Wednesday afternoon my advanced ancient Greek translation class met for the first time. Translating Ancient Greek is certainly not my strength - although last year I made it through Professor Pucci’s Friday morning reading quizzes filled with random verbs thanks to my good fortune of having inherited the phenomenal Zinman family memory. My Professor, Adam Serfass (from Kenyon College), has invented his own syllabus for this semester.
“This course has several goals. First, students will come to read Greek prose with greater speed, accuracy, and nuance. Secondly, students will be exposed to a wide range of Greek authors who are rarely read in the original at the undergraduate level yet are counted among the most important sources for Roman history; these include Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Polybius, Plutarch, Cassius Dio, Josephus, the New Testament, and Eusebius of Caesarea. The course thus offers an opportunity for students to compare and contrast a range of unfamiliar authors’ methods, styles, and preoccupations. Lastly, it is hoped that students may make better sense of their own encounter with Rome – a city that, in both its ancient and modern guises, may sometimes seem inscrutable and impenetrable – by reading these ancient authors whose relationship to Rome as outsiders is not entirely different from their own.”
Basically we are studying selections from historical narratives of Greeks writing about Rome while it was developing. These sources are crucial to historians' understanding of the development of Rome from a small village on the Palatine to a massive empire that spanned the entire Mediterranean world.
After getting settled in our seats, Professor Serfasshad us go around the table and announce our names and undergraduate institutions. I thus learned that the three of the gentlemen in my seven-person class hail from Stanford, Penn, and Columbia - and nearly had an anxiety attack. The one other girl in the class has taken four years of Greek, but thankfully I didn’t find this out until later. After discussing the syllabus and the article we were assigned to read for the first day (which I did a nice job preparing for), it was time for a diagnostic quiz. Four years ago, I would have run to the bathroom hysterically crying after attempting this impossible examination. Luckily I had spent time talking to Professor Serfass before the class and realized that he will be a phenomenal teacher. I am just going to have to leave the anxiety driven cry-a-bel of my childhood behind. Even though I will not receive an A in the course its ok, the subject matter is so unique and I definitely can not miss out on the opportunity to study it. To my relief, when I checked my email after dinner I was greeted by a message from Professor Serfass that he had reviewed our diagnostics, and “there is not a single student in the class whom I consider to be under-qualified. And the exams have no bearing on your grade in the course.” Phew!!
Our field trip to the Roman Forum and the Palatine hill the next day was cool – each professor spent time lecturing about monuments in the areas we explored, their development over time and how the remains stand today. It was the first of what will be many trips to the forum and Palatine to study the ruins this semester.
We started our field trip on the Palatine, discussing the written legends of Rome's founding and examining the present archeological evidence. I especially enjoyed listening to professor Serfass discuss Lupercalia, a Roman fertility ritual that would seem entirely outrageous to a twentieth century person. Basically a bunch of prepubesecent Roman boys from rich families would go to the Lupercal cave (where Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were said to be suckled by the she-wolf, and sacrifice goats. They would then dress in the skins and paint their faces with the blood from the sacrifices. They would also make whips from the goat remains and run out of the cave and down he Palatine Hill into the forum in a sort of frenzy, striking females with their whips. Like … not so normal! But what does one expect, it’s the Romans.
The forum is located in a valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills (two of the famous seven in Rome), and it is breathtaking to look up at the hills from the valley spotted with luscious cypress trees and ruins piercing the cerulean sky. When the villages on the Palatine and Capitoline united to form one nation in the earliest days of the empire, the ancients drained the valley (which was previously a marsh) to create the forum. The forum was a public center for both sets of inhabitants, wherein nearly all social, political and economic transactions would occur. Being on site at these two locations has brought everything to life. It is impossible to visualize things from simply looking at maps of squares and columns found in texts books. Now that I have spent time walking through the forum I can understand its organization and why the Romans set it up in the way that they did.
We visited the Curia Julia, the Senate house rebuilt by Caesar in which there is an exhibit of some recovered ancient items (statues reliefs etc). One relief on display that particularly struck me was that of a depiction of the rape of the Sabine women (which I had read about in detail the night before) – the women who the early Romans captured and took for wives after tricking them into coming to Rome watch a chariot race. Although in poor condition, one can see the anguished expression on the woman’s face on the right side of the relief as she is slung over a horse galloping away.
For most students, the half day Thursday field trip marks the end of the week. But for me, since I am enrolled in the Renaissance and Baroque Art History course, I am only 2/3 of done. Thursday afternoon I have an hour and a half lecture, and the following morning a three and a half hour field trip, both for Art History. The first Art History lecture was procedural – syllabus etc etc, but I could already tell that I am going to love the professor. Straight away, he gave us detailed handouts, explaining his expectations on our writing about art and his suggestions on how to give an on sight oral presentation (things I will have to do over the semester). This practice should benefit me throughout my academic career. The field trip was amazing – we went to the Tempietto (a late-antique style dome) designed my the architect Donato Bramante, the legendary place of St. Peter’s tomb, the Borgesini Chapel in the church next door, and the Farnesina Villa (owned by the nuovo riche sixthteenth century banker Agostino Chigi) which contains Raphael’s famous Galatea mural and the gigantic Painting of Alexander the great and Roxanna’s consummation (OH MY _OD!!!!). A small shiver went down my spine as I looked at each of these items I had only read about in my textbooks and seen on crappy slideshows. The consummation wall fresco truly has a luminous purple aura, and one room below right before my eyes was the impossible contraposto (pose and balance) of Raphael’s Galatea.
Classes were over! I had a nice lunch with my girlfriends (who are all also in the art history course) in front of the Fontana di Giglio (my fav). We returned to our rooms to rest and do some homework, and later had a delicious dinner at the centro with a little bit of wine. That night we hopped around Camp di Fiore, and then early the next morning ventured on a day trip to Santa Severa, a small beach town to the north of the city accessible by public transt. Santa Savera was beautiful and peaceful, and Alex and I had the most fantastic gelato sorbet on the beach! And now its Sunday – time to study for my Monday morning quiz, whoooopie.
<3 Isabella.
No comments:
Post a Comment