00603 - Latin Language and Literature

Learning outcomes

This course seeks to provide the skills to understand Latin and the Literature of Rome through the direct analysis of Latin texts and documents. By the end of the course, students will acquire the tools to read a text and set it in its historical and cultural context.

Course contents

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE. The myth of the Fall of Troy in Latin literature (and its modern reception)

The course seeks to analyse a number of literary rewritings of the myth of the Fall of Troy in different texts and genres of Latin literature and its artistic, literary and dramatic reception in modern culture.

Texts: analysis (of the Latin text and/or the translation) of:
Virgil (Aeneid 2.1-56; 199-245; 268-298; 486-558)
Ovid (Amores 1.1.1-4; Heroides 7.77-85; Metamorphoses 13.399-473)
Seneca (Troades 181-199; 371-408; 438-450)
Petronius (Satyricon 89)

Critical literature: the analysis of the texts is complemented by the reading of a number of critical essays.

Reception: further lectures will cover artistic (e.g. the Laocoon in the Vatican Museums), literary and dramatic (e.g. Shakespeare’s Hamlet) examples of the modern reception of the myth of the Fall of Troy.

II. CORE COURSE
- Authors: students are required to read (in translation) the entire Book 2 of Virgil’s Aeneid and of Seneca’s Troades.
- Latin language (morphology and syntax).
- Latin literature (history of Latin literature).

As for Literary History, students are required to study the history of Latin Literature, in particular, a biographical and stylistic profile of the following authors: Augustine, Apuleius, Catullus, Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepo, Ennius, Juvenal, Historia Augusta, Horace, Jerome, Livy, Livius Andronicus, Lucan, Lucilius, Lucretius, Martial, Naevius, Ovid, Petronius, Plautus, Pliny the Elder, Propertius, Quintilian, Sallust, Seneca, Suetonius, Tacitus, Terence, Varro, Virgil.

Readings/Bibliography

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Texts:
Virgil: Aeneid, Book 2, from Virgilio, Eneide, introduzione di A. La Penna, traduzione e note di R. Scarcia, Milano, Rizzoli 2002; or Virgilio, Eneide, traduzione di M. Ramous, introduzione di G.B. Conte, commento di G. Baldo, Venezia, Marsilio, 1998;
Ovid: Ovidio, Metamorfosi, a cura di N. Scivoletto, Torino, Utet (Classici latini) 2013; or Ovidio, Metamorfosi, vol. VI, a cura di P. Hardie, traduzione di G. Chiarini, Milano, Mondadori (Fondazione Valla), 2015;
Seneca: Senece, Le Troiane, a cura di F. Stok, Milano, Rizzoli, 1999.
Petronius: Petronio, Satyricon, a cura di A. Aragosti, Milano, Rizzoli, 1995.

Critical literature: at least 2 essays from this list:
G. Funaioli, Sul mito di Laocoonte in Virgilio, in Studi di letteratura antica, Bologna: Zanichelli, 1948, vol. II, 175-192; 
R. Heinze, La tecnica epica di Virgilio, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1996, 33-67; 
G. Petrone, Troia senza futuro. Il ruolo del secondo coro nelle Troades di Seneca, in Seneca e la letteratura greca e latina, Pavia: Pavia UP, 2013;
F. Stok, Introduzione a Seneca. Le Troiane, Milano: Rizzoli, 1999, 5-37.

II. CORE COURSE
Language: to read the Latin texts a good knowledge of Latin phonology, accidence and syntax is required. Suggested readings: Wheelock’s Latin by Frederic M. Wheelock and Richard A. Lafleur, Collins, New York 2005; Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Founded on Comparative Grammar by Joseph Henry Allen; James Bradstreet Greenough, Boston-London, Ginn & Co., 1904. Alternatively: I. Dionigi, E. Riganti, L. Morisi, Il latino, Bari, Laterza 2011. Further readings: A.Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Pàtron, Bologna 1998⁶.

Latin literature: G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina. Manuale storico dalle origini alla fine dell'impero romano, Firenze: Le Monnier, 2002 [English translation: G.B. Conte, Latin Literature: A History, Baltimore, The John Hopkins UP, 1994].

Teaching methods

Lectures in class, supplemented by moments of interactive teaching and seminaries.

Assessment methods

The examination consists of a viva voce exam. Students are tested on:
- their knowledge of Latin phonetics, morphology, syntax through the reading and translation of the Latin texts (see section I)
- their ability of reading and translating the analysed Latin texts
- their knowledge of Literary History
- their ability of setting in a historical and cultural context the texts analysed in class
- their ability to discuss the chosen critical readings 

The assessment criteria is thus explained:
failing grades: lack of basic linguistic knowledge and inability to produce a correct translation and interpretation of the text. Lack of knowledge of Latin literature
passing grades: language proficiency at an intermediate level; translation and literary interpretation of the texts are mostly correct, but inaccurate and lacking in autonomy
excellent grades: language proficiency at an upper-mid level; translation and interpretation of the texts are not only correct, but carried out with autonomy and precision. Good knowledge of Latin prosody and metrics.

Teaching tools

Teaching is supplemented by a seminar on Latin Morphology and Syntax (ab initio), in the first semester (from 5 October 2017).

Most texts analysed in class and further papers will be available in ‘Teaching Material’.

Office hours

See the website of Antonio Ziosi