In the first semester students will approach poems about the same topos of the descent to the underworld treated by different authors from different ages. Thanks to the analysis of a wide anthology of poems, students will learn how to recognize some of the recurring features of poetic Latin and will become aware of some of the key elements that made this language process develop. In the second semester students will approach a comedy by Plautus, learning the rich complexity of the Archaic theatre and becoming aware of all the problems of this kind of theatre. 

During the first semester the course will be focused on the topos of the descent to the underworld in Latin poetry, starting from the Virgilian Georgics and Aeneid, where the descent to Hades by Orpheus and Aeneas is described. Then the study will move on to Ovid, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Claudian and other authors who imitated or revised this model. In the second semester students will read the Captivi by Plautus and learn the linguistic, stylistic and dramatic features of this comedy. Specific attention will be paid to the philological problems arising from the manuscript tradition and to the dramatic aspects, closely related, as in all Plautus comedies, to the text. Students will also study the translation variants, also in perspective of a representation of the Captivi in the theatre today.

Students will develop the ability to produce their own translations – of both poetic and theatrical texts - on the basis of the critical skills acquired.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

The course will host seminars about the reception of the descent to the underworld theme in modern and contemporary culture and metric tutorials about the dactylic hexameter. 

Teaching

Lectures, seminars, tutorials.

Attendance

Students must attend at least 2/3 of the classes.

Course books

The main texts will be proposed in the following critical editions: P. Vergili Maronis, Opera, recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford 1969. P. Ovidii Nasonis, Metamorphoses, ed. W. S. Anderson, Leipzig 1988. T. Maccius Plautus, Captivi, ed. A. Torino, Sarsinae et Urbini 2013. Students will also study the following essays: A. Lunelli, La lingua poetica latina, Bologna 1988; Ch. Segal, Orfeo. Il mito del poeta, Torino 1995 (Orpheus. The Myth of the Poet, Baltimore 1989); C. Questa-R. Raffaelli, Un profilo di Plauto, in R. Raffaelli (a cura di), Tuttoplauto, Urbino 2014, pp. 11-46. Students are expected to know, at least theoretically, the dactylic hexameter; refer to S. Boldrini, La prosodia e la metrica dei Romani, Roma 1992.

Assessment

Oral exam. Students must be able to translate and analyze all the texts studied during the classes.

Students can take a written test at the end of the first semester evaluated as a portion of the oral exam at the end of the course.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Course books

Non-attending students must demonstrate the ability to translate the VI Book of the Aeneid by Vergil and the Captivi by Plautus (critical editions: P. Vergili Maronis, Opera, recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford 1969; T. Maccius Plautus, Captivi, ed. A. Torino, Sarsinae et Urbini 2013). Students will also study the following essays: A. Lunelli, La lingua poetica latina, Bologna 1988; Ch. Segal, Orfeo. Il mito del poeta, Torino 1995 (Orpheus. The Myth of the Poet, Baltimore 1989); R. Raffaelli, Esercizi plautini, Urbino 2008; C. Questa-R. Raffaelli, Un profilo di Plauto, in R. Raffaelli (a cura di), Tuttoplauto, Urbino 2014, pp. 11-46. Students are expected to know, at least theoretically, the dactylic hexameter; refer to S. Boldrini, La prosodia e la metrica dei Romani, Roma 1992.

Assessment

Oral exam.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.