Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the major myths of the Metamorphoses, and the ways in which Ovid adapts already-existing epic and mythic traditions.
- Evaluate the significance of these myths within the political and cultural atmosphere of Rome in the age of Augustus.
- Research and analyse examples of ways in which these same myths are re-presented in post-classical literature and art.
- Explore the role of myth as a 'socially useful story' which comments on and attempts to explain features of the society within which it is told.
- Debate key questions about the text in tutorials, and modify their judgement based on the arguments advanced by their peers and the secondary literature.
- Recognise the processes of effective story-telling
- Analyse the literary techniques by which Ovid narrates effectively.
- Evaluate the success or otherwise of Ovid's appropriation of material from his epic predecessors.
Indicative Module Content:
Lectures will cover four cycles of myth in the poem: stories of creation and the gods (Met 1-2, Met 6); stories of Thebes (Met 3-4); stories of the Trojan War (Met 12-14); stories from Roman mythology (Met 15). Tutorials will explore the reception of these stories in post-classical literature, art and other media.