Last updated: September 12, 2024

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Classics Program at BGSU
Studies in Latin at BGSU
Department of World Languages and Cultures
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Bowling Green State University



red-figure vase
        of Medea in her dragon-drawn chariot

Medea in her dragon-drawn chariot; 5th C. red-figure vase from Lucania currently at the Cleveland Museum of Art

LAT 4700: Seneca, Medea

Monday 1:30-2:20
(with occasional make-up sessions on Fridays)
222 Shatzel

Professor:
James M. Pfundstein, Ph.D.
Shatzel 222
Office Hours: Tues.12:30-1:20, and by appointment.
Office phone: 419-372-8278
e-mail: jmpfund@bgsu.edu
web-page: http://blogs.bgsu.edu/pfundblog/
facebook: james.enge
twitter: jamesenge
Text:
Zwierlein, O. (ed.) L. Annaei Senecae Tragoediae (corrected edition: Oxford, 1986)

see also:
Costa, C.D.N. (ed. & comm.) Seneca: Medea (Oxford, 1973)

Kingery, H.M. (ed. & comm.) Three Tragedies of Seneca (Macmillan, 1908)
https://archive.org/details/threetragedieshe00seneuoft/page/n5/mode/2up
On-Line Resources:

The Perseus Project also has a vast amount of useful resources for the Latinist; in addition to hypertexts and translations (of Seneca's Medea, and of many other Latin and Greek works), see Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar, and a searchable edition of Lewis & Short, the best one-volume Latin dictionary.

But you can have an electronic version of Lewis and Short for your own use. It's part of the database of Diogenes, a freeware application by Peter Heslin for searching the TLG and PHI disks. If you don't know what those are, don't worry about it. The upshot is that you can use Diogenes as a standalone dictionary program, by far the best one out there (for Latin or for Greek: the complete dataset of LSJ is included as well).
https://d.iogen.es/d/download.html
Diogenes is not available for any mobile platform, but Heslin did create a handy version you can use via a web-browser.
https://d.iogen.es/web
Also mega-useful: Alpheios is a browser extension that can turn any plain-text web page into a Perseus page. The browser-extension only works on desktops/laptops, but there is a small selection of hyperlinked online texts available for reading on their site (not including Apuleius, heu).
https://alpheios.net
The Latin Library has free plain-text editions of Seneca's Medea, (and a lot else besides).
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com
An online version of WORDS is still available on a dedicated website.
https://latin-words.com

There are some great free dictionary and grammar programs for iOS (e.g. Protagoras, Grammaticus, and Logeion), but these, unfortunately, don't seem to have crossed over to the Android marketplace yet.

Again for iOS/iPadOS: Bellerophon is a reading program by Adrian Packel that is essentially the Perseus Project on your mobile device: texts, translations, hyperlinked parsing and dictionary functions. (Added 2/26/24: Bellerophon is not quite as useful in recent iterations of iOS/iPadOS, but still has a large library and an effective parsing function.)
https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/adrian-packel/id517244370
There's a Latin parser for Android devices by Water Shandruk. Not being an Android user, I have no idea how good it is, but here's the link.
https://download.cnet.com/latin-parser/3000-20414_4-75945591.html
There are increasing numbers of for-pay options for mobile platforms (iOS and Android). I'm not inclined to link to these, but if you want to have a conversation about the ups and downs of them, feel free to raise the question in or out of class.



Grading:

 

midterm 1

midterm 2

participation

final exam

25%

25%

25%

25%
 
THE FINE PRINT:

No makeups given due to absence without prior arrangement with the instructor.
No one can pass the course without taking and passing the final examination.
No incompletes issued except for pressing reasons and by prior arrangement with the instructor.
”Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit.”--Seneca
The instructor reserves the right to recognize significant improvement or decline in student performance when awarding final grades.
The maximum amount of extra credit which may count towards the final grade = 5% of the total course points.
The syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor; changes will be announced in class and posted on-line.





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