Latin Poetry from Vergil’s Eclogues to the death of Ovid

 

Week 1

Introduction.

Issues in Augustan literary interpretation (politics, patronage, intertextuality, genre, career) and directions in Anglophone scholarship since 1945.

Emerging Augustan literature 1: Vergil Eclogues, Gallus

[READ: Eclogues 1,2,4,6,7,8,10; SJH Generic Enrichment Ch.2; all Ecl. in translation]

Week 2

Emerging Augustan literature 2: Horace Satires 1 and 2, Epodes

[READ: Satires 1.1.1-40 1.5, 1.6.45-92, 1.9, 2.1, 2.5, Epodes 1 and 2; E.Gowers’ CUP comm. on Sat. 1, SJH 2014 on Satires 2,  SJH Generic Enrichment Ch.3; all three ancient books in translation]

Emerging Augustan literature 3: Vergil Georgics

[READ: Georgics 1.1-203, 1.463-515, 2.135-76, 2.458-542, 3.1-48, 4.1-148;  SJH Generic Enrichment Ch.4; all of Georgics in translation]

Week 3

Elegy before Ovid:   Tibullus, Propertius 1-3.    Vergil, Aeneid: preliminaries.

[READ: Tibullus 1.1, 1.3, 1.7, Propertius 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.7, 2.10, 3.1, 3.3; Aeneid 1.1-304; all of Tibullus 1 and Propertius 1 in translations]

Week 4

Vergil Aeneid

[READ: Aeneid 4, 12.612-952; know whole Aeneid in translation]

Week 5

After the Aeneid: Propertius 4, Horace Odes 4, early Ovid

[READ: Propertius 4.1, 4.6, 4.11; Horace Odes 4.1, 4.7, 4.15; Ovid Amores 1.1-1.3, Heroides 7.1-44;

Read all of Propertius 4, Odes 4, Amores 1 and Heroides 7 in translation]

Week 6

Later Ovid: the development of elegy (Ars  to Fasti), later work (Metamorphoses, exile poetry)

[READ: Ars 1.1-34, 3.101-28, 3.311-48, Remedia Amoris 357-96, Fasti 1.1-44, 3.459-516, 4.1-18, Ovid Met.1.1-31, 1.452-567, 8.183-235, 345-525, 611-78; Tristia 1.6, 2.529-62, 4.10.33-54]

 

Course resources

S.J.Harrison [ed.] A Companion to Latin Literature (Blackwell, 2005) [Augustan chapter]

S.J.Harrison, Generic Enrichment in Vergil and Horace (Oxford, 2007) [online at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/]

OCD 4 www.oxfordreference.com

Loeb online  www.loebclassics.com/

OSEO www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/

 

This course looks at the development of Latin poetry in the triumviral and Augustan periods (40 BCE to 14 CE), the most important half-century in Latin literature. It covers the principal texts of the period,with the exception of Horace’s Odes and Epistles. It will be given in English and focuses on Anglophone perspectives, which I hope will be especially valuable to Italian students as another point of view. Its primary interests are in the interactions of different poets and literary genres in the period, which has a key influence on how poetry develops:, especially the interactions between Horace, Vergil, Propertius and Ovid. The course begins with a discussion of scholarly methodology and approaches, and then proceeds chronologically by examining particular texts in detail.

Its learning goals are as follows: 1. a deepened understanding of Augustan poetry through close reading from a nuanced and theoretically informed perspective, 2. an enhanced appreciation of Augustan literary history through the consideration of literary interaction between its major poets and genres, 3. a well-developed idea of the relationship between politics and poetry.