Philip Hardie (Cambridge): Milton’s Celestial Aspirations

The Department of Latin at ELTE
cordially invites you to the lecture

Philip Hardie
(Trinity College, Cambridge)

Milton’s Celestial Aspirations

The aspiration to reach up to the sky or to heaven, with the concurrent fear of falling to the earth or lower, is a recurrent theme in the poetry of John Milton, and central to Milton’s own poetics. Milton draws on a wide range of precedents, both classical and biblical. This paper, part of a larger project on ‘celestial aspirations’ in classical antiquity and their reception in the poetry and painting of early modern Britain, takes examples from the full span of Milton’s career, focusing at length on Paradise Lost, whose subject-matter could be summed up as fall and ascent.

The venue of the lecture:
May 27 2019 at 5.00 pm,
ELTE BTK 4/F Kerényi Room (1088 Bp., Múzeum krt. 4)