CLA 226 - Greek and Roman Epic (in Translation)

The epic poems produced by the Greeks and Romans have had an enduring legacy virtually unmatched in literary history. In this course, we will read English translations of some of best of these epics, including: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, telling the stories of Achilles at Troy and Odysseus’s journey home after the Trojan war; Apollonius’ Argonautica, which charts the tumultuous journey of Jason and the Argonauts to claim the legendary Golden Fleece from the far-off realm of Colchis, on the coast of the Black Sea; Virgil’s Aeneid, which tells the story of Trojan refugees who made their way to Italy and became the ancestors of the Romans; Lucan’s Civil War, a historical epic about the Roman 1^st century BCE civil war between Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar; and the Late Antique epyllia Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae and Prudentius’ Psychomachia, short epics treating, respectively, the underworld god Pluto’s kidnapping of Proserpina, and the allegorical “Battle of the Soul” between Vices and Virtues for control of the Christian soul.  

Students will learn about the epic poetic tradition, epic poetry’s generic idiosyncrasies, the imitative engagement these poems had with one another in antiquity (and their influence into the present), and the various socio-historical contexts that form a crucial backdrop for the creation of these striking and powerful poems.

Satisfies a major requirement in Classical Languages & Literature
Satisfies a major and minor requirement in Classical Studies
Satisfies a major and minor requirement in English
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement

Prerequisites & Notes
None. Students at all levels welcome.