O Muse, not you who upon Helicon
garland your brow with long-since faded bays,
but you who among heavenly choirs don
your golden crown of deathless stars always,
breathe in my breast celestial fire, shed on
my song your light.
Torquato Tasso, The Liberation of Jerusalem
The canon of Western literature is not so much a list of books that everyone needs to check off as a conversation among the authors of the past. We read Aristotle, Boethius, and Aquinas, and our encounter with Aquinas is richer because we have, like him, read Aristotle and Boethius, and we read Aristotle differently because we read him with Boethius and Aquinas as our co-readers. But sometimes in a conversation, a topic comes up that later gets dropped: the flow of the conversation leads away from it, and even though maybe everyone was excited to talk about it, it gets lost. This has also happened in the conversation that is Western literature.
This course aims to bring six of the most important of these neglected works back to our attention. These works have, more often than not, been as universally studied as Beowulf is now. Giants of the conversation like Dante and Shakespeare were deeply influenced by them and considered them among the greatest works of human genius. This is a rare opportunity to get caught up several essential aspects of Western culture.
Each one brings something unique. Here is a brief introduction to each work and its place in the conversation:
Mondays, 7:00-9:00 pm CT
January 6 - August 4
$1300 ($650 for members)
or purchase individual modules (half price for members):
- Greek Epic: Pseudo-Homer, Achilleid, and Argonautica: $350
- Latin Epic: Thebaid: $350
- English Epic: The Fairie Queene: $400
- Italian Epic: Liberation of Jersualem: $400
The Battle Between the Mice and the Frogs is an epic poem on the model of the Iliad, for a long time attributed to Homer. It was the first Greek book published in Germany, in 1513, and played an important role in the re-introduction of Greek on a large scale during the Renaissance. It is, essentially, an ancient children's book, one that prepared little ones for the epic poetry to come. We will be reading it in an edition charmingly illustrated by Grant Silverstein.
January 6, 2025
The Achilleid is an epic by the great Latin poet Statius that aims to tell the whole life of Achilles (as opposed to the tiny snapshot we get in the Iliad). Statius was held in such esteem by Dante that he takes over guiding the pilgrim in The Divine Comedy after Vergil can go no further. Though this poem was unfinished at the time of the poet's death, we see Achilles' early life and training with the centaur Chiron and the famous incident where his mother disguises him as a woman. Besides Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Spenser were deeply influenced by this poem.
January 13, 2025
The Argonautica tells the journey of Jason and the Argonauts to steal the golden fleece. This is one of the most beloved of classical myths, yet we don't read a primary source for it any more. This late Hellenic epic has a more melancholy quality than other Greek epics, and features important heroes like Orpheus and Hercules. It was one of the most important influences on Latin poetry, and was the model for the Aeneid.
January 20, February 10 - 24, 2025
Statius' masterwork is his great epic about the war at Thebes between Oedipus' two sons, Eteocles and Polynices. The Thebaid tells the story of the Theban War, which is a sort of World War I to the Trojan War's World War II (the fathers of many of the Trojan heroes fought before the walls of Thebes). This is the second most important Latin epic, and was widely read and adored in the Middle Ages. It fell out of favor in the 19th century for political reasons external to the text. It may not be as good as the Aeneid; but if it isn't, it's awfully close.
March 10 - April 14, 2025
Edmund Spenser's Fairie Queene is the third longest poem in English, and one of the most influential. It is a series of allegories following knights, representing different virtues, as they quest through Fairyland. A major influence on all subsequent writers about Fairyland including Tolkien, it was adapted more than 20 times into versions readable by children, and excerpts its stories published separately in fairy tale collections. It is, in a sense, the progenitor of all fantasy literature. We will be reading it in the new prose edition by Sky Turtle Press.
April 28 - June 9, 2025
We will finish with the Renaissance Italian epic The Liberation of Jerusalem by Torquato Tasso. It has inspired more art than any other single book. It tells the story of the first Crusade, culminating in the capture of Jerusalem. Although the author is clearly partial to the Christian side, the Muslims are treated sympathetically and nobly, and with a surprising amount of psychological insight. Spenser's Fairie Queene and Milton's Paradise Lost are indebted to it, and Shakespeare borrows turns of phrase from it. The 20th century was the first not to have widely recognized its supreme genius.
June 23 - August 4, 2025
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Participating in a course led by Dr. Junius Johnson is a wonderful journey of exploration, seeking hidden gems in unexpected places. It is an opportunity to learn to look deeper than the surface, both in reading and in the mundane of life. A delightful feast for the mind that lasts far beyond the actual banquet.
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I came to the C.S. Lewis’ Cosmic Trilogy class with an expectation of academic rigor, thoughtful teaching, and imagination-opening conversation. Dr. Johnson delivered this and more! He brought these texts alive in a way that I could not have imagined, and he made me think about implications for my life. This class took me far beyond a simple reading of the text, into a world of wonder and a desire for deeper understanding of the great mysteries of our world and the stories that we tell about them.
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Every time I hear Junius Johnson speak, I walk away asking: "Did I forget how exciting and joyful the life of the mind can be?”
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A deep perspective on the human need for wonder, and the essential desire for things powerful and uncontrollable.