Bible as Epic

Bible as Epic

Course Description: St Augustine (Confessions, Liber III) and St Jerome (Epistula XXII) have been among many figures of the past who have found the style of the Bible 'incultus' or 'indigna'. At various points in Latin's history, attempts have been made to meet this 'deficiency' by dressing Biblical stories in the finery of pseudo-Virgilian epic poetry. This reading course will read excerpts from three of what have been thought been to be among the more successful attempts to do this — Iuvencus' Evangeliorum Libri IV (4th century), Coelius Sedulius’ Carmen Paschale (5th century) and Marco Girolamo Vida's Christiados Libri VI (1535). We will read parallel and independent passages to assess each writer's contribution to the versification of Biblical stories as well as the development of Latin epic poetry over the span of 1200 years.

DETAILS

Level: Intermediate-Advanced Latin reading

Textbook: Instructor will provide materials. 

Sections capped at: 5 students. If the course is sold-out, please fill out this waiting-list form.

When
Thursdays, 6:00p.m. U.S. Eastern Time

Cost
$250

Enroll Now

Payment amount

Payment issues? Email us at [email protected] or click the "Message us" button.

Instructor

John Weretka

John Weretka holds undergraduate and graduate qualifications in medieval history, musicology, art history, theology, and Latin, and he recently completed a Master’s degree in Viking Studies with a thesis examining the ethnology of the ‘North’ from Tacitus to the Vínland sagas. He is completing a second Master's degree in Germanic Philology. He has taught extensively for Telepaideia, including courses on Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Donizo’s Life of Matilda of Tuscany, the works of Athanasius Kircher, texts on Hell, heresy, and apocalypse in the Middle Ages, and the Itinerarium Mentis of St Bonaventure. Perennially interested in languages, current fascinations include Old English, Classical Syriac, Old Norse, and Coptic.