ARCHAIC GREEK LITERATURE

GREEK UTOPIAS
Golden Ages, Utopias, Lands of Cockaigne, Afterworld, Isles of the Blessed in Greek Literature.
Hesiod, Homer, Aristophanes, Crates, Lucian.
Linguistic analysis and commentary of Ancient Greek texts in verses and prose. Increase of linguistic, grammatical and literary accomplishments. Reading and knowledge of worthwhile works of Greek Literature in the original language. Theory and History of Utopia. Knowledge of the outlines of the history of Greek Literature in the Archaic Age.

The course aims to train specific skills in the Greek literature, with the ability to evaluate the peculiar characteristics of orality, of the aurality and of the cultural functions within the society and of the polis between the archaic age and the beginning of the classical world.
In relation to the themes of ancient utopia, the course aims to create the autonomous skills of applying the theoretical knowledge acquired.

The class is open to all students of the first three years with a training in Greek language.
For a good result it is useful to attend the GREEK LITERATURE EXERCISES that are held in the first semester to train adequate skills on the metric and on the problems of interpretation and translation of ancient texts.

ANCIENT GREEK UTOPIAS. AFTERWORLD UTOPIAS
The class offers a broad survey on Utopia images in ancient Greece, on the ideal and happy worlds of Greek literature through the analysis of a series of texts in the original language. We will be examined the myth of the five ages and particularly the golden age in Hesiod, the utopian world of the Phaeacians in Homer's Odyssey, the utopias of Comedy, with the frames of the world turned upside down and of the land of Cockaigne, the utopian and paradoxical island of the cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes, the Island of the Blessed. In particular, for a definition of the afterlife utopia, the XI book of the Odyssey (Nekyia), the Frogs of Aristophanes and the Necromancy of Luciano of Samosata (together with the fantastic world of the Island of the Blessed, with the its negative opposite of the island of the damned of True History).The class concerns linguistic and metrical questions, problems and theory of Literature. It investigates the ancient Utopic ideas and the specific strategies of Ancient Comedy and Iambic and Satirical Tradition.

GREEK TEXTS
Hesiod, Works and Days (vv. 105-251).
Homer, Odyssey XI (Nekyia)
Pindar
Aristophanes, Frogs
Crates of Thebes, Pere (SH 351 = Diog. Laert. 6.85)
Lucian of Samosata, Menippus or Necromancy
Lucian of Samosata, True Stories (2.4-32)

OMERO, Odissea, vol. III, libri IX-XII, a cura di A. Heubeck, trad. di G.A. Privitera, con un'appendice di M. Cantilena, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Milano 2003.
ARISTOFANE, Le Rane, a cura di G. PADANO, note di A. GRILLI, Milano 1996.
LUCIANO DI SAMOSATA, Menippo o la Negromanzia, introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di A. CAMEROTTO, Mimesis/Classici Contro, Milano-Udine 2020.

The other Greek texts will be provided by the teacher (Moodle)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Letture (obbligatorie)
A. CAMEROTTO, Voci e suoni dall'Aldilà. L'utopia musicale dell'Elisio nelle Storie Vere di Luciano di Samosata, «Musica e Storia» 13, 2005, pp. 101-129. (PDF)
A. CAMEROTTO, Dioniso in scena per il teatro e per la città, in R. Cuppone (ed.), Tra Venezia e Saturno. Storia, drammaturgia e poesia per Paolo Puppa, Pisa 2017, pp. 108-118 (PDF)

A. CAMEROTTO, Vite da cani. Utopie e distopie ciniche in Luciano di Samosata, «QUCC» 119, 2018, pp. 105-125.
(PDF)

A. CAMEROTTO, Utopici Feaci, ovvero a che cosa servono le utopie (secondo Omero), in A. Camerotto, F. Pontani (edd.), Utopia (Europa). Ovvero del diventare cittadini europei, Milano-Udine 2019, pp. 13-34. (PDF)
A. CAMEROTTO, Tityos, ovvero della giustizia eterna, in A. Camerotto, F. Pontani (edd.), Dike. Ovvero della giustizia tra l'Olimpo e la Terra, Milano-Udine 2020, pp. 49-61 (PDF)
LUCIANO DI SAMOSATA, Menippo o la Negromanzia, introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di A. CAMEROTTO, Mimesis/Classici Contro, Milano-Udine 2020 (Introduzione «L'Aldilà della satira», pp. 7-50, Commento § 1, pp. 81-103, § 21, pp. 261-276)
P. CARTLEDGE, Utopia e critica della politica, in J. Brunschwig, G.E.R. Lloyd, Il sapere greco. Dizionario critico, vol. I, Torino 2005, pp. 192-211. (PDF)
M. FARIOLI, Mundus alter. Utopie e distopie nella commedia greca antica, Milano 2001, pp. 3-26. (PDF)
V. FORTUNATI, Crisi delle ideologie e delle forme nella narrativa utopica del Novecento, «MORUS - Utopia e Renascimento», 6, 2009, pp. 61-70. (PDF)
C. GINZBURG, Il vecchio e il nuovo mondo visti da Utopia, in ID., Nessuna isola è un'isola. Quattro sguardi sulla letteratura inglese, Milano 2002, pp. 17-44. (PDF)
R. LAURIOLA, The Greeks and the Utopia: an overview through ancient Greek Literature, REA 97, 2009, 109-124. (PDF)
G. MASTROMARCO, La commedia, in Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica, Volume I, tomo I, La polis, Roma 1992, pp. 334-377. (PDF)
C. QUARTA, Livelli del pensiero utopico: antropologia, storia, letteratura, «MORUS - Utopia e Renascimento» 6, 2009, 229-243 (PDF)
C. WHITMAN, Aristophanes and the Comic Hero, Cambridge (Mass.) 1964, 228-258 ("Death and Life. Frogs") (PDF)

A working bibliography will be supplied during the class.

Outline of Greek Literature:
L.E. ROSSI, Letteratura greca, Le Monnier, Firenze 1995, pp. 1-226.
For an introduction to Greek metrics see M.C. Martinelli, Gli strumenti del poeta. Elementi di metrica greca, Bologna 1995 (Cappelli).

The exam is an oral test and consists of the reading, translation and commentary of the greek texts. It includes a discussion of a subject from the history of Greek Literature.

Conventional. Metrical reading and interpretation of the text.
It is required a regular attendance at the lectures.

Italian

WORKSHOP OF GREEK LITERATURE
In connection with the course of Greek Literature II is held a seminar-workshop on metrics and on the problems of translation.The laboratory, with the final test for each of the two parts, is an integral part of the course and attendance is strongly recommended.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development