Setting a capstone on the treatment of classical epic that she began with her extraordinary

lectures on Homer, Professor Elizabeth Vandiver has created this masterful course on
Virgil.
The Aeneid is the great national epic of ancient Rome, and one of the most important
works of literature ever written. It was basic to the education of generations of Romans,
and has stirred the imaginations of such writers and artists as St. Augustine, Dante,
Chaucer, Brueghel the Elder, Milton, Rubens, Tennyson, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot.
A Gripping Tale
The Aeneid represents both Virgil's tribute to Homer and his attempt to re-imagine and
surpass the Homeric model. With Professor Vandiver's help and instruction, you enter
fully into the gripping tale that Virgil tells.
You join Aeneas on his long journey west from ruined Troy to the founding of a new
nation in Italy, and see how he weaves a rich network of compelling human themes. His
poem is an examination of leadership, a study of the conflict between duty and desire, a
meditation on the relationship of the individual to society and of art to life, and a Roman's
reflection on the dangers—and the allure—of Hellenistic culture.
A Stand-Alone Course
Although this course makes an excellent complement to Professor Vandiver's lectures on
the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is designed to stand on its own. Your encounter with the
Aeneid focuses on careful, detailed examinations of the epic's background, main themes,
and significant episodes. Although it is impossible to discuss every episode of Virgil's
sprawling work in a course this size, with Professor Vandiver you consider all the
highlights.
The first lecture provides an introduction to Virgil's Latin epic and to the plan of the
course, while the second lecture covers both the mythic and literary background with
which Virgil was working. Here you find an insightful summary of the legends of the
Trojan War and of Romulus and Remus as well as a discussion of what scholarship can
tell us about the Aeneid 's literary antecedents.
Lecture 3 provides you with a vital understanding of the historical context in which Virgil
wrote, including accounts of his larger literary career, his relationship to the regime of
Augustus, and his view of Roman history generally.
In Lectures 4 through 12, Professor Vandiver discusses the poem itself with clarity,
economy, and enthusiasm that you are sure to find illuminating and thoroughly engaging.
Throughout it all, the figure of Aeneas is never far from center stage—as fighter and
lover, father and son, refugee and ruler, wanderer and founder, spellbinding storyteller,
and sword-wielding man of action.
An Unforgettable Story; A Master Teacher
Whether you read the narrative of his adventures as a paean to the glories of Rome or a
cautionary tale about the human costs of empire, you come to understand precisely why
Tennyson called Virgil a lord of language, and lauded his special gift for golden phrase.
This course makes an excellent complement not only to Professor Vandiver's lectures on
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, but also to our 48-lecture History of Ancient Rome by
Professor Garrett G. Fagan of Pennsylvania State University.