CLAS3335 · Classical Studies

Ovid

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Ovid was one of Rome's literary rockstars, but he was also banished by the emperor Augustus for, according to him, "a poem and a mistake." In this course, we will explore Ovid's famously impish relationship with Rome's ancestral customs and the new Augustan regime, examining how Roman writers and politicians conveyed and contested national identity--sometimes cooperatively, sometimes uneasily, and sometimes in outright conflict. We will read in Latin primarily Ovid's Fasti--a poem ostensibly about the Roman calendar, but also so much more--supplemented with Latin readings of other relevant works of Augustan poetry.