Summer Classics Institute - Day 2

Today is the first full day of the Summer Classics Institute.  After a hot first night in the dorms we were all up early for our catered breakfast.  The food here is amazing and the caterer they hire is so kind and a great cook!  I am glad that we do lots of walking while we are here.

Aristophanes and Starbucks

After breakfast we started with our first mini-course.  I am taking a course on Aristophanes with Lorenzo Garcia of UNM.  Today we had some background on Aristophanes, comedy in general and then dug into the first play - Acharnians.  Very cool and a good group of people with me.

After a brief break (read that as "go to another building and get different books out") we had our seminar course.  Our text this year is Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War.  The seminar is set up so that we have a giant (all 19 participants and 4 instructors) round-table discussion on the assigned reading from the text.  Phil Holt (UW) leads us, but it is totally an open discussion.  I love listening to the professors debate the finer points of the original Greek.  Phil is also really open to questions, opinions and wants us to stretch ourselves.  It is a great experience!

I'm ready for Thucydides

After seminar we head back to the American Studies building where we have lunch - again catered by the same person.  Again, a lot of food!  Today it started pouring rain while we ate and it did not let up in time for us to head to class.  So after lunch it was a sprint back to the classroom (about 2 blocks away) in the rain.  I am thankful for hot chocolate in the cafe to take to class!

My afternoon session is The Archaeology of Athens with Deby Snead.  Deby has a BA from UW in English and just finished a Masters in Classical Archaeology at CU.  She is headed to UCLA in the fall to research domestic cults for her PhD.  Let's just say that she and I know a lot of the same professors and have many of the same interests.  The course she is teaching is heavy on the images which is great - it has been quite a while since I have looked at the plans/images of the agora in Athens and thought about them.  That course is small (6 participants), but I think that will allow for lots of discussion.

My afternoon down time today consisted of a trip to Wal-Mart (guess who forgot their hairbrush at home) and more reading for the courses.  I have read all the assigned passages before I came, but I like to go back and read again right before the courses so I can think about things in the light of what we have discussed and learned that day.

Ready for the evening lecture

Our evening lecture tonight was Leaders in War and Bravery:  Ideology of War in Classical Athens, given by Kurt Raaflaub.  Kurt is a world-renowned Classical scholar who has studied and taught throughout the world.  He most recently returned from teaching a seminar series on Athenian Democracy in China.  Kurt walked us through Athens as the eyes of an Athenian at the height of the 5th Century.  We discussed the signs of power, culture and militaristic endeavors that people of Athens would have encountered on a daily basis. 

Today's take away lesson is that our "traditional" (21st Century, American) view of Athens and Sparta are not correct.  What the Athenians thought about themselves, and what they wanted others to think about them, is that they were a strong empire.  The monuments to power and glory in Athens are celebrating their military victories - not their cultural accomplishments.

Now off to finish readings for tomorrow and then sleep!