Class Introduction: neuterque et uterque

Salvete!

It’s Magistris McIntire here again! I can’t believe Academy is starting in a little more than a week! I’m excited to be returning to Randolph-Macon College’s campus for another summer. As you’re starting to pack your bags, I wanted to let you know some more about my class: neuterque et uterque.

We will mainly be translating the transformations of Iphis & Caenus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. We will discuss how Ovid depicts our characters compared to his other transformations. After translating, we will examine ancient statues, frescoes, and pottery of our stories and their significance. Then, we will be comparing Ovid’s depictions to other sources like Plato’s Symposium, Pliny the Elder, and previous versions of these myths from Greek sources. In the end we will compare the transformations themselves and discuss what this tells us about ancient perceptions of transformation.

We will be asking questions like:
Why did Ovid choose these stories? 
Why did Ovid make certain changes from previous versions of these stories? 
What do these depictions tell us about how ancient Roman society viewed these characters?
Which characters are more accepted in Roman society?