On Trinacrian Shores: The Mythological Landscapes of Sicily in Virgil’s Poetry’

This seminar explores the relationship between Rome and Sicily by demonstrating the striking degree to which landscape and associated features determined Roman discourse about this island in the first century BC. This is particularly true in the works of Virgil, whose Aeneid and Eclogues present a Sicily that engages with contemporary Roman conceptions of the island. Through the analysis of key Sicilian landscapes in these two works this seminar demonstrates how Virgil interacts with, and reinforces, the conceptions of his contemporary audiences.