Hellenic & Roman Societies online course: Christopher Tanfield on ‘Virgil’s Aeneid’
Registration is now open via this link.
Wednesday 17, 24 June, 1, 8 and 15 July, 6-7.30pm (UK time)
Watch the sessions live, or catch up by watching the recordings later at your own convenience.
Virgil’s Aeneid, for centuries mostly viewed as an unequivocal endorsement of the emperor Augustus, has over the last seventy years been reappraised in a series of different interpretative approaches. This course starts from the themes laid out at the start and follows them through the whole poem. It will include the Aeneid’s relationship to history and geography, the role of the gods and fate, Virgil’s use of philosophy, the notion of the hero and portrayal of character, the way the text alludes to the literature that had preceded it and its reception since it was first published. The course aims to explore the power and originality of the Aeneid as well as the challenges it poses, and to enable modern readers to appreciate Virgil’s achievement. Participants are not expected to know Latin but please ensure that you have read the poem beforehand or you will find the talks hard to follow.
Wednesday 17 June
Session 1
The challenges of the Aeneid: detailed reading of the Proem to highlight especially (but not only) the importance of history (lecture 2), the role of the gods (lecture 3), the redefinition of ‘hero’ (lecture 4) and the use of intertexts (lecture 5); Aeneas and furor, the poem’s ending.
Wednesday 24 June
Session 2
History and a little geography: the poem as Rome’s foundation myth; Augustus; the Aeneid’s use and view(s) of history; geography of the journey and of Italy.
Wednesday 1 July
Session 3
Religion and philosophy: Roman ‘belief’; the gods (major and minor), fate; personal religion; Stoicism and Epicureanism in the poem.
Wednesday 8 July
Session 4
Characterisation: Roman ideas of character; techniques of portraying character – focalisation; Aeneas, Turnus, Evander; Dido, Creusa, Camilla, Lavinia; Jupiter, Juno, Venus; consistency?
Wednesday 15 July
Session 5
Towards an interpretation of one’s own: Role of the intertext; reception of the poem at different times and in different places.
For more information and to book, see here.
Note: this is a fee-paying event run by an organisation which is not affiliated to, or funded by, the Classical Association. Please contact the organisers directly with any enquiries.