Classics

The Classics department offers:

Classical Studies

Featured course

by level: 100 • 200 • 300 • 400

CLA 103 Classics of Greek and Latin Literature

Are you interested in Greek and Roman mythology, culture, philosophy, and politics? Do you wish to discuss such topics as what it means to be human, or the shape of justice and morality? The course explores works by Homer, Sappho, Plato, Virgil, and more.

CLA/WGS 240/340 Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece

How do you make someone fall in love with you in Ancient Greece? What sorts of romantic and sexual relationships are acceptable, and why? Who and what define the binaries of male and female, gay and straight, and can individuals move fluidly between them? How do people’s gender and/or sexuality relate to their social and economic positions? This course investigates ancient Greece as a case-study for the way that gender and sexuality works, providing new perspective on our own world.

GRK 101 Ancient and New Testament Greek I

Want to learn a new alphabet? Or read the New Testament in its original language? This course is an introduction to ancient Greek in preparation for reading Attic and New Testament texts, with emphasis on vocabulary, pronunciation, morphology, and syntax.

Our distinguished faculty’s publications

A Terra Sigillata Revolution? Terra sigillata consumption in first-century AD Roman Mediterranean Gaul

by Prof. B.P. Luley

Article “Homeric Studies, Feminism, and Queer Theory: Interpreting Helen and Penelope” by Prof. Rachel Lesser
Article “Communal Eating and Drinking in Early Roman Mediterranean France: Evidence of a Possible Tavern from Lattara, ca. 125-75 BC” co-authored by Prof. B.P. Luley
Article “The Pandareids and Pandora: Defining Penelope’s Subjectivity in the Odyssey.” by Prof. Rachel Lesser

News

Summer Pedagogy Institute focuses on supporting students through kindness

Four Gettysburg faculty members granted tenure in 2023

On Rome: Francesca Costa ’19 explores archaeology in ancient Italy

Events

Welcome Party
Every Fall the Department of Classics and the Classics Club co-host a Welcome Party for new and returning students, and for anyone who wants to learn more about Classics courses and community on campus. For more information, email Prof. Lesser.

Classics Department Spotlight

Classics professors Rachel Lesser and Benjamin Luley, together with Art History professor Felicia Else on a field trip in August 2024

Classics professors Rachel Lesser and Benjamin Luley, together with Art History professor Felicia Else, who teaches CLA 201: Arts of Ancient Greece & Rome, went on a field trip in August 2024 to explore the fantastic antiquities collection at nearby Wilson College. They were delighted to handle real ancient Greek pottery and an authentic coin of Alexander the Great!

Classic department students standing in front of a statue of President Eisenhower

Latin students Oskar Wilander, Jayne McGrath, and Hannah Crowley during a Latin Scavenger Hunt on the Gettysburg campus, after solving the following clue: “Imago ‘consulis’ et imperatoris magni, qui hostes turpissimos vicit.”

On Rome

Francesca Costa '19 explores archaeology in ancient Italy

A little more Sherlock Holmes than Indiana Jones

Prof. Ben Luley discovers a first-century bar.