Please note that essay form is required for all work submitted. Point form or extended notes are not good enough. Footnotes should be given, and should conform to the rules laid out in the Department of Ancient History 'Essay Presentation & Conventions: Style Guide'.

Two extra hints:

1. Don’t refer to the works of ancient authors by giving the page number in an English translation. Always use instead the book, chapter and section numbers in the text.  Some of the translations you find online may not have proper numbering, e.g. in Internet Classics Archive (http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/);  but if you’re reading your ancient source online, try to use a site which does have numbering, e.g. Lacus Curtius (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/home.html) or Perseus Project (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html).
2. Don’t give strings of identical footnotes. Whoever is marking your essay will not be impressed by you scoring fifty footnotes, or even a century. If you are referring more than once to the same page of the same book, consider grouping reference into one footnote, probably at the end of the paragraph.  Or if something is so good that it has to be referred to four or five times, why not copy it in as a quotation, then add your discussion?

Choose one topic from those given below:

1. What do Homer’s accounts of the Phaeacian games, and the funeral games for Patroclus, really show about (what Moses Finley called) the ‘World of Odysseus’?

   Hints for this title:  For this question refer to the weekly activity for week 1. It is vital to study M.I. Finley’s The World of Odysseus as well as the relevant parts of the Iliad and Odyssey.  Be strict about the word limit, and don’t go over 1,000 words, including footnotes.

2. E. Norman Gardiner in 1917 wrote:  ‘As to the origin and character of the festival itself, the only evidence is to be found in the actual customs of the festival, particularly the time of the year when it was held, the four years’ cycle, the olive crown, the sacred truce, the exclusion of women’.  Are these still the decisive considerations for an understanding of what the Olympics Games meant in the eighth century BC?

   Hints for this title:  For this question refer to the weekly activity for Week Two.  Look at the articles by Croke and Montgomery as well as Gardiner’s article, but tackle the question broadly, bringing in appropriate reference to Spivey’s The Ancient Olympics:  a History, in order to focus on the meaning of the Olympics in the eighth century.  Be strict about the word limit, and don’t go over 1,000 words, including footnotes.

The first major essay, of no more than 2,000 words including footnotes, is due at the end of Week 6. Essay formalities (footnotes, bibliography) should follow the guidelines laid out in the Department of Ancient History 'Essay Presentation & Conventions: Style Guide'.

Both footnotes and a bibliography of all the works you cited are required.  Separate your bibliographies into ancient sources and modern works if you wish.  Note that the provided bibliographies are wide-ranging but are not intended to be complete. They are suggestions as to a range of good places to start your research. You are perfectly free to go beyond them. You certainly ought not to think that the opinions of those books or articles listed in bibliographies are the ‘course line’.

Two extra hints:

1. Don’t refer to the works of ancient authors by giving the page number in an English translation. Always use instead the book, chapter and section numbers in the text.  Some of the translations you find online may not have proper numbering, e.g. in Internet Classics Archive (http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/);  but if you’re reading your ancient source online, try to use a site which does have numbering, e.g. Lacus Curtius (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/home.html) or Perseus Project (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html).

2. Don’t give strings of identical footnotes. Whoever is marking your essay will not be impressed by you scoring fifty footnotes, or even a century. If you are referring more than once to the same page of the same book, consider grouping reference into one footnote, probably at the end of the paragraph.  Or if something is so good that it has to be referred to four or five times, why not copy it in as a quotation, then add your discussion?

Choose one topic from those given below:

1. When and how were the Pythian Games, Isthmian Games and Nemean Games founded?  How important were these festivals in Greek life in the sixth century BC? Hints for this title:  Use the weekly bibliography for week 3 as your main source of bibliographical advice.

 2. Describe the combat events at the Olympic Games (boxing, wrestling, pankration).  How dangerous was it to participate?

Hints for this title:  This is a straightforward question, which some will find too dull.  The first part of it is answered by giving a description of boxing, wrestling, and the pankration:  what the contest consisted of, what equipment there was and how it was used, how a fight was won.  The Brophy articles are important for the second element in the question.

3. Compare Isocrates’ Panegyricus (380BC) with Barack Obama’s Speech at Cairo University (5 June 2009).  Are there similarities in the ways the speakers lay out a cultural program?  Are both staking a claim to moral leadership in the world community?

Hints for this title:  Be careful about the requirement to compare.  It does not mean ‘Describe the Panegyricus, then describe the Obama speech’.  But at the same time it is not helpful to write, ‘These speeches were given thousands of years apart in totally contrasting contexts, and therefore they are completely different and there is nothing to compare.’  Read the speeches with an ear to the areas where the speakers are reflecting on elements of human experience which resonate in similar ways, and then compare how the two speakers address the issues which arise.  Focus on cultural program and moral leadership.

4.  Compare the articles about Pindar Olympian 1 by Sicking (1983) and Nagy (1986).  Which of them seems to have the better interpretation of Pindar’s use of myth?

Hints for this title:  See the hints for title 3 above about how to compare.  Vitally, this does not mean, ‘Write a little summary of both articles’.  This is a good title for students who have done HST140 Myth in the Ancient World.  Remember that myths can always be retold and changed:  Pindar was in this business, using myths ‘to think with’.

The second major essay, of no more than 1500 words including footnotes, is due at the end of Week 11. Essay formalities (footnotes, bibliography) should follow the guidelines laid out in the Department of Ancient History 'Essay Presentation & Conventions: Style Guide'.

Both footnotes and a bibliography of all the works you cited are required.  Note that the provided bibliographies are wide-ranging but are not intended to be complete. They are suggestions as to a range of good places to start your research. You are perfectly free to go beyond them. You certainly ought not to think that the opinions of those books or articles listed in bibliographies are the ‘course line’.

Choose one topic from those given below:

1. Discuss critically the transformation of the pre-Christian world to Christianity with the reference to Olympic Games under the Emperor Theodosius.  

Hints for this title:  Use the articles by Fowden, as well as other relevant bibliography from your own research, in order to elaborate this argument. The purpose of this essay is to articulate an argument that would expose the position and the attitude of the Christian empire towards athleticism.

2. What in your opinion constitutes the major factor or factors for the revival of the Olympic Games in the nineteenth century?  

Hints for this title: This is not just a question to outline the factors of the Olympic revival but to critically trace and articulate the elements that constitute the process towards the revival.

3. It seems that there are conflicted views regarding the founder of the Modern Olympics. Please use your sources and critically discus the process of revival of Olympic Games during the 19th century.  

Hints for this title: Another straightforward question. Use mainly David Young (1996) for your argument. This is because Young’s account of the Olympic history has been considered controversial. What do you think?

4. Give a critical account for the crucial roles Coubertin, Brooks and Vikelas (and the others) played in the revival of the first International Olympic Games in Athens (1896).  

Hints for this title: You do not have to outline merely the actions of the various people that played role for the revival of the Olympic Games, but mainly both to examine their philosophical views and attitudes regarding Olympism during the 19th century.

Write a comment in the online discussion each week (but those who contribute in at least ten weeks out of thirteen will be eligible, if the quality is right, for full marks). The comment should respond to the question set for the week. It should be based on reading of ancient and modern source material. Footnoting and listing of bibliography is not required, and courteous interaction with comments posted by other students is encouraged. Word length in each case should be between 100 and 250 words. The exact date when you post a comment does not matter, but the axe will fall at 5 p.m. on the Friday of Week 13, and comments added to the site after that time will not be taken into account.

Length: 2,500 words Available: from 9am Monday (EST) of Week 13 Due: 5pm (EST) Friday of Week 13

Topic: The examination for this unit will ask you to write four short essays out of a range of questions. The exam will be divided into two sections; you must do two questions out of each section. All questions are of equal value. The sections will be as follows:

• Section 1: Ancient For this section, focus preparation on weeks 1 to 7 of the unit.

• Section 2: Modern For this section, focus preparation on weeks 8 to 13 of the unit.

The exam will be made available for a period of one working week, from 9am (EST) Monday of Week 13 to 5pm (EST) Friday of Week 13. It will be a ‘take home’ exam, meaning that you can decide for yourself when to work on it during the given week.

Treat the exam as much as possible as if you were doing it under ‘exam conditions’.  In particular, don’t make it into another essay:  don’t give footnotes and bibliographies, but work principally from memory.  The idea is to gauge how effectively you can argue and draw conclusions from material discussed in the unit, and scholarly work you have read.

You are asked if possible to do the take-home exam in three hours.  This cannot be policed, and you may give yourself longer if you think it helps; but note that 2,500 words amount to about 625 words per answer, and there will be no extra marks for extra length.