The role of Catullus and his poetry in political and personal rivalries in the late Roman Republic.

Exploring the classical world - Audio

Catullus - political worlds

Exploring the classical world

Reading' classical texts and the differing philosophies of translation, with a dramatised example from the Lattimore translation of Homer's Odyssey.

Interpreting Homer

Metaphor, imagery, characterisation and the portrayal of strong emotion in Homer's Odyssey, with dramatised excerpts from book iv.

Homer's people

The power of the Gods and the nature of Homeric heroes, including a reading from the original Greek and dramatisations from Odyssey book v.

Homer's world

Comparing and evaluating translations of Homer, focusing on Lattimore, and the difficulties and decisions involved.

Homer - lost in translation?

Different approaches to recreating the original Homeric experience in prose, poetry and on stage.

Homer - translation through recreation

The love poetry of Catullus and his place in contemporary Roman society, with readings in Latin and translation.

Catullus - poetic voices

The sounds and rhythms of Latin poetry, focusing on the Alcaic form with readings from Horace's ode 3.6.

The Alcaic stanzas of Horace

The sounds and rhythms of Roman Elegiac poetry, with readings in Latin and translation.

Exploring Roman elegiac poetry

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Exploring the classical world introduces texts by Homer, Horace, Juvenal and others, placing them in their social and political context and assessing their value as historical sources.  Readings in the original Latin or Greek and in translation illustrate the metric structures used and the challenges of effectively recreating these works in modern English. The material is drawn from The Open University course A219 Exploring the classical world