Classes

The Heroides is an extraordinary collection of twenty-one letters in elegiac couplets by the poet Ovid. They represent a unique experiment with the female voice in Latin elegy, staging various heroines mostly of myth (e.g., Penelope, Medea, Ariadne) writing to their absent...

This seminar will focus on the formal structures of the epic genre. Through a comparative approach, we will study the narrative, stylistic and linguistic components of the epic genre across the Greco-Roman epic tradition. Formulae, sacrifices, arming scenes, combat and death...

This course examines literary canons, their formation over time, and the politics of canonicity, with case studies from classical antiquity, the middle ages, and the early modern period. How do models of authorship from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries differ from...

This course investigates the historical ties between the study of Classical antiquity at Harvard and slavery, and those ties' complex and enduring legacies. Areas of examination include the relationship between the ideologies of slavery in the ancient and modern worlds, the...

The aim of the class is to gain an understanding of political invective through select studies of some of the representatives of the genre primarily in Cicero. The emphasis throughout will be on Cicero's rhetorical technique and self-fashioning, his use of topoi of abuse...

This year-long course (with Latin 112b) is designed to help students develop a map of Latin literary culture. Students are allowed to take either or both halves of the course. The class prepares students to discuss Latin literature in its historical and cultural context with...

This year-long course (with Latin 112a) is designed to help students develop a map of Latin literary culture. Students are allowed to take either or both halves of the course. The class prepares students to discuss Latin literature in its historical and cultural context with...

Through close reading and discussion of key texts in the history of Roman rhetorical theory, this course will investigate the role of rhetoric in Roman society, politics, and literary culture. Selections from Cicero, De Oratore Book 3; the letters of Seneca the Younger and...

This is a rigorous introduction to Latin syntax, to the styles of Latin prose, and to the practice, history, and ideology of stylistic analysis and Latin composition. Students will contribute to a creative history of written Latin at Harvard, engaging in translation...