Ovid and Unseen Poetry

Course Overview

This course is designed to improve students' ability to translate unseen, unprepared material during the examination. We focus on Ovid, the poet set for unseen verse translation. Verse translation is often regarded as the most difficult aspect of A-Level Latin, so increasing familiarity with Ovid's work will allow students to feel much more comfortable facing the examinations. Each week we will focus on a different text by Ovid, discussing what kinds of vocabulary or syntax we might expect. Furthermore, we will build overall translation skills by thinking strategically about how to approach tricky translations. We will also discuss the social and historical context of Ovid's work so that students can appreciate the nuances of the texts.