"Would That Never" I: Ships, Shipwrecks, and Sea Travel in Classical Literature
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The Poetic Logic of Sea Imagery in Horace's Odes. Adrienne Aranita, Bryn Mawr College
There exists in the Odes a system of sea imagery that is inextricably linked to madness and emotional instability. The love triangle between man, woman and crowd in Horace’s Odes is set against and built upon the very Roman poetic tradition of stormy, unstable sea-crowd metaphors.
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Two-part Harmony: Nautical Concord and Strife in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica. Darcy Krasne, University of California, Berkeley
In Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, Argus tends to the Argo's physical integrity and Orpheus oversees the oars' harmonious movement. They both ensure freedom from strife, threatened especially by the remi ("oars"), which recall Romulus' brother, Remus, and Rome's origins in fratricide.
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Shipwreck Narratives and the Reinvention of Self in Homer, Shakespeare, and Defoe. James Morrison, Centre College
This talk explores Homer’s Odyssey, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. While resulting in destruction, loss, and isolation, literary shipwrecks also offer the opportunity for personal transformation or a change in political and social status.
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Poetic Authority and Shipwreck in Horace's Carmen 1.5. Christopher Vacca, Bryn Mawr College
In the opening poems of his Odes, Horace repeatedly refers to the threatening force of the sea. This threat culminates in the poet’s shipwreck in 1.5, and through this account of his own experience Horace establishes his poetic authority, which he as poet-advisor exercises throughout the Odes.
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