MIT professor Stephanie Frampton is a big advocate of Virgil's epic bieniad. She says it can play in helping us to understand the psychology of resilience. When I first read the Elliot as a teenager, I was struck by how well the poem's hero Anias was able to rise above the terrible tragedies he endured.
In Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, few Trojans survive the destruction of their city at the hands of their Greek enemies. A prince, Aeneas, leads a band of those fleeing Troy - but the journey is fraught with deadly storms and hungry monsters.
But Aeneas takes a positive view of the struggles he and the other Trojans face, telling them to be proud of their resilience and courage. With the help of MIT classics professor Stephanie Frampton, Dr Laurie Santos explores how The Aeneid can be read as a tale of post-traumatic growth and how we can sometimes emerge happier and stronger from tragic events.
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