Unit POLITICS, RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE GREEK WORLD
- Course
- Italian, classical studies and european history
- Study-unit Code
- A002657
- Curriculum
- Civiltà e cultura dell'antico
- Teacher
- Massimo Nafissi
- Teachers
-
- Massimo Nafissi
- Hours
- 36 ore - Massimo Nafissi
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2026
- Offered
- 2026/27
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Sector
- STAN-01/A
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Monuments, Religion and Myth; Monuments, Institutions, and History
I. The throne of Apollo at Amyclae.
II. The Athenian Agora. - Reference texts
- Students attending more than 60% of lessons.
Re. part I
• Nafissi, M., Spartan Heroic Ancestry and Austere Virtues. Herakles, Theseus, and the Phaiakians on the Throne of Amyklai, A. Möller (hrsg.), Historiographie und Vergangenheitsvorstellungen in der Antike, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2019, 35-56.
• Nafissi, M., Gli eroi del Trono di Apollo ad Amicle tra apoteosi, immortalità elisia e destino di morte, «Mythos» 14, 2020, 1-24 DOI: 10.4000/mythos.1868.
• Study of the booklet on the lessons, to be issued and uploaded in Unistudium at their end.
Re. part II
Selected readings from (to be indicated during the classes):
E. Greco con la collaborazione di R. Di Cesare, F. Longo e D. Marchiandi, Topografia di Atene: sviluppo urbano e monumenti dalle origini al III secolo d.C. Tomo III 2: Quartieri a nord e a nord-est dell'Acropoli e Agora del Ceramico, Agora del Ceramico, Pandemos, Atene-Paestum 2014;
John McK. Camp, The Athenian Agora: Site Guide, Fifth edition, Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2010;
M.H. Hansen, La democrazia ateniese nel IV secolo a.C. (trad. it. A. Maffi), LED, Milano 2003.
N.B. For students attending less than 60% of lessons is furthermore required the reading of the book
• M. Lupi, Sparta. Storia e rappresentazioni di una città greca, Roma, Carocci, 2017.
Students with disabilities and/or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) and/or ADHD or ADD who have uploaded a regular certification into SOL can apply for the compensatory tools provided by current regulation (e.g., textbooks in accessible digital format; study materials in accessible formats: presentations, handouts, and exercises, provided if necessary in advance of lessons, see www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa). For further information, please contact the Department Referent (Dr. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it). - Educational objectives
- The course aims to highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of antiquity in understanding political events and institutions, cultural phenomena, and monuments, through examples relevant to Greek history and art history.
Knowledge
Greek religion: basic elements.
The history and religion of Sparta.
Elements of Greek mythology and the interpretation of myth in archaic figurative monuments.
Political Institutions and History of Athens
The Athenian Agora
Skills and Competences
An interdisciplinary approach to the study of Greek culture, combining the analysis of the literary tradition with the interpretation of literary and epigraphic sources, and the study of monumental and visual evidence.
The ability to relate and critically evaluate topography, monuments, and historical and artistic evidence in connection with historical and cultural developments, political institutions, and their broader contexts, with a view to achieving an integrated understanding of the past and communicating it effectively.
The ability to employ appropriate scholarly language both in the analysis and in the concise presentation of complex phenomena, with due attention to their historical, art-historical, monumental, topographical, political, institutional, cultural, religious, and anthropological dimensions. - Prerequisites
- It is useful, but not necessary, to have taken exams of Greek History and Greek Archeology.
Knowledge of Ancient Greek is only required for students attending the Civiltà e cultura dell’antico course. - Teaching methods
- Lectures. Reading sources and documents in Italian translation.
Seminar lessons and/or paper, if requested by the students
Attendance checked by roll call.
Supplementary readings are imposed to students who attend less than 60% of lessons. - Other information
- Beginning, schedule and room of the lessons, see https://easyacademy.unipg.it/agendaweb/
Students with disabilities and/or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) and/or ADHD or ADD: for any information on the University’s dedicated services, please consult the webpage www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa
and contact the Department Referent (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it). - Learning verification modality
- Oral exam (ca. 30', after the course). Students of the LM-15 degree the exam are expected to show their ability to translate and comment on passages in Greek, chosen from a list among those examined during the year.
At the request of individual students, the programme can be redefined and may provide for a written paper (ca. 10, max. 15 pp.) on topics regarding the course and possibly its presentation in a seminar session.
All students are tested on their knowledge of both the topics covered in the course.
- Evidence of competence: ability to express oneself orally, in particular with regard to the concepts necessary for the description of social, political, religious and cultural institutions and phenomena and of historical development, of archaeological, monumental and figurative realities, as well as historiographical and mythical narratives. Ability to provide a clear picture of situations; ability to express complex concepts and hypotheses and to organise information in a hierarchical, logical and synthetic manner; For students enrolled in the curriculum in Ancient Civilisations and Culture: the ability to translate from Greek, to contextualise and comment the texts proposed during the course.
The assessment will take into account the breadth and depth of knowledge, the ability to express oneself at a conceptual and argumentative level, the logical rigour and personal character of the exposition, and, when required, the knowledge of the Greek of the passages examined and the ability to contextualise and comment on them.
Students with disabilities and/or with SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for the compensatory tools ensured by law (e.g. textbooks in digital format; teaching materials in accessible formats: presentations, handouts, workbooks, provided if necessary in advance of the lessons), for which consult https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
For the request, students are invited to ask the teacher, who will put them in contact with the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it) - Extended program
- The throne of Apollo at Amyclae
The sanctuary of Apollo and Hyakinthos was famous in antiquity among other things for the so called Throne. Apollo’s or Bathykles’ Throne (from the name of its author) was a large late-archaic structure that surrounded an oldest huge simulacrum of the god Apollo. The structure was characterized by a very rich sculpted figurative cycle, which is completely lost. Their themes, however, were listed quickly, but with substantial completeness, by the Periegetes Pausanias in the second century A.D. Without neglecting the archaeological data – the important results of new researches are still only partially published - an attempt will be made to propose an overall interpretation of the figurative cycle. A thorough review of Pausanias’ text and of the conditions in which he proposed his presentation, the constant comparison with the archaic and classical figurative culture and literary tradition, allow to recover the religious conceptions and the ethical and political categories that determined the choice of the myths and their combination on the monument.
Introduction to the Athenian Agora and a selection of its principal monuments (the Bouleuterion, Tholos, Metroon, Monument of the Eponymous Heroes, Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, Royal Stoa, Stoa Poikile, Hephaisteion, Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods, the Tyrannicides Group, etc.), together with the historical issues and the political and religious institutions and values associated with them.. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile