Note: This course has two sections: one online (Tuesdays) and one in-person (Thursdays). The course content is identical. Members may only sign up and only attend one version.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses has long been the most popular source of classical mythology – the stories of Pygmalion, Pyramus and Thisbe, Jupiter and Europa, Apollo and Daphne, Vulcan, Venus, Mars, and many more. Members will be reading the Metamorphoses during the semester – not all the stories, but enough of them to give a sense of the whole followed by discussion about the ways in which the stories have been interpreted through the years. Then, the course will discuss medieval and Renaissance art based on the stories: Veronese’s “Mars and Venus,” Titian’s “Two Venuses,” Pietro Perugino’s, “Apollo and Marsyas,” Titian’s “Rape of Europa,” paintings by Botticelli and Cranach, sculptures by Bernini – and even some Pre-Raphaelite things. Each week members will be notified in advance as to what stories will be discussed, so that they can read the relevant portions of the Metamorphoses. This reading will be helpful and rewarding, but not necessary.