Epic Lessons

by Peter Toohey

Didactic Epic was enormously popular in the ancient world. It was used to teach Greeks and Romans technical and scientific subjects, but in verse. Epic Lessons shows how this scientific poetry was intended not just to instruct but also to entertain.

Praise for its predecessor, Reading Epic

'Toohey's erudition makes the complexities and the strangeness of these ancient poems appear as clear as daylight and his enthusiasm renders them as attractive as the latest blockbuster.' - JACT Review

282 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 1996

About the author

Peter Toohey, the author of Boredom: A Lively History and Melancholy, Love and Time, is professor of classics in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Calgary with a special interest in the nature and history of the emotions. He lives in Calgary, Canada.