CLAS 314R Vergil's Aeneid and Its World
Vergil's Aeneid has enjoyed almost continuous high esteem from the time of its composition. It has shaped epic poetry, generated opera, and inspired visual art; it has played a role in nearly every assessment of literary greatness since the Renaissance (and even before); and it has invited generations of readers to rediscover some element of themselves in its vivid depictions of characters and emotions.
And yet, how well do we really know the Aeneid of Vergil's own day? While few authors would deny aspiring to the kind of fame that Vergil ultimately achieved in the Western literary tradition, the Aeneid's original project was both much more culturally specific and uniquely ambitious. The epic sought to create a stirring foundation-myth for a society that lacked a strong story about itself; to link that myth to the complicated Roman inheritance of Greek culture; and to use that myth to engage with political life under Augustus, who was rapidly becoming the most powerful leader the Mediterranean world had ever known.
This course will employ a close reading of the Aeneid (in English translation), along with selections from other works of both Greek and Roman literature (including Greek epic, lyric, and tragedy, and Latin elegy, lyric, and historiography), to examine the ways in which Vergil pursued these complicated goals by receiving and transforming the literary art generated by both his predecessors and his contemporaries, and by maintaining an acute awareness of Roman political and social identity. Weekly readings, lectures, and discussions; student close-reading presentations, brief objective quizzes, and two-page 'short-response' papers; essay-based final exam.