Description and Objectives

This course will include the translation and interpretation of various selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria.

Textbooks

Required: In Fall 2021 we will use a selection of readings from the Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria. These will be provided by the instructor.

Recommended: Students of all advanced Latin classes are urged to acquire a dictionary that will be suitable for their high school and undergraduate years. There are several options, e.g. C. T. Lewis’s Elementary Latin Dictionary (Oxford) or Collins Latin Dictionary &  Grammar (HarperCollins).

Course Requirements

To read, translate and interpret various selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria.

Course Expectations

• The student will be expected to prepare for in-class translation about 10-20 lines of Ovid’s poetry in Latin per class meeting.

Goals for Student Learning

• The student will sharpen his skill in thinking and communicating. This skill will be acquired, as it usually is, by reading some of the sharpest thinkers and communicators the world has ever known.
• The student will have such mastery of the grammar and syntax of the language, the most important tools, e.g., lexica, reference grammars and commentaries, and the most frequently encountered vocabulary, that he will be able to read classical Latin texts as literature.

Successful Students

The students successful in this course will: 

• study Latin at least fifteen minutes every day of the week, and will
• seek extra help at the first signs of difficulty, not only from the instructor, who is available before/after school and during Mass Study Hall, but also from classmates.