"How the ancient poets of Greece and Rome were imagined and re-imagined"

January 3, 2015 3:06 AM

Living Poets is a Durham University website with short guides to various ancient Greek and Latin authors, such as Homer, Orpheus, Anacreon, Catullus, Ovid, and Virgil. The guides focus on the extant sources and how the authors were received in their lifetime and by later generations, avoiding the "perils of autobiography."
posted by Kattullus (6 comments total)

Ban for self link.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:34 AM on January 3, 2015 [12 favorites]

Wow that section on Aristophanes is TIGHT. Love it.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:38 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ancient Rome is literally the best.

after Nero called an unnecessary meeting simply in order to pour cold water over a performance of Lucan’s poetry, the young poet, incensed, engaged in a sustained programme of self-sabotage. Not least of his actions was farting loudly in the public toilets while reciting one of Nero’s own verses: sub terris tonuisse putes, ‘you would think thunder had broken out under the earth’.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:41 AM on January 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

Where's Sappho?
posted by Carol Anne at 6:49 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ah, Lucan.
Nice post and I now have a back log which is good.
posted by clavdivs at 7:17 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not least of his actions was farting loudly in the public toilets while reciting one of Nero’s own verses: sub terris tonuisse putes, ‘you would think thunder had broken out under the earth’.

A master oratist utilizes every orifice.
posted by homunculus at 12:30 AM on January 4, 2015 [1 favorite]