Aeneid of Virgil

Description

The Aeneid is the great national epic of ancient Rome, and one of the most important works of literature ever written. It was basic to the education of generations of Romans, and has stirred the imaginations of such writers and artists as St. Augustine, Dante, Milton, and countless others. The Aeneid represents both Virgil's tribute to Homer and his attempt to re-imagine and surpass the Homeric model. With Professor Vandiver's help and instruction, you enter fully into the gripping tale that Virgil tells.

You join Aeneas on his long journey west from ruined Troy to the founding of a new nation in Italy, and see how he weaves a rich network of compelling human themes. His poem is an examination of leadership, a study of the conflict between duty and desire, a meditation on the relationship of the individual to society and of art to life, and a Roman's reflection on the dangers—and the allure—of Hellenistic culture.

A Stand-Alone Course

Although this course makes an excellent complement to Professor Vandiver's lectures on the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is designed to stand on its own. Your encounter with the Aeneid focuses on careful, detailed examinations of the epic's background, main themes, and significant episodes. Although it is impossible to discuss every episode of Virgil's sprawling work in a course this size, with Professor Vandiver you consider all the highlights.

The first lecture provides an introduction to Virgil's Latin epic and to the plan of the course, while the second lecture covers both the mythic and literary background with which Virgil was working. Here you find an insightful summary of the legends of the Trojan War and of Romulus and Remus as well as a discussion of what scholarship can tell us about the Aeneid 's literary antecedents.

Lecture 3 provides you with a vital understanding of the historical context in which Virgil wrote, including accounts of his larger literary career, his relationship to the regime of Augustus, and his view of Roman history generally.

In Lectures 4 through 12, Professor Vandiver discusses the poem itself with clarity, economy, and enthusiasm that you are sure to find illuminating and thoroughly engaging. Throughout it all, the figure of Aeneas is never far from center stage—as fighter and lover, father and son, refugee and ruler, wanderer and founder, spellbinding storyteller, and sword-wielding man of action.

An Unforgettable Story; A Master Teacher

Whether you read the narrative of his adventures as a paean to the glories of Rome or a cautionary tale about the human costs of empire, you come to understand precisely why Tennyson called Virgil a lord of language, and lauded his special gift for golden phrase.

This course makes an excellent complement not only to Professor Vandiver's lectures on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, but also to our 48-lecture History of Ancient Rome by Professor Garrett G. Fagan of Pennsylvania State University.

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