Read The Classics: The Aeneid February 1, 2009

The Multnomah County Library invites you to take part in a new book series, where you can read some of the best all-time classics and discuss them under the leadership of Dr. Walter Englert, the Hoskins Professor of Classical Studies at Reed College. Participation is free, but registration is required. You can register online at http://www.multcolib.org/events/classics/greece.html
A limited number of books will be available free of charge for those who pre-register.

Virgil's The Aeneid tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who escaped from Troy as it fell to the Greeks, led a group of Trojans to the Italian peninsula, and with them founded a city that would, centuries later, lead to the founding of Rome. Virgil was a poet who lived in ancient Rome in the first century BC, about 700 hundred years after Homer. Writing in Latin, Virgil adapted the Homeric Greek epic to explore crucial issues facing Romans of his time, exploring the themes of civilization, violence, and humanitas, a word coined by the Romans of Virgil's time to capture the qualities most essential to being deeply human and humane. He also uses the epic to help his readers reflect on what it means to be Roman.