Hellenic Society & Roman Society Online Course

6.00pm - 7.30pm (UK time) + recordings will be available

Christopher Tanfield: The Aeneid

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.

Christopher Tanfield has taught Classics, including the Aeneid both in Latin and in English, for twenty years; last year he published a three-volume Companion to the Aeneid in Translation (Bloomsbury). He lives not far from the Roman villa in Bradford on Avon.

• Members of the Hellenic Society and Roman Society may book at a heavily discounted rate.
• Hellenic Society and Roman Society Members: £60
• Hellenic Society and Roman Society Student Members: £30
• All Non-Members: £120
  To join or renew your subscription to the Hellenic Society or Roman Society, please visit:
  https://www.hellenicsociety.org.uk/membership/
  https://www.romansociety.org/Membership
  Lectures will be recorded and will be available for one month after the course has ended.
• After booking, and before the course starts, you will receive an email with the Zoom link and any preparatory reading.
• The course will be held on our Zoom platform. You will be able to ask questions using the chat or Q&A functions. It is not necessary to have a microphone or camera.
• Some courses will include optional additional reading / documents. If so, these will be held on Google Drive and you will be sent the link.
• Please read the Webinar Guidance which can be downloaded from here:
  https://www.hellenicandromanlibrary.org/Events before attending the course.
• If you have any queries or problems, please email Fiona Haarer (office@romansociety.org)