Theocritus, Sicily’s most renowned poet in antiquity, has captured the island’s beauty and allure in his Idylls, offering us a window through its landscapes into the everyday life of its ancient inhabitants, including their love-affairs and disappointments, fears and hopes.

In this brief course, we will be reading Idylls 1 and 11, in which the poet paints a vivid and ever-changing picture of Sicily in his time by combining the simplicity of the lonely herdsman’s life with the complex web of myths and narratives he inherits from his classical predecessors. Follow us on a journey from Etna’s flaming peaks to the stream of Fonte Arethusa in Syracuse and to the isolated island of the Cyclops, where Polyphemus invites us to listen to his lamentation about his unfulfilled love for the beautiful nymph Galatea.

The course is open to all levels of Greek readers, although knowledge of the alphabet and basic constructions will be required. We will go through the two Idylls slowly with the main focus on the content, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for the peculiarities of the Doric idiom which the poet adopts, adapts and reinvents.

Our tutors are Dr. George Gazis (University of Durham, UK) and Dr. Chiara Blanco (University of Oxford, UK) who will lead the classes live.

Classes will be held every day from Sunday 3rd January to Friday 8th Janury from 17:00 to 19:00 CET (Central European Time). The cost of the course is 130 euros.

Contact info@exedramc.com for more details.

Apply here  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1m2iFdgiYhoh026W9Mh7t6eWz8EPzyW-rdNvXUidBMMU/viewform