Petronius' Satyricon and Apuleius' The Golden Ass are two novels from ancient Rome, filled with characters from all walks of life, from aristocrats to professors to poets to former slaves to robbers to ghosts and werewolves and even a human in a donkey's body who returns to his original form and becomes a priest of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Their wild and sometimes preposterous plots range from magic spells and love triangles to an outlandish dinner party to the tale of Cupid and Psyche, the ancestor of the Beauty and the Beast. We'll look at the novel as a literary genre and its relationship to satire, epic, and comedy; its potential audiences in the ancient world; the language of the characters; the real life behind the narratives; and the reception of the Roman novel in modern literature and film, such as Fellini Satyricon.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 18

Prerequisites: LAT 202 (or equivalent) or a 300-level Latin course, or Wellesley's Latin placement questionnaire.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered; Spring