1st day of school

Well I have had my first day of graduate school...whew. It is going to be a tough next two years. I am only taking 9 hours, but on top of that, I have to work on my reading list and finish teaching myself French (and by finish, I mean pretty much teach myself French, because I am only on the 2nd chapter). So I have a lot to do.

I am taking both Greek and Latin translation classes. The Latin class is covering Roman historians, so we are starting out translating Livy (Ab Urbe Condita-Book XXI), moving to Tacitus, and finishing up with Marcellinus. The great news is that after translating and reading these works in translation, my knowledge of Roman history will be greatly added to. The bad news is that we are speeding our way through this, so we are going to be translating a LOT. For Wednesday, I already have 3 1/2 pages of translation due.

My Greek class is a mix. We are starting out with Aristophanes, The Clouds. I am really excited about translating this play. First of all, it's considered one of the best Greek comedies, and I've never read it. Second of all, it's about Socrates. I just read the Symposium last semester, so I'm excited to see another view of Socrates. Once we finish Clouds, we will start going through some Pindar and some other Hellenistic poetry. We only have 55 lines due for Wednesday, so I think we will be going through a little more slowly.

Finally, I am taking a class referred to as "pro-seminar." Dr. Usher, the head of the Classics department, described this class as basically teaching us how to be graduate students in classics. We will spend a lot of time talking about various classical authors: who we need to know, why we need to know and read them, where they fall in history. We are sending the professor lists of what all we have read (either in Latin or Greek or in translation), then he will make a reading list for this semester. We will also talk about researching and bibliographies.

I am very thankful for this last class. I am not worried about my translation classes. I love translating, and my Greek is up to speed thanks to this last semester class with Dr. Sypniewski. However, because I had an English minor and was also pre-med, I didn't take as many classics classes as I should have in undergraduate. I had just enough to get a classics major. And all but 2 of those classes were translation classes. So I don't know a lot of classics writers.

And then there is the reading list...

On the website, there is a reading list listed. A very long involved reading list. Which I am thus far tried to pay no attention to because no UVM professors told me to start on it. But as of yesterday, I am supposed to start on it. And it is long and involved. Want to see?

Greek Authors

Author and Text	Translation
Homer Iliad 1, 9, 22	All
Homer Odyssey any three books
Hesiod Erga 1-250	All
Lyric Poets any 4 complete in Campbell	Bowra's Greek Lyric Poetry
Drama 2 plays each for 3 of the 4 dramatists and those read in class	25 plays
Herodotus 1 book	All
Thucydides 1 book	All
Plato Apologyor other short dialogue; Republicbook 1	Republic, Phaedo, Meno, Gorgias,one other dialogue
Orators: Lysias in Adams or Jebb's book	Selections from the Attic Orators
Aristotle Poetics, Athenaion Politeia
Other suggestions: Theocritus, Plutarch, Lucian, OT-LXX, NT, Xenophon

Latin Authors

Author and Text	Translation
Plautus 4 plays	8 plays
Terence 1 play	3 plays
Catullus All
Sallust 1 treatise
Lucretius 3 books	All
Cicero 2 orations, 5 other works, Abbot letters, de Senectute, de Finibus
Caesar Bello Gallico4 books, Bello Civili1 book
Tibullus 1 book
Propertius 1 book
Horace Odes3 books, Epistles1 book
Vergil Aeneid8 books, Eclogues	All
Ovid Metamorphoses1 book	All
Juvenal 6 Satires
Pliny the Younger Selected Letters
Petronius Cena Trimalchionis

See how some things say "All" or a certain amount of things in the right hand corner? That's what I can read in translation. The other things, the things on the left, I have to read in Latin or Greek. For examply, check out the Aeneid: I need to read the whole thing in translation, and I also need to read 8 books in Latin.

So yeah...I'm going to be busy.

But on the other hand, it is a good busy! I am so excited about all of this. My best semester of school (grade and everything wise) was sophmore year. I took 20 hours a semester of mostly upper level classes, was an officer in Tri Delta, did MCF, wrote for the paper and the literary magazine, started dating Bech, and loved it. I do so much better being busy! So let's hope the same is true of the next two years.

And if this post totally bored you...I am sorry. I know that you probably have no interest in the Classics. But I had to take a break from food pictures!