3000-4000 Level Courses

HONOURS CLASSICAL STUDIES COURSES:

**Classical Studies program students are encouraged to take Classical Studies 3000 level courses already in their second year of university studies.

2024-2025

(Preliminary course outlines can be found in the links below)

CS3110F: Greek Epic

A close study of a selection of plays composed for the classical Athenian theatre, including discussions of their socio-historical context in democratic Athens, their place in the ancient Greek literary and philosophical traditions, questions of performance, and the continuing importance of these plays throughout history.
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course.
Course Outline for CS3110F

CS3130G: Athenian Drama

All the world’s a stage – or is the stage, in fact, the world? Who and what is the theatre for? What’s religion got to do with it? What makes drama Athenian? This course explores the world of the classical Athenian theatre through a close study of Aeschylus’ Persians, Euripides’ Bacchants, and Aristophanes’ Frogs and Women at the Thesmophoria. With these tragedies and comedies as well as other literary, philosophical, and archaeological material, we will consider the socio-historical context of democratic Athens, the spaces and modes of performance, and the literary and intellectual milieux that shape our approaches to and understandings of Greek drama. 
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course.
Course Outline for CS3130G

CS3210F: Ancient Greek Religion

This course introduces students to the ritual-based polytheistic religion of the Ancient Greeks. We will explore the interaction of mythic texts and material culture through a focus on the representation of ritual practice in order to better understand how those practices operate within the larger structures of Greek society. 
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course
Course Outline for CS3210F

CS3310F: Women in Ancient Greece

This course seeks to introduce students to the study of women and women’s lives in Greek antiquity starting from a body of literary and artistic evidence. Marriage and childbearing, women and the law, women’s occupations, and women in history and poetry will be explored from a variety of perspectives, as well as such topics as women's artifacts, artistic portrayals of women, and female spaces in antiquity. 
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course
Course Outline for CS3310F

CS3490G: Late Antiquity

This course explores the world of the late Roman Empire from the "crisis" of the third century AD onward, including figures such as Constantine the Great and Julian the Apostate. It examines the political, religious, intellectual and social history of the late Empire through literature, documentary texts, and material culture. 
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course
Course Outline for CS3490G

CS3530E: Greek Art and Archaeology

A survey of the art and archaeology of ancient Greece from the Dark Ages through the Classical period (1050 – 323 BCE), focusing on the architecture, sculpture, and painting of the 6th and 5th centuries (c. 600 – 400 BCE), and the meaning and function of material culture in ancient Greek society.
Antirequisite(s): The former Visual Arts History 2247E.
3 lecture hours; 1.0 course
Course Outline for CS3530E

CS3903F: Special Topic: The "Good Life" in Greek Poetry

How do we lead a “good life”? In our society, everyone from politicians to retirees and children claims to have an idea of what it looks like, but we also recognise “experts” in this area, be they academics, economists, religious leaders, or philosophers. This course examines the “good life” according to ancient Greek poets, who often presented themselves as the transmitters and guardians of knowledge and wisdom in their own society. Starting from discussions of life amidst death, we will consider the importance of money, power, prestige, martial prowess, work, love, age, sex, and race to the conception of the “good life” in Greek epic, lyric, and tragedy of the archaic and classical periods. We will also study the boundaries and links between poetry and “philosophy” and the continuities and discontinuities between ancient and contemporary perspectives.  
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course
Course Outline for CS3903F

CS3904G: Special Topic: Slavery in Antiquity

The object of this course is to explore various aspects of slavery in the law of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as slavery in ancient society more generally. Among the topics studied will be: Greece and Rome as slave societies; the sources of enslaved persons; the labor and services an enslaved person provided; modes of release from slavery; slavery as a social and economic class; resistance to and rebellion against slavery; problems of management and control; and slavery and Christianity. We will focus closely on original sources on Greek and Roman slavery and the law, discuss the relationship between law and reality, and attempt to understand the ways in which the holding of enslaved persons affected values and attitudes in antiquity. 
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course
Course Outline for CS3904G

CS3905G: Special Topic: Roman Portraiture

In this course, students will engage with Roman portraiture from the Republic to Late Antiquity, in both Rome and the provinces. The course will involve portraits in different media including free-standing sculpture, relief, painting, coinage, etc. and students will learn the methods involved with the study of each. The stylistic evolution of the portraits as well as their social and political significance will be examined. By the end of the course, students will have learned techniques for identifying and analysing portraits of both known and unknown figures from the Roman world. 
3 lecture hours; 0.5 course
Course Outline for CS3905G

CS4999E: Honours Thesis

Instruction in selection of topic, directed readings, research and writing of thesis. Restricted to fourth year students registered in the Honours Specialization in Classical Studies with a modular average of at least 80%. Application to the Undergraduate Chair of Classical Studies will be required by the April preceding the student’s final year.
Prerequisite(s): At least 1.0 course at the 3000-level in the discipline area of the thesis topic and permission of Department.
1.0 course 
Honours Thesis Application
Honours Thesis Guide 

 

STUDY ABROAD SUMMER 2025

CS3010G: Study Tour to Greece: Ancient Greek History, Archaeology and Culture 

This intensive 2-week long study tour to Greece offers students a unique international learning experience. Ancient Greek History, literature and culture will be discussed in direct relation to the physical remains museums and archaeological sites, such as the Athenian Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia and Mycenae.
Prerequisite(s): Any Classical Studies course on the 1000-2999 level and permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: Field Trip to Greece, minimum of 39 lecture hours, 0.5 course.

CS4580G: Vindolanda Field School

This course is a 5-week study abroad experience in northern England. Students participate in the excavations taking place at the Roman fort of Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall learning practical techniques of field archaeology. Weekends are spent taking field trips to the historical sites of Northern England and Scotland.
Prerequisite(s): 0.5 Classical Studies course at the 3000-3999 level and permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: Field Trip to Great Britain, 0.5 course