Course Catalogue

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Sparta, Crete and Thessaly fascinated the ancient Greeks' imagination. They were proverbial for their oligarchic governments, their disciplined, ordered or, in the case of Thessaly, extremely disordered way of life. The course looks at what we can actually say about these societies, and explores the relationship between idealized worldviews and messy realities.

10 x 1hour lectures per week, 10 x 1hour seminars per week over 10 weeks.

Standard entry to Masters at College level

The Other Greeks: Sparta, Crete, Thessaly (Honours version)

None

2 x  (2500 word) essays- each 50%

The course aims to:

■ study the variety of Greek culture by looking at 3 case studies all famous for their oligarchic governments

■ engage closely with a variety of primary material (literary, epigraphic and archaeological) and explore its potentials and limitations in reconstructing ancient societies

■ explore through comparison the complex relationship between institutional structures, world-view and everyday life

■ reflect on the nature, dangers, and importance of stereotypes

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ describe and analyse the main political institutions and social groups of Sparta, Crete and Thessaly

■ summarize, evaluate and criticize modern scholarly works on Sparta, Crete and Thessaly

■ critically evaluate a variety of primary evidence and situate it within its own historical context

■ produce sustained arguments about various aspects of Cretan, Spartan and Thessalian society, based on a critical evaluation of the primary and secondary sources

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.