SUT0177 - CLASSICAL CULTURE AND CIVILISATION

The exam will cover the course content and will assess: the ability to correctly situate historical events and literary works; the ability to investigate independently and argue critically; the competence to connect different aspects and trace affinities and divergences between periods and authors; knowledge of technical terminology; and expository correctness. Throughout the lectures, use will be made of texts and Power Points that will be uploaded to the appropriate Dashboard and will be considered an integral part of the exam. Specifically, the exam will focus on three main points. 1) Knowledge of the following compulsory topics, each of which may be the subject of questions on the exam: - Homer and the Homeric Poems - From Pisistratus to the Birth of Democracy - The Persian Wars - The Peloponnesian War - Alexander the Great - The Seven Kings of Rome and the Birth of the Republic - The Second Punic War and the Encounter between Greece and Rome - The Catiline Conspiracy - Julius Caesar: from the First Triumvirate to the Ides of March - Octavian, Mark Antony and the Birth of the Roman Empire 2) Greek theater. Knowledge of the following topics: - Origins of Greek theater - Organization of theatrical performances - Actors, costumes, masks, theatrical machines. - The structural parts of tragedy and comedy: prologue, parodos, episodes, stasimes, exodus, agon and parabasis. - Life and works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. - Greek theater through pots and arts. 3) Reading in translation of Euripides' Medea. The preparation of the topics in point 1 may be from the texts indicated in the bibliography; the ability to investigate and study the proposed topics independently, through individual or collective research in the library or online, will be appreciated for the final assessment. You will be required to document the materials on which you have studied and critically justify your choice. The reading of Euripides' Medea (item 3) will be tested through content-specific questions. The candidate will be asked to know, in general, the myth of Medea and the development of Euripides' tragedy, to read a specific scene from the play and to frame it within the work, showing knowledge of its content and the characters acting in it, and to be able to relate it to the preceding and subsequent scenes.For any clarification, please contact the lecturer before or after class or during office hours. Non-attending students are requested to contact the lecturer during the reception hours (which will be available at the beginning of the new academic year).