Spring 2027

Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean explores ancient religions in political, social, and cultural contexts across Greece, Rome, Judaea, and Egypt, covering ritual, representations, persecutions, and modern study approaches.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Beneker

Attendance was required, and exams and papers focused heavily on citing specific readings and marked quotes.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Demonstrate knowledge of Classical and ancient Near Eastern societies and cultures.

  • Examine, analyze, and interpret ancient texts in translation and material culture.

  • Critique ancient Greek, Roman, and/or Near Eastern societies and cultures and compare them to other societies and cultures.

  • Demonstrate knowledge of ancient Mediterranean religions.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
CLASSICS/HISTORY/RELIGST 517

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JEFFREY SCOTT BENEKER is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Beneker

Jeffrey Beneker delivered interactive lectures and maintained strong student support, including arranging substitutes during personal difficulties.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2017: 3.64 GPA, 71.9% A/AB (n=32 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.77 GPA, 84.4% A/AB (n=32 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Beneker

Attendance was required, and exams and papers focused heavily on citing specific readings and marked quotes.

Past student reviews · Jeffrey Beneker

Students found Beneker organized and clear about expectations for earning high grades, while presenting material in a relatable way.

Topics

  • Political, social, and cultural contexts of ancient religions
  • Ritual, literary and artistic representations, religious persecutions, and modern approaches
  • Geographical and chronological focus on Greece, Rome, Judaea, and Egypt

Skills

  • Knowledge of Classical, ancient Near Eastern, and Mediterranean societies, cultures, and religions.
  • Examining, analyzing, and interpreting ancient texts in translation and material culture.
  • Critiquing and comparing ancient Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern societies with other cultures.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1286 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "48801ab52902ada79146f0c10b58605d53d2ee82cd9fa08865d1e89bda396134",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}