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Instruction Language: Latin
Day & Time: Saturdays, 10:30–12:00 EDT / 16:30–18:00 CET/CEST.
Course Duration:
Start Date: June 6, 2026
End Date: August 22, 2026
Lesson Structure:
Duration: 90 minutes per session
Total Instructional Hours: 18 hours total
Abstract: This twelve-week seminar explores a curated selection of narratives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, contextualizing them within the Roman literary landscape and tracing their enduring influence on Medieval and Early Modern art, music, and literature.
Comprehensive Description: This course offers a comprehensive introduction to one of the most celebrated works of Latin literature: Ovid's Metamorphoses. An epic poem of fifteen books composed in dactylic hexameter, it weaves together over two hundred myths of transformation drawn from the Greek and Roman traditions. Students will engage with selected stories directly in the original Latin, developing reading fluency while analyzing Ovid's characteristically witty, inventive, and psychologically acute style. The course situates each narrative within the Augustan world, examining Ovid’s relationship to predecessors such as Virgil and Lucretius. A distinctive feature of this seminar is its focus on the "afterlife" of Ovidian mythology; participants will trace how these narratives reverberated across later cultural productions, from Renaissance painting and opera to Medieval theater.
Language Level:
Framework Reference: Designed for students who have completed Roma Aeterna up to Chapter 41 or possess an equivalent intermediate proficiency.
General Description: Intermediate. Intended for students who can read simple Latin prose with comfort and are prepared to engage in active dialogue.
Estimated Self-Study Time:
Time Commitment: 3–4 hours per week.
Preparation Type: Participants are expected to complete a preliminary reading of the primary Latin text and assigned secondary scholarship prior to each session.
Required Textbooks:
Primary Text: Peter Jones, Reading Ovid: Stories from the Metamorphoses (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Disclaimer: The acquisition of the physical or digital textbook is mandatory for course attendance. Please ensure you have your copy before the first session.
Further Reading:
Philip Hardie, Ovid and the Metamorphoses (Cambridge, 2002).
Stephen Hinds, Allusion and Intertext: Dynamics of Appropriation in Roman Poetry (Cambridge, 1998).
Alison Keith, Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic (Cambridge, 2000).
Gianpiero Rosati, Ovid (Oxford, 2016).
Instruction Language: Latin
Day & Time: Saturdays, 10:30–12:00 EDT / 16:30–18:00 CET/CEST.
Course Duration:
Start Date: June 6, 2026
End Date: August 22, 2026
Lesson Structure:
Duration: 90 minutes per session
Total Instructional Hours: 18 hours total
Abstract: This twelve-week seminar explores a curated selection of narratives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, contextualizing them within the Roman literary landscape and tracing their enduring influence on Medieval and Early Modern art, music, and literature.
Comprehensive Description: This course offers a comprehensive introduction to one of the most celebrated works of Latin literature: Ovid's Metamorphoses. An epic poem of fifteen books composed in dactylic hexameter, it weaves together over two hundred myths of transformation drawn from the Greek and Roman traditions. Students will engage with selected stories directly in the original Latin, developing reading fluency while analyzing Ovid's characteristically witty, inventive, and psychologically acute style. The course situates each narrative within the Augustan world, examining Ovid’s relationship to predecessors such as Virgil and Lucretius. A distinctive feature of this seminar is its focus on the "afterlife" of Ovidian mythology; participants will trace how these narratives reverberated across later cultural productions, from Renaissance painting and opera to Medieval theater.
Language Level:
Framework Reference: Designed for students who have completed Roma Aeterna up to Chapter 41 or possess an equivalent intermediate proficiency.
General Description: Intermediate. Intended for students who can read simple Latin prose with comfort and are prepared to engage in active dialogue.
Estimated Self-Study Time:
Time Commitment: 3–4 hours per week.
Preparation Type: Participants are expected to complete a preliminary reading of the primary Latin text and assigned secondary scholarship prior to each session.
Required Textbooks:
Primary Text: Peter Jones, Reading Ovid: Stories from the Metamorphoses (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Disclaimer: The acquisition of the physical or digital textbook is mandatory for course attendance. Please ensure you have your copy before the first session.
Further Reading:
Philip Hardie, Ovid and the Metamorphoses (Cambridge, 2002).
Stephen Hinds, Allusion and Intertext: Dynamics of Appropriation in Roman Poetry (Cambridge, 1998).
Alison Keith, Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic (Cambridge, 2000).
Gianpiero Rosati, Ovid (Oxford, 2016).
