Why Read Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the 22nd Century?

Wednesday, December 2, 2015
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Lecture Hall, Journalism School

No, this is not a misprint. We may live in the 21st century, but the Metamorphoses captures vital areas of human experience, changeability and volatility that will be as alive in the 22nd century as they are in our own century, and as they were in Ovid’s own times. Our conversation is intended as a stimulus towards thinking about why we might want to read so old a book in our new age. All of us have access to amazing gadgets that give knowledge at the push of a button; but perhaps we shall come to agree that one of the first information systems that gave broad, instant and accurate world knowledge was Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a.k.a. Windows 1.0, first produced in 5 CE.

Biography

Gareth Williams has taught at Columbia since 1992. He is a Professor of Classics, specialist in Latin literature, especially Ovid, but also in the Stoic philosophical writings of Seneca, that poisonous power before the throne of the still more odious Nero. His interests extend now to the Renaissance in Venice, and to Classical reception in 15th century Venetian cultural circles.