Latin Didactic

This option involves the detailed study of Books 3 and 6 of Lucretius' De rerum natura, the whole of Virgil's Georgics, and Book 3 of Ovid's Ars Amatoria, with supplementary reading from Lucretius I, Hesiod Works and Days, Aratus Phaenomena 1-136, 733-1154. In the examination, translation and comment will be required only from the texts of the first group. The aim is to explore the three major didactic poems of the late Republic / early Empire in relation to each other and against the background of the didactic tradition. What is it that these poems ‘teach’? What themes and preoccupations are shared by these apparently very different didactics, and how does each react to its predecessor? How does all this relate to our view of Roman culture and politics at the moment of transition from Republic to Empire? And how can technical or quasi-technical material make poetry? Close reading will be required, in particular to answer the last question.

P. Toohey, Epic Lessons (London 1996); K. Volk, The Poetics of Latin Didactic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius (Oxford 2002).