What Makes This Course Different?
When I designed this course and was preparing to teach it, I did go in search of other courses which focused on men, especially in Greece. I did not find any. When I proposed this paper for the CAAS Fall 2001 meeting as part of this panel, I was given several suggestions on where to find similar courses. I dutifully searched and contacted as many of the professors and instructors as I could, searched through online databases, and asked various academic lists I was on for new leads. During the search this summer, I discovered one course which focused on men in ancient Greece, taught by Professor Joseph Roisman at Colby College; his sabbatical meant he did not have his syllabus handy to answer my questions.
Since my course was not modeled on any syllabus and Professor Roisman’s syllabus was unavailable, the following comparisons between my course and others I have either taken or reviewed is done merely to help explain what I taught. The variety of approaches, sources, and techniques used in courses about gender and sexuality in the classical world suggest that all of us draw first on our own understanding of the past, combine this with our own pedagogic philosophy, and balance it with the administrative requirements where we teach. None of my comparisons are meant to reflect on the quality of the courses, only differences and similarities.
When we teach a course about ancient civilizations, we rely on primary sources; one or two common textbooks; visual images, including both ancient examples and modern documentaries; and a good deal of lecture. It is also common to teach students how to conduct their own research and how to present their understanding in a logical and properly-cited format. Since modern cultures and languages have changed so much, many instructors prefer to use the original sources and terminology as much as possible to capture the original context and meanings.
My course on Greek men was similar in many ways as well as subtly different. As a historian, I had two goals. First, to make my students conscious of changes over the centuries and between regions. Second, to help them learn how to evaluate evidence and present their conclusions as a historian.
I have yet to find a textbook which does a good job of looking at gender and sexuality in regards to men as both subject and object. Therefore I relied heavily on primary sources and ancient images. However, mine was not a course in the classics department, so I had to assume students would have no knowledge of either Greek history or Greek language. As I noticed with almost all of the syllabi I examined, I followed the common practice of choosing English translations and giving mini-lectures each session to introduce the basic background and vocabulary of the topics.
