Jim O'Hara (johara@wesleyan.edu)
(http://www.wesleyan.edu/classics/faculty/jim.html)
office: 685-2066; home: 1-203-407-0834 (only if really nec., and only 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.!)
office hours: ??? and by appointment M-Th, 329 Science Center (esp. TTh???)
Classical Studies office and my mailbox: 341 SC, 685-2070

Reserve shelf: 334 SC (which is open 24 hours)
 
 

Course Description

This course will include readings in English of some of the most interesting and influential works of Roman literature, from the genres of epic, history, pastoral, didactic, satire,lyric, love elegy, and the novel. Topics to be covered in lecture include the importance of historical context for each work, the reception of Greek culture at Rome, the authors' sense of belonging to a literary tradition, the interplay (or conflict) between the personal and the political, the texts' views of virtus (manliness, courage) and of women, how depictions of acts of interpretation within the text may affect interpretation of the text, and the varying literary-critical approaches that have been taken to these works.

Major Readings

Catullus, The Poems (tr. Lee, Oxford)
Sallust, CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE AND JUGURTHINE WAR (tr. Handford, Peng.)
Vergil, ECLOGUES (tr. Lee, Peng.) (you can spell it Virgil or Vergil)
Vergil, AENEID (tr. Fitzgerald, Vintage)
Ovid, METAMORPHOSES (tr. Melville, Oxford)
Petronius, SATYRICON (tr. Branham/Kinney, Calif.--different from last time I taught course)
Tacitus, THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME (tr. Grant, Peng.)
Apuleius, THE GOLDEN ASS (tr. Walsh, Oxford)
Juvenal, SATIRES (tr. Green, Peng.) (out of stock, so I'm dropping it)
Photocopies of selections from early Roman poetry, and from Horace and Roman elegy
R. Ogilvie, ROMAN LITERATURE AND SOCIETY (Peng.) (out of print and dropped)

**You may not use other translations of these works; you may use older editions of the same translation.**

Examinations and Assignments

Midterm and Final; two short papers due on dates announced on syllabus.

* For the Midterm, scheduled the Thursday before Spring break, no early exams or makeups will be allowed without proof of dire need.

* Midterm and final may include: short identifications; identification and comment on quoted passages from the reading (read with this in mind!), and essays; the tests will thus involve both mastery of the material read or presented in class, and original thinking on the material.

* Papers will be on authors recently read and on topics of your own choosing (some suggestions may be made). Read each work like a person looking for a paper topic; listen to each lecture for techniques of analysis you may apply to other works or passages.

* Attendance strongly encouraged; you are responsible for learning from a classmate all material presented or announcements made in your absence.

* Basic class format will be lecture, but with questions and, when possible, discussion allowed before, during, and after.

* Periodic (weekly?) "Assignment Notes" will offer suggestions about what to look for in the readings

Additional Requirements and Comments

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office. No prior knowledge of Roman history or literature is assumed. CLASS FORMAT: Lecture LEVEL: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA CLAS

Classical Resources: Links for Classical Studies or Greek & Roman Epic on the WWW

Lots of good stuff on Classics in general (texts, bibliography, discussion lists, mystery novels) and on epic (Greek background, links for each poet read in the course).

Syllabus
 

1. Thurs. Jan 21 - Introduction to course and to Roman history and literature

 

2. Tues. Jan 26 - The Roman Tradition: Form and ideology of Epic:

Read in handout fragments of Ennius, the epitaphs of the Scipios; Catullus 5, 93, 95 (Enn., epitaphs, Cat. = 8 pp.); optional in 334 SC: Ogilvie 11-67 (= "opt. Og." below)

 

3. Thurs. Jan 28 - The Raw: Catullus and the tradition of epigram:

Serious and scurrilous epigrams (poems 69-116) and neoteric proto-elegy (65-68; read 68 with special care) (34 pp.)

 

4. Tues. Feb 2 - The Cooked: Catullus and the New Poetry of wit, urbanity, and learning:

The polymetric short poems (1-60), and the longer poems (61-64; 64 = "masterpiece," "mini-epic;" read carefully) (76pp.)

 

5. Thurs. Feb 4 - Historians I: Cicero saves the city, Sallust "invents" the historical monograph:

Read Penguin intros. to Sallust and the Catiline, and The Conspiracy of Catiline (68 pp. -- pp. totals do not include intros., but read them as hist. review; note T. = longer); opt. Og.: 89-99

 

6. Tues. Feb 9 - Class strife at home, punishment of naked agression abroad:

Sallust: The Jugurthine War (114 pp.) (and Penguin intro.)

 

7. Thurs. Feb 11 - Shepherd-poems, Wonder-child, winners and losers, song, city, and shadows:

Vergil, Eclogues 1-10 (ca. 30 pp.) (and Penguin intros. to book and each poem)

 

8. Tues. Feb 16 - Epic I: Rome rising, Aeneas crying, Dido's banquet, Troy falling:

Vergil, Aeneid Books 1-3 (89 pp.) and Homer-summaries (handout)

 

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Wednesday Feb 17: 3-5 page paper, on Catullus, Sallust, or Eclogues, due in my mailbox (341 SC) or under my door (329 SC) by 1 p.m.; bringing it to class Tues. OK too

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9. Thurs. Feb 18 - Leaving Dido; Aeneas sees his father and the future in the underworld:

Aeneid 4-6 (97 pp.) (some will find Book 5 a little slow; OK to skim the boat race)

 

No class - Tues. Feb 21 - (I'm out of town); catch up, get ahead

 

10. Thurs. Feb 25 - The start of war, the site of Rome, and good guys vs. bad guys:

Aeneid 7-9 (92 pp.)

 

11. Tues. Mar 2 - The War in Italy: Good guys vs. bad, or home team vs. decadent invaders?

Aeneid 10-12 (105 pp.)

 

12. Thurs. Mar 4 - Exam (no make-ups or early exams w/o dire need).

 

Spring Break

 

13. Tues. Mar 23 - Selections from Roman Lyric: Horace:

Handout (5-10 pp.); opt. Og. 100-60 (with some skepticism)

Note: Ap. 22 paper may involve Aeneid; some may want to write over break rather than long after reading it. Or read all of Ovid (even unassigned parts) over break for fun (or paper?)?

 
A complete translation of Horace's Odes & Epodes is on the reserve shelf in 334 SC.
For links to Latin and English texts of Horace see: http://www.wesleyan.edu/~johara/textlinks.html

14. Thurs. Mar 25 - Selections from Roman Elegy:

Handout (5-10 pp.); opt. Og. 161-223

Complete translations of Propertius, Tibullus, & Ovid Amores are on the reserve shelf in 334 SC.

For links to Latin and English texts see: http://www.wesleyan.edu/~johara/textlinks.html

 

15. Tues. Mar 30 - Epic (?) II: Gods, lust, anger, and change from a master myth-weaver:

Ovid, Metamorphoses Books 1-4 (98 pp.) (optional: read all Ovid for fun?)

 

16. Thurs. April 1 - More gods, then mortals, myths, and finally Caesar:

Metamorphoses Books 5-8 and pp. 374-79 of Book 15 (106 pp.)

 

17. Tues. April 6 - The Roman Novel I: rhetoric, scamming, and dinner with Trimalchio:

Petronius, Satyricon, intro and chapters 1-78 (71 pp. in Branham-Kinney )

 

18. Thurs. April 8 - Stoned poets, shaved stowaways, and potency problems

Satyricon chapters 79-141 (79 pp. in Branham-Kinney)

 

19. Tues. April 13 - Historians II: cryptic Tiberius; troublesome Germans; heroic (?) Germanicus:

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Penguin Intro. and Books 1-3 (pp. 31-156) (126 pp.); opt. Og. 224-39

 

20. Thurs. April 15 - Tiberius and the ambition of Sejanus; the reign of Terror

Annals 4-6 (pp. 157-227) (98 pp.); opt. Og. 250-57

 

21. Tues. April 20 - Nero: what does a good man do under a bad ruler?:

Annals 13-16 (pp. 284-397) (114 pp.) (pp. 228-83, on Claudius, optional only)

 

22. Thurs. April 22 - The Roman Novel II: Curiosity, and making an ass of yourself:

Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Intro and pp. 1-74

 

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Thursday April 22: 5-page paper, on Aeneid, lyric, elegy, Ovid, Petronius, or Tacitus, due at class time

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23. Tues. April 27 - The famous story of what's-his-name and Psyche; endings for Charite's story:

The Golden Ass, pp. 75-147 (74 pp.)

 

24. Thurs. April 29 - Stories and stories; final conversion and the Goddess:

The Golden Ass, pp. 148-240 (93 pp.); opt. Og. 258-80

 

25. Tues. May 4 - The genre we Romans invented (and course wrap-up):

Juvenal, Satires 1 & 3 (handout, a few pp.: book in coursebook out of print, dumped)

 

New Info: Final exam is scheduled for Monday, May 10, 2-5 p.m.