2023

September

 11  18  25 

October

 2  9  16  23  30 

November

 6  13  20  27 

December

 4  11  18 

2024

January

 8  15  22  29 

February

 5  12  19  26 

March

 4  11  18 

April

 1  8  15  22  29 

May

 6  13  20  27 

Unit VI: Augustan Rome 44 B.C to A.D. 14

Rubens, The Fall of Phaeton
Peter Paul Rubens, The Fall of Phaeton, ca. 1608; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Image courtesy Wikimedia.

Week 21: P. Ovidius Naso (Ovid), 43 B.C. - A.D. 17

By class time this week, please have read:

Mediaeval statue of Ovid.
Mediaeval statue of Ovid. Courtesy VRoma.

This week I have given you a fairly short reading from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in hopes that we can dig into it a little bit: it’s only about five pages on my printer. The translation is a bit old and stodgy, but not as old and stodgy as the Dryden translation that was the alternative. Ovid was a poet writing in the wake of Vergil and the other Augustan poets; he was later, but not much: he was in fact banished by Augustus toward the end of his life. The trick is to get into the story and see what it implies, and how Ovid is telling it.

Consider the following questions for class discussion:

  1. What is Ovid doing here?
  2. What is the ecphrasis (relatively short) doing, and how does it compare with the others you have seen?
  3. Does Ovid have a message? A point? Or is he just telling a series of good yarns?