Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Christopher Forbes
Contact via (02) 9850 8821; christopher.forbes@mq.edu.au
W6A 536
TBD
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Credit points |
Credit points
4
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MA in (Ancient History or Coptic Studies or ECJS or Egyptology or History or Late Antiquity or Ancient Art and Architecture) or PGDipArts in (Ancient History or ECJS) or PGCertArts in (Ancient History or Coptic Studies)
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit examines continuity and change in Greek religion in the period after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Themes to be investigated include: ancient and modern concepts of 'religion', the social shape of religious practice, the social function/s of religion, the 'internationalisation' of religion, and the relationship between cult and personal belief.
Topics to be discussed: Oracles; ruler cult; 'Euhemerism'; private cults; official civic cults; Magic and subversive religion; the cult of Tyche; Sarapis, Isis and the new international cults; Hellenistic Mysteries; Forms of Judaism as Hellenistic religions; Pauline Christianity; Plutarch and the alignment of religion and philosophy. |
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
In order to complete the Unit, you must both (a) achieve a grade of 50% overall, and (b) submit each of the three pieces of assessable work.
All written assessment tasks (Annotated Bibliography and Precis, First Essay and Second Essay) are to be submitted via Turnitin, using the links to be found in the appropriate week's panel of the Unit iLearn page (as detailed for each assignment, above).
Late assignments will normally be penalised at the rate of 2% per day, unless prior arrangements have been made with your Tutor. If your assignment is going to be late, please contact your Tutor in advance! In case of major disruption to your study schedule, see the Disruption to Study Policy in the section of this Unit Guide on Policies and Procedures.
Here are some suggested essay topics: variations, or others altogether, can be negotiated.
What kinds of changes, philosophical, religious and social, led to the development of ruler cult in the late Classical and early Hellenistic period? What factors maintained and/or altered it over the next three centuries?
To what extent does the development of the “mystery cults” in the Hellenistic period illustrate the generalisation that this period saw a decline of civic religion in favour of “private cults”?
In what ways did the roles of oracles develop and change from the Classical period into the Hellenistic and Roman period? What kinds of factors drove these changes? What factors remained relatively constant?
What forms did the cult of Tyche take in the Hellenistic period? How can we best explain the growth in importance of these forms of cult?
What factors led to the growth of the new “international” cults of the Hellenistic period? Illustrate your case using at least two major cults as examples.
Can we distinguish “religion” from “magic” in the Classical and Hellenistic periods? What concepts and terminology did the ancients use to distinguish what they saw as legitimate and non-legitimate beliefs and practices?
In what ways were the varying forms of Judaism (or: In what ways was Pauline Christianity) typical and atypical of Hellenistic religion?
In what differing ways do Platonist, Stoic and Epicurean philosophers respond to traditional religious practice in the Hellenistic and early Imperial Roman period?
Name | Weighting | Due |
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Bibliography and Essay Precis | 20% | Week 6 |
First Essay | 35% | Week 9 |
Second Essay | 45% | Week 13 |
Due: Week 6
Weighting: 20%
Students are to choose their first essay topic within the first four weeks of term, and then submit their Annotated Bibliography and Essay Precis during Week 6. (Submit the assignment via Turnitin, using the link in the Week 6 panel of the Unit iLearn page.) This assignment is a preparatory task building towards the submission of the first essay.
The assignment should be of approximately 1,000 words. The first half should be an annotated bibliography containing between six and twelve items (books, book chapters, journal articles) with full publication details, and a short paragraph of comment (per item) on the relevance of the item in question to the first essay. You should comment briefly on the main thesis of the item, its strengths and/or weaknesses, and its contribution to your understanding of the essay task.
The second half should be a structured outline or precis of your essay so far (it is understood that your essay will not yet be complete). This outline or precis should present the major stages of the argument of your proposed essay, each described in a brief paragraph, with notes on (a) the logical structure of your argument, (b) the kinds of evidence on which that stage of the argument is based, and (c) brief notes on the contribution of particular items from the Bibliography.
The aim of this assignment is to provide early feedback on the development of your understanding of your first essay.
The criteria against which the assignment will be assessed will be available on the Week 4 panel of the Unit iLearn page.
Due: Week 9
Weighting: 35%
The first Essay, of approx. 2,000 words, is normally to be written on the Essay topic chosen by Week 4, on which the Annotated Bibliography and Essay Precis has been submitted in Week 6. Essays will not be penalised for changes of direction resulting from further reading and research.
(Submit the assignment via Turnitin, using the link in the Week 9 panel of the Unit iLearn page.)
The criteria against which the assignment will be assessed will be available on the Week 6 panel of the Unit iLearn page.
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 45%
The Second Essay, normally on a different topic to the first, should build on the skills developed in the first two Assessment Tasks. It can be written on one of the suggested essay topics below, or on another topic devised in consultation with Dr. Forbes.
(Submit the assignment via Turnitin, using the link in the Week 13 panel of the Unit iLearn page.)
The criteria against which the assignment will be assessed will be available on the Week 6 panel of the Unit iLearn page.
For lecture times and classrooms please consult the MQ Timetable website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au. This website will display up-to-date information on your classes and classroom locations.
The Unit will take the form of one two-hour seminar per week. This will normally be made up of two parts. The first hour will normally be a lecture from Dr. Forbes on the topic detailed in the Unit Schedule (below). The second hour will vary.
Both hours of the two-hour seminar will be recorded and made available via Echo360. Weekly study guides and bibliographies will be made available on the Unit iLearn page as PDF files. Any visual aids used during the lectures will also be made available in PDF format on the Unit iLearn page.
Access to a computer and the Internet are required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing, use of the Library's online resources and skills in word processing) are also a requirement. You will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, since (as noted above) most Unit documents are provided in PDF format. This software is freely available on the Internet. Please consult the Course Convenor for any further, more specific requirements.
Face-to-face classes will be held for Internal students; for External students there will be recordings (as above) and regular postings on iLearn. External students who can come to Internal classes are welcome to do so; just let me know you're coming!
For introductory reading see the top of the next section.
Preliminaries:
There is no one text-book for the Unit, because I have never found one which really covers the ground we set out to cover. Perhaps the best thing I can do is give you some starting-points which go in opposite directions, to show you the range of views we are dealing with, and then give you a list of particular topics you might like to follow up on.
First you may need a basic narrative to set you up in the Hellenistic period generally. Either Graham Shipley's The Greek World after Alexander, 323-30 BC, London, 2000, chapter 2, pp. 33-58, or David Braund, "After Alexander: the Emergence of the Hellenistic World", in A. Erskine, ed., A Companion to the Hellenistic World, Malden, 2003, pp. 19-34, will get you going.
Next I should explain my "starting points which go in opposite directions" comment. There are widely differing approaches to the Hellenistic period in general. Rather then tell you who is right and who wrong (which would simply be telling you my biases) I would like you to read some of two very different approaches. The first I would recommend comes from Peter Green's major work, Alexander to Actium: the historical evolution of the Hellenistic Age. I suggest you read chapter 23, "Ruler Cults, Traditional Religion and the Ambivalence of Tyche", and chapter 33, "Foreign and Mystery Cults, Oracles, Astrology, Magic". The second view can be found in Shipley's The Greek World after Alexander, 323-30 BC. Here you should read Chapter 5, "Religion and Philosophy".
For more detail you could also read D. Potter, "Hellenistic Religion", in A. Erskine, ed., A Companion to the Hellenistic World, Malden, 2003, pp. 407-430, or J.D. Mikalson, "Greek Religion: Continuity and Change in the Hellenistic Period", in G.R. Bugh, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World, Cambridge, 2006, pp. 208-222.
Finally, you will need to look at the Unit Schedule below for the range of topics we plan to cover, and the section on assessment, above, for some of the suggested essay topics. You might like to begin thinking about what interests you. Then, before semester, I will make available a starting Bibliography organised by topics which will give you more detailed places to go for your research. In the first lecture session of Semester I will explain our approach in more detail.
Weekly Schedule (as at June 30th, 2014)
Week 1: Tuesday August 5th |
Unit Introduction. Oracles: Continuity and Change. |
Week 2: Tuesday August 12th |
Ruler Cult: What kind of development? (a) Alexander (b) The Successor Kings |
Week 3: August 19th |
“Euhemerism”: scepticism or rationalisation of cult? |
Week 4: August 26th |
Hellenistic private cults: the growth of “personal religion”? |
Week 5: September 2nd |
The Official Cults of the Hellenistic cities. |
Week 6: September 9th |
Magic and Subversive religion. |
Week 7: September 15th |
Tyche. |
Mid-Semester Break | |
Week 8: October 7th |
Sarapis, Isis and the new international cults. |
Week 9: October 14th |
The Hellenistic Mysteries. |
Week 10: October 21st |
Forms of Judaism as Hellenistic religions. |
Week 11: October 28th |
Plutarch and the realignment of religion and philosophy. |
Week 12: November 4th |
Early Pauline Christianity. |
Week 13: November 11th |
Unit Summary and Conclusions. |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
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Date | Description |
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28/02/2014 | The Description was updated. |