This course covers part of Book I and all of Book II (the fall of Troy) of the Aeneid in fourteen assignments.
Jenney's Fourth Year Latin. Edited by Charles Jenney, Roger V. Scudder and David D. Coffin. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1990. (Note: The 1984 edition of this text may also be used.)
Use the maps of Italy and the Roman empire at the front of the text. You will also find it useful to have available a general work on mythology. Any one of the following paperbacks would be adequate:
Bulfinch, T. The Age of Fable. New York: Harper
& Row, 1966.
Hamilton, E. Mythology. New York: New American Library,
1942.
Wolverton, R.E. An Outline of Classical Mythology.
Totowa: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1975.
For more complete information, consult H.J. Rose's Handbook of Greek Mythology, and the bibliography in your book (pp. 402-04).
These reference materials, if not available through your local bookstore or library, may be special ordered from the Kansas Union Bookstore, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. If you place a special order, allow six weeks for delivery.
Read all your verse assignments out loud. Vergil has particularly important oral qualities. Try to listen to some recordings of Latin poetry, for example, the Caedmon record (TCp 1296) Classics of Latin Poetry and Prose. Information on meter starts on p. 407.
Write out or type all your assignments to be sent in for grading. You should go over your returned assignments and study the corrections and suggestions of the instructor. Do not submit lesson 2 until lesson 1 has been returned by your instructor. Thereafter you may submit no more than three lessons in any seven-day period. Please include an Independent Study cover sheet with every writing assignment.
You will be required to pass a midterm exam (after assignment V) and a final. Both examinations will be supervised. You will not be allowed to use study aids of any kind on these examinations. The first exam will consist of two passages from Book I to translate and some brief questions on these passages. You will need approximately one to one and one-half hours for this test. The final will contain three passages to translate (two from Book II, and one short section you have not seen); brief questions on two of the passages; and two essay questions, of which you will be asked to answer one. You will find a list of these essays following assignment XIV, so that you may begin to consider your answers to them in preparation for the final exam. Allow between two and three hours for the final.
Your final grade in this course will be determined as follows: writing assignments 50%; midterm exam 15%; final exam 35%. Note, however, that you must pass the final in order to pass the course. The formula applies only if you pass the final.
Vergil wrote his epic with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey constantly in mind. The Aeneid will mean much more to you if you have read Homer's works. Several translations are available in paperback, including R. Lattimore's and E.V. Rieu's translations of the Iliad, and E.V. Rieu's and R. Fitzgerald's version of the Odyssey.
I hope you will enjoy reading the Aeneid.