CLA 49
Christopher B Krebs
Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:50 pm
6 weeks, 09/23 – 10/28
Virgil’s Aeneid: The Romans’ National Epic
Note from the Instructor
When Propertius, a poet of love’s exhilaration and despair and a contemporary of
Virgil’s, heard a few lines of the Aeneid, he enthused: “Give way, Roman authors; give
way, Greeks: Something greater than the Iliad is born, I know not what.” His prediction
was proved accurate: The Aeneid became an instant classic and the Roman national epic.
Composed during the early years of emperor Augustus’ reign, the poem tells in twelve
“books” the story of Aeneas: his flight, exile, sacrifices, and long-anticipated-anddelayed arrival. At the same time, it boldly adapts both the Odyssey and the Iliad, weaves
the Augustan present into the mythical past, and tells of humanity at its highest and its
lowest. The lattermost may be one reason why Aeneas’ struggle and endurance for a
higher calling have appealed to centuries of readers — long after the fall of Rome.
In the course of six weeks, we will travel with Aeneas: from the smoldering ruins
of Troy to the foundation of the Roman people. We will appreciate the poem’s literary
exquisiteness, reflect on its political ramifications, and ponder its condition humaine. We
will thus join a long, long line of readers to whom it has spoken, as a short and final look
at its afterlife will reveal.
Preliminary Syllabus (you may want to read all of the Aeneid as soon as possible; the
chapters by Otis in Week 1 and 4 are quite long)
1. Week (9/23):
Shipwrecked? Virgil, Homer, the epic tradition
1. Assignment: Please read the first “book” of the Aen. along with NELIS,
“Virgil’s library” (online), and OTIS, “The Odyssean Aeneid.”
A few questions: What can you tell me about (i) V.’s first sentence, (ii) the
structure of the Aen., (iii) the “point” of reworking a Greek poem into a Roman
one?
2. Week (9/30):
Fated. Tragedy in Virgil’s epic
2. Assignment: Please read ‘books’ 2-4 of the Aen. along with HARDIE, “Virgil
and Tragedy.”
3. Week (10/7):
Who controls the present … Politics and poetry
3. Assignment: Please read ‘books’ 5-6 of the Aen. along with TARRANT, “Poetry
and Power,” ZETZEL, “Rome and its Traditions.”
4. Week (10/14):
War and no end: The Roman Iliad.
4. Assignment: Please read ‘books’ 7-10 of the Aen. along with OTIS, “The
Iliadic Aeneid.”
CLA 49
Christopher B Krebs
Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:50 pm
6 weeks, 09/23 – 10/28
5. Week (10/21):
Of Pain and Suffering: Aeneas.
5. Assignment: Please finish (?) reading the Aen. Please also read O’HARA, “The
Unfinished Aeneid,” HAYNES, “The Classic Virgil,” and the VE entry on
“Aeneas.”
6. Week (10/28):
Dante’s Guide: Virgil’s afterlife
6. Assignment: Please read BURROW, “Virgils, from Dante to Milton,”
LIVERSIDGE, “Virgil in Art,” and, if you have time (and inclination),
MARTINDALE, “The Classic of All Europe.”
Required texts
Virgil, The Aeneid (Penguin Classics), tr. by R. Fagles.
Otis, Brooks: Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry
ISBN-10: 0143106295
ISBN-10: 0806127821
Additional bibliography
Farrell, J. and M.C.J. Putnam (eds.), A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and its Tradition.
Johnson, W. R., Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil’s Aeneid.
Martindale, C. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virgil.
Ziolkowski, T., Virgil and the Moderns (Princeton).
Grading Options
• Letter Grade - written work (as determined by the instructor) will be required
• Credit/No Credit - attendance and participation (as determined by the instructor) will
be required
• No Grade Requested- no work is required; no credit shall be received; no proof of
attendance can be provided