Advanced Readings in Latin Literature I Syllabus

Latin 41                                                                    Virgil’s Aeneid

 

Instructor: Christopher Trinacty

E-Mail: ctrinacty@amherst.edu

Office Hours: TTh 3:30-5:00 pm, by appointment

Office: Grosvenor 12

Phone: x8126

 

Course Description:

In this class we will translate a majority of Virgil’s Aeneid.  Classes will focus on explicating the intricacies of Virgil’s epic language and translating individual episodes of the poem.  We will discuss aspects of Virgil’s life and times, the mythological background to the poem, the influence of Homer and the Neoteric poets, and translation theory in an attempt to understand more fully the brilliance of the Aeneid. 

 

Required Texts:

Mynors, R.A.B. (ed.), P. Vergili Maronis Opera. Oxford.

Fagles, Robert (trans.), Virgil’s Aeneid. Penguin Classics.

Course Packet of Secondary Readings.

 

Recommended Texts:

Mahoney, Anne, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar. Focus.

Pharr, Clyde. Vergil’s Aeneid. Bolchazy-Carducci.

 

Reserve Texts:

Commentaries to a majority of the individual books are on reserve at Frost. Most of the commentaries are also in the Classics Dept. Library (Grosvenor 15), as well as in my office.  You will have to use them for the weekly commentary projects and for translation projects. You may also want to consult on-line resources such as the Virgil Project (http://vergil.classics.upenn.edu/).

 

Commentary Projects

Every week you will be assigned 10-15 lines, and you must come to class on Thursday as the “class authority” of those lines.  You will translate them and then answer questions from the class about issues such as meaning, grammar, meter, historical and literary significance, etc.  You will produce a commentary on those lines by consulting the major commentaries on the poem and finding the information that is most important to you and your understanding of the Aeneid.  I do not want you to simply copy what Austin writes for book 1 or Williams for book 5, but to synthesize their information with your own.  You must be prepared to speak about one or two points that were particularly exciting, inspiring, or interesting to you (ideally, these commentary projects will also help you start to think about possible paper topics).  I will give a sample commentary on Sept. 4.

 

 

Translation Projects

In addition, this course will investigate issues of translation and translation theory.  Three times during the semester you will substitute a translation project for the commentary project (if you find the lines you were assigned to be particularly poetic or unwieldy for commentary).   Translation projects will include your original translation of the 10-15 lines as well as two or three other translations of the same lines (Fagles, Mandelbaum, Pope, Ruden, Ahl, etc.).  In a short paper you will discuss the differences in translation and why you chose to translate the section as you did (Did you use rhyming couplets? Free verse? Prose?  Why did you translate pietas as “goodness” and not “dutiful respect”?).  We will be reading some works of translation theory in the course of the semester and I hope these will help you as you approach translating the Aeneid.  NB: we will be participating in a colloquium honoring Robert Fagles this semester, and you will be expected to read your favorite section of his translation at this colloquium.  So keep your eyes out as you read his Aeneid for particular moments that you enjoy. 

 

Grading:

Commentary and Translation Projects (total of 9 over the semester): 40%

Attendance, participation, in-class translation, and discussion: 30%

Quizzes (every Tuesday, no make-ups): 10%

Final paper (or exam): 20%

 

 

Schedule:

 

Sept. 2:  Introduction to the class.  Lecture on Virgil’s life and early works.

 

Sept. 4:  Translate Aen. 1.1-156.  Introduction to commentary project.  Read the introduction to Fagles’ Aeneid.

 

Sept. 9:  Translate Aen. 1.223-296, 441-519.  Read Anderson’s “Five Hundred Years of Rendering the Aeneid in English” (Course Packet).

 

Sept. 11:  Commentary/Translation #1.  Translate Aen. 1.643-756.  Read Michael Putnam’s “Dido’s Murals and Virgilian Ekphrasis,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 98 (1998).  Available on JSTOR.

 

Sept. 16:  Quiz #1.  Translate Aen. 2.1-56, 199-297.

 

Sept. 18:  Commentary/Translation #2.  Translate Aen. 2.453-633, 707-804.  Read Bernard Knox’s “The Serpent and the Flame:  The Imagery of the Second Book of the Aeneid.” American Journal of Philology 71 (1950).  Available on JSTOR.

 

Sept. 23:  Quiz #2.  Translate Aen. 3.1-68, 294-462.

 

Sept. 25:  Commentary/Translation #2. Translate Aen. 3.521-691.  Read Ralph Hexter’s “Imitating Troy:  A Reading of Aeneid 3” (C.P.).

 

Sept. 30:  Quiz #3.  Translate Aen. 4.1-128, 160-197.

 

Oct. 2:  Commentary/Translation #3.  Translate Aen. 4.450-667.  Read D.C. Feeney’s “The Taciturnity of Aeneas.” Classical Quarterly 33 (1983).  Available on JSTOR.

 

Oct. 7:  Quiz #4.  Translate Aen. 5.42-103, 545-663.

 

Oct. 9:  Commentary/Translation #4.  Translate Aen. 5.664-826.  Read G.K. Galinsky’s “Aeneid V and the Aeneid.”  AJP 89 (1968).  Available on JSTOR.

 

Oct. 14:  Fall Break

 

Oct. 16:  Translate Aen. 6.1-41, 679-901.

 

Oct. 21:  Quiz #5.  Translate Aen. 7.37-106, 249-372.

 

Oct. 23:  Commentary/Translation #5.  Translate Aen. 7.373-571.  Read Michael Putnam’s “Aeneid VII and the Aeneid.”  AJP 91 (1970).  Available on JSTOR.

 

Oct. 28:  Quiz #6.  Translate Aen. 8.184-368.

 

Oct. 30:  Commentary/Translation #6.  Translate Aen. 8.608-731.  Read Gransden, Ahl, and Jerome’s “Letter to Pammachius” (C.P.).

Study Questions:  

How does Virgil tie together ancient and contemporary history in Book 8?

How do Vulcan and Venus view fate?  Why does Virgil include this scene in Book 8?

Do Gransden and Ahl believe one can/should translate the Aeneid into prose?  Why or why not?

 

Nov. 4:  Quiz #7.  Translate Aen. 9.176-313.

 

Nov. 6:  Commentary/Translation #7.  Translate Aen. 9.314-502, 590-669.  Read B. Pavlock’s “Epic and Tragedy in Vergil’s Nisus and Euryalus Episode.” TAPA 115 (1985).  Available on JSTOR.

Study Questions:

How does the Nisus and Euryalus episode recall the tragedies of Euripides and the epics of Homer?  What about Sappho and Catullus?  Why does Virgil choose to incorporate this episode in his epic and why does he choose to address them as fortunati ambo (9.446)?

What is Turnus' role in this book?  How is he characterized?

What changes does Ascanius undergo in the course of Book 9?

Why does Virgil include the lament of Euryalus' mother in this book?

 

Nov. 11:  Quiz #8.  Translate Aen. 10.1-117.

 

Nov. 13:  Commentary/Translation #8.  Translate Aen. 10.689-908.  Read Denis Feeney’s “Epic Violence, Epic Order:  Killings, Catalogues, and the Role of the Reader in Aeneid 10” (C.P.).

 Study Questions:  

How does Feeney claim that Virgil offers a metaliterary reflection about epic poetry in Book 10?

What is the purpose of the council of the gods at the beginning of Book 10?

How does Virgil change our opinion of Mezentius in the course of Book 10?  Why do you think he does this?

 

Nov. 18:  Quiz #9.  Translate Aen. 11.1-99, 532-617.

 

Nov. 20:  Commentary/Translation #9.  Translate Aen. 11.618-831.  Read Valéry and Benjamin (C.P.).

Study Questions

What is the role of Camilla in Book 11 and what other characters from the Aeneid does she recall in her actions?

How does Valéry hope to unite sound and sense in his verse translations of Virgil's Eclogues?

Does Benjamin believe one can translate a work of art adequately?  What are the aims of translation?

 

Nov. 25-Nov. 27:  Thanksgiving Break

 

Dec. 2:  Quiz #10.  Translate Aen. 12.1-80, 554-649.

 

Dec. 4:  Translate Aen. 12.697-868. 

 

Dec. 9:  Translate Aen. 12.869-952. Read Michael Putnam’s “Aeneid 12: Unity in Closure” (C.P.), and Karl Galinsky’s “The Anger of Aeneas” AJP 109 (1988).  Available on JSTOR.  Final discussion of the Aeneid, translation, Fagles, Augustan poetry, etc.

 

Final Exam/Paper TBA

 

 

Final Comments

As you can probably tell, we will not be able to translate in class all the lines you are responsible for knowing.  You are expected to bring in questions each class period about lines that you find particularly difficult, and we will translate them together as a class.  Please come to my office hours if you have additional questions that we are unable to answer in class.  The weekly quizzes (5-10 lines to translate) will cover the material of the previous week (e.g. Quiz #1 will be about Aeneid 1).  Thursdays will be devoted to commentary/translation projects, additional translation, and discussion of secondary readings.  You should read Fagles’ translation each week to fill in the gaps that you are not responsible for translating as well as to get a better sense of the whole (that being said, please do not use Fagles as a crutch for your own translations).  I hope that the course will give each student a better understanding of the Aeneid as a whole, while providing a representative sample of current critical opinion of the poem.