General Instructions for Responses
You may develop your own topic rather than choosing one of the topics below, as long as you discuss this with me in advance.
Choose 1 topic to write your response on:
1. Write a diary/journal entry for a minor character (not Aeneas, Dido, Turnus, or one of the main gods) in the Aeneid describing and analyzing what you imagine to be their reactions to the events they experience in the epic.
2. Write a diary/journal entry for a female character in Statius' Thebaid or Achilleid describing and analyzing what you imagine to be their reactions to the events they experience in the epic.
3. As Aeneas travels from Troy to Italy he stops in various places. He meets both fellow Trojan exiles who have settled somewhere (as in Buthrotum in Aeneid 3), and also others who are not ex-Trojans (e.g. Dido and her Tyrians in Aeneid 4) but offer Aeneas a place to live. Imaginatively putting yourself in Aeneas' place as a wandering exile – and being reluctant to fulfill your (supposed) destiny – where would you choose to settle among the places he stops during his journey to Italy? Be sure to argue for your choice based on what we learn of this place and its settlers in the Aeneid.
4. Using Aeneas' predicament as a sometimes hesitant hero of destiny & history as a point of comparison (and drawing on the text of the Aeneid), assess an experience in your own life in which your personal desire came into conflict with what you saw as your duty to a group (for example, family, organization, employment situation, community, country).
5. Describe how you would film a particular episode of the Aeneid (for example, the Fall of Troy in Aeneid 2, a battle scene, or the epic's ending) for an audience today. What thematic or aesthetic aspects of the scene and/or aspects of its characters would you want to highlight, and what cinematic techniques would you use to accomplish your aims?
6. If you were commissioned to do a Netflix version of the Aeneid consisting of 6 episodes, outline – always giving your rationale and justifications for your choices – what events of the epic you would treat in the series in an effort to capture what you think are the Aeneid's essential themes and ideas (be sure to articulate what you think these are).
7. Write an imaginative essay (in diary/journal form if you prefer) explaining why Achilles agrees to, and spends so much time pretending to be female in Statius' Achilleid. Be sure to use evidence from the epic to support your ideas.