Virgil and Ovid

The Roman Epic: Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses

Cost
485.00

This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Open Enrollment curriculum.

Writing in times of change and conflict in the empire’s first century, Virgil and Ovid thought and spoke about their contemporary worlds by turning to Graeco-Roman myth, including the stories of Aeneas, Antigone, Perseus, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone. We’ll read each epic in modern English translations by contemporary poets. Some issues we’ll pay attention to are: the contemporary relevance of the epics; the common features of the epic genre; the depiction of women and men in epic; the role of family, religion, and politics; the function of violence; the allusive links between the epics; and the difficulty of translating them into English.

Course Outline

Course Syllabus

Notes

Online registration deadline: Thurs, Jun 8, 5PM CT