CL5422
The Expansion of the Afterlife
2016-2017
30
15
SCQF level 11
2
Academic year(s): 2016-2017
SCOTCAT credits : 30
ECTS credits : 15
Level : SCQF level 11
Semester: 2
Planned timetable:
The Underworld in the sixth book of Virgil's Aeneid is infinitely more complex than that of Homeric epic. What kinds of factors contributed to such change? In this module we shall read two key epic texts, separated by some c. 800 years, namely Homer, Odyssey 11, and Virgil; Aeneid 6. We shall examine some of the intervening trends in ancient thought, from the development of 'science' with the Presocratic philosophers, thorugh Mystery-religions, to Plato and his reception in the late Roman Republic. We shall discuss which of these trends made the greatest impact on the picture of he epic Underworld between Homer and Virgil.