Course
description: Persius' notorious Satires
are often condemned, but rarely read. This course will take students through the
entirety of his short corpus, with special attention to the insights to be gained from Roman Stoicism, ancient theories of metaphor,
the poet's persona, Persius' debts to didactic, satire as culinary smorgasbord, the dangers of pleasure in reading, and the influence
of Horace's Ars Poetica and Sermones.
Along the way, we will absorb Persius' truly outrageous imagery: poetry recitations as acts
of buggery, moral failings recast as warts and dropsy, and self-depilating politicians on display. Please expect to translate in class
regularly and to read extensive primary and secondary material.
Requirements: six translation quizzes, one oral presentation, seminar paper of 18-20 pages.
Online Latin texts are available at www.thelatinlibrary.com.
Class times: Classes go from 2.30-5.00 pm with a 10 minute break.
Week 1. Wed Jan. 4 Introduction
Romans on the history of satire
Suetonius’ Life of Persius
Interpreting the choliambs
Class reading: in Latin: The choliambic Prologue to the Satires
Suetonius, Life of Persius (handout)
* Due to the annual APA meeting in
Week 2. Jan. 11 Satirists on Satire
Read: in Latin: Persius, Satire 1 (135 ll.)
Horace, Ars Poetica
In English (or Latin if you prefer): Seneca, EM 114; English text available online at
http://www.stoics.com/seneca_epistles_book_3.html#‘CXIV1
In the secondary material:
Dessen, “Satire 1,” 23-38
Bramble, Persius and the Programmatic Satire, 16-23
Hooley, Chapter 1, "The Ars Poetica of Persius."
Translation quiz 1 today (all materials read in Latin)
Week 3. Jan. 18 Satire 2 and Persian metapoetics
Read: in Latin: Persius, Satire 2 (75 ll.)
Juvenal, Satire 10
Horace, Odes 3.23
In English: [Plato]’s second Alcibiades, available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/2lcbd10.txt
In the secondary material:
Freudenburg, Satires
of
Translation quiz 2 today (all new materials read in Latin)
Week 4. Jan. 25 Satire 3. The satirist as doctor.
Read: in Latin, Persius, Satire 3 (118 ll.)
In the secondary material:
Arrowsmith, “Luxury and Death in the Satyricon.” Arion 5 (1966) 304-31.
Reckford, Kenneth J. (1998) “Reading the Sick Body: Decomposition and Morality in Persius’ Third Satire.” Arethusa 31: 337-54 (available online at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arethusa/v031/31.3reckford.html)
Translation quiz 3 today (all new materials read in Latin)
Week 5. Feb. 1 Satire 4. Structures of self-knowledge.
Read: in Latin: Persius, Satire 4
In the secondary material:
Plato, Alcibiades I (in English)
Littlewood (2002) “Integer
ipse? Self-Knowledge and
Self-Representation in Persius Satires
4.”
Bartsch, “The philosopher’s body” from The Mirror of the Self.
Issues: What is the relationship of this satire to the 1st Alcibiades?
Who plays the role of Socrates?
How do sexuality and philosophy interact here?
Can a dialogue with oneself lead to self-knowledge?
Translation quiz 4 today (all new materials read in Latin)
Week 6. Feb. 8 Metaphor, philosophy, poetry.
Read: in Greek or English: Plutarch, Quomodo adulescens poetas audire debeat
In Latin: Lucretius, DRN 1.935-50 = 4.1-25
In English: Handout of ancient comments on the uses of metaphor
In the secondary material:
Nussbaum, Martha C. (1993) "Poetry and the Passions: Two Stoic Views." In Martha C. Nussbaum and Jacques Brunschwig,
eds., Passions and
Perceptions, pp. 97-149.
Clay, Diskin.(1998) Paradosis and Survival 161-73, “An Anatomy of Lucretian Metaphor”
Week 7. Feb. 15 Satire 5: Metaphors of instruction
In Latin: Persius, Satire 5 (191 ll.)
Horace, Sat. 1.4
In the secondary material:
Gowers, Loaded Table, 180-99
Habinek (1992) “An Aristocracy of Virtue: Seneca on the Beginnings of Wisdom.” Yale Classical Studes 29: 187-203.
Bramble, Persius and the Prog. Satire, 2-12
Translation quiz 5 today (all new materials read in Latin)
Week 8. Feb. 22 Satire 6
Read: in Latin, Persius Satire 6 (81 ll.)
Horace Ep. 2.2
In the secondary material:
Freudenberg, Satires of
Dessen, “Satire 6” 78-92.
In-class reports start this week (1)
Translation quiz 6 today (all new materials read in Latin)
Week 9: Mar. 1 Persius after his time
The Persius scholia and ancient interpretation. A brief look at the satires in the Middle Ages.
Read in English: Zetzel, Marginal Scholarship and Textual Deviance: The Commentum Cornuti
and the Early Scholia on Persius, pages TBA.
Read in Latin: Commentum Cornuti in Persium, pages TBA.
In-class reports continue (2)
Week 10. Mar. 8
In-class reports only (3 and 4)
Session at Shadi’s house: final reports, sausage-eating, and general Persi-an activity.
Final seminar papers are due Monday, March 13th.