The Virgil Society
THE Virgil Society was founded in 1943, and its first President, the poet T.S. Eliot, delivered What is a Classic? as his Presidential Address in the following year. The purpose of the Society was and remains to unite all those who cherish the central educational tradition of Western Europe. Of that tradition Virgil is the symbol. Membership is open to all those who are in sympathy, whether they read Latin or not.
There are normally five or six meetings each year in London, held on Saturday afternoons in Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.
The speakers include both amateur and professional scholars, many of them Virgilians of international repute. Lectures are followed by refreshments, giving an opportunity to meet the speaker and other members of the Society.
Most lectures are published in full in the Proceedings of the Virgil Society. There is also a Members' Newsletter, which appears twice a year.
Virgil Society Programme: 2020-21
Meetings are held with the support of the Institute of Classical Studies.
Meetings in October, November, December 2020 and January, March and May 2021 will be held online via Zoom. We hope to hold meetings from October 2021 onwards in person in Senate House (Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU). We are extremely grateful to the Department of Greek and Latin, University College London, and the Institute of Classical Studies for their support.
It will be necessary for all those wishing to attend online meetings to register for each individual meeting by 9pm on the previous evening via Eventbrite (links below). An email will be sent to each person booking with joining details for the event on Zoom.
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Saturday 17 October 2020 (online) at 3pm
Presidential Address
Professor Philip Hardie (Trinity College, Cambridge)
‘'The Tradition of Virgilian Travesty and Mock-Epic’
Please sign up here by 9pm on 16th October.
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Saturday 7 November 2020 (online) at 3pm (This meeting is confirmed)
A reading of Aeneid 11, led by John Hazel
Please sign up here by 9pm on 6th November.
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Saturday 5 December 2020 (online) at 3pm
Dr Elaine Sanderson (University of Liverpool)
‘Illuminating Darkness: Exploring Virgilian Ambiguities in Lucan's Underworld’
Please sign up here by 9pm on 4th December.
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Saturday 16 January 2020 (online) at 5pm [Please note later start time]
Dr Filomena Giannotti (Università degli Studi di Siena)
‘Outracing the Wind with Speeding Feet: Portrayals of Camilla from Aeneid 7 and 11’
Please sign up here.
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Saturday 20 March 2021 (online) at 3pm [Please note that this is a different time from the one previously advertised]
Dr Elena Giusti (University of Warwick)
‘Rac(ializ)ing Dido’
Please sign up here.
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Saturday 15 May 2021 (online)
11:30am: A reading of selections from the Eclogues and Georgics 4
3 pm: Professor Spyridon Tzounakas (University of Cyprus)
‘Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica as a Supplement to the Aeneid’
Please sign up here; a Zoom link for both/either reading and lecture will be sent out on the morning of 15 May 2021 to those who have registered.