Dr. Lee Fratantuono

Contact Information

Office: Sturges 208
Phone: 740-368-3584
E-mail: lmfratan@owu.edu

Specialty

Latin literature, especially poetry (Lucretius, Horace, Virgil, Propertius, Ovid) and Roman history, especially of the Empire (Tacitus)

Education

A.B., Classics, The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
A.M., Classics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Ph.D., Classics, Fordham University, New York City, New York

Biography

Professor Fratantuono studied classics at Holy Cross and Boston College before finishing a doctorate at Fordham under the direction of the late Professor Robert Carrubba with a thesis commentary on Book XI of Virgil's Aeneid.  While at Fordham he also worked closely with the late Professor Seth Benardete of New York University.

Professor Fratantuono is a classics professor and Latinist with particular interests in Latin poetry (especially epic, lyric, and elegiac), and in Roman history (especially of the late Republic, Augustan Age, and early Empire). His first book, Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2007) is a comprehensive study of Virgil's epic masterpiece. His second book, A Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid XI (Tournai, Belgium: Collection Latomus, 2009) is a revision of his Fordham dissertation. He has contracted a third book, Madness Transformed: A Reading of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and is the co-editor (with Professor Stephen Maddux of the University of Dallas) of a forthcoming two-volume critical edition (with translation and commentary) of the medieval Latin sermons of Peter the Lombard on the liturgical year. He has published numerous articles on Latin poetry. He is contributing several entries to the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell Virgil Encyclopedia (eds. Thomas and Ziolkowski), and is working on a Tacitus Reader with Professor Mary McHugh of Gustavus Adolphus College.

Professor Fratantuono was appointed Assistant Professor at Ohio Wesleyan in 2005, and was named the William Francis Whitlock Professor of Latin in 2006. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008. At Ohio Wesleyan, he teaches courses in ancient Greek and Latin language and literature at all levels, as well as his signature course sequence on the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, a comprehensive, two-part introduction to the history, literature, and culture of ancient Rome from the founding through the death of Constantine the Great, and his course on Alexander the Great and the birth of the Hellenistic Age.  He regularly offers a mythology course that focuses on the classical hero and heroine in the Trojan cycle, with readings from the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and (occasionally) selected Greek tragedies.

Professor Fratantuono also serves as academic advisor to the Delta Upsilon chapter of the Delta Delta Delta sorority along with Professor Vogt of the Chemistry Department, and moderates the department's student club together with Professor Lovell.

Besides his Ohio Wesleyan duties, Professor Fratantuono is a philatelist/numismatist who specializes in the postage stamps and coinage of Monaco. He regularly appraises collections of monégasque stamps and coins, travels to inspect and purchase major rarities, and consults collectors and investors.

Courses Taught

Greek 110-111, Introduction to Classical Greek
Greek 330, Readings in Greek Prose and Poetry
Latin 110-111, Introduction to Latin
Latin 330, Readings in Latin Prose and Poetry
HMCL 122: Myth, Legend, and Folklore
HMCL 300.6: Alexander the Great
HMCL 321: The Roman Republic
HMCL 322: The Roman Empire

New Department Faculty Book

Professor Fratantuono's second book, A Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid XI, was recently published in Belgium as Volume 320 in the Collection Latomus of the Société d'Études Latines de Bruxelles.

The Collection was founded by Marcel Renard in 1939 and has published monographs and commentaries on Latin literature and Roman history, mostly in French.

Professor Fratantuono's book is a revision of his Fordham thesis (2002).

He is an invited contributor to a forthcoming volume in the Collection, Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, Volume XV (edited by Carl Deroux).  He is preparing a commentary on Aeneid V for the same series after finishing the revision of his forthcoming Ovid monograph and numerous invited entries for the Wiley-Blackwell Virgil Encyclopedia.

Book information:

A Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid XI.
Lee FRATANTUONO
Bruxelles: Éditions Latomus, 2009
ISBN 9782-87031-2612

Major Publications

1. Books:
   • Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid. Lexington Books, 2007.
   • A Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid XI. Collection Latomus, 2009.
2. Articles:
   • "Harum Unam: Dido's Requiem for Pallas." Latomus, 2004.
   • "Posse Putes: Virgil's Camilla, Ovid's Atalanta," in Deroux, ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XII, 2005.
   • "Diana in the Aeneid." The New England Classical Journal, 2005.
   • "The Penultimate Books of Virgil's Aeneid." Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 2005.
   • "Trickery and Deceit in Aeneid XI." Maia, 2005.
   • "Tros Italusque: Arruns in the Aeneid," in Deroux, ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XIII, 2006.
   • "Ut Videre Camillam: The Nachleben of Reckless Heroism." Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medioevale, 2006.
   • "A Brief Reflection on the Gates of Sleep." Latomus, 2007.
   • "Velocem Potuit Domuisse Puellam: Propertius, Catullus, and Atalanta's Race," in Deroux, ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XIV, 2007.
   • "Virgil's Camilla." Athenaeum, 2007.
   • "Laviniaque venit litora: Blushes, Bees, and Virgil's Lavinia." Maia, 2008.
   • "Chiastic Doom in the Aeneid." Latomus, 2009.
   • "Seraque terrifici: Archery, Fire, and the Enigmatic Portent of Aeneid V."  Forthcoming in Deroux, ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XV, 2009.
   • "Decus Fluviorum: Juturna in the Aeneid." Forthcoming, Athenaeum, 2010.

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