In this intermediate-level Latin course, students will continue to develop their facility with the Latin language and their understanding of Roman literary history through a reading of selections of Latin lyric and elegiac poetry, two corpora that are both heavily influenced by earlier Greek models and show a remarkable degree of Roman ingenuity. The work of Horace and Catullus will provide an entry point into this fascinating material. We will then turn to work by the elegists Propertius and Tibullus, as well as shorter poems by Ovid. Throughout the course, we will also be investigating a number of questions. What is lyric poetry, and to what extent must Latin lyric poetry be read as a continuation of the Greek lyric tradition? How do Roman authors take Greek models and rework them to address the interests of their contemporary audience? How and for whom were these poems performed, and how does this affect the way we read this corpus? To facilitate our discussion we will be reading translations of a number of Greek lyric songs and of Latin lyric poetry by Seneca and Statius, some examples of modern lyric, and scholarly literature. In addition to our daily reading in Latin, we will undertake a careful review of Latin grammar, as well as long-term translation and commentary assignments. |