galen and the Circulation

Matthew Megill
Dartmouth College

Ed. Note: a complete version of this paper may be found directly before these abstracts.

"We Sucked in Error at Our Mothers' Breasts": Cicero, TD 3.2-5

Margaret Graver
Dartmouth College

The preface to Tusculans, Book 3, is unusual among Cicero's prefaces in that it takes up a substantive philosophical problem. As Books 3 and 4 together will discuss the nature and management of human emotion, treating the emotions in Stoic fashion as products of human error, there is a preliminary question to be answered concerning the origins of error (and hence, for Stoics, of evil) within a providentially ordered universe. It seems to have escaped the notice of previous commentators that the answer Cicero gives is based directly on Stoic material: its core is the "twofold cause" which Galen attributes to Chrysippus, and the development of the point may also be Chrysippan, if we can use the evidence of a late source, Calcidius, in an abysmally Latinate (but otherwise delightful) passage about the influence of wetnurses. Cicero's handling of the point displays his rhetorical brilliance. He has recast the argument into a streamlined format, incorporated a beautiful set of images borrowed from another source, and added emphases suited to his own aristocratic audience, all without losing the force of the Stoic explanation.

Splendida Mendax: The Success of Failed Prophecy in Earlv Rome

Wells Hansen
Milton Academy

It is a commonplace remark that the ancients were remarkably tolerant of contradiction in myth and prophecy. Indeed, this tolerance is often viewed as a defining characteristic of the antique view of the relationship between the human and spiritual worlds. But if these worlds were not connected in the Roman mind by a single, unshakable truth, in what way were they connected? The proposed paper examines the often fragile thread linking prophecy to truth at early Rome in light of the rigid fabric of ritual performance and record keeping that was woven from this thread. The method of the paper is a stylistic examination of selected passages from historians of early Rome in which divine information is presented as incorrect or misunderstood.

A close reading of historical sources reveals a sacral and prophetic rhetoric that praises some acts of divination or practice and condemns others without implying that verity always accompanies a praiseworthy exercise of auspicium, nor is falsehood a prerequisite for censure. Interestingly, this paper posits, it is the political thought of the priest and his insights into human nature that are the lens through which his interpretations of divine signs and performance of ritual is submitted to the Roman reader for praise or blame.

Drawing on historical texts and recent scholarship in anthropology and sociology, this short paper pays special attention to divination in the legends of early Rome and the monstra reported by later historians as political constructs quite removed from questions of divine or absolute truth. What emerges is an outline of the peculiar rhetoric of precision in matters divine. When examined stylistically, passages marked by careful reporting of details of signs and exacting descriptions of ritual reveal an emphasis on the dualistic and contradictory nature of all words and actions while at the same time underscoring the notion that it is the hand of a man rather than the nod of a supernatural power that confers praise or blame on a sacral act or word. As with so many matters Roman, the paper concludes, it is not the fact, but the "spin" that wins the day.

Classical Inventory of a 17th Century New England Library

Robert Rodgers
University of Vermont

In a research project involving Massachusetts probate records from the 1 7th century, I found what I believe is the earliest complete inventory of a New England library, the private library of one Edward Mellowes of Charlestown, Massachusetts. In this library are a number of classical authors, and I would like the opportunity to comment upon which authors they were, in what form they were available, and how their presence in this private collection relates to the use of these and other classical authors in the curriculum then in use, so far as we know it, at both New England schools and the College (i.e. Harvard).

Teaching Classical Humanities in the Schools

Gilbett Lawall, Erica Schmitt, James Motes, Chris o'Byrne
University of Massachusetts

Gilbert Lawall, Director of Graduate Studies for the MAT Program in Latin and Classical Humanities at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, described one of the required courses in this program, Classics 608, Teaching Classical Humanities. The purposes of this course are to develop skills in incorporating culture into the teaching of Latin, to encourage prospective Latin teachers to envision a wider role for themselves within a larger context of the teaching of Classical Humanities in the entire school curriculum in cooperation with teachers of English language arts and social studies, and to encourage prospective Latin teachers develop stand-alone courses in classical civilization in the schools. Three students then presented materials that they had developed in this course or in conjunction with it. Erica Schmidt talked about teaching Roman funerary inscriptions in Latin and Classics courses; Chris O'Byrne talked about teaching the organization of the Roman army and the major battles of the Second Punic War, and Jim Motes talked about translating, directing, and performing a Latin play and about making Roman drama relevant to students who have grown up in the world of TV sit-coms.