Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Spring 2007 | Paper 2

Due Saturday, March 24th 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Maximum Length 1700 words

  1. Consider Aeneas' character in relation to that of one other major figure in the AeneidDido, Turnus, or Juno. For example, you might consider questions arising from the following. In Book IV of the Aeneid, Aeneas explains to Dido why he must leave Carthage, concluding: "It is not / my own free will that leads to Italy" (IV, 491-92). This might be taken simply to glorify Aeneas' pietas, and to offer Aeneas as a paradigm of a new conception of heroism, perhaps one adapted to the particular conditions of Roman society and the empire. But Aeneas' character is not one-sided: he must struggle with himself and "[press] / care back within his breast" (IV, 447) when he makes his explanation.

  2. Virgil very openly models his foundational epic of Rome on the two great epics of Homer. Compare one specific aspect of Virgil's retelling of a portion of the Iliad to the original, e.g. the shields, the games, the battle between Hector and Achilles (Turnus and Aeneas), the Homeric simile. How does Virgil adapt the original, and to what ends?

  3. Often in Ovid's Metamorphoses, episodes conclude, after several disorienting transformations, with a final transformation that places a character within a larger ordernatural order, social order, cosmic order, etc. (For example in "Apollo and Daphne" Daphne is transformed into a tree; but, according to Apollo, she will produce the laurel leaves that in the form of a wreath "shall attend the conquering lords of Rome / When joy shouts triumph and the Capitol / Welcomes the long procession. . . ") Focusing upon two or three episodes, consider the significance of order in Ovid.

  4. Compare Seneca's account of the Happy Life to that put forward by Aristotle. Why might Seneca's be more suited to aristocratic life in Rome under the late Julio-Claudian emperors?

  5. Latin literature of the Silver Age (14-140 CE) is often characterized as challenging its audience through its moral ambiguity. Is there a set of moral values at the heart of Tacitus' Annals (as, say, there are for Livy's Rise of Rome and Herodotus' Histories)? If so, what is it? If not, how then does Tacitus' work meet a core requirement of classical histories, that they be morally instructive?

  6. In consultation with your instructor, devise a topic of your own.