A ton of reading, definitely more than was necessary...the exams were based almost entirely on the readings...the only connection to the lectures was that passages discussed in class were covered in lectures as well...too much reading, really only worthwhile if you are a Classics major or if you have an interest in Greek literature.

So this class is very misleading in that you do not learn about Greek Civilization. You learn about Greek values through ancient Greek literature. There is usually about 200-300 pages of fairly dense Greek reading a week (Plato, Aristophanes, Homer etc). Make sure you know what you're signing up for before you take this class! Listen to every quote that professor Dillery mentions in class because the tests are passage identification (identify the author, speaker, significance, chapter # etc.) and are very specific to his lessons. Overall he is a very passionate lecturer, but since I was not interested in Greek literature, the class got very dull sometimes. Papers aren't bad, but send them to the TA to review! It helps! And Bouxsein was an awesome TA. This was a rewarding course in that I learned a good bit and it was hard sometimes, but in retrospect I regret taking it. If you do all the work and reading, it takes hours and hours a week. The grading is pretty fair, though. If you put the right work in to it you'll be fine. Seriously, though, if you aren't interested in Greek literature... do not take this class!

John Dillery is the best professor I have had at UVA, he really likes his job. Interesting class that I really enjoyed.