Death and the Afterlife

Undergraduate

In this course we explore competing accounts of the afterlife in Roman thought and how views of death influenced the way people lived their lives. We read mythological and philosophical accounts from a range of authors, both prose and poetry (Lucretius, Cicero, Vergil, Ovid, Livy, Lucan, Seneca), along with funereal inscriptions and curse tablets. We progress to some degree chronologically to see how views developed in response to earlier traditions. Ultimately, our goal is to appreciate and understand the complexity of the sixth book of Vergil’s Aeneid, which concludes the course. Note: we encounter some difficult topics in this course including but not limited to suicide. This course is an L5 “Bridge” course, serving as your transition from intermediate to advanced Latin. While shoring up your command of Latin grammar, our readings offer a survey of literary genres, including epic, didactic, and epistolography. LATN 2004 or the equivalent. For questions about language placement, contact James Patterson, the Language Program Director in Classics. MW 2:35pm-3:50pm